I'm a retired electronics technician. I just came across your channel. You do a great job with your videos. I love the painter's tape trick. The metal tape is used to add shielding to the amp, however. here is a word of caution. if the metal tape should come unglued especially from the heat off of the amp or from age you could wind up shorting the insides of the amp out from the tape touching parts inside the amp, so be careful with that.
Thank you for the little "extra" tips, like the alignment of the painter's tape with the seam, the need for taller rubber feet (since I really, Really, REALLY do not like metal feet, I would have changed them anyway, but the hint about additional reasons to go "taller" is a bonus), there was at least one more, but to steal from Jimmy Buffet..."Like the Jitterbug, it plumb evaded me"...Oh, wait...The main one just came back...About the reverb tank and / or reversing it as required and knowing why you should or should not...or adding insulation...While there are others that still evade me!?!?!? I'll stop. Thanks for the great video and information.
The wiring in that amp is NOICE! The Fender folks really do a good job of keeping things simple and clean. DUDE! Soo awesome! Once you put the head on cab... it just all came together. I like that it can be taken to gigs where they may have cabs, but you want you bring your head cause it's part of your signature sound.
It’s not a ripoff folks, prices in lumber, tools and production costs and labor mean little to no profit margins for manufactures. No buts or excuses end of story!
..and make shure you have a "Speaker " cable plugged in to the amp and a cab nefore you switch on or it will "pop" the fuse and wreck the transformer for ever. Proper "Speaker" cable not "instrument" cable. I learned this lesson years ago by lending a school friend my Hiwatt 100 head which he plugged in to a PA bass cab using a Guitar cable, he said it worked for a few mins then a bolt of lightning shot out from the Hiwatt and a blue cloud of smoke was seen rising to the ceiling, it was beyond economical repair the Hiwatt technician informed me(a quivering 17 year old schooly) so do check you're plugged in correctly.
Great video!! Now you know we want to see a comparison of both your newly housed Princeton heads running in the same speaker cab!!! I wish fender would just sell them like this!!!
Thanks for this Phil! I saw your '68 in a video last week and thought maybe I had missed the video where you converted it. Turns out, you read my mind and made this!
Someone needs to highlight the point that having a reverb tank so close to the power transformer can and usually will cause unacceptable hum. This is the most likely reason why Fender does not offer this. This was touched on breifly in the video but you can be sure that many will miss that.
The reason they have the plate or the screw washers is so you can make a bigger hole to allow probing for the hidden screw holes. The plate and/or washers take the clamping load. Great how-to!
Super easy way to do it, but I'm too cheap and have access to a woodshop. I'd personally just disassemble and then cut the original box down to size a la Glenn Fricker and the 5150 he did this to not long ago. Reassemble and away we go.
Actually Brads Guitar Garage have found numerous amps with shorted components from those little bits of foil from punching the screws through the foil, instead of cutting out where to screws punch through, as he's seen in higher quality produced amps.
I made my Princeton into a head couple years ago too, been doing it to practice amps since my teens, now own a custom kitchen cabinet shop, i should make a bunch tp sell..
Side note on the cab: IMO, GCD (guitar cabinets direct) are as fine as anything available out there, if not better. I got one of their 4x12 slant cabs with the old 60s cane basketweave and loaded my own speakers into it. So it's a 1-1 replica Marshall cab. Every part of it is assembled to perfection. What I never expected was the tone it would have. I know this because I had pumped all sorts of amps short of my plexi into the 80s 1960A I had for about 20 years. My amps never sounded as great as as they do into the GCD cab. Must be something in the quality of the baltic birch they're using I guess. Resonance! Just fantastic.
There’s a ‘65 reissue at my LGS, I’m tempted, but I think I would be happier building a Mojotone Princeton kit. Just need to pull the trigger and start building.
That little self-deprecating laugh when that second mounting screw didn't automatically line up was awesome. Exactly what I would have done if I was in the middle of shooting content. I feel your pain brother.
Tape measure, a little scrap wood, skill saw, screws and glue, some wood stain. made a cab for my DR head out of pine in about 30 minutes With some corners and feet cost was maybe 20 bucks. Kept the original box and cover and can put it back in maybe ten minutes easy.
