A BluesWreck . . .

[Big Jim]

Very, very, nice.

[Teleguy61]

Cool my man! I am just around the corner if you ever need anything....looks to me like you don't need any help with your cabinets though! Glad to know there is more of us around these parts. We did a Dumblefest at the jamspot in Wakefield a few weeks ago. There was some serious talent there, I was blown away. Jelle and Allyn were there but I missed them both

Man where did you find a blue maple tree around here?

Hey Taylor, I'm in Framingham.
How did I miss there was a local Dumblefest?
Damn!
Email boatguy57@hotmail.com or pm if that happens
again.
By the by, your cabs look great. Nice work man.
George

[Tone Lover]

Thats seriously wicked I love blue to.
Bill

[ampmike]

I have to ask, can you tell me about the steps you took for that blue finish.Ive only seen boogies with colors.That is stunning!!!!! Do you guys ever have trouble finding the 10&3/4 inch figured wood.The wide widths are hard for me to find,anyway I imagine you could do a cab in almost any color but I like the blue the best.Mikey

[Lonely Raven]

Also, any shots of the circuit?

[gitslide]

@AmpMike: I wanted to enhance the figure in the wood as much as possible - like those "10 top" guitars. I read a lot of stuff on the web, and this is what I ended up with: TransTint blue dye, not stain. Stain has solids which will obscure the figure. I thinned the dye with water according to the instructions on the bottle. Applied one coat with a foam brush, then wiped it dry. After it really dries, all the hair is raised on the wood. Sand it down, and sand really well so the dye is staying in the figure, but removed everywhere else. Dye it again, wipe, and sand lightly when dry. The clear coat is nothing more than MinWax Polycrylic water base gloss clear applied with a brush, and sanded out every other coat. Maybe someday I will sand it out one more time and shoot a final coat from a rattle can.

Regarding the boards, yeah finding wide boards is tough. I found a couple on ebay, but still they were not quite wide enough. The guy who built the cab said he saw some nice figured boards at Lowes . . . I thought he was joking, but said, "get what you need." Most of what you see is the Lowes wood. How 'bout that? Cheap, too, compared to eBay

As for circuit shots, sure. Next time the amp is apart at Bryan's house I'll take a few pics. I know Bryan has his own way of doing things, and the amp is in no way a Wreck replica (wreckplicla?). We wanted to keep the touch sensitivity and speed of the amp, just reduce the gain. Bryan has his own ideas about grounding, and that, he says, is why the amp is so quiet.

It's all fairy dust and mojo to me. I'm just a player.

[dcribbs1412]

Congrats on a beautiful build
tell me you have a blue 10 top PRS to go next to it
and thanks for the dye info. I'll be checking the wood at Lowes

Darin

[gitslide]

Ha! No, don't have a 10 top PRS. However i do have several Hamers which are a 10 (honestly, 11) when it comes to tone, build quality and playability!

[amplifiednation]

I found out last minute about the D-fest in Wakefield, it was fun though. The guys there was seriously ridiculous guitarists. I was blown away. There will be another one soon I'm sure.

That is a good description of getting the grain to pop. What I've found is the more time you spend dying and sanding the better your finish will be.

I just did two flamed valences in Tung Oil yesterday and they came out awesome, it was an easier finish cause there was no sanding.

Clear gloss lacquer or shellac is a good top coat. Also I scrape the wood with a glass scraper at the end of sanding to get the grain to pop more.

I've had a couple PRS 10s but sold both of them for an R9 with a ridiculous flame top!!

[backpack]

That thing looks amazing.

[Structo]

Yeah I've done a few guitars using the dye and sand back method.

I typically "whisker" the wood first before dying.

That is, I wipe down the wood with a damp cloth then let it dry.

The using a sanding block and 220 I sand the whiskers off.
I normally do this twice before dying.

What that does is keeps the water based dye from raising the grain.

So when you sand back the dye the first time it is easier to take out the color from in between the figuring.

You can also use alcohol to mix the dye with. It won't penetrate as much and can be useful in certain circumstances.

Still that is a beauty and that is a fact.

[gitslide]

Taylor, please give me a "heads up" before the next Dumble or other amp-fest at Jam Spot. I'd really like to attend and hear / play some good gear.

Probably hitting The Tap in Haverhill tonight for their blues jam.

Rick

[amplifiednation]

Cool I will. The other guys that organized it are on here.

I found a guy in Middleton a few weeks back selling really nice curly maple and cherry boards that were extremely wide and really nicely figured. I bought some for pennies.

The stuff is dried but it is rough cut so it takes some work. I'm still sitting on it. Gotta find a friend with a planer

[telentubes]

To address the wood issue, I've gotten a lot of wood over the years from Maple Leaf Hardwoods, at curlymaple.com. It's mostly pretty good, although I will say they photograph the wood in a way that makes the curl "pop" more than you will get in real life (photographed wet with BRIGHT lights). Keep that in mind when selecting. It's a little pricey, but they are a good outfit to deal with in my experience, and I've gotten some wide boards from them.

Check out this page,
http://www.curlymaple.com/Luthier_Material_s/46.htm
It's a sign if there ever was one.

I usually buy from the "Private Stock" category.

And by the way, beautiful cab you built!

[amplifiednation]

here's some of the maple i got. it's gonna take some work to get it ready to work with. this was only $26