Frenzel 5E3 Deluxe Plus Head

3 band tone stack to extend flexability in tone. Master level control to crank gain and overdrive preamp without overdriving output tubes.Classic style twin presence control,no negative feedback style amp for more open, less compressed tone. Flexed biased to accept any tube configureation,6v6,6l6,el34. Dual 5u4 rectifiers for optimum pick attack and sag. Rock solid point to point wiring with best parts, clean vintage to classic overdrive tones with 3 types of distortion, depending whether you overdrive the preamp, output or both. Presence with NNFB push pull switch. Gain with push pull switch controls circut switch between deluxe and twin circut, preamp and output drive.Star ground system to reduce current chassis noise. 15 to 100W depending on tube selection.

Hand wired point to point Twin or Deluxe signal paths

The versatility is mind boggling

If this amp had a good reverb and an effects loop it would get a 12. Jim Frenzel is going to install an effects loop and a standby switch for me soon.

This amp can achieve any freakin tone, saturation, drive, clean you want. (except for extreme hard rock..thank God). Tone like this is wasted on thrash metal..or whatever you want to call it. This is a TRUE 110% TONE MONSTER like I have never had the pleasure to play through before. I've owned practically every imaginable classic Fender amp there's been. A 64 Pro was close on the saggy clean blues but couldnt touch the crunch this amp can spit out. I'm playing a 77 Les Paul Custom, a modified MIJ Strat, a Godin with Lindy Fralin P90s and a 59 Melody Maker. They all sound great through it, the MIJ Strat with Custom Shop 69's sounds absolutely awesome. It's hooked up to a 2X12 cab with 1 Eminence Red Coat Wizard and 1 Celestion GT-75. Also a 4X12 Celestion cab. Very very little noise (more with the Melody Maker). This is so good that I will probably sell my Keeley modded tube screamers, no need for them.

Using JJ 6V6 power tubes (35W) with NOS Sylvania rectifiers and NOS RCA 12AX7 preamps

I dropped this amp from 3 feet right onto the ceramic tile floor, scared the crap out of myself. Let it sit for a minute while I stared at it in horror (wasnt even in a cabinet at the time!). Picked it up plugged it in and she never batted an eye..good enough for a 10 for me

Never gig without a backup.

Jim Frenzel is the man. Answered my emails same day even though I bought it used. Remembered custom building it and told me all about it. Offered to make the upgrades I wanted at an amazing price..10+

I bought my first guitar in 1962..yeah..44 years ago..holy shi*.

If something happened to this amp I'd get ahold of Jim Frenzel and have him build me another..same thing.

I love the tone, it's incredible, Sustain that will go on forever without bad feedback. Like I said before has the clean of the 64 Pro with the sweet drive of..well..I don't really know what to compare it to here. I think it's in a league of it's own

1 more thing..they're not going to break your bank account. Google Frenzel amps and you'll find his and his son Trevor's websites. Do yourself a favor and check them out..these amps are the REAL deal!

I need to commend the reviewers before me and 2nd their praise of these AMPS. The two input jacks gives this amp all the versatility it needs. Get a Lehle or WOBO ABY and you can achieve classic to modern sounds. I guess I need an attenuator though, it's SO loud!

It is quieter(as in no hum or hiss) than any amp I've owned. THD, Songworks, 2 different Crates, Peavey, Carvin. I liked the THD best of them all until this one. It's lighter, quieter, etc.etc. I liked it straight out of the box but when I plugged in my FuzzFace I was like, "RROOOoooaaaAAARRR!"

The construction is tight. It's lightweight. So I suppose it could dent easily if you are not careful. I will look for a tote case. Solid quality components throughout!

Quick to respond to all emails. Very accomodating.

I'm not a great guitarist. I never learned Stairway2Heaven even though I think it's a good song. I own a bunch of fuzzes and Phasers. These are my favorite effects. If I could sound like anyone I would like to sound like a mix between 70's era Dan Fogelberg and Hunters and Collectors. I don't wish it had reverb or an effects loop because for great power tube saturation you need to add most/many effects afterward.

