New Casing for Valve Amp

[Roland Rock]

This is my beloved 100w Red Iron valve amp. It was custom made for me about eight years ago, and I love it. The original casing it came in was, IMO, a bit ugly and unnecessarily tall, so I made a pretty one from oak a few years back. Now I’ve decided to change it again, just for variety, and to be more in keeping with the Barefaced ‘69er upon which it sits.



The general plan is as follows:[list]
[*]Black with silver cloth grille, like the ‘69er, something like a Bassman
[*]Use bits I have lying around as much as possible
[*]A retro design with simple styling
[*]Non-recessed front plate/knobs – I’m not a fan of the recess common on many amps. I assume it’s for protection, but as it’s flightcased when being transported, I don’t feel it’s necessary.
[/list]

I had some tough waterproof ply lying around - it's plastic coated, the stuff that they make platforms on children's playgrounds from:

Cut into four:

Edited September 12, 2013 by Roland Rock

[Roland Rock]

Screw the bits together:


And the amp fits inside. This was not quite as smooth as planned, as the chassis is not exactly square. A bit of adjustment was necessary:


Right, I need a paint which is both tough and black. I Googled that, and this was the result:


The edges rounded over, filled all the screwholes that I won't be using again, and paint applied. Some holes have to remain, as they will be used to screw the front in after painting. These will be filled and touched up at the end. After being initially chuffed with my durable ply, I ended up sanding the plastic coating off, as it didn't take the paint too well. Is it sad that I'm happy that it still says "special ply" on the inside?

Edited September 12, 2013 by Roland Rock

[Roland Rock]

OK - on to the control panel part.
I got some 3mm white acrylic sheet from EBay:

I originally thought I'd use some thin ply and paint it, but by the time I had bought primer and p[aint, and finished it to a good standard, I'd have spent too much time and money on it. With the acrylic there is a perfect finish already, and it's cheaper than a can of paint and primer! No brainer.

Cut the panel to shape and drill holes for the controls:


Right, time to decorate the panel. I want it to look simple and clean, but also a bit retro. Some classic amps separate the different sections of the controls into boxes, which I like. Easily taken care of with a Sharpie and a ruler. The boxes are as follows:
1: Input Jack and Gain
2: Bass, Treble and Middle (odd order)
3: Master, Standby and Power switches, power LED.

With regards to markers around the knobs, I don't really need any, but thought that markers at 'nowt', '12 O'Clock' and 'full pelt' would add a bit of visual interest. These are just 5mm black nylon washers superglued onto the acrylic.

There is a theme of black circles materialising, what with the dial markers, and the round black knobs. I got hold of some nice black countersunk anodised aluminium washers, drilled the centres to the correct diameter, and plonked them onto the input, switch and LED holes.

So here's the panel as it stands:

[Roland Rock]

It's coming together now. I've put some chrome corner covers, the handle and rubber feet on.
I've made a small ply frame for the front panel. This will be covered in some silver cloth grille soon, with piping around it, just like on the '69er.

[JapanAxe]

Ooh I want something like this to go with my BF cabs.

[Roland Rock]

Right - remember when I said I drilled the washers out to the correct size? Well, I discovered that the hole for the input jack was OK for a straight jack, but not a right angled one. I needed a bigger hole, but don't have a 14mm drill bit. I popped over to a nearby unit to engineer Arthur (who retires next week) who very kindly did the job for me:



It's spot on now, for both right angled and straight jacks:

[Roland Rock]

I stapled the silver cloth and piping onto the frame. Fitting it was a lot more difficult than I had expected, as it was a very tight fit, and forcing it in messed with the piping's positioning. I now have a new understanding about why Alex charges more for the silver cloth grille option!

Anyway. Here it is. The holes have been filled and touched up with paint:


Overall, I'm pretty pleased, although it's far from perfect.
In terms of access, the valves can removed via the back without removing the casing.
If you want access to the guts, you have to remove the bottom corner protectors, then undo three screws on each side, and the top comes away from the base. It's then easy to unscrew the chassis from the base. Not the easiest way, but not difficult either. Hopefully it won't need to happen too often!

I'll try and get some nice pics of the amp on the '69er soon.

[JapanAxe]

Tasty!

[Happy Jack]

I do like reading about the work of people who can use their hands and actually make things.

That's a really nice-looking result you've got there.

[Roland Rock]

Thanks folks. Happy Jack, we have very similar rigs, although I reckon if we popped the hoods the wiring on yours would be a lot tidier than mine :-D

Looking at the pics, I've decided that it would benefit from some sort of logo or emblem in the centre of the grille. Looking for something suitably retro right now :-)

[Roland Rock]

I found a retro rocket that I thought would go nicely with the retro styling. I know it's a bit kitsch, but I love it:



I've even recorded with it already. Note the crazy settings! Lots of master vol, full bass, mid and treble, and gain to the required volume. This gets a superb clean full sound on the W&T Ergon bass

Edited October 9, 2013 by Roland Rock

[Billy Apple]

Looks great!

[Happy Jack]

Those amp settings are mental. What's the reason for them?

[Roland Rock]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1381479145' post='2239558']
Those amp settings are mental. What's the reason for them?
[/quote]

I know! The high master vol and low gain is the old 'clean as poss' setting.
The eq settings really mess with one another. For example, if I turn the treble right down, the bass eq seems to have no effect! Lots of things like that, so it takes lots of fiddling to see what works. In this case, I was after a deep, full reggae tone on low volume for recording, and this just felt right.
I've never done this setting at band volumes, might give it a go!

For one dubby song, they used solely the miked track (ie excluding the direct to desk signal) because it was so perfect for that track. If you're interested, I can let you hear it when it's finished

FYI, I recorded one track with the Precision, and that was everything at 12 o'clock. Go figure.