So I did my first retolex yesterday

Retolexed a peavey deuce that was given to me. Pretty much brought it back to life. Sunk $400 bucks in this thing. All I have left to buy is the grill cloth.

I'll post pics later today. I think it looks pretty pro.

What did you spend the rest of the money on?

Tolex only costs $10~20 a square yard.

Same for grill cloth depending on the type you buy. .

It was given to me broken with a busted speaker. I ordered extra tolex so I can make another cab to match this amp. $91 for 5 yards of tolex, $90 in electronic repairs, $97 for a speaker, $35 for birch plywood(speaker baffle) and another $50 or so for spray paints, glue, screws, wire and rubber feet. So, it was close to $400. Probably didn't look for the cheapest materials, but I have some left over for another amp that comes my way.

*edit* for some reason I can't put in a facebook URL to show my pic -.-

^^^ Yea it sounds like you paid doubble or tripple for allot of what you did there.

The whole idea of DIY is to do an effective job for the best cost possible.

Since you spent it already and seem to be happy with it, thats all that counts

at this point.

Post some pics when you get a chance so we can see.

You can upload them under the advanced tab.

Otherwise you need an acceptable program to post the pics

when they're on like already.

I dont think Facebook links are allowed here. At least I've never seen them.

You can read the regulations or ask a moderator to confirm.

isaac42 and AMZ-FX are moderators who check posts regularly.

Maybe thay can tell you whats up with that. I use dropbox and can post them

with the pic posting tool on the task bar above.

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Sweet I got it!

In the first pic I cleaned the outside, taped it off, spray painted the interior flat black then glued and covered.

In the second pic I have the hardware and amp mounted to the cab. Deleted the before pics by mistake but everything black (except the faceplate/knobs area) was chrome and everything red was black.

The third pic has the flat black baffle with a Jensen 15 and my ES-335.

Only thing missing is the reverb tank and a board to protect the tubes in the back, which will be covered in red tolex.

I can't decide if I want a grill cloth and rubber feet or castors. The screws I choose look very clean and flush on the baffle. I'm super pleased for this being my first refurbish job. Hope you like it. Any questions or comments welcome. I'll share what I've learned

Looks pretty good. I'd put casters on it. These can be a bit on the heavy side. Plus I just like the sound of my amkps off the deck.

Considering you got enough left for another cab, you didn't do too bad. I wouldn't worry too much about total cost. The main thing is having fun. There's a hot rodder's rule that applies to almost all DIY jobs. Make up an accurate estimate. Double that and add 10%. Now yer in da ballpark.

Only wood I used from that huge sheet of birch I bought was a 14in x 26in cut. I have enough for maybe a 4x10 cab. Prolly enough tolex and glue too.

Plan to make another 1x15 or 2x12 closed-back cab to put under this one with a different speaker(s) to get some different tones.

Thanks for checking it out =)

Think I'm going to do a guitar next. Van Halen theme with some odd colors. pink and green?

Quit while you still can! DIY is addictive! If you let it go too long there isn't a cure!

Me, I don't have a problem. I can quit whenever I want to. I just don't want to.

LOL! I like DIY projects. I always wanted to be an architect, but now I'm in school for computers. Think I made a bad choice =/

Make sure you factor in the impedance adding another cab.

If the head was designed to run at 4 ohms, you want to keep

it in that range so you dont wind up having to repair that head again.

oh yea I know all about that stuff. Music store wouldn't cover my mesa if it broke due to not having a load while turned on.

I ran into a problem. The tubes on this amp run at insane temps. No idea why. I can't even hold it with a potholder because I can feel the heat through it. Could this eventually melt something in the amp?

I was thinking, before I put on the back baffle and tolex, to cut some holes out and put 2 computer fans to exhaust some of the heat. Thoughts? Comments?

Tubes do get hot like an incadecent light bulb which is normal.

"If" the entire tube elements inside glow cherry red, (not just the heater)

you have a bias problem that should be corrected immediately and the amp

should not be run. If you just see the heater and maybe a little

blue on the inside of the glass then you're fine.

Most smaller amps cool themselves through a natureal updraft. Hot air rises

and vents through the top or back some place and draws air in from below

or side some place. Some have a vent to let cool air in under the chassis

and some just dont get hot enough to worry about venting much.

For larger amps with 100w with 4 power tubes or more, they sometimes put in fans.

You can buy them if you think theres an issue but most combos you come across

have an open back panel for hot air venting so its no big deal.

It's an open back cab with enough space around it to circulate air, but the tubes are directly under the case/chassis of the amp. Holds a lot of heat under there. I'll have to check for that cherry red color. I know it glows brighter than my dual rec with the absence of blue you had mentioned.

Then again, this amp is running at 4 ohms instead of the 8ohms I'm used to. Could that be a factor in tube warmth also?

So long as the amp is rated for 4 ohms you're OK.

Where you run into problems on tube amps is running them at a higher impedance than its rated for.

If the amp was rated for 4 ohms and you run it at 16 ohms you can wind up having problems.

It may take a few months but you wind up cooking the tubes, and then they smoke the grid resistors

and the tubes glow red. Having the bias set too hot can do the same thing. This is why its important you

use a matched and have the bias set when changing them.

