Fawn AC30 Inspired Cabinet Build
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2020
- Over the course of the lockdown, I decided to try and build an AC30 cabinet from scratch and include a few stylistic choices.
Part 02 - • The Faux Fawn AC30 - B...
Links to videos and how-to's I referenced in the video:
Box Joints - • Make this Box Joint Ji... (Woodworking for Mere Mortals)
Prop weathering - • Adam Savage's One Day ... (Adam Savage Tested)
Bob Ross - • Bob Ross Remixed | Hap...
Grill cloth tutorial - www.speakerbuildersupply.com/...
I've wanted an old fawn AC30 for a long time, but never seem to have the spare $10k for a nice one, so I thought I'd try to build something to approximate one. I realize the fawn tolex/rexine is basically impossible to find, which is the first major stumbling block, but I developed a few methods in my head for work arounds, so I decided to start on it.
I took measurements off my AC30 TBX and CC2 cabs and made notes off vintage amps I saw online until I came up with a decent amalgam of features and a basic setup I could change depending on what head I settled on.
The bullet points in my design brief were as follows:
-Fawn tolex
-Copper grill cloth
-Vintage style brass vents
-Orange leather handles
-60s style wood construction (finger joints)
-Speaker protectors
-Accurate 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood
Beyond that list, a lot of things are negotiable, but I also settled on the idea of using one Celestion Blue speaker and one of the matching/complimentary Celestion Gold speakers, when the time comes. I fitted the Blues out of my TBX for spacing purposes, and photos.
Tolex... I attempted to have my own made, which almost turned out, but was too frustrating and time consuming, so I gave up... and as I progressed through the woodworking bits of this project, I started digging the bare wood look, so I attempted to stain the amp a color that could pass for "fawn" if you were glancing by it.
I painted the grill cloth to change it from brown to copper-ish. I got lucky on the result. (after lots of testing)
For the head, no decisions yet. In the interim, I planned to use my CC2 head. Not ideal, but ok in a pinch, except for the clashing colors. (purple and orange) I don't see myself accidentally coming across a TBX head that's been pulled out of a cab or a vintage chassis that needs a new home... so I think the next best option is a kit build. That said, I am almost useless when it comes to electronics, so we'll see if I get around to it!
See part 2 for the conclusion of this project and the installation of the Vox MV50 head! 
Кино
Love the addition of the narration! Another stellar job!
Excellent craftsmanship! Well done Luke and good luck with the rest of the build.
Thank you! And thanks for watching!
This looks awesome. Always loved the fawn look.
It is absolutely insane how perfect and professional it looks!!! 👏
The stain finish on the amp is creative and looks amazing even comparing to the original fawn tolex.
Fantastic job!!! Great result! I'll try it in future!
This is absolutely magnificent.
Loved this video! Awesome work.
this is incredibly awesome. AMAZING craftsmanship.
Thanks very much!
Excellent job Luke. I own an original 1961 AC30 copper panel with Celestion Blue speakers which used to belong to my guitar teacher. When he retired he sold most of his equipment and I was lucky enough to buy it in 1981. He had taken the amp chassis out of the cabinet and built it into a pretty rough head cabinet as he could no longer manage the weight. I had it for several years until I finally decided to restore it completely. I did find some original fawn rexine in a music shop which had been ordered but never collected. Knowing how rare this was they wanted £300 for the piece which was just enough for the job. I just could not afford it back then so I opted for Vox black basketwork tolex and took a chance on washing the old grill cloth which came up like new. The speaker cabinet needed some regluing on the joints but came up really well. I had to do a few trials with the tolex and gold string to make sure I could achieve a good finish but it worked out very well and I was not concerned about the possible devaluation as I will never sell it, rather hand it down to my son who is a fine guitarist and hopefully it will stay in the family for many years. I was lucky to have worked at an electronics company until 1988 where I was able to purchase valves at cost price so I purchased sets of matched ECC83s and EL84s as well as GZ34s all of which are original Mullards and worth silly prices now. There is nothing like a good AC30 and is my no 1 amp. I also have a mint original 1965 Fender Vibro Champ which has a sweet tone for indoor use. Best wishes for your future projects - once you start you get hooked!!
that looks fantastic great job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ive been contemplating the idea of building a baltic birch cab for my AC30c2 as the mdf cab is ridiculously heavy.
very inspiring.
thanks for sharing your craft
Thank you for watching! And commenting. Good luck with your build!
