How to lighten my amp

[gunksman]

I love my old Roland Super cube 40 and I’m getting ready to have someone give it a full checkup and ‘freshening’. I’ve been considering rehousing it as a head paired with a lightweight cab or just a lighter weight combo. Why? My back-I broke a lot of vertebrae 14 years ago.

Any have experience with this kind of rehousing? Thoughts? Should I just get a ZT Lunchbox?

[Woody Sound]

I love my old Roland Super cube 40 and I’m getting ready to have someone give it a full checkup and ‘freshening’. I’ve been considering rehousing it as a head paired with a lightweight cab or just a lighter weight combo. Why? My back-I broke a lot of vertebrae 14 years ago.

Any have experience with this kind of rehousing? Thoughts? Should I just get a ZT Lunchbox?

Is that one of the old orange or silver or white ones? Or the new newer series (black) with all the extra effects?

[sgosnell]

For a lightweight amp, check out the DV Mark Little Jazz. 15 pounds, and it sounds great, as good as my RE cabs. To lighten what you have, all I know is to get a lighter speaker.

[marcwhy]

Neo speaker.
[or get another rig]

[john_a]

I don't know anything about the Super cube 40, but I'm guessing it is solid state combo with particle board construction?
I've just started cabinet building, to lighten the load as you're considering. I'd say go for it! Depending on what's in there now, there may be more to gain (lose?) by a speaker change, but still a re-cab can be a good thing too. I'm thinking it is possible to even get a better sound with careful planning..

You can save weight, and probably improve the design, if you decide to re-cab using lighter 3/4" pine boards together with 1/2" (or 3/8") baltic birch baffles. My stuff is getting a separate grille cloth boards (1/4" birch ply), but if you decide to rear mount the speakers you may put the grille cloth directly on the baffle.

I started out thinking to make separate head & speaker cabs, but ended up making both that and a combo.
I'm making these (all but one speaker cab) to get covered in tolex, using standard metal corners, and that means you need a roundover bit to create 1/2" radius edges. I'm close to finishing the combo, and really I think it will be used more than the separate head/spkr stuff. I don't have pics of the combo yet, but I made the front speaker area angle back 5 deg, like I've seen done by some of the manufacturers.

On this one cab for home use pictured below, I made more decorative dovetail and smaller edge radius, no tolex for this one (it will get water-white clear finish.) This is radiata pine with brazilian cherry for the dark contrasting trim on the joinery. The "cleats" that get glued & screwed in place are hard maple. This was the first cab I've made, and actually the first dovetail joint I've ever completed, but so far it's coming along OK.
John

[gunksman]

John, nice work! I’d personally skip the dovetails and do a simpler finger joint or even just lap joint - no jig and thinking about hand cutting dovetails is making my back ache! The cab is HEAVY, thick particle board. (Old silver Super Cube). Heck, the ‘head’ might just need some feet, a handle and cover for the exposed side.

The advantage of separates is that on some days even carrying 10lbs from my car to wherever is quite painful. Having just the head when there’s a PA or an unused combo I can use as a cab would be nice.

Currently I just use whatever is available if I’m jamming at someone else’s and maybe bring along my MicroCube which is a less than ideal head when combined with a heavy gauge archtop. Getting the best sound I can out of crappy/unfamiliar gear has improved my awareness of HOW I play and what sounds best in any given combination of players and gear, but having a consistently good tone that can hang with drummer outside of my house, would be nice.

I’m more inclined to restore/modify something that works well than buy more stuff.

[john_a]

I’d personally skip the dovetails and do a simpler finger joint

Understood, keep it simple where you can.. I did build a couple small 19" rack box with box (finger) joints, as those short 2U 3/8" ply racks needed the extra glue area to prevent "racking"

I did not (could not!) hand cut anything -- the only way I got any of this done was by having a repeatable, accurate fence on a router table. I had just bought the table saw and some other tools, so for me trying the dovetails was largely to learn how. The double dovetail was only on this one cab, the other separate spkr, head, and combo pieces were all single blind dovetail. I made baffles/grilles for both 10" & 12" for each, so when I do get everything done I can have some flexibility. But I'm thinking the combo with 10" is going to be what I transport around, a little more weight in one piece, but lighter than it was and still self contained. I've buillt these to house tube amp chassis with tank reverb, that requires the separate head to be taller to fit. In the bottom of a combo, that reverb tank has plenty of room (and gets less EMF.)

As far as finger joints saving time, with my rig the blind dovetails actually require less work to finish than the box/finger, as you only have to 'level' sand the 2 exposed sides after the glue up. The box joints double that effort, and you have to get that flat or it looks bad unless you plan on carpet covering.

[marcwhy]

I've just started cabinet building, to lighten the load as you're considering. I'd say go for it! Depending on what's in there now, there may be more to gain (lose?) by a speaker change, but still a re-cab can be a good thing too. I'm thinking it is possible to even get a better sound with careful planning..

Nice cab, John!!

[john_a]

When you have to mount the amp chassis in your new cab, there's typically screws through the top with "trim" countersunk washers.
Those are usually stamped steel, and the would sit proud of the surface. I bought some new, as the old amp hardware needed refresh. But then I found something else to use I liked better.

I just did a tryout on scrap wood with some black anodized aluminium bushings that could fit flush and gapless to the tolex.
Testing for the tolex glue adhesion, and the countersunk hole size, and it appears to work.

[D.G.]

Honestly, if you have to deal with that level of back pain, I think you might want to look into a folding handtruck first. As long as you can still lift the amp into and out of the vehicle, that may be all you need. Of course stairs can still be a problem, but that's where those young strong-backed band-mates come in handy!

