Thread: VOX AC10 clone
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Old 30th Jul 2018, 12:07 pm   #12
retailer
Heptode
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 541
Default Re: VOX AC10 clone

I've been busy with the tolex which is now only just finished so not that much to do before it is 95% done (still have the front panel graphics/text to do) here are some pics of the cab with finished tolex and partway through one of the gold piping bands that run around the perimeter of the cab, I did misjudge the width of groove that is needed for the piping and it is around .75mm too narrow, only way I can get the piping in is to squeeze a short length of it with pliers (about 1") and then tap it into the groove before it has a chance to spring back, I do admit though that it really is the wrong type of piping, it is upholstery piping and is meant to be stapled around the edge of something, I have cut off the tab that is normally takes the staples, this makes it almost round there are also some close up pics of the internals of the chassis and the finished baffle board.
I'm going to let No. 1 son take it with a temporary paper label on the front panel while I investigate ways to complete the front panel, the quickest and cheapest option is to draw the panel with graphics software, have it printed in colour by someone like Officeworks, glue the print to a strip of aluminium and finish it off with 3 or 4 coats of satin spray varnish. I would however like to see if I could make a masked anodised front panel and will investigate using photosensitive film (same stuff I use for pcb boards) to mask off the areas of text etc before the anodising process, then once the film mask is removed I should be left with an anodised panel and natural AL coloured text, first though I have to perfect the anodising - I've never done this before.

Not sure if anyone has done this before, just before the amp was trialed I swapped the russian EL84's for a pair of new Miniwatts and not looking closely I did not realise that I actually pulled the EZ81 and one of the EL84's, on turning it back on I waited for the valves to warm up and waited and waited and waited and just as I thought something had gone wrong it sprang into life, did not sound out of the ordinary, played a few cords (the sum total of my guitar playing) and turned it off closed the workshop and retired to watch a movie with my wife, next morning it took a while before the penny dropped after seeing an EZ81 lying next to the russian EL84, one of Miniwatt EL84's had done a great job plugged into the rectifier socket.
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