The features have been covered well below. The three band tone stack is very flexible and the non-negative feedback loop is a great feature.

My god! This is it! I have owned a number of high end and boutique (and much more expensive) amps...Dr. Z, Mesa Boogie, Demeter, Reverend and, of course, Fender. This little brute kicks them all! I love the condescending looks I get when I unpack this little critter, that is until I turn it on and the rich, thick tone pours out.

I often leave my pedal board at home and play with just one cord straight in! Everyone wants to know what it is and where they can get one. Deserves an 11.5!

Rock solid, but I never gig without a backup, regardless.

Jim is the best. I had a bad switch on the amp when I received. (Probably from shipping) Jim wanted to pay shipping both ways to fix it. Instead, I asked him to ship a replacement part which went out the same day.

Jim definitely stands behind his products! I can think of no better value in the music industry!

Been playing seriously for 4-5 years. I have way too many guitars, many vintage and some custom built. If it were stolen, I would find the perp and have him extradited to a foreign country where stealing is punishable by death. You MUST have one!

This amp is really versatile. It has its own separate inputs a normal and a high/bright input so you can dial in your tone. I use an A/B switch to go back and forth from channel to channel. The tones you get out of this amp are awesome, from blues to rock you've got it all. It's 25 watts of which is all you will ever need. And this baby is 100% tube, most Fender amps have solid state rectifiers, but this is a tube rectifier with a 5U4 tube. And the list goes on and on!!!

The tones are amazing, and you can dial in just about any sounds you are looking for. Wheather you want to crank the gain and keep the output low or get that nice warm tone with low gain and crank the master volume. Pluse there is a presence knob which comes in handy when really searching for that signature tone. This amp covers alot of ground, I play a Gibson Les Paul Custom through this amp and I play mostly rock, with the 6L6's you get a great rock sounds with a lot of head room. If you are going for metal this amp probably isn't for you, but any other style you will be in heaven. The amp is also very quiet and doesn't hiss at all.

I've had the amp for about two weeks and so far so good. Jim puts in a lot of time on each one of his amps. He hand wires all his amps with the best quality parts. I see this amp going for a long time.

Jim is a great guy to deal with. He will answer any questions with in a day and he is very flexible. For example, when I bought this amp I like the stanby and power switches to be separate and have there own switch for each. This model doesn't come stock with these switches separate. But, Jim simple built the amp in a bigger chasis and added the switches. He's is a very cool guy and a pleasure to work with.

Overall for the money and the quality you can't go wrong. The sound is amazing and the price is even better. It is hard to find a true 100% tube amp at a great price. If this amp got lost or stolen I would be on the computer right away to order another one. If you are a tube amp lover, do yourself a favor and BUY ONE!!!!!!!!!!

I have 2 of these: one with 6v6's, the other with 6l6's.

The 5E3 w/ 6l6's I bought off ebay. It has a "fender" input and a "marshall" input, preamp volume knob for each input, 3 band tone stack, master volume, prescence control, line output and speaker output.

The 5E3 w/ 6v6's has a tremolo circuit. It has one input, preamp volume knob, three band tone stack, master volume, tremolo speed knob, tremolo depth knob, line output, speaker output and tremolo footswitch output. The amp also came with the tremolo footswitch.

I have a custom made aluminum made by Chris Fouke at Industrial Guitars with a Wolfetone pickup in the bridge and a Kevin Burkett Travis Bean TB1000 clone pickup in the neck. Both amps output into Earcandy speakers.

The 5E3 w/ 6l6's is very crisp and warm. The fender input is bassier and the marshall input is crispier.

The 5E3 w/ 6v6's is a little quieter, a little more glassy, not quite as crispy. The tremolo is very touch sensitive and is much better than a TR-2 or the tremolo on a couple of the other amps I've used.

I love my Frenzel amps!

The three band tone stack is great, especially when dealing with the bass. Both amps have a very tight, esquisitely beautiful sounding bass. In other amps I have had before, I usually dialed out the bass, because of the mud they had, but not with the Frenzels. In fact, the entire frequency range is really quite smooth, nothing needing to be dialed out because of spikes, I can sculpt sound better with these amps than in others I've had.

