Thursday, February 6, 2020

Frankenamp

I bought a Peavey Audition 110 amplifier way back in 1990 or so when I also had a pickup installed on my Yamaha acoustic guitar. I never was happy with the sound from the amp but I didn't know the difference and thought that was just how they sounded. Now I know the amp was for an electric guitar, not an acoustic. I tried to sell it this last year and got one bite. They backed out because I was too far out of the way from their Costco trip. Well, it all worked out for the better.




I pulled the amp out of storage and plugged in my license plate guitar. It sounded great! Growly, crunchy, wailing the blues great. So I can use this amp after all.

I thought I should give it a new housing. Something that goes with a home-made 3 or 4-string guitar. I shopped around some vintage stores in town and found an old paperboard trunk for $18. For an amp I was willing to sell for $35, if the project didn't work out then I wouldn't be out much money. Fortunately, when I plugged it in and powered it up it did not burst into flames. Yay!

I added a battery-powered equalizer so I could plug in a cigar bog guitar or license plate guitar that doesn't have one installed. I used some paduak I had left over from some experimental license plate guitar bodies and headstocks and used that for trim. I didn't have enough to trim the equalizer but I'm okay with that. I think all that's left to do is to apply some cool stickers.