Deluxe Reverb Cabinet build

I've done a couple Blackface restorations, and the Tweed Princeton Reverb earlier this year, but not a complete & proper Blackface cabinet build.

This was for a DR reissue. I went one inch taller and 1/2" deeper for a full 10" at the bottom. I found some great 30oz weight tolex that had a good backing layer on it. I bought a 2ft piece of PVC pipe and soaked the grill in strong tea for a few hours and it worked better than I expected to age it. 3/8" Baltic birch baffle, stock Jensen C12K in it which is a much darker speaker than I expected. The extra inch high and half inch deeper still came out 1-2lbs lighter in pine than the stock cabinet.

Next time, I'm going to run the baffle cleats through the drill press BEFORE I glue them in!


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Thanks! Yeah, I took it to my buddy's house today for him to check it out and he said the same thing -- "I thought you had a Twin for a second!" Would have to A/B it to pick out any differences, but it sounds great to me! I don't know Deluxe Reverbs, but John sure does and he said he thought it may have tamed the treble a little bit. Playing single coils, we still had the treble on 6-7 at times and was comfortable.

Thanks, I was trying to throw all the info I could think of in there, but anyone feel free to ask questions if I skipped something important.

 

Ha. I rolled up the grill and stuck it in 3" pvc pipe with end caps. Filled it with strong tea and soaked it. Seemed more efficient than a bathtub.

 

Another tip I will pass along -- HVAC foil tape for shielding. As long as you run a bit of overlap across each layer, the continuity always checks out. I don't have the pictures, but I run it in the back of my tweed panels, the top of the blackface, and on the inside of the top blackface panel just to protect the tolex from the tube heat. A $5-6 roll lasts forever and works great. But, word of warning -- it is THE stickiest tape you've ever encountered. Practice with it or you can quickly make a mess.

I helped out a buddy with his HVAC business last year and saw him using it. Got a roll for myself and it works great and is too cheap not to use.

 

Tech question about bias on this thing. This is the first Deluxe Reverb I've ever even played before, so I'm completely ignorant on it inside.

The guy bought it used and didn't know until I asked him that the PT has been replaced. I forgot to take a picture but it's a "direct replacement" PT from Tubesandmore (or wherever) for vintage DR's. Whoever did it drilled new holes to make it fit, but it's still a Deluxe PT. Here it is. https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/transformer-fender-replacement-power-330-0-330-v-120-ma

Anyway, I wanted to check the bias for him, it has a bias pot. He has a Ruby rectifier & EH 6v6s. First check for where it was set had approx. 22mA & 414v at the plate. Rob's calculator came out to 76%. To get it down to 68% has it at 422v plate voltage & approx. 18-19mA.

What numbers should I shoot for with this?

 

Hey stranger! It's been a while!

He wanted max clean anyway, so I brought it down to around 68%. He only plays it at 4-5, and I honestly couldn't tell much difference at that level between hot & cold, so I brought it down below 70% and left it there.

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