The amps have lots of headroom, but I play with 6 amps so I don't have turn any of them up a whole lot. These amps are perfect for me, because they sound great and have a lot of headroom so they can be cleaner but still add plenty of character to pedals.

No problems thus far after 5 or 6 months, but I haven't taken them out of my studio yet, thus the rating of no opinion. In a couple years, if everything is still going smooth, I'll upgrade to 10.

I would recommend adding the grey cage.

Jim is a super nice guy and always responds swiftly to emails and answers all questions.

Another amp I have of his (I have 6) arrived and the amp wasn't working properly. I emailed him and he determined one of the knobs must have been damaged in shipping and he asked I ship it back. Five days later the amp was back in my possession. Boom boom boom, no hassles, no worries, no delays.

Been playing for 20 years, but only been going gear crazy for about 3 or 4. Sometimes I think I've gone overboard with the gear crazy thing. If you saw the rig I've put together, well, I'm sure some of you would agree, but I love the sound when I play.

Yes, absolutely would replace if I lost the amps, although I might would replace one 5E3 with one of his other circuits. He's got so many.

The value of these amps, price for sound quality, can't be beat. Highly recommended.

No need to cover the spec?s, the other guys did a great job of the details. I did have Jim add the effects loop on mine, and glad I did. Extremely versatile amplifier. I have been reducing the power output of my amplifiers over the last 10 years, owned some great amps, but just to loud to get that natural tube grind in 99% of the places I play. Can?t for the life of me figure why anyone would ever want more than 25 watts, plenty of power.

Original owner of a 1973 Gibson SG Deluxe now equipped with WCR?s, American Fender Big Apple Strat, Rowan Journeyman S/N #8, Hamer Special P-90?s. Aggressive Blues, & Classic, and Southern Rock. I spend a lot of time dialing in the tone of each guitar, the pedals and the amplifier. Typically only use the cleaner side of the amplifier, but I do drive them until they produce that natural tube grind with aggressive string attack, and adjust my pedals and guitar volume to achieve a signature tone as a complete system. I agree with Jim when he says the amp is modeled after a Fender and Marshall. I think most amp manufacturers have to give us an association, but in my opinion, this amp is 100% FRENZEL, and that is nothing to be ashamed of at all. If I would have wanted a Fender or a Marshall, I would have just bought one, or both. I wanted an amp produced by an individual who gives a dam, with its own unique tone spectrum, and that is exactly what I got. The amp sits on top of a Tone Tools 1x12 cabinet. Pedals: Boss SD-1, Boss Blues Driver, Ibanez Re-Issued Tube Screamer all modified by Robert Keeley, and a Maxon AD-900 Analog Delay.

Major Mojo, I have now had the amp for a couple of months, and I must admit, after 3 decades of every amplifier on the planet, this one is here to stay. Quit amp, great highs, defined low?s and, awesome mids. I don?t buy an amplifier for the its distortion capabilities, I consider the amp 1/3 part of a tonal system, and am much more interested in its ability to complement the rest of the system, and this FRENZEL does that perfectly. I respect and attempt to understand what each component does, and where the trade should be between each component. The Frenzel delivers exactly how I hoped it would.

?Would I use this amp at a gig without a backup?? Now that?s about the dumbest thing I have heard. If I am going to have spare strings, cables, guitars, why would I not have a back up amp? Ever heard of Murphy?s Law? Spare amps at the house and one broken on stage, now that?s not real smart. Its acted like it is suppose to every time so far, but one day it won?t. That just the LAW.

Jim is a straight up individual. He's to passionate about his product, he'll stand behind it. Pleanty of communication with the builder, good man.

Over all this amp is ?Mac Daddy?. I am no longer a power freak, I am however a Tonal Freak, and go to great lengths and expense to put my package together. This Frenzel is the perfect amp for me, it does what it is suppose to do in a superior manner. It won?t get lost, and the only way it would get stolen would be after someone heard it, because I don?t think they would know what they were looking at otherwise. But Hell Yea, I would have Jim building me another one tomorrow if it got stolen, this thing is now part of the system.

