Some non-guitar making ...

TTony

A while ago, I made my first "combo"



To be honest, that was the fairly basis JamJar amps kit, with a 4" speaker, into a simple plywood box.  No controls on the amp itself, just have to use guitar vol/tone controls to affect the sound.


A while ago, I graduated on to the FuzzDog kits and put this together ...



It's a bit more complicated than the JamJar kit (well, it has controls for a start!), and sounds a fair bit better too.  

But then I put it to one side whilst the workshop was used for other tasks.


Until today.


1 box.  Guess what's going in there ...



With knobs on ...



And yes, it works ...



(With thanks to @paulnb57 ; who donated an old combo from which I took the speaker).

Next job, speaker cab.

And another box for the second FuzzDog amp kit that you can see in the background of those last 2 shots!

normula1

Boogie-style hardwood / whicker is def required

paulnb57

Nice!

PeteC

Nice - You can never have too many amps ! 

Andyjr1515

Great job

PeteC

Valve amp next @TTony?     A 5f1 champ is easier than some of the pcb pedal kits and you would love it    Just have to be super careful with wiring the mains supply and around higher voltages. 

TTony

PeteC said:

Valve amp next @TTony?     A 5f1 champ is easier than some of the pcb pedal kits and you would love it    Just have to be super careful with wiring the mains supply and around higher voltages. 

Funny you should mention that @PeteC ...

Before Covid19 stopped the world, I was due to spend a day at @RiftAmps ; workshop on Chris' "build an amp in a day" course.  That was intended as being my jumping off point into the world of ampery, mainly so that I learned some of the safety basics (I know which end of a soldering iron gets hottest, but that's pretty much the limit of my knowledge) and got a learning headstart by building one of his 5e3 amps under his expert supervision!

Unfortunately Chris had to cancel - it was before the general lockdown, but he was otherwise unwell - and who knows when we'll be allowed to do  it, or feel comfortable ourselves doing it.

So "proper" amp building is on hold for the foreseeable ...

PeteC

Have a look into the champ 5F1 circuit and building.   5E3 is a bit more complex as a first build With your skills @TTony you could easily do one.  That was my first amp build and I still use it for recording.  They are fabulous home amps and take pedals superbly.    I’ll take some gut shots of mine to show how simple they are inside if you like? 

TTony

Always interested to look at pics @PeteC!

It's not the complexity of the circuits/wiring that concerns me though - more about the H&S aspects of it, ie how to work safely with the power/capacitors/etc.

MattNovak

That looks a lot of fun @TTony , please tell me you'll consider building a couple of 4x2'' matching cabs to make a micro stack?

TTony

MattNovak said:

That looks a lot of fun @TTony , please tell me you'll consider building a couple of 4x2'' matching cabs to make a micro stack?

Actually ... this morning I *have* started building a speaker cab.

It'll be a bit bigger though as it'll be housing 10" speakers (though only one at a time!).  

TTony

All a bit rough & ready at the moment - just clamped together to make sure it fits!

I'll recess the speaker a little way into the cab, and add some proprietary secret-design sound enhancing deflectors in the rear too





And I'll also rotate the speaker 90 degrees so it's the right way round!!

TTony

Still waiting for some bits to be able to finish the cab above ... so, whilst waiting, I thought I'd do something else.

(It's great having time, and a workshop, and no work!).

Start with some bits of offcut mahogany, thicknessed down to 6mm ish.


Can you see what it is yet??


Do a little cutting, gluing , rounding-over and oiling, and ...



Can you see what it is now???


And a few bits of electronics (another FuzzDog noisy cricket amp build) and ...






The sides and base are just plywood, stained with some white Osmo.


Battery lives in the base too.



Just waiting for some little rubber feet to arrive, and it's done.

I thought the head on round headed screws might be thick enough, but they're not, and the battery lid sits proud of the screws.  Add some little rubber feet though, and that'll sort it.

paulnb57

That little head is great, it looks 1930’s....