“Hi Barry. Project finished. Main timber is recycled architrave over 100 years old, the timber is Australian Red Cedar (Toona). This timber is not commercially available. The architrave is machined down so that I have planks 20 mm by 140 mm. To get the width of the panels I had to join the red cedar, so rather than have a joining line I placed a contrasting strip of Huon Pine between the Red Cedar.“I designed the grill, a friend assisted in drafting it (CAD) and he designed the “FBI”. After cleaning up from laser cutting, a electroplating shop polished and chrome plated the grill. To fit the control panel in the top of the chassis the only change I had to make was purchasing a shorter power lead. Overall I tried to get a “retro” look using retro timbers and whilst the grill is contemporary I tried to get a look consistent with the retro goal. The FBI is a play on my companies’ name.
“Most important is the sound: the amp and the Celestion Blue match perfectly. Proudly I took the finished amp to my guitar teacher (a professional musician). He played from distorted to clean and liked the way he could hear all the notes, they were not lost in in-efficiency of some amps and speakers. You could see he would have been happy if I just left the amp in his studio. The amp has already become a family heirloom.”
