Heartwood Guitar Instruction

The amp is done.

Today I screwed the 12-inch speaker onto the cabinet’s baffle (minor hassle) and bolted the amp chassis onto one of the two back panels of the cabinet (major pain in the heinie). Both jobs required a little bit of shoehorning, but finding the right place to drill holes in that gorgeous stained cherry took hours. At least I knew that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I quadruple-checked all my measurements before I put drill to wood. It ended up going in fine. Check out the photo of the back of the amp—those four bolt heads in the middle of the upper panel are what’s attaching the chassis (the electronics part of the amp) to the cabinet.

Even though I think I did a good job, the whole thing rattles when I set it down. I figure I’ll probably disassemble it soon and try to put some kind of buffer in all the joints that can’t be glued. I’ve heard that an amp needs to be super-tight so that the only things rattling while you’re playing loud are the audience’s teeth.

It’s Sunday evening and most of my neighbors are probably home, so I don’t want to make too much noise, but I did briefly crank the amp up to 10 and play some rock riffs on my Les Paul. What a roar! This thing is a fire-breathing monster.

Of course, now I’m looking forward to my next project. Maybe a 50′s era Fender Deluxe….

Look what arrived in the mail today. Ain’t she a looker?

That’s a 1×12 Marshall 18-watt cabinet made by Weber Speakers. The wood is cherry (the original cabinets were plywood covered with tolex) and the grillcloth is pinstripe (like the original 18-watts). I paid $350 for it—more than it would have cost to buy the materials certainly, but I never could have made it look this nice.

I’m hoping I’ll have some time after work tonight to put in the guts. Finally, I can finish my amp!