Bottlehead Forum
General Category => Kit Assembly Service => Topic started by: Paul Birkeland on November 13, 2018, 07:14:33 AM
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Here are some photos of various BH kits that I have built for myself and other folks with some of the finishes and wood species that I stock.
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Here is my favorite color combination: walnut and wrinkle black.
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The silver and copper vein powders are also a popular choice.
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For a more wild look, wrinkle red and wrinkle blue give lots of contrast.
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Another walnut/black Crack rolling off the line.
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The amp looks great. Bu what really caught my eye was the cool wallpaper.
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A customer came to me and wanted a Crack built that more or less matched his Victrola phonograph. The wood for these was listed as "red mahogany", and it did indeed look like actual mahogany, so I purchased a piece with good straight grain and some red dye and made a red base that looks quite similar. The top plate is done in gold vein to give it a bit of an antique look.
...My fingers are still red in a few spots.
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PB,
do you rabbit with a router bit (with a bearing) or do you do it on a table?
Jamie
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I can do it either way, but it's far easier to setup on a table saw.
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PB - Do you have any interest in submitting any of these to the gallery site I built? You're not quite the typical DIYer, but the goal is to show people what is possible. No pressure, obviously, just thought I'd offer.
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I'll have to get setup with some external image hosting.
-PB
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Sure thing. A couple people have either emailed pictures or uploaded them to Imgur. Once they're there I just grab them and host them locally on my site, so a longer term solution isn't super necessary.
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Here's a black Crack I just completed. The owner wanted the base to match some other components and furniture with a black ash finish, so I built a base out of ash and soaked it in black dye over the course of about a week.
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Great look. Well done, Paul.
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Nice one!
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Is it the case that you built and glued up the base, then just left it in the dye for a week? Or were there multiple soaking sessions? I've never used a dye before but I'm considering something different for the Kaiju/BeePre (and eventually Eros). I've been staining and finishing a scrap piece of alder over the past week to see what I want but haven't found anything I liked yet.
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If I could have made enough dye to submerge the wood, I would've considered it! Instead it was a brush application several times a day for many days until it didn't get any darker.
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Got it. My biggest issue is getting the tung oil finish to look right. I've done it correctly one time and the other times have been disappointing.
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Here's a black Crack I just completed. The owner wanted the base to match some other components and furniture with a black ash finish, so I built a base out of ash and soaked it in black dye over the course of about a week.
That looks awesome!
Joe.
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Here's a black Crack I just completed. The owner wanted the base to match some other components and furniture with a black ash finish, so I built a base out of ash and soaked it in black dye over the course of about a week.
Lovely job Paul, especially that wood base. A quick tip for the screws, dip the heads into some Birchwood Casey Perma Blue and they will instantly blend in.
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Love that black finished Crack. Woodworking has been my main hobby for years and I have had good luck at ebonizing oak and ash with a simple process. Obtain some black dye from a woodworker’s store, a water or alcohol base dye works equally well, but may have to re-sand if the water base raises the grain. Apply 2-4 coats of dye, let it set for at least a day then apply a standard black stain (like Minwax ebony). As a finish coat rub in some Tried & True varnish oil, the more coats you add the glossier it gets. Adding the standard black stain helps pop the grain and give it an ebony like appearance.
Jim G.
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Here is a Kaiju I built for personal use.
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Now that's a fine looking amp. I like the combo of black metal with deep brown wood sides.
Very nice, Derek
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Are those covers sitting over the regular transformers or are there custom parts i there? If it’s the former… where can we get those?
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Yes, they are covers that fit over the transformers. No, they will not work on a stock Kaiju plate.
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Touch of the Quad II's there. Very smart.
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A lot of nice builds Paul! you are busy!
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A lot of nice builds Paul! you are busy!
That's at least partially your fault!
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And a purple Crack.
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I didn't have much faith when I saw that purple heart lumber. I stand corrected, that looks really nice!
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Here is a green Stereomour II that I just completed for a customer. It is setup with a 4 pin balanced headphone jack up front for driving power hungry headphones off the speaker outputs. The customer opted for the DC filament upgrade to keep it super quiet, as well as the shunt regulated driver supply.
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Very nice. 45 or 2A3 (or both)? Either way, I think the purchaser will be very happy.
cheers, Derek
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It's built for 45s. Both isn't an option on the S2.
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Hello
I have a S.E.X kit that I have 1/2 assembled that I need to get done. I don't have a space to work on it anymore is this something you can help me out with?
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Yes, you can e-mail me at pb(at)bottlehead(dot)com and we can discuss this further.
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This is a Crack with a green vein top and walnut base I just finished.
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@PB could you explain how you got the top finish / color done? It looks very cool!
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A powder coating gun and an oven!
For powders with any kind of metallic particles, the Harbor Freight gun is pretty decent.
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I feared so. Out of my league for now! Looks to be worth a try on the next project. Truly inspiring builds PB.
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All these builds look fabulous, Paul! You're an engineer, artisan and artist!
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Eons ago (August), I put in an order for the chassis and input transformers for a super customized BeePre, and the input transformers finally showed up! This particular customer wanted two balanced inputs as well as balanced outputs, so I had to use an 8P3T switch in order to switch each set of XLR jacks into the input transformers, then to either switch between the input transformers or the one set of unbalanced input jacks. I made this similar in size to one of the BeePre 2 prototypes I made some years ago and powder coated it black, then installed MonAmour transformer covers over the power transformers.