Lots of features. From the website (http://www.frenzeltubeamps.com/):
"Input Jacks isolated from chassis for low noise, eddy currents, and hum.
Star ground system to reduce induced current chassis noise.
Type F (Fender) and Type M (Marshall) inputs with separate Gain controls for the unique smooth Fender 5F6 warm tones or the Marshall Plexi SLP great high mid tones....or you can use an AB-Y switch and create your own distinct tones.
Classic 60's JTM - 45 style 3-BAND TONE STACK for extended flexibility in shaping your tone.
MASTER level control so you can crank the GAIN's up and overdrive the preamp without overdriving the output tubes.
Classic Type 5F6 Style Presence control .
Unique NNFB "Edge" switch on the PRESENCE control that transforms the power amp section into a No-Negative-FeedBack style amp for more open, less compressed tones.
Post output transformer LINE OUT for driving a higher power amp, or for using this amp as a tube preamp/overdrive. Auto switching internal load if speaker is not connected.
Effects Loop with SEND and RETURN jacks. SEND jack has SEND Level control to better match amp with your Effects.
Class AB fixed biased 6L6's in the output in place of the original Deluxe cathode biased 6V6's to give you more power and headroom. The bias is optimized using FRENZEL Multi-Valve design which allows you to use octal based 6L6 or EL34 tubes in the output stage without adjusting anything.
Power Output @ 8 ohm 25 watts
5U4 rectifier in place of 5Y3 for less sag.
Extra long (10') three prong grounded power cord.
Classic knobs and open style chassis.
STANDBY switch to turn off the plate voltage during warm-up.
Compact 12" x 8" lightweight aluminum chassis with bottom cover plate with rubber feet.
Rock solid point-to-point hand wiring using only the best of parts...low noise tubular polypropylenes caps, metal film resistors, ceramic sockets, switchcraft jacks...etc.
Sweet vintage clean to classic overdrive tones with three different types of distortion depending on whether you are overdriving the preamp, output... or both!
Tube complement: 3 - 12AX7, 2 - 6L6, 1 - 5U4
FRONT PANEL:
- Type F INPUT
- Type M INPUT
- Type F GAIN
- Type M GAIN
- BASS
- MIDDLE
- TREBLE
- MASTER
- PRESENCE with NNFB PULL SWITCH
- PILOT LIGHT
- OFF STANDBY POWER SWITCH
REAR PANEL:
- POWER CORD
- FUSE
- LINE OUT
- SPEAKER OUT (8 OHMS) "

I also went for the effects loop option.
I use for practice and anticipate gigs with it.
I wish it had a tad bit more gain. Plenty of power though. I suspect once I can try it out at higher volume levels and get some real output stage stuff happening, the gain won't be as much as an issue.

Strat with VanZandt blues neck and middle JB jr bridge.
G&L ASAT S3 - MFD singles
G&L Comanche - Z-coils
LP Custom - humbuckers
Epi Dot - humbuckers
I like blues, classic rock, hard rock, acid jazz. Amp does well in all catagories, but the gain limit precludes really hard rock. Forget about doing metal with this amp.
Pretty quiet amp. There is a slight bit of background hiss, but very minimal.
The cleans are fabulous. Really sweet with single coils. HBs sound great too, big difference in sound is evident. Wide range of volume, gain, and tonal response. Lots of bottom. 25 watts? Seems like alot more. I use it through an Avatar, the standard model 2x12 with Celestions, and through a Mesa 1x12 Thiele with an EVM.
Wide range of tones between the inputs too. F channel very warm. M channel, more bite. I haven't even tried blending the two, that's another thing you can do. If switching between inputs, you would have to balance your tone controls between them, there is only one tone stack.
Not a heavy gain amp though. When I tried using a screamer with high gain, there was a papery edge I didn't like. May have been tonal settings. I'll post an update sometime in the future. Have to spend more time, there are alot of variations to try.
This section I would rate a 10, if there was just a bit more gain available. But I'm being picky.

