1/24/13: More Speaker Stuff & 6L6 Tube Protector

1-24-13: 

     More Speaker Stuff: You'll note in the picture on my first post that my amp has this big 5" circle of colored sticky-back foam right across the middle of the speaker area. I forgot to mention that this is to counteract the "beam" effect of the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. When I was playing a gig last year, another guitarist I know came by, and after helping check our overall band sound for us, told me this during our next break. He said that when he was off to either side of the stage, my guitar sounded fine, but when he walked across the front of the stage, as he passed my amp, it had a particular "ice pick" beaming effect, directly in front of my amp. Once he got a few feet off to either side, it was fine. He said "You must be using a "Vintage 30". I said yes, and he said "Yeah, they're beamy like that". So, when I looked into the "Beam Blocker" things you can buy, I didn't want to pull my speaker back out of the cabinet to install one. I did some reading, and found that Stevie Ray Vaughan used to put duct tape on his speaker cabinets with Vintage 30's, in the shape of an "X" over the center cone area. I wanted to do something just a little more "Classier" than that, so I came up with the sticky-back foam sheet stuff, in a 5" circle. I experimented with 3" & 4" circles, but couldn't decide if all of the "beamyness" was gone yet. I decided on a 5" circle. I knew for certain with the 5" circle, I'd gotten rid of all of the "beamyness". The initial problem was the sticky-back stuff didn't really have the staying power necessary to keep it in place. I used some 3/4" wide x 1/16" thick foam double-stick tape. I cut about 4 - 3" pieces, and used some scissors to cut slits (most of the way across) about every 1/2" apart. Then I took the piece of tape, and bent it around the outer 5" circle of foam sheet, sort of like fanning out the piece of tape at all of the slits. I removed the other tape backing material when all of the tape pieces were in place. Then I centered the foam sheet circle over the speaker cone, and gently pressed it into place, going around the outer edge of the circle. I probably stuck one 1" square piece right in the middle of the foam, to help hold it in place better.

     It has stayed in place well, and that same friend has heard us play at other gigs since that first time, and he said my guitar rig sounds great anywhere in the room where we're playing. Also, I have our band name on the front. A shameless plug: www.DeltaFusionBand.com . We play local clubs in the Loveland & Ft. Collins, CO area, as well as the northern Denver area.

6L6 Tube Protector: One thing I liked on the later Fender HRD amps was the 6L6 Tube Protector cage that was now included on the back cover of the amp. The reason I like this feature is because when gigging, I always us an external speaker cabinet. Reaching under the back cover with a heavy metal ¼” plug, I've banged that plug up against the side of the 6L6 power tube. I've never broken one (yet), but I've come close a couple of times when in a hurry, and I’m packin’ up after a gig, and I try to pull that plug out quickly (but carefully), and I hear it hit the tube.

     I made a protector cage out of ½” hardware grid wire as shown below. The dimensions are 4 1/2" W x 4" H x 2 " D. There is an extra 1/2" tab at the top of the mounting side, to help pinch the cage between the chassis edge and the back cover. I attached the cage to the back cover using some gray thin foam double-stick tape, which has worked our well. Since the back cover spends most of its life screwed to the back of the amp, the cage isn't going to fall or slip out of place.