Converting My Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Into A Head
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2024
- #knowyourgear
Want to hear this amp now that it is a head? Check out my next videos where I will be using it.
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Here are links to the things I used in this video
Tall rubber feet ( you do not have to have this tag, but this is what I use
www.tubesandmore.com/products...
Guitar Cabinets Direct
guitarcabinetsdirect.com
Amp Boxes also at
www.mojotone.com
Metal tape
www.homedepot.com/p/Nashua-Ta...
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What a pleasure to watch you work, Phil. Thanks for the tutorial!
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!
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.
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!!!
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.
What a fantastic video have a wonderful day Phillip ❤😊
Phil, I loved the video, great work
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
Wow, thanks for this Phil.
Love it when you do videos like this
Awesome
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)
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.
Very well done!!
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.
Nice work!
Square heads = Robertson, the best ever screw invention, IMHO as a Canadian 🇨🇦 great video as always Phil!
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.
I love the look of this !
The ole Robertson square head.
Nice! I've also gone the other way and made a '65 Bandmaster head into a 2x12 combo for gigging.
Nice head! The quality of that is nice!
Nice work Phil. Kind of reminded me of a cooking show. 🥧 More stuff like this would be great.
The coolest part of this video is the pot for the screws! I want one
I’m thinking I need to do this to my Fender supersonic 22 combo. Thanks for sharing
Thanks Phil
Good video. I've always wanted to do that.
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 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..
Exactly why I bought a '68 Dual Showman instead of a '68 Twin Reverb (my favorite amp of all time)... They're the exact same blackface circuit... but the Dual Showman is MUCH lighter, and cheaper... and I can easily try out different speakers. Or have a cab for gigging that's a little lighter/portable, and a studio cab that's exactly the sound I want regardless of size/weight. Best of both worlds. (I lost reverb, but they do make a Dual Showman reverb, I just don't care, prefer my reverb pedal to spring reverb, and it's spring reverb setting is ridiculously authentic).
"TIME!" Hahaha. Love the AvE reference! ❤
I almost didn't understand it without the Canuckistan accent.
20:32 A man of refinement and taste, I see. And this vijeo was indeed a treat especiale. 😁
Awesome 👍
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!
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.
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.
Fun video. Couldn’t look away
..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.
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.
Why is this video so soothing?
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.
Very cool!
Oh how I wish I had thought of that back when I was hauling an AC 30 around.
I thought I was crazy for doing this a couple years ago. But it worked very nice.
Great video
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
Great Video
Would cooper shielding tape work as well as that foil stuff you got at Home Depot?
Great video Phil. Now I want to target those amps with lousy speakers and make them into amp heads!
Now THIS was an educational video!
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.
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?
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!
Used a Bandmaster Reverb head cab to convert a Deluxe Reverb head for use with a standalone cab.
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 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
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.
?? Question- what bridge would you recomend for a 1964 Gibson type III Firebird that could be intonated>
I created this for my twin reverb 50 years ago, yes I did!
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.
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.
💥🌶️⚡ Like Phil said best to educate yourself about capacitors and discharging them before even thinking about playing with 🔥. Good tips 👍
you're like a mad dentist with them drills! lol
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.
that's awesome
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
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
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.
Is the reverb tank screwed in or did you just lay it in ???
You made that look easy
It is easy.
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.
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!!
What ever happened to the Fender Machete amp Phill???
Was it a price thing?
01/15/2024: Wow, that is so cool. Did you weigh it together then again separated?
I have both a Princeton Reverb and a Twin Reverb in head cabinets. I can now carry the twin. Ha
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.
Cool
Balance point when picking it up, handle needs to move over towards the transformer
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.
Why Doesn't every amp come as a combo AND as a head ????? drives me crazy!! thanks for this !!
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
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.
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
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.
Excellent informative video... I'm tempted to send you a stamped self addressed envelope to buy 3 strips of that spare tape you have left ..lol
That tape is a lot more useful than everybody thinks! Dryer ducts! Catalytic converter theft repair, etc!
@@jray5363 as an HVAC item that tape is probably about $25 these days, but it does have other uses if you are a handy guy. Just don't expect to ever remove it.... not from ANYTHING!
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.
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.
What are the dril bit sizes?
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.
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.
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
I mean a combo amp is basically a head and a cabin together. In theory you can do this with basically any amp.
I think I'm ready to replace my kitchen cabinets with some of these bad boys!
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.
Phil McKnight, the Bob Ross of Guitar Gear maintenance
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.
Would love to turn my little tweed champ into a head but can’t find a cabinet 😢
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.
i really just want a fender 5150 tone master 50 watt combo - i’ll be done.,,
$300 is an obscene price for what is essentially a simple wooden box. This could be made from Oak, Walnut or some other nice grained wood for a fraction of that price.