Don't have time to make a video so here are the directions. It matter not which amp but your chassis dimension. So measure the lenght and width of your chassis. Make sure to leave some overhang on each end. Then measure hte ehight you will need for the internal components and leave them an extra inch or two just for nice air. That will give you the internal dimension of a box with two opposing long sides left open. Put your top and bottom and ends together the best way you can. Set the chassis in place against the top - I did this upside down, and mark the holes for the mounting screws. Drill those 4 holes out and attach the chassis to the top. Take a look at the angle of the front of the chassis where the knobs are and set your skill saw to sort of match and zing off that front corner of the box. Then finish it up as you like with corners, handles, whatever is laying around. Great place for parts is garage sales for broken amps. I paid 5 dollars at a garage sale for a small combo amp and got 4 corner protectors, 4 feet, and a handle as well as other components. 40 dollars worth of hardware for 5 bucks what a deal. Now go forth and fear not.@@giulioluzzardi7632
Glenn did that aswell with a 6505 combo and called it the best value amp in the world. I'm curious if it's possible to do that with a Marshall combo :)
The problem with Marshall is they put the amp guts 'upside down' in the combo's, so the front panel plates have to have the text printed the 'wrong' way up, too. You could do it, but all your controls will read upside down. I guess someone could easily design a head that puts the control panel at the top like the combo's. Basically just make it the same as the combo with the speaker section chopped off.
Long enough for the tubes to cool to room temperature. Obviously that is different for every tube in every amp. And in the case of a solid state amp, you may also have to deal with very large capacitors, as he said. Being nervous about it will save your life.
I had no idea this was so easy to do! I once saw someone selling a Blues Jr head, and I went crazy opining for it, but it sold before I could get it. I thought it was some kind of a mod job, or something out of the ordinary.
I did this several years ago with my Marshall combo. And yes, I had to rearrange my reverb tank because of the noise that you mentioned. I have the original cabinet
Hi Phillip, great idea and great job. Even using the original one as cabinet. I´m going to do that as well. Could you mind to exchange the external and internal dimensions? tks a lot
I have a PRRI. It’s small enough and not that heavy. Seems like creating more stuff to carry. Although it would be cool to use different cabs. My complaint to Fender is why they didn’t design it to add a cabinet in addition to the existing one. I’d love to have an extension cab for some of my gigs. Add some dimension
I did the same kind of swap, only with a Twin-Reverb chassis into a Guitar Cabinets Direct Showman head cab. Since Phillip did his swap with a 6V6- loaded Deluxe-Reverb, there was a lot of room for the reverb tank. If you're doing this kind of swap with a 6L6- loaded chassis in a regular-size Fender style head cab there's much less room and you want the chassis as far towards the front of the cab as possible with the reverb tank as far toward the back of the cab, so the tank will clear those big tubes. This means the chassis strap screw holes MAY need to be a little forward of where they are on the combo version. Took some thinking about things to get everything in my swap lined up, but it all worked out fine. I play pedal steel and need high headroom; my Twin sounded delightful onstage, but it was just too *&#% heavy to schlep around. Having it in a head cab with a separate speaker-cab solved the problem!
Dave, I'm going to do that with one of my Twin Reverb combos. I will build a wooden pine head cab and use the texture paint instead of Tolex. It looks similar to the tolex, unless I decide to go Tweed. I use mine for pedal steel too. I have a Tonemaster Twin but like that old Twin.
Always make sure you have that newly created head plugged into the correct cabinet before you play it. Very Very important, with a combo it’s essentially always plugged into a speaker. If you turn on a head without it plugged in and strum even 1 chord you’ll absolutely destroy your transformer and god knows what else. Most people already know this but I’m sure there’s at least one person watching this video who has only ever owned combos or solid state amps.
In answer to your title question, I think Fender has always done this with their Rumble series - and possibly some previous more solid state bass combos
they dont offer this cause we can mod stuff ourselfs. i have done this with a few amps in my time and i did it back when there was no wiring diagrams for it. i turned a fender frontman combo 1x12 into a fender frontman head that was loaded into a 4x12 cab could not tell it from a fender bassman head
Is there any special cabinet that I need to look for for my marshall origin 50 watt combo amp? I would love to do this to my marshall as I only have room for one cab in my living space, and would love the look of amp and cab
This is EXCELLENT! I've been thinking about doing this with my princeton. I do wish you showed adding the logo. Didn't know if there were pre-drilled holes for that on the new shell (I would assume not)
My thoughts exactly! it should only be $150, especially when you have to go through the work of drilling the holes for your specific amp, but at the same time, if you wanted to build your own, you'll save money but what is your time worth? buying the wood, wrapping it with tolex and the grill cloth. If you have the tools, time skills and wanna save money then build your own i guess. But I agree that $300 is too much.
