NAD - 5F1 clone!

[smjenkins]

I scored a solid deal on this from a seller called Ozark Pioneer on Reverb. The chassis wiring looks to be very clean and the 8" Weber Signature speaker sounds surprisingly black face-y. This is my first experience with a Fender tweed style amp so I'm not sure what to expect as far as clean vs. grit goes. I will say it's quite loud. I was playing it at 5 (it goes to 12 of all things) and that was borderline too loud to be comfortable.

The thing that got me in the listing photos and is even more true in person is how good this amp looks. The woodworking and the finish aren't perfect, but the overall visual impression of the amp is just beautiful. I will be jamming late into the evening.

[Fiddy]

Looks good to me. Nice score.

[Ursa Minor]

love it!

[loudwizard]

ah, looks cool! I keep meaning to try a cool tweed, and then buy more blackface stuff.

[wproffitt]

Looks good to me, too! I’m new to the world of tweed amps, but right now, I’m ONLY playing my 5F11.. There’s even a chance that I’ll help my students pt together a 5F1 next winter. Does yours have an 8” or a 10”?

[smjenkins]

The Weber speaker in there is an 8". I feel like there's so much difference in quality, sound and efficiency between different speakers that making broad generalizations like "a 10" speaker just sounds so much richer" aren't terribly helpful.

Anyway, I need to post some clips of this amp. It sounds blackfacier than I anticipated. Maybe it's the speaker.

[wproffitt]

Thanks for letting me know about the speaker. I asked about the size not because I have any idea of what an 8 is supposed to sound like as opposed to a 10 but because I was curious. A number of people who build these seem to want to tinker with the Champ formula. Blackface-like, huh? Do you mean that it breaks up later than you would have imagined or that it sounds a bit more sparkly? I'd be interested to hear that.

[jdr1014]

Cool little amp. 5F1's are a lot of fun and a very dfferent "flavor" compared to later/bigger fender amps. You hear a lot about cranking them to the max for heavy overdrive, but I like them right on the edge of breakup where one can really control tone and how notes bloom with your picking attack. The simple single ended circuit is so responsive!

Cabinet looks like oak. Different but nice! Enjoy!