My one watt practice rig and a cautionary tale. WARNING last photo graphic!

[Space_cowboy]

Just finished today. I salvaged the speaker and hardware from a Crate practice amp. I was originally going to build it from pine but I found a particularly attractive piece of poplar at the big box home store. I wanted a small cabinet that traveled easily to pair with my little Wangs icon_jokercolor one watt tune amp.

The build was not without incident. Mods please forgive me if posting the last photo is in violation. I felt do to the nature of the tools used in guitar building a graphic reminder of the dangers involved would be of some use.

I was assisted by a close friend and professional cabinet maker. While routing the speaker baffle the router jumped out of his hand and gouged his wrist and thumb. It dug clear to the bone and took a chunk of the tibia. I'd like to reiterate he is a professional with decades of experience. He was complacent for a moment and was bitten because of it. He's given me permission to post this in the hopes it will help someone else avoid injury. I'm happy to report he's recovering well and insisted we finish what we started. 

 

[zebra]

Sorry to hear about your friend - I hope he'll be ok!

Otherwise, cool project! 

I have a little 4/0.4 watt tube head that I run through an 8" Tone Tubby speaker I installed in the gutted shell or an no-longer-functioning practice amp.  Most folks never run an inexpensive amp through anything other than the inexpensive speaker it came with - so they never realize the difference a speaker upgrade can make. 

Seems like your satisfied with the Crate speaker you installed, but the option to experiment is always there with that little head around.  How does it sound? 

 

[Rick]

That's horrible!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The routerbeast is a terrifying thing. I'm sorry to hear about your friends accident and I hope he heals up fast!

 

[mayfly]

I Concur.  The routerbeast is truly terrifying and needs to be treated with the utmost respect at all times.  I make a lot of use of mine, and I always try to be mindful of the bloody (sic) thing.

BTW, this is one of the reasons why I banned power saws from my life.  Too many close calls.  I now have a very nice set of Japanese pull saws, that can whip through plywood faster than it would take to set up the cut on your table saw 

 

[Space_cowboy]

He's able to shoot his bow which for him is the most important thing. He's a tough S.O.B. and he's managed to keep a sense of humor about his injury as well. I think he was mostly frustrated with having to spend most of the day in the E.R.  Thank you for the good will however. I'll pass it along.

As far as the sound it sounds pretty good to my ears. It obviously doesn't have the low end of my 4x12's but it's adequate for the role. It's a Celestion 15 watt speaker. I may look for something more efficient for more volume but for now I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[Rick]

The router beast .... A relative of the chainsaw beast

 

[wildbill]

Good that we see things like this, sorry that it had to happen to anyone. Those of us who use the router-beast cannot be reminded often enough of it's temperament. It is a sneaky creature that lulls you into a false sense that you are in control. (I may have plagiarized that, it sounds familiar) In reality, it is an explosion just waiting for it's spark. I have one in a beast table that has ruined a few parts by grabbing them from me and impaling them in the drywall in my shop. Heavy shop apron and safety glasses are a minimum of PPE for these creatures. Hand-helds are just plain evil, I have three and they conspire.  Speedy recovery to your friend.

 

[ragamuffin]

Ouch! But nice cab and guitar! I built a cab a couple months back and I've got to say I'm very thankful I that I didn't loose any tibia from it

 

[Extinguished Sun]

Gruesome. Glad he's ok. Everybody be careful.