All good things come to an end... this must have been a good thing…

A quote from Jon "Bowzer" Bauman of the band Sha Na Na - from the Television show entitled Sha Na Na

Well this past weekend the Vox Viscount came back to life. Thanks to the help and aid of my friend the electrical genius Jim Marquart who made resurrection of this amplifier possible.

jgmDESIGNS  is his company.

So after many hours listening to demos of what this amp sounds like I chose to keep it and restore it to something wonderful. I asked my wife a convoluted question:

What would be the combination of colors for that amp that would not bother you if I left it in the living room when company was here?

 My son shot this photo when I was not looking

 This is a small bit on what it sounds like...

 The Power amp

 The Pre amp

 The 12" Vintage 30s

 The amp assembled

I actually took her choices and made it happen, The electronics I witnessed Jim doing his magic the guy has insight and knows what he is doing. Once he finished them I brought them home to install in the amp and supported the his work with two Vintage 30 speakers. The thing sounds great!

Thank you for reading!

Taking the long way home...

Well this personal project is coming to completion. The VOX Vintage amp project, which started in 2014, is coming to a close very soon. Well One of the biggest issues with the project I did not know my endgame. Why am I restoring this amp, was the $64,000.00 question that I could not answer.

First of all the amp has history and it was owned first by Hendry Gross of Sha Na Na. This amp saw the stage of the Fillmore East when they opened up for Frank Zappa and the Mothers and the first Woodstock.  Breaking even would have been very difficult since VOX material for restoration is extremely expensive and the amp was still a large black box if I decided to keep it.  So after many hours of reading on solid state amps and there benefits something struck me. When these amps are produced they all have the exact same sound across the board. You can have a tube Mesa Boogie and each one has a very slight different dynamic about them because of the tube technology I found this to be the case when I purchased my Boogie in 2000. With this fact about solid state amps I had an apiphany; Since I did not hear the amp at all since I got it I could hear what the amp sounds like from other VOX Viscounts on YouTube. So I spent more countless hours listening to videos of VOX Viscount demos.

I came to the conclusion in December that I was going to keep this amp and keep it as a conversation piece as well as a device to make music with.  Indecision is over and now what do I do. I went to my lovely bride and asked her a convoluted question that went sort of like this; If we were making music late on a Saturday night and I left my amp in the living room and the next day we had people visit what color combination for the amp I should do so it doesn’t look like a big black box that is an eyesore?

I showed her choices of tolex covering and grill fabric combinations and we arrived at a compromise. We decided to make it the brown country western tolex with a golden beige grill fabric. This started a crazy ordering of parts to complete this project that started on the night of January 12^th  which lasted till tonight February 23^rd where I purchased the speakers on Reverb.

Last week I was invited over to the home of my friend Jim who is restoring the electronics of my VOX. He told me to bring one of my guitars so I can play through a Marshall head. After about 25 minutes I blew the fuse. At first I felt awful but he confirmed me that this is what he wanted me to do. Anyway I enjoyed the Marshall she was loud and packed a punch that I have not had felt in many years. Once he was done with what he had me do he put the unit aside and pulled out the VOX electronics and we hooked them up.

First of all the Normal channel did not work, the Brilliant and Bass channel worked but with a very bad hum. After about two hours and changing out a bunch of capacitors the hum was gone and I found the amp to be loud as the Marshall head.

Now Jim moved to the normal channel and he got it to work.  He explained that he will change all the capacitor on the Preamp side and the two large ones on the Power amp side. This guy is doing a Stella job and he knows what he is doing.

A week earlier after a day from hell at work, my leather handles from China came in and there was nothing to break my spirits that evening. That weekend I work my butt off on this amp. First on Friday night I watched videos on re-tolexing amps I wen to bed quite late that night.

The telexing job went well the cold of the winter helped extend the time of the setting of the Wellbond Adhesive by about ten minutes. I used my wife’s rolling pin to get out all the bubbles. She was not too pleased with these creative methods of mine along with having to have the door of the basement open to the yard in 26º F weather to mitigate the stench of the adhesive.

All went well so judge for your self.