[citizenk74]

I don't know anything about the Super cube 40, but I'm guessing it is solid state combo with particle board construction?
I've just started cabinet building, to lighten the load as you're considering. I'd say go for it! Depending on what's in there now, there may be more to gain (lose?) by a speaker change, but still a re-cab can be a good thing too. I'm thinking it is possible to even get a better sound with careful planning..

You can save weight, and probably improve the design, if you decide to re-cab using lighter 3/4" pine boards together with 1/2" (or 3/8") baltic birch baffles. My stuff is getting a separate grille cloth boards (1/4" birch ply), but if you decide to rear mount the speakers you may put the grille cloth directly on the baffle.

I started out thinking to make separate head & speaker cabs, but ended up making both that and a combo.
I'm making these (all but one speaker cab) to get covered in tolex, using standard metal corners, and that means you need a roundover bit to create 1/2" radius edges. I'm close to finishing the combo, and really I think it will be used more than the separate head/spkr stuff. I don't have pics of the combo yet, but I made the front speaker area angle back 5 deg, like I've seen done by some of the manufacturers.

On this one cab for home use pictured below, I made more decorative dovetail and smaller edge radius, no tolex for this one (it will get water-white clear finish.) This is radiata pine with brazilian cherry for the dark contrasting trim on the joinery. The "cleats" that get glued & screwed in place are hard maple. This was the first cab I've made, and actually the first dovetail joint I've ever completed, but so far it's coming along OK.
John

That's some fine work. Well done!

[Thumpalumpacus]

I play through my home-built cab, a 1x12 of 3/4" white pine. Being my first attempt at cabinetry, I used a butt-joint reinforced with doweling from the outside and interior L-brackets. The back is removable for open- or closed- use. Being my first attempt, it's quite flawed aesthetically, but all the joints are square and solid. Birch ply baffle. Even at 19" wide and 12" deep, it's very light:

[Woody Sound]

This was the first cab I've made, and actually the first dovetail joint I've ever completed, but so far it's coming along OK.
John

OK? OK??? It looks GREAT!

[neatomic]

a new amp will be lighter...the modern class d power sections are lightweight ...why you can get big watt amps that fit in your hand these days

a friend has (and loves) the new vox mv50 clean...50 watts at just a bit over 1lb weight!!



on an old combo changing the speaker from the big heavy ferrite mag to a neo will trim the most weight

going from particle board to solid wood might also cut some weight..but really depends on materials and thickness...definitely will resonate better tho


& nice work on the cabs built ^^...john a and thump....using the cherry trim in the dovetail must have been time consuming, but looks cool!!...nice effort

cheers

[rpjazzguitar]

How many pounds can you tolerate? How loud must the amp be?

Will a new cabinet give you the weight reduction you need?

The manual says it weighs 22 lbs, which is going to be hard to beat.

There are a number of well regarded lightweight amps out there. I have a Lunchbox and recommend against it. If you want to ignore that recommendation, feel free to make an offer for mine.

The Henrikson Bud has some very good players who recommend it. I have played one in a store and thought it sounded fine, but the LB turned me off to the idea of relying on a speaker that small. 17 lbs.

The AER Compact 60 isn't much bigger and can sound great. Bigger speaker. Different reports on weight, but I think 19lbs.

Separate amp and speaker is an excellent idea. Class D amps weigh very little. A small neo speaker in a cabinet could be under 20lbs, I should think. Not all that much less than the amp you've got.

Using a plastic, collapsible rolling file box is how I transport my stuff. The only issue is lifting the amp out of the car.

[Boston Joe]

Those lined dovetails are pretty sweet.

[BillCoplin]

DV Mark Neoclassic 112 1x12"
Power handling: 150W RMS
Speaker: 1x12" Neoclassic DV Mark custom
Impedance: 8 ohms
Open-back construction
Dimensions: 19”H x 18.3" x 10.6"
Weight: 18.3 lb.
$359.99 often discounted 15% - 25%

Couple this with a 2lb Quilter 101 Reverb at $399

or a 4lb DV Mark Jazz 50 head which are currently $199 at Music123! https://www.music123.com/amplifiers-...52451000000000

Both sound great with this speaker cabinet

I just purchased DV Mark's 2x8" cabinet and so far it sounds fantastic but it weights a little more:

DV Mark Jazz 208 2x8":
Power handling: 300W
Speakers: 2x8" DV Mark custom
Impedance: 8 ohm (mono) / 2x16 ohm (stereo)
Frequency response: 60 Hz to 8KHz
Dimensions: 18.18 x 11.02 x 11.02 in. (46.2 x 28 x 28 cm)
Weight: 22.04 lb. (10 Kg).
$299 (also commonly discounted 15% - 25%) Access Denied

[Woody Sound]

Haven't heard much about The Toob lately. IIRC, around 9-10 lbs?

[Ray175]

Nice idea Woody. The Toob weighs in at 4.63 kilos, a little over 10 pounds. Still hesitating about getting one of these together with the Quilter 101R.

[gunksman]

Thanks for all the advice on stuff to buy, but like I said, I’d much rather mod or restore something than buy more crap. I don’t want more stuff!

The nerve roots of my lumbar spine are being crushed by bone. I use a cane and brace. Eventually I’ll be in a wheel chair. It’s a real issue. My amp weighs 26 lbs. On a good day I can get it from the bedroom to living room (30 level feet) for an in house jam. On an average day I need someone else to do it.