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Holy smokes! That looks great, nice work PB! Congrats to the new owner!
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I couldn't quite talk him into the remote like yours has.
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That ladder attenuator is the bees knees. You should post a photo of my build here too.
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Sure thing!
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And another for good measure :)
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Here's a BeePre I made for a local customer. He wanted the sound of the decked out BeePre 2 that I loaned him, but something physically a lot larger with a remote, meters, etc.
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Here are some more shots.
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I love the industrial look of the front panel...John
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Another sweet Design. Hey PB I'm considering one of those Khozmo series motorized attenuators. Did you bother to measure the quiescent and operational current of this unit, if so can you expound?
And also what are your thoughts regarding this unit in general?
Thanks,
Lee
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Nice work PB! That's a really cool looking BeePre!
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The Khozmo didn't seem to draw much as far as I can remember. I did run it on a bench supply to see what it wanted in terms of minimum voltage and to be sure the motor wasn't pulling a ton of current. Arek will answer your questions if you send him an e-mail (be sure to mention that I sent you, as I bug him a lot!).
At its essence, this is functionally identical to a BeePre 2 with all the upgrades, and swapping it out for Doc B's BeePre 2, the differences were nice and subtle, as they should be!
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Thanks PB, It looks like a quality unit. The only thing that scares me is the un-godly length. I scaled it using your photo as best I could
and I make it at between 5.375-5.5 inches in length. I have an upcoming project that I would like to use one of these.
I will contact Arek for the details. As always PB Thank you.
Regards,
Lee
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Yeah, that sucker is really deep. I added a standoff to support the top plate right behind it, but also considered the possibility that I would need to physically attach the attenuator back there if it didn't feel stable.
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@PB and anyone else with a motorized volume control - Is there any labelling that indicates the motor manufacturer? I'm trying to figure out a diy way of attaching a 15 deg. step motor to a Seiden rotary switch that also allows for manual switching. No luck yet - it would help if I knew what such a gizmo was called (assuming they exist for retail purchase). Hoping that I'm just not doing the correct search.
cheers and many thanks, Derek
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They are stepper motors.
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Thanks. I meant the manual override bit. Don't know what that's called.
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You can rotate a stepper motor slowly with your hand and it shouldn't cause problems.
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Many thanks.
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A local customer approached me a while ago about building a kit for him, and we went back and forth for a while before coming to the conclusion that what he really wanted was a fully upgraded Stereomour with a remote control. In order to do this, I had custom top, front, back, and bottom panels made, and I shrunk the top panel to a 10x10 in the process since the controls and jacks all moved off the top panel.
I cut the wood base down and used my scroll saw to remove enough material to get everything tucked in there. It was a very tight fit! Standoffs in the corners and along the side edges hold the top and bottom panels together.
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That is gorgeous!...John
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Wow, I really like that build! Great job PB!
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At some point we will no longer be amazed by the beauty of the custom work that comes off your bench...just not yet.
Karl
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I'm currently testing the weight limits of the bench with a pair of these sitting on it.
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This is a pair of Paramounts I just finished built from kits purchased from the first run!
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Those Paramounts look great!
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The finish on the bases highlights the grain beautifully.
Karl
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Wow, some awesome custom work!
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A completed Moreplay.
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That would look and sound great with MonAmours.
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I'd never seen this thread before - wish I had when I was trying to decide on a finish.
That red mahogany and gold vein on page 1 (2 yrs ago!) is stunning.
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I'd never seen this thread before - wish I had when I was trying to decide on a finish.
That red mahogany and gold vein on page 1 (2 yrs ago!) is stunning.
It was a stunning PITA though!
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I bet - hope your fingers aren't still red
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The suffering improves the sound quality ;D
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I bet - hope your fingers aren't still red
Or orange ;)
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So... what is the best way to paint the screws and other various bits that I keep spotting in these beautiful builds? The wife vetoed my original build idea of walnut and hammered copper. The test came out rather orange. I'm into some of the black and even the gold finishes shown in this thread but the little details like the heads of screws are giving me a little pause.
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I stock black stainless screws.
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Just punch holes in a piece of cardboard, stick the screws in the holes and shoot the heads with black spray paint. I have done this many times when black screws were not available in the size I needed.
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Thanks guys. I give the cardboard a shot tonight.
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Wow, just found this thread....some really amazing work here, Paul! It's cool to see how customized you can make things, especially the retro-looking chassis and the ones with a remote control.
Have you worked on any cool custom projects in 2022?
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I haven't been able to talk anyone into a highly customized kit in a little while.
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"Talk anyone into" haha. Hope to see something here soon though :)
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Really...I guess that depends on your definition of "a little while"...
Whatcha' got brewing???
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I did have a local guy who wanted to bring his Paramours by for repairs. You never really know what you're going to get with old Paramours. Sometimes you get the old Speco 70V transformers and Triad plate chokes, and sometimes you get loads and loads of Magnequest iron. This pair is stuffed to the gills with MQ iron and the owner would like something that he can pass down to his kids to use, so I'm going to convert them into a single chassis with a remote to make things user friendly.
Otherwise it's all the normal stuff around here for now!
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I resemble that remark ;D still have some MQ sitting in boxes myself.
The T20 you made is playing great at my daughter's house.
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I have certainly given some thought to making a clone of that amp for myself, even down to the exact same colors. The lack of proper plate chokes has prevented me so far though ;)