I think it is very stable . Haven't had it too long, but it doesn't get too hot, and sounds fine, no issues.

Jim Frenzel is a nice guy. Very patient, answers all questions within a day. I feel confident he would help me out if anything happened. Highly recommended!

A very nice sounding amp. Very well built. My other amps, Mesa, THD, some other SS ones. The Frenzel holds it's own. Very warm sounding amp. Lots of latitude on tonal settings. TOns of punch and bottom end.
Not a high gainer. Won't do the marshall crunch without a pedal. But a great classic sounding amp.
Comes stock as a chassis only. Very lightweight. I am making a head cabinet for it.

Hand-built, all PTP-wired, open chassis Amp based on the Fender Deluxe. It's called a 5e3, but I think that it's more like a 5e5. It takes all of things that I like about the old Fender Deluxes, but adds very useful features that make it very vestile. (Read the features below and see what I mean.) For the price (or even a lot more), the set of features is outstanding. The only things that could be improved are related to cosmetics (for example a nicer face plate or a beautiful wooden cabinet). However, for the price, this would be impossible. You're basically getting the electronics and sound of a four-figure head without the cosmetic thrills for $400.

Spec's from Frenzel:

-Input Jacks isolated from chassis for low noise, eddy currents, and hum.

-Star ground system to reduce induced current chassis noise.

-Type F and Type M inputs with separate Gain controls for the unique smooth 5F6 warm tones or the SLP great high mid tones....or you can use an AB-Y switch and create your own distinct tones.

-Classic 60's JTM - 45 style 3-BAND TONE STACK for extended flexibility in shaping your tone.

-MASTER level control so you can crank the GAIN's up and overdrive the preamp without overdriving the output tubes.

-Classic Type 5F6 Style Presence control .

-Unique NNFB "Edge" switch on the PRESENCE control that transforms the power amp section into a No-Negative-FeedBack style amp for more open, less compressed tones.

-Post output transformer LINE OUT for driving a higher power amp, or for using this amp as a tube preamp/overdrive. (Can be used with headphones. Had "send" volume control.)

-Class AB fixed biased 6L6's in the output in place of the original Deluxe cathode biased 6V6's to give you more power and headroom. The bias is optimized using FRENZEL Multi-Valve design which allows you to use octal based 6L6 or EL34 tubes in the output stage without adjusting anything.

Power Output @ 8 ohm 25 watts

5U4 rectifier in place of 5Y3 for less sag.

Rock solid point-to-point hand wiring using only the best of parts...low noise tubular
polypropylenes caps, metal film resistors, ceramic sockets, switchcraft jacks...etc.

Sweet vintage clean to classic overdrive tones with three different types of distortion depending on whether you are overdriving the preamp, output... or both!

Tube compliment: 3 - 12AX7, 2 - 6L6, 1 - 5U4

I use Fender Tele's and Strat's. All of the magic of the single-coils comes through in abundance. Great articulation and dynamics. Notes are clear, balanced, solid and multi-dimensional. Tone is wonderful.

With all of the pot's on 5, it gets a perfect sound. (This is always my first critical test.) Tweaking gets lots more diverse great tones tones. The no-negative-feedback produces a louder, brighter open tone.

I don't have any humbucker guitar to test.

Not enought time to evaluate.

Jim Frenzel has always responded to my emails within 24 hours. It's rare these days to have the owener/builder personally respond to emails so well. He answers were detailed, complete and friendly.

I've been playing on and off over 28 years and have been through lot's of equipment. After all, I've come to the conclusion that I'm basically a Fender-amp-guy. I just love the sound of single-coils and fender amps.

I bought this amp totally on impluse. Frenzel had some of their amps listed on ebay and I saw it right before the auction was over. I had never heard of Frenzel, but I liked the feature set and the fact that it was PTP. I'm glad that I took the chance. It's a wonderful amp that's incredible inexpensive for what you're getting. I can only assume that Frenzel have their prices low to get some attention. Once the word gets out, I suspect that they'll raise their prices to a more fair (read highter) level.