Awesome build!
Ah perfect, just what I needed! Thanks!
Definitely will help me with sorting out my "naff" project AC30 Luke H - thanks for your help - again..
Jono. You've got the touch. You've got the power.
Serious work! Very impressive.
Thank you!
What a great build, thank you
Amazing job! Congrats
Good job, Sir.
Best regards from Indonesia 🇮🇩
Stunning build well done👌
NIce JOb man personally I would like tolex and see how you put it. I think it's a perfect vintage cab... w for more
Looks fantastic...
Wow nice Job!!!!
Great job done ,
fabulous job, I use masking tape over cutting joints on wood it helps stop splintering, also finer blades do too. Wet and dry dark grey paper with water and a few drops of washing up liquid is great for abrading and wearing in hard surfaces like painted parts or on leather, a 1200 grade just takes the gloss off.I use this when I have sprayed a guitar and there is any uneven paint or orange peel finish.
All good tips! Thank you, Ed! I'll remember the masking tape tip, that splintering was atrocious.
Great video! Thank you
Great job!
Looks Very Nice! Thanks for sharing! 🇺🇸👍🙋♂️🖖🏻
Love it, nice job.
Thank you! Hoping to have it make noise soon. Will do a follow-up video eventually.
That's beautiful.
Thank you!
great construction is beautiful
Look amazing.. !!!
I need replacement grill cloth also, and not thrilled with what’s available. I’m gonna try to reproduce your results with the acrylic paint mix. It looks just like ‘60s diamond grillcloth in the video capture. Thanks for posting.
I am a DIE HARD Vox fan. Have an AC30H2, AC10 (just picked that up) and some others. This is probably the most beautiful looking one of them all. Would love to have one like this. I have a Fender Knotty Pine Princeton but I just love this color stain and the wood characteristics. Would love an AC10 like this. Perfect!
Thanks very much! I hope to have a video posted with a completed look at it soon. Thanks for watching.
@@Lukeyourself Hey there, ever going to release the completed look video?
@@greatwhitewolf3349 Yeahhhh... I've been sidetracked, but slowly making progress. Little by little.
Amazeballs! And I see You made yourself a Red Special! I have to build one someday too. As a the biggest Brian fan I know what I'm gonna watch after I finish writing this comment. Also I'm in the process of building a "champish" tweed amp but haven't decided yet if I'm gonna cover it with tweed or other material or what. Now I think I'l go with more natural look. I have some brown stain that worked great on my diy modular synth cabinet and I can see it on my amp as well. Thanks for the inspirational push. Off to the Red Special videos :)
Sounds great! I say dive in. If you don't like the natural look, you can always cover it. Which is what I told myself. Thanks for watching!
@@Lukeyourself Oh You're right! Didn't even think about it since I generally don't like redoing stuff :D Thanks again!
Some lithium grease on the piping might help the fitting next time. We use it in engineering when working with gaskets to aid fit and prevent any tearing or scratching of them. Lovely cabinet by the way :-)
Good advice! Thank you. It was quite a tight fit.
Great ! Thanks
Refreshing to hear metric measurements used Luke. 2/5's and 5/8's of a farenmajingle does one's head in.
great! looks beautiful, do you mind sharing which product you used for giving that light brown colour to the cabinet? I couldn't understand if you mentioned it or not in the video. Thanks in advance!
Sweet vid! Been meaning to do this for an AC15 I have. I really hate the heavy mdf cabinet. At some point I'd like to make a solid wood finger jointed cab for it but baltic birch might be a good alternative....
