Gut and refurb old ss combo

[Greg_L]

Wellllll......LOL

In light of new developments this amp will NOT be a combo. The amp chassis, now complete with gigantic transformers hanging off of it, seems to have developed a transformer-to-speaker interference problem.

I swear I checked for this. I guess I didn't quite do a good enough job at that. I knew it would be tight, and I clearly misjudged. But sure enough, I put a speaker in the cab, slid the chassis home, and the output transformer just barely touches the speaker cone.

I obviously can't have that, so I guess I'll be converting this into a head.

[Tadpui]

Doh! Maybe it'll be the next big thing in distortion, kind of like people slicing up their speaker cones with razor blades in the early 60s. The sound of a speaker cone rubbing up against an output transformer is bound to be the tone of the next generation!

That is a bummer though. Hopefully inspiration strikes and a good workaround comes to mind. But I bet that it'd still make just as awesome of a head as a combo. Combos are kind of a pain in the butt anyways.

[rayc]

I've been thinking it for ages but this last post of yours made me certain...this is the calm, accurate, no nonsense info transfer of a Trade School Teacher. Are your kids getting to you Greg or did you get to them?

[Greg_L]

Doh! Maybe it'll be the next big thing in distortion, kind of like people slicing up their speaker cones with razor blades in the early 60s. The sound of a speaker cone rubbing up against an output transformer is bound to be the tone of the next generation!

That is a bummer though. Hopefully inspiration strikes and a good workaround comes to mind. But I bet that it'd still make just as awesome of a head as a combo. Combos are kind of a pain in the butt anyways.

I'm actually not that bummed about it for the very reason you said - combos are a pain in the butt. I can just stack the Assman as a head on top of all my other heads. And it'll be way easier to tolex. And I'm gonna run it through my Marshall cabs anyway. So for turning it into a head, the list of pros is pretty good. The con is that now I have to do a little wood work and that is not my thing. I'd just lop the bottom off and make a new bottom with shorter sides, but it's still wood work and I'm not a fan.

OR!

I can just leave it as it is with no speaker and hide my reverb unit inside of it. That was my very first original idea for this thing anyway.

[Greg_L]

I've been thinking it for ages but this last post of yours made me certain...this is the calm, accurate, no nonsense info transfer of a Trade School Teacher. Are your kids getting to you Greg or did you get to them?

Lol I don't know what you mean. I'm just sharing the experience with you guys as this is stuff yall will probably never get into and you can see some of the crazy shit that's involved. Maybe I missed my true calling!

I was offered a trade school teaching job a very long time ago to teach basic auto mechanics at a high school. I considered it because these were mostly kids with only a single mom and had no father figure to teach them "man stuff" like doing routine work on your own vehicles. I definitely knew the material well enough to teach it, but I turned it down because I'm not the right guy to be in a classroom with high school kids. My patience is too short and my mouth is too foul. It's best I stay away from other people's kids.

[Greg_L]

So moving on...I tried my original Plan A...which became Plan B.

Look at that, the reverb unit fits inside the cab perfectly!



But then....


Lol. Again the transformers crash into something.

So it's gotta happen. This combo cab will be chopped in half and turned into a head cab.

But I'm keeping a positive outlook. I really do prefer heads anyway.

[rayc]

Maybe I missed my true calling!

I was offered a trade school teaching job a very long time ago to teach basic auto mechanics at a high school. I considered it because these were mostly kids with only a single mom and had no father figure to teach them "man stuff" like doing routine work on your own vehicles. I definitely knew the material well enough to teach it, but I turned it down because I'm not the right guy to be in a classroom with high school kids. My patience is too short and my mouth is too foul. It's best I stay away from other people's kids.

You do it sooo well.

[JD01]

Haha, that's such a simple mistake to make after all you've done!

[Greg_L]

Haha, that's such a simple mistake to make after all you've done!

I did check it though! Somewhere around here is where I made an error:

For example, I've already altered the OT and choke locations just since those pics were taken. I'm about to put it in the cab just to see if anything is gonna hit the speaker. That's another consideration.

I had it mocked up and it all fit. Fuuuucccckkkk....it just hit me. I had the original junko speaker in there when I mocked it up.

[JD01]

Ah, that's such an easy mistake to make. I know it won't be as "authentic" now you're turning it into a head but it's still a great project. I know what you were doing before though was basically sticking a Trans-Am engine in granny's shopping wagon.

[Greg_L]

Ah, that's such an easy mistake to make. I know it won't be as "authentic" now you're turning it into a head but it's still a great project. I know what you were doing before though was basically sticking a Trans-Am engine in granny's shopping wagon.

