500th TOOB

[Gitterbug]

Since it's no longer for sale and leaving home tomorrow, I thought it's appropriate to show what became of 500th TOOB - a 10S Custom. Background colors not randomly chosen.

Cheers,

Markku

[Jim Soloway]

Congratulations. It's great to see you make something out of noting but hard word and a clever idea. Well done.

[Gitterbug]

Thank you all for your support! We're in #509 now, with new orders in and quite a few SICAs and Jensens for the 6.5" caliber just shipped from Italy.

[marcwhy]

I love the "tweed Toob" look!

[Gitterbug]

Thanks, Marc! Electric Blue Python Tolex is another fave of mine. Bluesy.

[EastwoodMike]

The customized wraps are cool- are they hard to do?
Does the wrap vibrate against the Toob body?
Cheers
EMike

[Gitterbug]

Mike, they're not overly hard to do but require patience and at least double the building time of a cab. The surface material is attached to a sheet of 1 mm polystyrene or 1.5 mm aircraft plywood with water-based contact cement (carpet tape works too but is totally unforgiving). The edges are wrapped around the sheet, meaning they're a bit thicker than the rest. To avoid vibration, this is compensated from the middle of the sheet with a strip of corduroy or other soft material. If this padding is too thick the sheet becomes barrel-like and difficult to attach evenly. The sheet is then bent over the cab's body with elastic cord and positioned exactly. The mounting holes for handle and amp dock are drilled through from the inside. My top sheet template leaves a 60 mm gap to the underside. You can leave the body's ribs visible and use a few flathead screws to attach the sheet to the top of the ribs, or mark the place of pilot drill holes at this point and then slide a sheet covered with the same surface material underneath the top sheet to conceal the ribs. The latter alternative preferable visually and structurally.

I've used Tolex, Tweed, wallpaper, waxed cloth, army camouflage cloth and plain varnished plywood as the surface material. If I ever get hold of thin aluminum offset sheet, I'll try that on a Metro, drill brushed in the vein of the nose of Spirit of St. Louis.

Ooops, a few shop secrets revealed, and doesn't this belong to the Builder's Bench?