It does seem like a ream to pay that much, but the convenience factor makes it worth it for some. You don’t have to have woodworking tools, tolex, adhesive for the tolex and all the hardware for the cabinet itself.
You shoukd do more amp mod videos Phil. Break some new ground for you. Im planning on rehousing a cheap ss marshall combo to use it as speaker cab only.
Why would you not just set the combo on top of the speaker box and come out of the amp and go into the speaker box ? You could just remove the combo speaker to cut down on weight.
Not "every" Fender amp: the very popular Blues Deluxe (or Hot Rod version of a similar amp) does not have any head enclosures readily available. If anyone knows of a good option I would appreciate hearing about it.
This is a great way to make you amp carrying life a little easier. But you need the right cabinet and speaker to get that Fender tone. The majority of your sound is in the speaker, not the amp. A Fender Twin Head (something that REALLY needs to be turned into a head) into a Marshall 4x30 won't sound like a Fender Twin. Although it might sound cool in its own way.
I agree that the speaker is important, but I don't think it's the majority of the sound. I think you'd see a bigger difference in tone swapping different heads through the same cab and speaker then switching cabs with the same head. But to the larger point, as soon as you start swapping things out from the original set up it's going to start sounding different.
@chaptermaster I kind of agree with what you said but there is nothing stooping one from using the old Twin cab as the speaker cab for the new head. Maybe a nice aluminum panel to fill the space left by the missing chassis and you would have something extremely close to the original amp but with the weight broken into head and cab.
@@7171jay If you're going to use the same speaker why did you do this at all? Now you have two pieces to carry, and you've added weight, for no reason.
I guess maybe you have never lugged a Fender Twin Reverb around or how about one with Electrovoice SRO speakers in it? Spitting it into two would be a lot easier to deal with even though you now have two things to carry. Two lighter parts would be preferable to some people and some just like the look of a seperate head and cab. Many years ago I owned a Fender Showman Reverb which is basically a head version of a Twin Reverb, strangely they made the head cab much taller than necessary, I think you could have fit a couple of six inch speakers in the extra space there! ;)
I bought a bunch of rubber feet after another video I watched but I found that most of my Fender amps don’t have screws in the centre.They’re exactly like that one that’s being worked on. I guess the only way to deal with that is remove the tank and attack it from the inside? I haven’t been brave enough to do that yet. I have something like 8 amps to do lol
You ruined it. Just kidding but I grew up with combos so I really like them. All five of mine are combos. So simple, you plug in, you play. No messing around with speaker cables or wondering if if the cab is 4, 6, 8 or 16 ohms. It just works.
But why Is the question. Combos are the best amps ever. I have a Mesa boogie combo I can carry it around as a single 12. for practice, even can do gigs with it. Funny a lot of big name pros have the big stacks out in front , and in the back in the corner is a little single twelve combo with a mic on it , giving all the sound ?????? I dont get it. Combo amps are the most versational amps there is
Cool idea ... but not sure I understand the purpose. Eventually there will be a need for a speaker (or two). Whomever does this will now have to carry two things (head and speaker) instead of just the combo.
Not really good for that due to the adhesive on the tape. Hard time getting it to ground. Best way is to solder a lead onto the foil tape, then reverse ( dog ear) the tape, and put another layer on over top of it. Thought I would be nice and let you know that make sure you test it out with ohms to make sure you have a 100% ground instead of 99.9%. It does work, just have to take the adhesive into account, and make up for the adhesive being there.
Thanks Phil! How do you turn the old speaker in to a cabinet? Doesn’t the speaker need to now connect to an input jack so you can context the head and cabinet with a patch cable?
Hello Matt. "Speaker to the Amp" is never connected via an amp input jack. Your questions/comments are a bit confusing for me, but I wanted to reply to your comments. Amp Speaker connections should never use a guitar patch cable. Most 1/4-inch guitar patch cables and 1/4-inch speaker cables look-like the same damn thing, but these cables are usually different animals. Only use "speaker-grade" 1/4-inch patch cables in-between an amp (output) and a speaker (input). If you already knew about these different 1/4-inch cable types, please forgive me.
@@martybender123he’s probably talking about how on Fender combos, the speaker wires are wired into a 1/4” TS plug which goes directly into the speaker output jack of the amp.
You’d need to either have a longer speaker wire from speaker terminals connected to a 1/4” TS plug (like the combos do) to give you enough reach; or wire the speaker wires to a jack, mount the jack in the cabinet, then run a speaker cable between the amp and the cabinet.