As far as the chassis getting hot, it happens. The parts inside the chassis have a maximum temp value

which is usually pretty high. If you're expecting the chassis to be cool like a solid state unit, forget it.

Its not going to happen and when the tubes hang below that chassis will get hot. Its just the nature of the beast.

My Blackface Bassman has lasted me 44 years with that design and other than a cap change about 6 years ago,

all the components are original. Same goes for the mid 70's Music Man head I have. Thay heads tubes run at even a hotter

bias and the heat has no effect on the rest of the components.

WRG summed it up nicely. If you decide on another cab in addition to the amp's speakers, maybe wire up the speaker out in series and go with another 4 ohm arrangement (2 8's in parallel). Then you'll end up at 4 ohms. If that's what the amp likes, you'll just have more speakers to move air. Hard on da back and hard on da ears unless you practice safe guitar by wearing ear plugs.

Sweet I got it! In the first pic I cleaned the outside, taped it off, spray painted the interior flat black then glued and covered. In the second pic I have the hardware and amp mounted to the cab. Deleted the before pics by mistake but everything black (except the faceplate/knobs area) was chrome and everything red was black. The third pic has the flat black baffle with a Jensen 15 and my ES-335. Only thing missing is the reverb tank and a board to protect the tubes in the back, which will be covered in red tolex. I can't decide if I want a grill cloth and rubber feet or castors. The screws I choose look very clean and flush on the baffle. I'm super pleased for this being my first refurbish job. Hope you like it. Any questions or comments welcome. I'll share what I've learned

That looks pretty good!

So I should change out the tubes to 4 identical tubes and have the amp biased before I go any further?

I just looked at the amp and only 2/4 tubes are the same.

Oh yea, done been through this on car radios way too many times. Wiring subs up for maximum "boom"!

Not too concerned about my back or ears. I usually play alone. =/ Not many guys in my area to play with. Volumes are low and the amp stays in place where nothing can break lol

Just DIYing until someone comes along to jam with me

If its a 100W head with 4 power tubes, I do recomend a quad set.

Matched power tubes have the same current draw and it gives you a balanced waveform.

The smaller preamp tubes are not a big deal in a guitar amp. You can mix and match those

any way you want, though you may get better tone with the same 12AX7 tubes, its not

like they work together in a push pull config. Each single tube can have two amp stages each.

Some Stereo HiFi stuff may use matched preamp tubes so each side of the stereo are balanced,

but in a guitar amp, you always want to but matched sets and have the bias set.

Its like having an engine run smoothly on all cylinders. If one plug isnt firing, you'll have a rough

idol, bad gas milage and less power. Same pretty much goes for an amp where the tubes arent balanced.

You can balance non like tubes in some amps, but you do it to match the weakest tube, not the best, so the

more powerful tubes wont be providing maximum sound quality.

When tubes are balanced, both the positive going and negative portions of the sine wave are identical, "And"

the maximum clean height of the waves are the best you can get. You can also bias amps for more clean headroom

or various shades of clipping/drive. This is something best left to an experienced tech. He will know the best settings

based on tube type. He will also know the amp and set it within safe perameters. Tubes driven too hot can blow

too cold and they starve. Sort of like adjusting the gas mixture on a carborator. You dont want carbon buildup

and you dont want to cook the plugs and burn out cylinders.

GAH!

Last thing I wanted to do was bring it to the shop. Any idea how much a rebias would cost?

That looks pretty good!

Thanks man! =)

Buy the tubes yourself first off. Then just call the shop and tell them you have the tubes and you want them biased.

Most may be $50 or so. Its not that hard to do for most amps if the amp has a trim pot. For others its done with

resistor values.

The Duce I believe was designed to just stick tubes in in and go. Not self biasing but forgiving enough to where

biasing isnt critical. You just dont get maximum potential if its off allot. Some amps have quite a variance where the tubes

can be run and the sound quality isnt highly impacted if its off a few miliamps. Having matching tubes is a much bigger deal

because the two tubes need to push evenly.

My Fender blackface Bassman uses 6L6 tubes and has a set bias. It only has a trim pot to balance the two tubes.

many mod the amps so both tubes vcan be biased and many swear the results are better. I dont know, maybe my overall bias is

great because all I do is ballance them and the head kicks butt.

The best way Like I said would be to have the resistor values changed so you get the best current flow.

or even install trim pots so it can be easily balanced in the future.

Or you could just try the matched set in there. So long as they dont glow cherry red

you're probibly OK. Otherwise the tech has to balance the bias the hard way by finding the right resistors.

Yea, I had been reading about biasing. Few different ways to do it. Don't want to risk messing it up.

I'll try the new tubes first. Soon as I get my next pay check, I'll be wiring up the fans on the back baffle and post new pics. Thanks for all the advice guys

ok, new tubes are in. Got my fan dimensions...They won't fit on the back baffle without touching the tubes. Other thoughts on getting some ventilation while protecting tubes?

I'd have to see the back baffle to see what ya got. Sometimes you can just cut holes in it to provide more airflow.

Or maybe replace it with a piece of heavy screen type material. As long as you have a bit of airflow a fan shouldn't be necessary. Seems like you have some plywood left. Maybe make a new one and cut holes for your fan/s?