Rack Mounting A Head

[Sharkfinger]

May be old news to some of you but came across this when trying to find a way to rack mount my bass head.  It's an EA iAmp800 and although it is rack mountable (2U high), I didn't get the rack ears with it.  Contacted EA but as it's discontinued, they couldn't provide me with rack ears.

First of all, bought 1U a rack shelf and bodged it to fit.  After a few weeks of gigging, it started to come loose.  Then I bought a Mesa Boogie PH212 combo (with no head), which has a 2 unit rack space built in, with the intention of integrating my amp into it.

While looking for a 2U rack shelf, I came across this ingenious solution transporting non-rack mountable equipment in a rack.  I think it's mainly for computer equipment but it seems to work.  The only proviso is that whatever you want to rack mount must be obviously be narrower than 19" , will fit into a 1, 2, 3 or 4U height and has a flat bottom, so it can be held by the brackets. 

Edit: a word of warning: it adds a few millimetres of height.  Before, the amp only just fit a 2U rack case when i bodged it before but now it doesn't.  Luckily, I have a 3U and 4U rack cases.

Anyway, enough talking: cue the gratuitous pic fest.

Edited May 3, 2019 by Sharkfinger

[Deedee]

Nice one. Handy solution to keep in mind 👍

[Ed_S]

That does look quite handy! I work in the bit of IT that extensively uses rackmount kit and I’ve still not happened upon one of those. Any chance of a link to the product page?

[Sharkfinger]

2 hours ago, Ed_S said:

That does look quite handy! I work in the bit of IT that extensively uses rackmount kit and I’ve still not happened upon one of those. Any chance of a link to the product page?

In two parts:

https://www.rack-magic.com/epages/10067278.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/10067278/Products/FB-2

https://www.rack-magic.com/epages/10067278.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/10067278/Products/FBT-W

It's in German but you get the idea.  Great English speaking support too.

Of if you fancy paying a fiver extra, it's on amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/482-6mm-Transportable-Cabinet-Tray-Ventilated/dp/B00AJMWONK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1548232435&sr=8-5&keywords=rack+magic+2U

[BigRedX]

I had been looking for something similar to properly secure my Focusrite Saffire Audio interface in the rack case I use for live work, and therefore ordered the 1U version.

However because of the lip under the rack tray, when the interface is mounted the complete assembly is greater than 1U in height and therefore does not fit in the rack space I have available.

It looks as though the 2U unit you have has the same construction. I have emailed the seller asking them if there is a version of the tray available without the lip so that any device mounted in it does not exceed the 1U height.

In the mean time I thought I should point out this short-coming to anyone else who might be interested in buying one of these trays so they don't suffer the same disappointment I did.

[Sharkfinger]

10 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

In the mean time I thought I should point out this short-coming to anyone else who might be interested in buying one of these trays so they don't suffer the same disappointment I did.

I did some time ago with the below edit, however I will make it bold to make sure people take note>

On 22/01/2019 at 14:05, Sharkfinger said:

Edit: a word of warning, though: it add a few millimeters of height.  It only just fit before in a 2U rack case when i bodged it before but now it doesn't.  Luckily, I have a 3U and 4U rack cases.

 

[BigRedX]

@Sharkfinger Thanks.

I must have been too distracted by photos of what looked like the solution to my rack problem to read all the text.

[NancyJohnson]

I saw something very similar with a guy rack mounting a Darkglass head.  Rubber feet off, longer screws to reattach.  Seemed to work well.

[Sharkfinger]

5 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

I saw something very similar with a guy rack mounting a Darkglass head.  Rubber feet off, longer screws to reattach.  Seemed to work well.

Yeah, if they have screw-on feet then that's defo an option. The trays usually have long slots you can line the screw holes up with but there's nothing to stop you drilling holes in the tray that line up exactly.

Could use a sheet of paper to mark where the holes are and use that as a template on the tray.

[BigRedX]

Works fine so long as there are feet or other screws on the underside of the unit that can be repurposed to hold in place on the rack shelf. 

The device I was hoping to rack mount had no such screws and would have relied on the brackets to hold it in place.

Having thought about it some more I can't see much point to the 1U version if the shelf makes the unit it is holding taller than 1U. It would only work with equipment that is several millimetres shorter than the 1U height, and I can't think of any musical equipment meeting that description that I would want to rack mount, that doesn't already have its own dedicated rack mounting kit.