To make it easier for the top holes to be drilled, you could remove the handles and put the original amp upside down on the new amp head case and used the existing holes as a guide for your drill. At least in my mind that seems like it would work and be better than trying to line up tape.
All of you bitchin’ that $300 is too much probably never tried to build a cabinet or anything else. I’v been an amp tech for 35 years including turning Fender combo’s into heads. $300 for a cabinet that looks factory made is *not* a lot of money.
I cannot tell you how many Vintage Amps I have done this for because the Combo was so beat to hell it was falling apart, and It is easier turning it into a head. Just watch your impedance loads.
I have always wondered why Fender doesn’t make more amp heads. Combos are fine, but they take up too much room. I have a bunch of amazing cabs and speakers already, so all I want from now on are amp heads. But Fender only makes one or two amp models in a head. Crazy.
About to head down this road myself with a SR 4x10. I plan on using the 4x10 as a cab... does anyone have any good ideas on how to fill the empty void at the top where the chassis was without things looking janky? Does anyone make blank faceplates for this kind of thing?
2:06 not a weird choice. Robertson screws are the BEST choice. Every time. It might not be that they don't want you to take it off so much as they want the world to switch to a screw head that isn't as astronomically useless as the Philips head 😆 . No seriously they're bad, and a Robertson are best 😐
Americans really need to learn how amazing Robertson screws are. It's been a hundred years now, join the club. I would never try to fool you into using the metric system, but screwing is important.
I'm a retired electronics technician. I just came across your channel. You do a great job with your videos. I love the painter's tape trick. The metal tape is used to add shielding to the amp, however. here is a word of caution. if the metal tape should come unglued especially from the heat off of the amp or from age you could wind up shorting the insides of the amp out from the tape touching parts inside the amp, so be careful with that.
Thank you for the little "extra" tips, like the alignment of the painter's tape with the seam, the need for taller rubber feet (since I really, Really, REALLY do not like metal feet, I would have changed them anyway, but the hint about additional reasons to go "taller" is a bonus), there was at least one more, but to steal from Jimmy Buffet..."Like the Jitterbug, it plumb evaded me"...Oh, wait...The main one just came back...About the reverb tank and / or reversing it as required and knowing why you should or should not...or adding insulation...While there are others that still evade me!?!?!? I'll stop. Thanks for the great video and information.
The wiring in that amp is NOICE! The Fender folks really do a good job of keeping things simple and clean.
DUDE! Soo awesome! Once you put the head on cab... it just all came together. I like that it can be taken to gigs where they may have cabs, but you want you bring your head cause it's part of your signature sound.
It’s not a ripoff folks, prices in lumber, tools and production costs and labor mean little to no profit margins for manufactures. No buts or excuses end of story!
..and make shure you have a "Speaker " cable plugged in to the amp and a cab nefore you switch on or it will "pop" the fuse and wreck the transformer for ever. Proper "Speaker" cable not "instrument" cable. I learned this lesson years ago by lending a school friend my Hiwatt 100 head which he plugged in to a PA bass cab using a Guitar cable, he said it worked for a few mins then a bolt of lightning shot out from the Hiwatt and a blue cloud of smoke was seen rising to the ceiling, it was beyond economical repair the Hiwatt technician informed me(a quivering 17 year old schooly) so do check you're plugged in correctly.
Great video!! Now you know we want to see a comparison of both your newly housed Princeton heads running in the same speaker cab!!! I wish fender would just sell them like this!!!
Thanks for this Phil! I saw your '68 in a video last week and thought maybe I had missed the video where you converted it. Turns out, you read my mind and made this!
Someone needs to highlight the point that having a reverb tank so close to the power transformer can and usually will cause unacceptable hum. This is the most likely reason why Fender does not offer this. This was touched on breifly in the video but you can be sure that many will miss that.
The reason they have the plate or the screw washers is so you can make a bigger hole to allow probing for the hidden screw holes. The plate and/or washers take the clamping load.
Great how-to!
Super easy way to do it, but I'm too cheap and have access to a woodshop. I'd personally just disassemble and then cut the original box down to size a la Glenn Fricker and the 5150 he did this to not long ago. Reassemble and away we go.
Actually Brads Guitar Garage have found numerous amps with shorted components from those little bits of foil from punching the screws through the foil, instead of cutting out where to screws punch through, as he's seen in higher quality produced amps.
