Thursday 20 February 2014

Washing Up Bowl Guitar Amp

Here's another amp based on runoffgroove's wonderful Ruby - http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html.
The Ruby amp is great for knocking up cheap and cheerful creations when an idea strikes to build an amp out of something you've got lying around - a washing up bowl in this case - perhaps more accurately described as a tub, given the shape?
A side benefit of this kind of activity is always discovering something new that can be applied elsewhere. A bit of trial and error with the construction led to a new idea for covering/surfacing things that might be put to good use on other builds - perhaps a guitar or some furniture. Anyway, hopefully the pictures speak for themselves, with a few notes here and there.

Ruby II

Ruby II
A washing up bowl on legs with plywood face.

Ruby II
Retro style legs from an old clock resembling a TV, drawer handle and 9 volt socket affixed to bowl.

Ruby II
Ruby circuit and speaker mounted on fabric-wrapped plywood face.

Ruby II
The speaker grille is a rigid, fibrous mesh used by gardeners for potting. It's lacquered to the fabric-wrapped wood and the whole thing lacquered some more.

Ruby II
The look of yesteryear, the smell of tomorrow (or sometime in the future when the lacquer finally cures for good).

Ruby II
Turned out looking quite neat. I will use the lacquered fabric technique again.

Ruby II
The control panel. Prepared in Inkscape using dials generated with Scale Generator. Lacquered to a ply panel.

I suppose I should post some audio or video files to demonstrate how it sounds but that will have to wait for now.