Do it, man! I really dug the plywood finger joint. Everyone that sees it asks how I did it. It's why I abandoned looking for the proper tolex. But solid would be cool, too. Thanks for watching.
That's the correct stuff
Just a follow up, one year later: I ended up making a reproduction cabinet for my AC15 from 1x12 solid pine with a 3/4" ply baffle and poly finish. The original MDF cabinet weighed about 24 lbs. The finished pine cab weighs about 9 lbs, bringing the the total combo weight from the original 48 lbs down to 33 lbs. Great inspiration from this vid!
I'm not an expert in amplifiers, however it may seem like something already studied and more than discussed, the fact that putting a finger close to a small speaker makes you stop hearing high frequencies. Perhaps the vertical slat in front of the speaker has some effect or dual purpose
WOW!! 😎🤙
Get in touch with mojotone. Maybe they can get something that will fit it. Nice cabinet dude.
Thanks, man. I've got something in the works. Will post a follow up video when I can get back to it.
Hey Luke that AC30 Cabinet looks great 👍 I was thinking of replacing my Vintage AC15TBX Tolex which is in bad shape and wondering how the gold piping is installed. Is the piping placed on top of the Tolex in the grove or is there no Tolex in the grove, your project had no Tolex so you stapled the piping. Thanks
Hey Baz, typically, the tolex would be applied over the slot for the gold piping, then sliced with a razor blade to open a channel, then it's the same as in my video, pressed in with a hammer or other implement, then stapled as I showed.
Just as a personal comment, the reason I didn't apply tolex is because I couldn't find a good enough replacement for the vintage fawn style. If yours is fawn, you might consider keeping it as original, even if it's rough. There's a charm and a $$$ value that comes along with the roughness. But good luck either way! Thanks for watching.
Thanks Luke that quick response very much appreciated, yes I know you mentioned that you wanted a vintage
Wood colour look, it looks fantastic. My Amp has a black Tolex, I was looking at changing it to Fawn but when
you look at what is shown on the Internet for sale the Fawn colour does not look good, might go for black. Thanks
LINDO LINDO
This is incredible! Where did you source the leather handles from? Are they just spare Mesa/Boogie units or did they come from somewhere else? I'd like to throw a more comfortable handle on my AC15 and those look beautiful.
Thanks, man! Yeah, these are just aftermarket handles. I got them on eBay, but they appear to be everywhere, even Amazon. Just search for "leather amp handle"... tho they are fake leather. The only thing I'll say is they don't compress the same way as the Vox handles... at least mine don't. So they won't lay all the way flat. But you could experiment with the mounting position.
@@Lukeyourself Thanks for the info. Still in awe of this video, keep on rockin!
@@ethancossett7318 Thanks, Ethan! I hope to have a completed amp and demo soon. I'll post here eventually. Good luck with the AC15!
... where did you get that amazing leather handles?
Where everything can be found... eBay!
"Orange leather amp handles"
Amazing video. It's early morning for Me! Enjoy Your Evening Xd
It's approaching early morning here as well! Thanks for watching!
Did you mix Brown and Orange 50/50.. Did you use the American Decor Chalky finish? Thank you for any INFO, Dan
Just the brown and orange. Something like 50/50, but as I said in the video, I had to experiment with the amount of solvent/water in the mix as well, to get it to come out of the sprayer evenly. Pretty sure it washes off if it's not right, but I'd say test, test, test before you commit. This was very much a trial and error project. Good luck, if you're building one!
@@Lukeyourself WOW. What a Class Act you are Luke, wish everyone was like you. Thanks, Dan
Nice dog
Cheers.
Where can I buy the cloth? I’m thinking of buying a box amp but the net is ripped bad
eBay has options. I got mine off a Vox forum.
Up for building another?
The short answer is a sigh. :) I'm in the middle of making it an actual "amp" now... let's see how it turns out. But I'm flattered.