I made my Princeton into a head couple years ago too, been doing it to practice amps since my teens, now own a custom kitchen cabinet shop, i should make a bunch tp sell..
Side note on the cab:
IMO, GCD (guitar cabinets direct) are as fine as anything available out there, if not better. I got one of their 4x12 slant cabs with the old 60s cane basketweave and loaded my own speakers into it. So it's a 1-1 replica Marshall cab. Every part of it is assembled to perfection. What I never expected was the tone it would have. I know this because I had pumped all sorts of amps short of my plexi into the 80s 1960A I had for about 20 years. My amps never sounded as great as as they do into the GCD cab. Must be something in the quality of the baltic birch they're using I guess. Resonance! Just fantastic.
Square heads = Robertson, the best ever screw invention, IMHO as a Canadian 🇨🇦 great video as always Phil!
i’ve been thinking about doing this for a while! i just haven’t been able to find a cheaper head case and $300 seems like a rip off
Ever price out all the components? It’s usually cheaper not including the time you’ll spend building it after sourcing everything.
There’s a ‘65 reissue at my LGS, I’m tempted, but I think I would be happier building a Mojotone Princeton kit. Just need to pull the trigger and start building.
That little self-deprecating laugh when that second mounting screw didn't automatically line up was awesome. Exactly what I would have done if I was in the middle of shooting content. I feel your pain brother.
The sound kept cutting out when he was re-assembling it! I figured that was the cussing part!
Tape measure, a little scrap wood, skill saw, screws and glue, some wood stain. made a cab for my DR head out of pine in about 30 minutes With some corners and feet cost was maybe 20 bucks. Kept the original box and cover and can put it back in maybe ten minutes easy.
Do a video and show us how you made it , please. Most of us can't spend 300 bucks on an empty box.
Don't have time to make a video so here are the directions. It matter not which amp but your chassis dimension.
So measure the lenght and width of your chassis. Make sure to leave some overhang on each end. Then measure hte ehight you will need for the internal components and leave them an extra inch or two just for nice air. That will give you the internal dimension of a box with two opposing long sides left open. Put your top and bottom and ends together the best way you can. Set the chassis in place against the top - I did this upside down, and mark the holes for the mounting screws. Drill those 4 holes out and attach the chassis to the top.
Take a look at the angle of the front of the chassis where the knobs are and set your skill saw to sort of match and zing off that front corner of the box. Then finish it up as you like with corners, handles, whatever is laying around. Great place for parts is garage sales for broken amps. I paid 5 dollars at a garage sale for a small combo amp and got 4 corner protectors, 4 feet, and a handle as well as other components. 40 dollars worth of hardware for 5 bucks what a deal. Now go forth and fear not.@@giulioluzzardi7632
Nice! I've also gone the other way and made a '65 Bandmaster head into a 2x12 combo for gigging.
Glenn did that aswell with a 6505 combo and called it the best value amp in the world.
I'm curious if it's possible to do that with a Marshall combo :)
The problem with Marshall is they put the amp guts 'upside down' in the combo's, so the front panel plates have to have the text printed the 'wrong' way up, too. You could do it, but all your controls will read upside down.
I guess someone could easily design a head that puts the control panel at the top like the combo's. Basically just make it the same as the combo with the speaker section chopped off.
Long enough for the tubes to cool to room temperature. Obviously that is different for every tube in every amp. And in the case of a solid state amp, you may also have to deal with very large capacitors, as he said. Being nervous about it will save your life.
What a pleasure to watch you work, Phil. Thanks for the tutorial!
I had no idea this was so easy to do! I once saw someone selling a Blues Jr head, and I went crazy opining for it, but it sold before I could get it. I thought it was some kind of a mod job, or something out of the ordinary.
The coolest part of this video is the pot for the screws! I want one
"TIME!" Hahaha. Love the AvE reference! ❤
I almost didn't understand it without the Canuckistan accent.
I did this several years ago with my Marshall combo. And yes, I had to rearrange my reverb tank because of the noise that you mentioned. I have the original cabinet
I owned a converted Fender combo to head conversion and was always amazed how someone could "cut" down an amp and make it look that good. lol
Hi Phillip, great idea and great job. Even using the original one as cabinet. I´m going to do that as well. Could you mind to exchange the external and internal dimensions? tks a lot
Oh how I wish I had thought of that back when I was hauling an AC 30 around.
Nice work Phil. Kind of reminded me of a cooking show. 🥧 More stuff like this would be great.
