Looking at the absolutely incredible cabinetry on some of these amps I have to seriously ask, do you take your TW out and gig with it?
I'd be scared to death to take some of those beautiful heads out for fear of banging up something thats better than 95% of the woodworking in my house!
Even if you just gigged locally or just jammed in your basement..... something that beautiful (great sounding too) REQUIRES a quality ATA flight case to get tucked into everynight!
I don't gig, but I do drag my UniWreck everywhere I play. Basement jams and Rehearsal Studio dates alike. Of course, the UniWreck is housed in an old Univox chassi sand cabinet, so I have no fears in this regard. This might be the 2nd best reason for building into a donor chassis/cab. The 1st best reason is the cost savings (I am rather frugal about my builds).
I've gigged with my express clone almost every weekend since I built it, that's about 6 months now. Now that I built a trem-rocket that goes too with a radial switcher so I can use the same 2 12 for both. I had custom padded and reinforced gig bags made for both amps that protect them really well. My express has fell out of my van twice when I opened the door and the cabinet still looks great. I purposely used an oil finish so I could easily re oil when needed, I kind of like the utilitarian look like a well used shovel or axe handle. Phil
I'm working on my first wreck. However, I have built a few amps with hardwood cabinets. I use a Tung Oil finish to make them a bit more gig worthy. Tung Oil can look really good and doesn't chip. If you do mark it up, you can use an abrasive pad to remove the mark and apply more Tung Oil.
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+1 on the oil finish KGW I used teak oil on mine. I dig the look of the front panel cutout on your amp. My band opened for the Supersuckers at Ray's Golden Lion in Richland. Ron was really scoping out my express clone! Phil