Uh-oh: Guess what I did!

[GaryMadore]

I am selling a Marshall 1960A 412 top cab for a friend. I was just playing my Tube 120 head through it. It is phenomenal sounding. I was surprised that the Celestions in it sounded so good with the modeling. Even the cleanest of tones sounded great, and the Twin sounded like a Fender Twin to me for the first time EVER.

Thanks man.

I cannot believe the balls coming out of the 412 I have plugged into the extension outlet. I have the main out plugged into a 16ohm 2x12 open back (the stock cab) and the extension plugged into a 16ohm slant 4x12: Even clean at low volumes, it vibrates everthing in the house... it's moving a LOT of air, man.

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And I have to agree: The Twin is my favourite clean amp by farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and it sounds beautiful through this setup. Warm and mellow... Amazing.

To keep this sound, I may have to pull the back off the slant when I put it on top of the straight 412.

I love it.

Oh, and when I dirty up a 6505 and give 'er a crank, an A power chord sounds ANGRY.

This is SO much fun (and the more time I spend building, the less I have to practice. Heh)

Cheers!

Gary

P.S. Please disregard the nasty carpet and the scary looking tile transition: I'm renovating

[dalrymple]

WOOFF!!!!!!!!!! Everyone else is wondering what it's all about. Folks, all we can say is GET YOU ONE!

I see evidence of the following; Router, Table Saw, Band saw, Chop saw, Biscuit joiner, Sanders, Drills, Drill press, Planer, Dust removal system, Elmers pro.
How many did I get out of 11? lol
Dalrymple

[GaryMadore]

WOOFF!!!!!!!!!! Everyone else is wondering what it's all about. Folks, all we can say is GET YOU ONE!

I see evidence of the following; Router, Table Saw, Band saw, Chop saw, Biscuit joiner, Sanders, Drills, Drill press, Planer, Dust removal system, Elmers pro.
How many did I get out of 11? lol
Dalrymple

10 out of 11, amigo: Dust collection is for candy-asses. Healthy candy-asses, mind you....

You even got the glue right. Heh

Cheers!

Gary

(I do have a small (one-machine-at-a-time) dust collector for the machines with 4" ports and a shop-vac for the machines with 2" ports, but I'm lazy and, besides, all that dust keeps everything dry and non-rusty. Hey, you wanna live forever? Heh)

[dalrymple]

I do my dirty work in my garage, which is also my music room and recording studio. You could not have a worse convergence of uses in one place.
Though I dont do the wood thing often, it is incredibly messy, and the last thing in the world my music gear wants around is fine dust, all over everything. As such, I am forced to consider dust collection. Shop vac into tools, plastic tarps, or best and most effective of all, put the dustmakers just past the garage door path with a long extension cord and make the mess in the driveway with the door closed!
If my nose isnt lined with zebrawood dust, have I really done anything?

I have a neighbor in his early eighties who owns every industrial grade, top of the line woodworking tool you ever imagined, real dust collection, stuff you wish you had to get the best results ever. He helps me out sometimes with his wide planers and belt sanders. With the right tools, all things are possible. With the wrong tools, still possible, just a lot more cussing.
Dalrymple

[GaryMadore]

If my nose isnt lined with zebrawood dust, have I really done anything?

Can I get an "Amen!" brothers and sisters?

My shop is my garage also.... no room for cars. I, too, try to work outside the doors when possible and have all of my machinery on mobile bases so I can roll 'em out the door. Right now, though, here in the Great White North workin' outside is even more hazardous that clouds of fine MDF dust

Cheers!

Gary

[dalrymple]

"Ahh, there's nothing like the smell of fresh sawn pressure treated wood and rubber cement in an enclosed space!"
My garage had not seen a car in this century, until June when I bought my little Birthday present. It has never spent a night outside(apparently) in 20 years, and wont while I own it either. There is carpet with padding on the floor, and sound deadening in the rafters. You know, so there are no unpleasant resonant frequencies when my Planer is cranking out about 110 db of piercing pain!
Yup.
Dalrymple

[GaryMadore]

...until June when I bought my little Birthday present.

You don't need roofs down there?

(nice wheels!)

G

[GaryMadore]

Started on the matching 2x12 cab... finally got off my butt and bought some plywood.

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Aaaaaaaaaaand it's other, less portable, home.

