ilovefuzz.com

What are the chances that a big, world-wide, guitar, amp and music company would make the perfect product. The one you wanted them to make, they way you wanted it to be made...? Doesn't happen much, does it....? Well fear not. That is when we the people need to rise up and take matters into our own hands....

It all started with a '65 Bandmaster that my friend Matt recently gave to me on "long-term loan". Matt was in the process of moving to the West Coast from Rhode Island and was looking to streamline the move, so I of course offered to help by taking this sweet amp off his hands.

After playing the amp, I decided I wanted it to be my gigging amp. I loved it. I play with lots of pedals and this thing was a beast. It was going to take the place of my AC30. But the only problem is that really and truly, I am a combo guy. Don't get me wrong--I'd have no problem gigging with the Bandmaster and a 1x12 or 2x12 cab. But instead I figured, why not take this as an opportunity to create a new project. So with Matt's blessing, I decided to make a one of a kind combo using the '65 BM head as the foundation.

I considered making a '57 Bandmaster 3x10 combo replica, but thats already been done by Fender. Then I thought about doing a less common 2x10 combo, but I've seen that done too. However, the classic 1x12 option is one that I have seen done even less (yes, I know they are out there), so I decided that was the ticket for me. I'd make a custom 1x12 combo enclosure and drop said BM head into the enclosure. The design of the cab/combo would be similar in size to a Deluxe Reverb. As a long time wood worker and guitar builder this will be a fun project to work on in my basement shop while I revamp my larger garage wood shop. This will be more of a photo documentation of what I did and less of a "how to". If anyone has any questions, feel free to drop me a line. Let's begin.....!!

Heres the starting point. The '65 Bandmaster. Lovely.

Step one-get the wood. Step two-measure and cut the wood. I decided to follow Fender's lead and go with pine. It's a classic. After doing a rough sketch and taking some dimensions from the BM head, I cut the main box panels to length. Notice the two side panels in the middle. They have an angled front corner (around 12 degrees I think) that matches the angle of the front edge of the head.

Now we need to cut the front edge of the top panel so that it matches the angle of the side panels. Once assembled, this angle should match up perfectly to the angle on the side panels and create one continuous surface.

1x15.

gonna look at the pictures later when I get home

Chankgeez wrote:1x15.

Lot of blooz douches do that with the silver face Bandmaster Reverb as a cheaper go at the SRV Vibroverb thing. (Damned shame, as the result is that prices on those finally went up before I could replace the one I stupidly sold 20 years ago. It was the last bargain left of Fender reverb amps of that era.)

Next I thought a lot about how I wanted to join the panels. Fender did it with finger joints, which I love. They are easy and strong. Dovetails are better, but thats a lot of work that you never get credit for (this cab will be wrapped in tolex). On most cabs I have made, I use finger/box or half-lap joints, but I decided to do something different. Back in college/art school I made some display stands using a screw and dowel pin technique. It was fast and really strong. So I decided to do it with this project. Heres how it works: You glue up the box using flat butt joints. Glue and screw the joints. DRILL PILOT HOLES for the screws, or that nice pine will split like nobody's business....!!




Next, begin assembly of all the panels.





Assembled...!!

Gotta make sure the box is square. Measure the corners...Good to go.

Just a quick update. I had some time to do a dry assembly with the head in the cab. After locating the mounting bolts and drilling the holes, the head went in puuurfectly. In the second pic you can see that theres roughly a 3/32 gap on each side of the head to allow for clearance of the tolex.

lookin' very good, man.

after all the emperor/stained cab fervor and subsequent gas its always a surprise to see people go the tolex route but i think it's going to work very well for that traditional fender vibe. and sticking to pine, just like leo would have, might add some trve toanz, man. :P

odontophobia wrote:lookin' very good, man.

after all the emperor/stained cab fervor and subsequent gas its always a surprise to see people go the tolex route but i think it's going to work very well for that traditional fender vibe. and sticking to pine, just like leo would have, might add some trve toanz, man. :P

Thanks man..!! I love natural wood as well, but for this amp I wanted a classic Fender look, so its gotta be pine covered with black tolex all the way. Got a good update coming in a just a short bit....

Got a good progress update. This is the part that might be interesting to some. The idea is that the wood screws were only temporary. They served as a means to clamp the wood during the glue up. I replaced the screws with wood dowels. Once the glue is dry (24hrs), I back out and remove each screw. Each screw hole is now a pilot hole for inserting a wooden dowel. Drill each of the holes out to accept the new dowels. I used 5/8". Add glue to the dowels and holes, pound 'em in and let 'em dry. Why go through the trouble of removing the screws...? Because when I go to radius the corners, the router bit would hit the screws if I left them in. Replacing the screws with dowels keeps everything wood and fully routable.

Next, I've added the braces for the speaker baffle and the rear panels. This all just a matter of measuring, cutting the wood to length then glueing and screwing the pieces in place.

THIS IS AWESOME

Yeah nice build. I'm a big fan of using dowel joints. Also a biscuit joiner would of worked well too. Would of saved you some time as you could of glued, joined and clamped with no need to screw and then remove the screws and fill. Would of been hidden as well.