Haha yeah sort of. The original designers of this little combo didn't have big ass transformers to contend with. If I'd mounted the OT about one inch more towards the rear of the chassis it would be fine. It won't be authentic to what it was...but in a way it will be more authentic to what it is now. The Bassman that I've cloned was never a combo. It was a head.

So...my options...
1) Remove the OT, re-drill the chassis, and re-mount the output transformer.
2) Just leave it as a big ol empty combo cab
3) Cut the cab down and turn it into a head
4) Make a new speaker baffle for an offset 12" speaker or maybe two 10" speakers.

Right now option 3 is the most appealing. I only entertained the idea of this being a combo because that's what it already is. The cab is already built, and built pretty well. The chassis fits this cab, and will pretty much only fit this cab. If I was truly starting from scratch this would have been a head from day one. So since the chassis already perfectly fits the cab, and keeping it as a combo is problem, and I truly prefer heads anyway, it seems logical to just chop the bottom of this thing off and turn it into a head unit.

[JD01]

Yeah - just chop it up. Make it into a tidy little head.

[Greg_L]

Yeah - just chop it up. Make it into a tidy little head.

It will be easier to tolex that way too. I did a full tolex job on a wedge shaped 2x12 a few years ago. It came out great but man did it suck to do.

I think tolexing a generally rectangular head box will be pretty easy.

[JD01]

If I could solder I'd make one of them 1W Marshall JTMs

[Greg_L]

If I could solder I'd make one of them 1W Marshall JTMs

Do it. Mojotone has a kit.

[JD01]

If I could solder I'd make one of them 1W Marshall JTMs

Do it. Mojotone has a kit.

I've just had a look... couldn't find one, even so it would take a LOT of soldering practice!

[Greg_L]

I've just had a look... couldn't find one, even so it would take a LOT of soldering practice!

https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-Studi ... lifier-Kit

[WhiskeyJack]

Dude that is a rotten miscalculation but you know some times these things happen buddy. I don't know how many little dumb wood working things i have done and when i get in a zone and i am focused on the project as a whole i can forgot to factor in something as trivial as a the width of a saw blade during a cut or cut something to size using the wrong side of circular saw. Dumb. But it happens. especially when the scope changes half way thru.

regardless it's going to come together and be badass no matter what happens with it.

Do it. Mojotone has a kit.

I've just had a look... couldn't find one, even so it would take a LOT of soldering practice!

There are lots of great little non-amp projects out there for you JD to practice on! Before i touched nay of my guitars that s what i did. I got some little robots with flashing eyes and put them together for my nieces and nephews. totally boring dumb toys compared to what's out there but who cares.

Also when i had time i would just spend time soldering old bits of old wires together to an old piece of scrap metal.

I think after seeing all that Greg has done my desire to build a small amp has been extinguished for now. And it's not the soldering that has made me take a step back it's all the electronic understanding. reading schematics, knowing what each part does, knowing what part will burn your finger tips off and all that kind of shit. I'd really love to build my own just to say i did. even if it was just a little one watt thing with a total of 50 pieces or whatever. But it's the learning and comprehension of a whole other entire world that just made me step back and say no... i don't think this is for me.

Now, would I contract Greg to build me an amp. yes. Yes I would.

[Greg_L]

I think after seeing all that Greg has done my desire to build a small amp has been extinguished for now.

For real though, if you buy a reputable kit from a reputable source and follow the directions perfectly you could put one together. I'm not suggesting you try it, but I'm just saying you could do it. If you can follow directions, read a multimeter, and solder competently, a basic amp kit could be done. If all the planets align you'll have a perfectly working amp.

Where some experience/understanding becomes important is when you have to go off script, or if something doesn't work, which are very very real possibilities.

And another problem is that "starter kits" probably just aren't what you'd want anyway. A Fender Champ is a great starter kit and super easy to build, but who really wants a Champ? You might as well step up to a Princeton or Deluxe. They're slightly more difficult but not too much. Lt Boobs 18w Marshall that I did would be a good amp kit to try. It was easy enough and it also sounds terrific and would be something that most people could actually use.

I'm certainly no expert but I'm comfy enough with amps that I feel like I can jump inside one of them and get shit done. I got started by maintaining and tinkering with my own already existing amps. That gave me a lot of familiarity and enough knowledge to go much further. I still keep it pretty basic though. I'm not dealing with MIDI and relays and channel switching stuff.

[einstein magoo]

Great work Greg!

I really like your #3 option with the 2 x 10s. But I like combos.

Whatever you do you will have a loud ass amp at 45+ tube watts!

edit...#4 option.