This lil’ fella doesn’t get much love nowadays. It’s the first amp I bought, together with my Strat, when I re-started playing guitar some years ago:
I’ve been thinking about building one or two small speaker cabs. Once the machines are set up it doesn’t take much more time to cut material for one more box. Why not make a head shell as well, and build a micro stack (where did I get that idea 🤔).
Looking for cab designs I found 1x10” cabs at Mesa website, one with open-back and one with closed back, both loaded with 10” Creambacks. Thought I could do worse than following the example of Mesa. My cab boxes are somewhat deeper, since I want the grill slightly recessed.
Difficult to find tolex and grill cloth that would match the dark green face plate of the TSA15 (at least to my liking). A US web shop selling parts to restore vintage radios had a dark green grill cloth, but shipping alone was USD 80-90, and the cloth itself was quite expensive. I found a picture of a custom Fender amp with blond tolex and oxblood grill cloth, and thought that might work. Together with brown piping and handles, it would also be an “organic” contrast to the traditional Marshall colour scheme.
Some comments on the building, in case someone's interested:
- Ibanez TSA15 tube amp, with built-in Tubescreamer (drive/tone/level) followed by a +6 dB boost (both foot switchable), FX loop, amp section with two 12AX7B and two 6V6GT (5/15 W triode/pentode switchable), “full set” of speaker outs from 4 to 16 Ohm, and one 12” speaker.
I’ve been thinking about building one or two small speaker cabs. Once the machines are set up it doesn’t take much more time to cut material for one more box. Why not make a head shell as well, and build a micro stack (where did I get that idea 🤔).
Looking for cab designs I found 1x10” cabs at Mesa website, one with open-back and one with closed back, both loaded with 10” Creambacks. Thought I could do worse than following the example of Mesa. My cab boxes are somewhat deeper, since I want the grill slightly recessed.
Difficult to find tolex and grill cloth that would match the dark green face plate of the TSA15 (at least to my liking). A US web shop selling parts to restore vintage radios had a dark green grill cloth, but shipping alone was USD 80-90, and the cloth itself was quite expensive. I found a picture of a custom Fender amp with blond tolex and oxblood grill cloth, and thought that might work. Together with brown piping and handles, it would also be an “organic” contrast to the traditional Marshall colour scheme.
Some comments on the building, in case someone's interested:
- Cabs and head shell made of birch plywood. Boxes are joined with routed dovetails and glued. All “box parts” glued and reinforced with glued wooden dowels. No metal fasteners.
- Baffle is permanently fixed in the box, and there will be separate frame for the grill cloth, mounted on the front. Saw this design in an YT video where someone replaced grill cloth on a Mesa cab.
- One baffle slanted 3,4°, so there will be one A cab and one B cab. I copied the slant angle from a drawing I found for a Tweed Deluxe cab.
- The head shell is quite tall. The reason is that I plan to put in an M2 attenuator (no master volume).
- There will be three-piece back on both cabs, for either closed or open back (Also, I understand clamps are popular around here)
- I make slightly oversized rough cuts, to make the work pieces easier to handle. Already at this stage I make sure pieces are flat, and all cuts are straight, parallel, and square. It makes the following steps much easier.
- To avoid splintering, you can cut shallow grooves on each side of the work piece first. Then you raise the blade and make the through-cut.
- The pieces supporting the slanted baffle needs to be cut at a small angle. If you don’t have a proper jig, you can fasten a straight and parallel scrap piece onto the work piece, parallel to the desired angle. Then you cut. Note: Use push stick(s) if you’re anywhere near the saw blade!
- I want the fasteners for the back panels to line up nicely. So I make a simple drill jig to make the bore holes located in a consistent way.
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