I converted my Runt 50 combo to a head / shell combo and it was the best 5 minute mod. You can get head shells directly from Friedman.
I have a PRRI. It’s small enough and not that heavy. Seems like creating more stuff to carry. Although it would be cool to use different cabs. My complaint to Fender is why they didn’t design it to add a cabinet in addition to the existing one. I’d love to have an extension cab for some of my gigs. Add some dimension
I thought I was crazy for doing this a couple years ago. But it worked very nice.
Used a Bandmaster Reverb head cab to convert a Deluxe Reverb head for use with a standalone cab.
I did the same kind of swap, only with a Twin-Reverb chassis into a Guitar Cabinets Direct Showman head cab. Since Phillip did his swap with a 6V6- loaded Deluxe-Reverb, there was a lot of room for the reverb tank. If you're doing this kind of swap with a 6L6- loaded chassis in a regular-size Fender style head cab there's much less room and you want the chassis as far towards the front of the cab as possible with the reverb tank as far toward the back of the cab, so the tank will clear those big tubes. This means the chassis strap screw holes MAY need to be a little forward of where they are on the combo version. Took some thinking about things to get everything in my swap lined up, but it all worked out fine.
I play pedal steel and need high headroom; my Twin sounded delightful onstage, but it was just too *&#% heavy to schlep around. Having it in a head cab with a separate speaker-cab solved the problem!
Dave, I'm going to do that with one of my Twin Reverb combos. I will build a wooden pine head cab and use the texture paint instead of Tolex. It looks similar to the tolex, unless I decide to go Tweed. I use mine for pedal steel too. I have a Tonemaster Twin but like that old Twin.
I'm planning on the same thing with a 6505+ 112 combo!
Always make sure you have that newly created head plugged into the correct cabinet before you play it. Very Very important, with a combo it’s essentially always plugged into a speaker. If you turn on a head without it plugged in and strum even 1 chord you’ll absolutely destroy your transformer and god knows what else. Most people already know this but I’m sure there’s at least one person watching this video who has only ever owned combos or solid state amps.
I created this for my twin reverb 50 years ago, yes I did!
In answer to your title question, I think Fender has always done this with their Rumble series - and possibly some previous more solid state bass combos
I have both a Princeton Reverb and a Twin Reverb in head cabinets. I can now carry the twin. Ha
they dont offer this cause we can mod stuff ourselfs. i have done this with a few amps in my time and i did it back when there was no wiring diagrams for it.
i turned a fender frontman combo 1x12 into a fender frontman head that was loaded into a 4x12 cab could not tell it from a fender bassman head
The ole Robertson square head.
Hey Phil, if you insulate the reverb tank, what material do you use and how do you do it? And what are you going to use for a speaker cabinet?
Is there any special cabinet that I need to look for for my marshall origin 50 watt combo amp? I would love to do this to my marshall as I only have room for one cab in my living space, and would love the look of amp and cab
you're like a mad dentist with them drills! lol
Love it when you do videos like this
Awesome
Square heads are not quite uncommon. The reason why it's rarer in USA, it's because they where invented in Canada. It's a Canadian invention. 😊
Got to have a #2 Robinson if you are Canadian and work in the trades. 😊
@@dougstrong5386 Yep the #2 is the usual one. 👍
Some electricians call them #8 for some reason black #10
Robertson screws, otherwise known as not crappy to work with.
This is EXCELLENT! I've been thinking about doing this with my princeton. I do wish you showed adding the logo. Didn't know if there were pre-drilled holes for that on the new shell (I would assume not)
Why is this video so soothing?
300 bucks for a wood box is kinda expensive.
My thoughts exactly! it should only be $150, especially when you have to go through the work of drilling the holes for your specific amp, but at the same time, if you wanted to build your own, you'll save money but what is your time worth? buying the wood, wrapping it with tolex and the grill cloth. If you have the tools, time skills and wanna save money then build your own i guess. But I agree that $300 is too much.
Not kinda expensive, $300 is just ridiculous. I hope it came with lube.
It does seem like a ream to pay that much, but the convenience factor makes it worth it for some. You don’t have to have woodworking tools, tolex, adhesive for the tolex and all the hardware for the cabinet itself.
@@myoptik3x103 I guess I should start making these if people are willing to pay that much. About $50 ($75 max) in supply's
Everything is expensive. Careful, don’t use the word expensive too much, they might start taxing it use.
