New Tweedle Dee from Ceriatone kit

[jmcglynn]

Hi Folks,

I'm new here, just finished my first amp project. Way fun. I started with a Ceriatone Tweedle Dee kit, but wasn't thrilled with the provided faceplates. Welcome to the slippery slope.

I ended up measuring the chassis hole locations, laying out the holes and having slightly oversized faceplates waterjet cut from think aluminum. I painted and lettered these in a deco-ish style to go with the overall retro theme I had in mind. Other than two wiring mistakes on my part the amp electronics worked out great. One was a jumper I missed that I found by checking pin voltages and then tracing the corresponding cathode connection to ground. The other was an error that grounded the preamp output because I misread the pictogram where it showed the _sheild_ being grounded. Opps.

I mocked everything up in CAD, so I could be sure everything would look right and fit.

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Then I built the box out of birch plywood. The baffle is in a dado in the case to lock everything together. I used threaded inserts to mount everything to avoid exposed fasteners and wood screws for things that would be reassembled several times during construction.

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Painted the face plates...

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Wired the amp. This picture still has a mistake that I later corrected.

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Once the amp worked with an extension cab I moved on to the tolex. Some of the tight curves were problematic. In fact, I learned stuff that I would do differently at every step - I guess that's the point, right?

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Finally finished it after a weekend marathon of contact cement, tolex and assembly. I'm very happy with the sound and aesthetics. It took way longer than it should have, but I tend to get distracted with other projects, work, family, etc. I have some other projects still in flight, but I'm seriously considering another amp project -- but more of an original circuit next time.

[jmcglynn]

Finished project

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[pompeiisneaks]

wowza that looks great!

Any sound clips? I'm a sucker for guitar playing

~Phil

[xtian]

Great build, mate! Welcome to TAG.

How did you route the ovals so gracefully? CNC?

[M Fowler]

Very nice build.

Can't wait to see what else you build!

Mark

[rootz]

Might I say that the work on the cabinet sets a new benchmark for me? It's absolutely stunning!

[stelligan]

Even made the back look snazzy. Very nice

[martin manning]

Very nice indeed! That is a real "TV Front" cab.

[jmcglynn]

Thanks guys. I did the design in CAD (Solidworks), and had an online place laser cut 1/4" MDF router templates for the TV front opening and oval openings. Same route on the logo, but in 1/4" acrylic. I think it was about $30 for the router templates and $10 for several of the logos. The place I used was "ponoko", but there are a load of online places.

I am starting to think about another amp. I'm intrigued by the 1960's Supro/Valco amps. Partly because of the Jimmy Page association on early Zep recordings and partly because a buddy at work has a room full of old Valco-made amps. The one that caught my attention is the "Royal Reverb" -- spring reverb, tube bias tremolo and two 6973s. Instead of a circuit kit this will be more of a from-scratch deal, so I have some learning to do on electronics in order to tweak the design a little and trouble shoot any problems. The S6650 schematic is my starting point (https://el34world.com/charts/Schematics ... o_6650.pdf)

But I made a start on the physical design last weekend. I'll start on the chassis and board layout next.

The control panel is super rough -- just to work out the proportions. Lots of details are still not right, but the gist is what I have in my mind

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Probably 2x10 Webber alnico speakers.

cabback4 copy.jpg