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I'll be refinishing the cabs in the same theme as the head and 2x12. Right now I'm thinking red tolex with white piping, but dalrymple thinks I should go with zebra print faux fur, or ostrich feathers or something

The stack is 6'4" high, without feet on the head yet. Entirely impractical - but that's not what's important, right? Right?

Oddly enough, the 2 cabs appear to be the same vintage (same handles for example (my other 412MS has silver trim on the handles vice the gold on these two)) but the casters don't quite fit in the cups (they're spaced a little too narrow) ... it'll be crooked until I fix that. Bummer.

Cheers!

Gary

[GaryMadore]

Glued the furring strips on the baffle and mounted it up tonight. It sounds nice, indistinguishable (to my tone-deaf ear) from the stock combo cab.

After I rout the corners and spray the baffle black, there's only tolex, speaker cloth, and hardware (corners, casters, etc.) to go

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Cheers!

Gary

[GaryMadore]

Busted it out last night and all day today. Learned a lesson or two about busting it out, but I think most of the mistakes will go unnoticed. You know, little things, like mounting the casters on the TOP of the 2x12

I still have two sets of red knobs coming - one chicken head and the other regular (circular knob) black with red ends.

All done:

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Oh, that toob glow:

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Empty shell:

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In the stable:

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The head will be different in the final configuration: I've ordered parts to move the tube sockets and space 'em out to fit KT66s. I'll be mounting the tubes and transformers on top of the chassis, flipping it over, then bottom-mounting it. (So, the head is actually upside-down right now). All I'll have to do after that is flip the Peavey logo over and it'll look like I want. I did the same thing I did with the Vypyr 30 to the left.

I think I'll take a couple of days off before I tackle my buddy's VIP3....

Cheers!

Gary

[dalrymple]

Looks like a buddy's mesa. Sharp. Anybody else got that?
Dalrymple

[GaryMadore]

Looks like a buddy's mesa. Sharp. Anybody else got that?
Dalrymple

Nope. I'm the only kid on the block with one

[GaryMadore]

OK, I'm going in...

I've been discussing relocating the tube sockets in order to allow the use of KT66s and to mount them on the top of the chassis (along with the transformers) so I can mount the chassis in the bottom of the head cab.

The last of the parts (80 feet of wire in 8 colours) arrived today so I got going...

Transformers off and main board out:

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand 5 tube sockets removed. This was harder than I thought: getting that solder off the pins was a royal pain despite solder wick, a couple of solder suckers, and lots of bad words:

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Next step is to solder lengths of wire into the PCB and then mount the sockets and transformers on a strip of aluminum 24.5" long x 5" wide that I'll mount on top of the chassis.

Cheers!

Gary

[dalrymple]

Now I'm nervous! Hope this all plays out just like you see it in your head. The bad words are necessary to the process. It avoids the urge to smash stuff to bits.

I was playing my 120 yesterday thru the 212 I use with it and it is just in another dimension. It sits right next to my jewel of a Tube 60, which sounds phenomenal, in a vacuum. Turn the 120 on right next to it and the 60 becomes the equivalent of the Vypyr 15. Sounds tiny.

Guess you realized the tube socket thingy's werent gonna fit in a head cab, just too long.
Assuming success, are you going to roll the dice and check out the Gold Lions? Etched glass sound great, providing better..., better looks. Costs more too! The tung sols are studly in the 60, so you cant go wrong there either, but without the etching on the bottles, are we really upgrading? Of course, you will only see the glass when you take them out of their little boxes, but you will see them!
Dalrymple

[GaryMadore]

Guess you realized the tube socket thingy's werent gonna fit in a head cab, just too long.

Nope, totally still going to do the remote socket extension thingy that we talked about. If it works, I'm sending it to you (surprise!).

In my case, with this amp, I want to bottom-mount the chassis in the cab so that means I have to move all 5 tubes and the transformers; that's what I'm up to now. The extension/remote thingy would totally work (the tubes and trannys only take up about half of the vertical space) in a case where some weirdo didn't want to change stuff just because. But I'm weird that way. We're basically talking about the same thing I did with the V30 conversion, just a lot more work (and points of potential failure).

My spider senses are telling me that I'll be ordering a new board in the near future and leaving it well enough alone, though

Cheers!

Gary