Needing a micro head but being incredibly tight.

[lemmywinks]

I recently sold my bass rig in favour of an FRFR cab and great it is too, however it did leave me in a dilemma as I only owned one amp head (a trusty LMII) and now have nothing to power my little EA cab which I use for home practice which I can leave set up in the front room. I had my eye on a Trace Elf or the little GK amp (MB200 or something?) but they are a bit overkill for plugging in around the house. I did think about a cheap combo but I want the sound quality of the EA cab which is lovely and crystal clear. So what to do?

 

Enter this total POS, a local collection won on eBay for the princely sum of 99p (yes, 99 English pence, excuse my cluttered workbench). 

It's a cheapo Kinsman 10w kiddie's practice amp, same thing you see rebranded under 100 different names but it's essentially a BB10. As you can see it's had a hard life, it's completely crushed and it sounds terrible. Originally I was going to rehouse it but the little 4" speaker is shot to pieces (or more likely just wasn't any good in the first place) which leaves the amp. No prizes for guessing what happens next!

 

So out comes the screwdriver and we can see what's inside! Here's the details:

As we can see the amp was born on the 23rd of July 2011 and is called Jim. Now Jim and I have become firm friends I can see about liberating him from his awful particleboard prison and making him a new home. Time to snip some wires and get the dremel and soldering iron out.

Luckily there's already a couple of holes here so both will be widened so I can fit an IEC socket and a Speakon combi jack, the Speakon I already had (bought a pack of two when I fixed an old cab) and the IEC socket was £1.30 on eBay. Originally I was going to fit a 1/4" jack for pure convenience but that would mean actually buying one and not being able to use my short speaker cable so that idea went out the window.  I did have some pics of the widened holes but my old phone died, the combi jack hole was incredibly neat and the IEC hole much less so. Any untidy edges were covered with a layer of black vinyl (99p - eBay again) on the outside anyway so my cack-handed metalwork is well hidden. I decided on semi transparent acrylic for the case which was £3.49 for an A4 sheet including delivery, wood would be easier for me to work with (I hate cutting plastic) but I thought the acrylic would look smart and I already had a bag of M2 hex screws to hold it together, unfortunately I misjudged the sizes due to the amp frame being slightly uneven and bulging slightly (probably happened when it got damaged originally) but meh, it will do for now. I used the original feet and screws from the original combo where possible so I didn't have to buy anything else. So here's Jim in his new clothes!

So seeing as I had some screws and a Speakon socket lying around to begin with all in all this cost me:

Amp            - 99p

Acrylic        - £3.49

IEC socket - £1.30

Black vinyl - 99p

Total           - £6.77

As you can see there's a few rough edges there along with some poorly cut acrylic, I didn't sand anything down as at some point I'm going to redo the acrylic sleeve entirely - I seemed to have got the hang of cutting it with a jigsaw on the very last cut I had to make and know where I went wrong the first time. It will do for now though, besides another £3.49 sheet of acrylic would push the cost of the build right up and I'm not made of money.

So I bet you all think it sounds terrible and has no volume when paired with my EA cab right? Well it actually sounds surprisingly good, more than loud enough for home practice and isn't at all deficient in the tone department either. Sure it looks like a child's lunch box but it makes for a solution a problem with the absolute minimal spend which is ideal for me. Now I can buy another expensive preamp pedal and not feel guilty about it.

Edited April 26, 2018 by lemmywinks

[Jabba_the_gut]

Nice project! Just the job!

[SpondonBassed]

Good man!

If we had a Recycler of the Week Award you would get my nomination.

[lemmywinks]

Cheers guys!

Although it'll never be the greatest amp in the world it's nice to turn junk into something genuinely useful. 

[Bigwan]

If you have access to a blowtorch you may be able to flame polish your edges.

[lemmywinks]

I'm going to leave it as is until I can redo the whole thing, I already knew my dimensions were slightly out before I'd finished due to the warping of the metal case which is visible in some pictures. I've got the hang of cutting acrylic now though and the last cut I made was smooth and arrow straight, my jigsaw is only a cheap single speed jobby. I'll have a look at using a blowtorch for next time, realistically I'm only concerned about the front looking smooth.

 

I can get a full set of polished pre-cut pieces for £14 delivered which is another option, albeit a more expensive and less fun one.

Edited April 27, 2018 by lemmywinks

[stewblack]

Well, I think this looks fantastic. I really love improvisation like this. Saves cash, fun to do, and a practical result. Hurrah!

[songofthewind]

Excellent work! I love a makeover!

[lemmywinks]

Thanks!

I'm still genuinely surprised at how good and loud it sounds, not as much of a compromise as I first thought it would be. You'd assume the amp section of those little learner combos would be as rubbish as the driver and housing but paired with a decent cab it sounds very nice, wouldn't guess it was only 10w either.

[SpondonBassed]

27 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Thanks!

I'm still genuinely surprised at how good and loud it sounds, not as much of a compromise as I first thought it would be. You'd assume the amp section of those little learner combos would be as rubbish as the driver and housing but paired with a decent cab it sounds very nice, wouldn't guess it was only 10w either.

It's not unusual.

Most home sound system packages are let down by the speakers.  Note that I did not say HiFi nor HiDef systems although sometimes improvements can be made.