Bogan Boutique Amplifiers

19/03/2026

So here's another tale of woe from the workbench. I have a soft spot for these 5E5-A Pro amplifiers, as I have one myself - a 1956 original. This one is one of the reissues from a few years back, and it's come to me non functional. The owner reports "I was playing it, and it was getting kinda hot, but I'd had a few beersies and it was sounding good so I played on. And then it just stopped."

Oh dear. Better get this one apart and see what ails it. Stick around and I'll tell you all about it.

12/03/2026

I did some work on my personal amp today. Its a Friedman BE100, the flagship model until the BE100 Deluxe came out. Its an astonishingly good amp. This one is a late edition MK II model, from early 2016 (2015 specs).

I have two aims today.

1. Swap out the ARS double vented caps, which introduce a but of light hum into the amplifier. That will only get worse as days go by.
2. Bring it up to 2016 spec. In later 2016, Friedman modified the negative feedback to make the amp more open, and Marshall JCM800-like as people had complained the amp was a touch too civilised (LOL). They also replaced the coupling caps with a different brand, but I don't believe that makes a lot of difference so won't be doing that. I'm also not adding an "S" switch. Its the overall tone change I'm after.

Stay with me and I'll talk you through the mods.

12/02/2026

Apologies to those folks waiting for their amps. It's not that I've not got off my arse to do anything. One of my parts suppliers, Wagner Electronics, have had a massive issue with their international courier Quantum Solutions, and it's resulted in a big backlog getting stuff out internationally. Should be resolved by end of the week, and I'll start getting stuff again next week.

Bear with me. I'll have your amps sorted asap.

Send a message to learn more

30/01/2026

This amp arrived in the workshop with symptoms of "it won't turn on". Testing revealed that there was no voltage at all coming out of the secondaries on the power transformer, and further testing showed a short in the primary of the transformer. The transformer for these isn't the greatest, and the decision was made, rather than rewinding the transformer, to replace it with a Hammond 291AEX transformer, which will perform beautifully in this amp.

In this blog, I'll show you what is required to replace a power transformer in one of these amplifiers.

29/01/2026

So, I picked up a new amp for myself yesterday. An early 2016 Friedman BE100 - the "Brown Eye", aka the world's best Marshall amp. One of these has been on my list for a while - my main gigging amp is a JCM2000 DSL50, which won't get as much work now.
So, first steps before I go play it was to get it on the bench and make sure its all working okay.

28/01/2026

This beauty came in for a check up and replacement of impedance selector after the old one broke and the owner ran it for a few minutes before realising.

Thankfully it all worked out OK with no damage. I happened to have another NOS impedance selector in my parts bin.

All going well again. Nice early JMP - about 1969 for this one.

28/01/2026

Tricky little fix for this studio amp. Its a Custom job, with a Fender 5F2 preamp hooked to a 5E3 power stage.

Its volume pot was dodgy and it was killing the tone on this lovely amp. Really quite a job to get the old one out and the new one all wired in without disturbing anything else.

Sounds great now.

28/01/2026

Fun and games today rebuilding a Marshall TSL footswitch with an XLR5 socket.

15/01/2026

An interesting morning. Working on a Jansen Bassman 75 silverware, which is in for a blown power transformer (unknown yet if the output transformer is okay) and a Mesa Boogie Mark IV which wasn't working at all.

Just installing the new Power Transformer for the Jansen.

08/01/2026

Back open for business again folks, if you've got some amps that need some love.

31/12/2025

Continuing with fixing my own amps while I'm on a break, here's a 1993 Fender Blues Deluxe that suffered from a complaint they all have.

The 16v positive and negative power supply for the relays is created by a couple of 5w resistors and a couple of zener diodes. They are mounted too close to the board and as a result they burn out the traces, and the amp struggles with channel switching.
In the case of this one it kept jumping from overdrive channel to normal channel.

So the solution is to replace and elevate the 5w resistors and zener diodes, and rebuild the busted traces with bus wire. There was a ribbon cable which worked when I took the board out for repair so I've replaced that with individual wires.

I also took the opportunity to recap the amp with F&T and Nichicon capacitors.

I've lacquered the Tweed on this amp too, for a more vintage look. Its running 1960s 12AX7s and 1960s Tung Sol small bottle 6L6s. The speaker is a Celestion A Type.