You shoukd do more amp mod videos Phil. Break some new ground for you. Im planning on rehousing a cheap ss marshall combo to use it as speaker cab only.
Would cooper shielding tape work as well as that foil stuff you got at Home Depot?
They made some fender head versions during 2014 but no one ever wants to sell theirs. I luckily picked up one on reverb a few years ago.
Wow, thanks for this Phil.
Why would you not just set the combo on top of the speaker box and come out of the amp and go into the speaker box ? You could just remove the combo speaker to cut down on weight.
Not "every" Fender amp: the very popular Blues Deluxe (or Hot Rod version of a similar amp) does not have any head enclosures readily available. If anyone knows of a good option I would appreciate hearing about it.
This is a great way to make you amp carrying life a little easier. But you need the right cabinet and speaker to get that Fender tone. The majority of your sound is in the speaker, not the amp. A Fender Twin Head (something that REALLY needs to be turned into a head) into a Marshall 4x30 won't sound like a Fender Twin. Although it might sound cool in its own way.
I agree that the speaker is important, but I don't think it's the majority of the sound. I think you'd see a bigger difference in tone swapping different heads through the same cab and speaker then switching cabs with the same head. But to the larger point, as soon as you start swapping things out from the original set up it's going to start sounding different.
@chaptermaster I kind of agree with what you said but there is nothing stooping one from using the old Twin cab as the speaker cab for the new head. Maybe a nice aluminum panel to fill the space left by the missing chassis and you would have something extremely close to the original amp but with the weight broken into head and cab.
@@7171jay If you're going to use the same speaker why did you do this at all? Now you have two pieces to carry, and you've added weight, for no reason.
I guess maybe you have never lugged a Fender Twin Reverb around or how about one with Electrovoice SRO speakers in it? Spitting it into two would be a lot easier to deal with even though you now have two things to carry. Two lighter parts would be preferable to some people and some just like the look of a seperate head and cab. Many years ago I owned a Fender Showman Reverb which is basically a head version of a Twin Reverb, strangely they made the head cab much taller than necessary, I think you could have fit a couple of six inch speakers in the extra space there! ;)
@@7171jay I'm 52 years old and have played for over 35 years kid- and your post is ridiculous drivel. I don't know anyone who would agree with you.
I’m thinking I need to do this to my Fender supersonic 22 combo. Thanks for sharing
Move the tube/schematic lable from the old cabinet to the new head cabinet.
snap a picture of it and print it because you will never remove the OEM diagram without damage.
Phil, I loved the video, great work
I bought a bunch of rubber feet after another video I watched but I found that most of my Fender amps don’t have screws in the centre.They’re exactly like that one that’s being worked on. I guess the only way to deal with that is remove the tank and attack it from the inside? I haven’t been brave enough to do that yet. I have something like 8 amps to do lol
Balance point when picking it up, handle needs to move over towards the transformer
What a fantastic video have a wonderful day Phillip ❤😊
I did this with my 1976 Super Reverb but found a used head shell on Reverb for $100. Now it's not such a boat anchor anymore.
Great video Phil. Now I want to target those amps with lousy speakers and make them into amp heads!
Very cool! I have a Custom Deluxe 68 but i love it as is. But if I was still giging I would probably do this.
You ruined it. Just kidding but I grew up with combos so I really like them. All five of mine are combos. So simple, you plug in, you play. No messing around with speaker cables or wondering if if the cab is 4, 6, 8 or 16 ohms. It just works.
what about the out put jack there in no way t o play any sound from the amp as it sits at the end of this video
But why Is the question. Combos are the best amps ever. I have a Mesa boogie combo I can carry it around as a single 12. for practice, even can do gigs with it. Funny a lot of big name pros have the big stacks out in front , and in the back in the corner is a little single twelve combo with a mic on it , giving all the sound ?????? I dont get it. Combo amps are the most versational amps there is
Cool idea ... but not sure I understand the purpose. Eventually there will be a need for a speaker (or two). Whomever does this will now have to carry two things (head and speaker) instead of just the combo.
Nice head! The quality of that is nice!
?? Question- what bridge would you recomend for a 1964 Gibson type III Firebird that could be intonated>
What ever happened to the Fender Machete amp Phill???
Was it a price thing?
I would squash the head chasis as small as possible, get rid of the reverb tank, run a spring reverb style pedal through the effects loop, and done.
Also build your own box for cheaper if you have the patience.
💥🌶️⚡ Like Phil said best to educate yourself about capacitors and discharging them before even thinking about playing with 🔥. Good tips 👍
Now THIS was an educational video!