This shown with old pipping on the front

 Between these two photos you can see what i did

 I added the same screen on the back

 I took some time with the logo

 I had to raise the bottom so all can fit correctly

 The tolex style and the leather handles

what a change from the original style

I made up my mind

One of the worsed things in my life is my indecision before I ever commit myself to a project or something I drive myself nuts doing my best to make up my mind. It's a wonder how I got married and not suffer from any remorse. Well, I spent hours I mean countless hours trying to figure out what I was doing with this amp. Well to make this amp what it once was is a losing battle its too much money to spend on the original gril cloth, pipping and a new Vox logo. But of course the, trollys to angle the amp which is not to original spec and is a $250.00.  So I decided to go totally non-original. So on January 12, 2019, I committed myself to purchase Tolex, grill cloth hardware and leather handles. Now all of the material has arrived but not the handles. Since I got them for an awesome price and they are coming from China. They are expected to arrive by February 4th  thru the 26th. Now each nih=ght I have been micro-managing Amazon and waiting for them to arrive. I am looking forward to the next post. Peace Out!

Where I am at...

Wow, it has been a while since I have written anything on this project. Bringing something back to life takes a lot of planning. When you make a quick fix it is not always the right thing to do, and later we think of why we did what we did and most of the time is to save money or just to get the friggin thing finished. What Stalled the project was the guitar I started in 2010. 

          Through out my life I have been enamored by Eric Clapton "Fool" guitar. This guitar was always an inspiration for me, there was always a playful very childlike elements to the designs that came out of the psychedelic years that was transferred into the design of the guitar.  Designed by a group of artists known collectively as The Fool. They ran a psychedelic clothes boutique in swinging London, which the Beatles and the rest of them often patronized.

The Fool guitar he use when playing with Cream, I have also heard that "Layla" was written playing the guitar.

          My Guitar I used one of my original painting " A Look of Love" which I painted in 2001 while living in Florida. Where I had a burst of ideas that came and went on canvas.

"A Look of Love" by Peter Andolfi 2001

Then nine years later this guitar was born, based upon a Ibanez guitar body this guitar became a mystery to most who saw it all were in wonder of the guitar.

 

The guitar in 2010

 The photo above is the condition of the guitar from 2010 till March 2015 when I decided to finish the axe and give it a similar feel to the "Fool Guitar".

 

My axe here is almost finished need a strap

and a set of straplocks to complete

All the projects have to be almost complete to move upon another and each project has a life of its own and path it takes you upon. there have been different projects along the way here are two more.

Strat Project Had issues with the Black and white for years So this year I went Black!

Les Paul project 1997- 2006

          Now Back to the Vox right now my main concern is the cabinet since the flake board is is making me flaky I need to make a hard choice in what I should do. Replace the bottom or fill it and tolex over it.

Henry Gross 's is real name from Sha Na Na

The left front bottom

Front Bottom

 I want to replace the bottom board and cut out the piece of flake board and glue it inside with a card displaying the history of the amp. This is a $20.00 dollar choice that would make or break what it is worth. This amp has seen the stage at Woodstock and the Fillmore East in 1969 and 1970.  I want this to be a OME style amp but lets see where I am lead this time... Thanks for reading. 

Direction

Yes Easter has pasted and things are getting back to normal here. I was still vacillating about the original factory look and a total custom until I saw this video on youtube explaining the differences between stains and dyes. WoodWorkWeb was very instrumental indirectly helping me decide what direction I will go.
Check this out his video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Ysfw0LmMw

Now I have decided to do the wood grain and dye the wood to bring out the grain I just can't wait to start this project. First of all I was told not to plug in the amp and try to run it, just have the cap job and have all the components checked.  Then the last thing I do is re-cone the original speakers and mount them in the new cabinet. I have taken my planning here to a new level which my blog here has helped.

This past weekend I spent a bit too much time in Home depot and took a good look at oak and the poplar. I first think oak will be too heavy for this application and poplar is a right fit. Poplar is harder then pine and is light  in weight and the grain was not bad.

 This is a plan for how its going to be finished

I now have a start of a materials list:

Sure-Wood Forest Products 1 in. x 12 in. x 6 ft. S4S Poplar Board
Model # 1X12X6 POP-3PL
$27.98                (Two Boards 29" long & Two Boards 24" long)

3/4 in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. HD Maple Plywood
Model # 263012
Store SKU # 263012
$39.88 / each         (27.5" x 22",  7.75" x 27.5", 15" x 27.5")

American Wood Moulding LWM 238 1 in. x 1 in. Pine S4S Square Moulding
Model # 238-8   Store SKU # 213600      $2.43 / linear foot

Now for the vents at the top I was going to use this treatment to the cabinet:

Next issue is what finish should I do a dark, light  or medium...
I will see what I come up with next. Thank you for taking the time to read this and follow me. Peace