Burriss Engineering 5E3 Deluxe Clone

2004 is the year made.
little to no features, as compared to amplifiers of the 21st century.
this is a faithful reproduction/clone of a 1950's tweed fender 5e3 deluxe.
having said that however, there is some tweaking to be done in order to find this tone, or that tone, related to what guitar you may be using.
normal channel----bright channel---tone knob. two 6v6's for power, two 12x7's in the preamp, and tube rectifier (5uV). aged tweed covering (real tweed, not the wallpaper stuff), complete with weathered screws, strap handles, etc. nice job "stressing" the amp to look aged. goes well with my aged blue jeans (also new).
the amp is probably in the 15 to 20 watt range. 12 inch special design jensen, which i unplugged right away. i suppose the jensen helps give the complete vintage vibe, but i plugged in an 8 ohm extension cab with a weber p12nq (the cab resides in an isolation box, and i use the amp as a head, which sits on top of the box.)
the weber is a little fuller, richer and less brittle sounding.
i don't want to get carried away with rating the amp with full 10's, so as this amp relates to modern amps, i give it a 5.

guitars: guild starfire (semihollow), prs mccarty, melancon telecaster, american fat strat (deluxe, what else?), reverend slingshot w/P90 pups. i've got the basics sounds covered with that lineup.
i also own a THD univalve amp for comparison, and have owned a carr imperial, a peavey classic (1970's model), and a line6 pod pro.
the deluxe is loud enough for my needs (home recording). in fact, it's so loud i've put it in an isolation box i built. (and don't let anybody kid you: a 15 watt amp may not vibrate the house off it's foundation, but it will piss off other apartment dwellers around you.)
perhaps it is loud enough for a normal drummer in an electric blues band, or electric folky-country...or a jazz combo as well.
not much headroom with the tube configuration mentioned above. i slipped 12au7's in it for comparison, which gave much more headroom but it seemed to lack oomph and spirit. i've put the 12ax7's back in.
as you turn the volume knob from 1 to 10 it doesn't get much louder but distorts more as you go. i'd say it begins to distort around 3, depending on the pickup used. it's plenty loud at that point... a hot humbucker pushes it into distortion quickly. vintage style single coils give more room.
at low volume and the tone knob turned back away from treble, i hear a very rich clean, quite full and jazzy. i don't play jazz but i certainly hear that tone. a very creamy full clean. turning the tone knob toward treble brightens the tone and tends to help distort. this pushes the amp towards that single coil spank.
turn the volume knob to 8 or 9 or 10 and it gives an ungodly distortion, vintage style. a real roar, but in an old school way. it's a raw fuzz that over time, in the 1960's, and 70's and on, amp evolution kind of smoothed out to the tone we come to accept today.
this amp, when pushed just a bit, gives a nice punchy blues tone..and push it just a bit more and get a nice old school rock crunch. i don't hear a certain blues---jimmy vaughan and that type of honk.
all in all a very nice amp with a rich clean and more than enough distortion it doesn't need a pedal.
not very noisy...and not dead quiet. single coils are noisy by nature, though, but don't want to blame that on the amp.
for what this amp does do, it deserves a 9.

seems to be of boutique hand made quality. i guess that makes it more reliable? very clean and well done by burriss. hopefully that will translate into reliable.
i dont gig anymore---perhaps an occasional jam.
i used to gig 25 years ago, or so...i wonder at the people who say bring a backup. that must be j.paul getty's band or the rockefellers, or the gates, i don't know, because we could barely afford what we had.
and certainly no one would hump two complete live rigs around. life must be good if the kids today can afford two set-ups.

i sent some questions off to burriss and recieved a lucid response right away. ever get a reply that doesn't make sense to your question?
i have! hat's off to burriss for reading the email and responding with answers related to my queries.

purchased an epiphone in 1974, peavey classic amp about the same year. i still have both...the epi was crap, even then. peavey gave me a good 25 years of regular use before giving up the ghost about two-three years ago. epi-phoney, i want my $200 back.
the deluxe is an overall better sounding amp than the THD univalve, which is not to knock the thd. its a nice amp, and has it's place. the univalve is a good tube amp, but the burriss deluxe is even more organic sounding (organic? earthy perhaps?), for lack of a better term. i've also got a line6 pod pro, which is fine in it's own application as well. it will give me a few tones that neither of my tube amps can muster up. (i can't help but notice when one takes a tube amp, puts a 5 or 6 pedals in front, it ends up sounding like a digital processor. the sound becomes pinched and compressed...and certainly processed. i can't tell the diff on a recording between a the pod pro and the tube amps and a dozen pedals.)
bottom line: don't muck with the tone of a good tube amp.

Standard 5E3 clone, no frills. This isn't a versitile amp, but it's a classic for a reason, it sounds cool as hell. I personally like to try to make it explode. Hand wired, point to point etc... Looks cool as hell with the aged tweed. The amp is great for around-the-house jamming and depending on the situation, could easily be gigged with. It's not a lound amp, but in a small club with a quiet band (or a large club with a PA) you could gig with it.

The tube configuration that I'm using is as follows- 12AY7, 12AT7, 2x6V6, 5V4 (not 5U4). I find that removing the 12AX7s and installing a 5V4 allowed for more headroom, volume, cleanliness/tightness, and overall more versitility while still retaining the grit and form of the amps typical characteristics. I use humbucker guitars usually which really pushes this little amp hard, but I like it. Great for blues, rock, or rockabilly. I love Neil Young, so I had to have this amp eventually.

I would assume this is a very dependable amp for two reasons- The early Fender amps can still be found today in working order and that says something about the circuit and construction... Second, it's from Burriss Amplification, 'nuff said. If something should go wrong (and something will go wrong with tube amps) it should be easily fixable given the overall simplicity of these amps.

Customer support is generally great with boutique amp companies and Burriss Amps is no exception. Lifetime warranty.

Been playing over 10 years. I would put this up against a Vic any day... As far as classic low powered amps go, you can't beat a Deluxe. Keep it real bitches!