The metal tape is also good for shielding guitar cavities
Not really good for that due to the adhesive on the tape. Hard time getting it to ground. Best way is to solder a lead onto the foil tape, then reverse ( dog ear) the tape, and put another layer on over top of it. Thought I would be nice and let you know that make sure you test it out with ohms to make sure you have a 100% ground instead of 99.9%. It does work, just have to take the adhesive into account, and make up for the adhesive being there.
@gm-lb9oe yes I do everything that you mentioned
Thanks Phil!
How do you turn the old speaker in to a cabinet? Doesn’t the speaker need to now connect to an input jack so you can context the head and cabinet with a patch cable?
Hello Matt. "Speaker to the Amp" is never connected via an amp input jack. Your questions/comments are a bit confusing for me, but I wanted to reply to your comments. Amp Speaker connections should never use a guitar patch cable. Most 1/4-inch guitar patch cables and 1/4-inch speaker cables look-like the same damn thing, but these cables are usually different animals.
Only use "speaker-grade" 1/4-inch patch cables in-between an amp (output) and a speaker (input). If you already knew about these different 1/4-inch cable types, please forgive me.
@@martybender123he’s probably talking about how on Fender combos, the speaker wires are wired into a 1/4” TS plug which goes directly into the speaker output jack of the amp.
You’d need to either have a longer speaker wire from speaker terminals connected to a 1/4” TS plug (like the combos do) to give you enough reach; or wire the speaker wires to a jack, mount the jack in the cabinet, then run a speaker cable between the amp and the cabinet.
01/15/2024: Wow, that is so cool. Did you weigh it together then again separated?
To make it easier for the top holes to be drilled, you could remove the handles and put the original amp upside down on the new amp head case and used the existing holes as a guide for your drill. At least in my mind that seems like it would work and be better than trying to line up tape.
Nice work!
Can't you just take the speaker out of the combo and shorten it? $350 USD for a box is a lot
What about the 1/4" plug for the cabinet? 😳
it's on the amp.
@@edrenas7930 That was my question as well! Thanks!
i really just want a fender 5150 tone master 50 watt combo - i’ll be done.,,
All of you bitchin’ that $300 is too much probably never tried to build a cabinet or anything else. I’v been an amp tech for 35 years including turning Fender combo’s into heads. $300 for a cabinet that looks factory made is *not* a lot of money.
Would love to turn my little tweed champ into a head but can’t find a cabinet 😢
I cannot tell you how many Vintage Amps I have done this for because the Combo was so beat to hell it was falling apart, and It is easier turning it into a head. Just watch your impedance loads.
That makes sense.
I've read that unplugging the amp while it's turned on will effectively drain the capacitors to make it safer.
After the amp is warmed up and playing, yes this does work. Always check for high voltages with a multimeter before performing work on an amp.
I’ve heard that for that to work a signal needs to be going in when you turn it off. You will be able to hear the caps drain as your note trails off.
@@lancomedic most Fenders have a resistor that will drain the caps, but it takes several minutes... if everything is working as it should.
I have always wondered why Fender doesn’t make more amp heads. Combos are fine, but they take up too much room. I have a bunch of amazing cabs and speakers already, so all I want from now on are amp heads. But Fender only makes one or two amp models in a head. Crazy.
About to head down this road myself with a SR 4x10. I plan on using the 4x10 as a cab... does anyone have any good ideas on how to fill the empty void at the top where the chassis was without things looking janky? Does anyone make blank faceplates for this kind of thing?
Phil McKnight, the Bob Ross of Guitar Gear maintenance
2:06 not a weird choice. Robertson screws are the BEST choice. Every time. It might not be that they don't want you to take it off so much as they want the world to switch to a screw head that isn't as astronomically useless as the Philips head 😆 . No seriously they're bad, and a Robertson are best 😐
Hey Phil! Can I buy the combo cab from you? I could really use it and I'm not too far from you in Arizona. Im located in Reno, NV. Thanks!!
Americans really need to learn how amazing Robertson screws are. It's been a hundred years now, join the club. I would never try to fool you into using the metric system, but screwing is important.
Awesome 👍
I love the look of this !
Very well done!!
Thanks Phil
Why didn't you test to find out if the reverb chamber was in correctly - and; where did you get the cabinet for the head transplant?
I would have added a part if it wasn’t but it was.
Fun video. Couldn’t look away
Is the reverb tank screwed in or did you just lay it in ???