Peavey Red Stripe Bandit Pine Cabinet Build

[sluglas]

As a covid project I have decided to build a pine cab for my Peavey Bandit red stripe.
It will be exactly the same as stock so I can use all the existing parts, corners, handle, baffle, grill etc.
I've yet to decide on a finish, paint or stain but I have plenty of time.
Here's some pics of it in it's infancy.

 

[jimbo735]

Bandit gets a new home!Thats looking good!

 

[reactor99]

Looks good, I'm interested to know how much weight you save in the end

 

[sluglas]

Looks good, I'm interested to know how much weight you save in the end

 

[haggardfan1]

I like it already.

 

[sluglas]

I had done the same thing with a Vox VT50 and if I remember correctly I reduced the weight by 12 lbs. I painted it red cause it goes well with the white knobs. I am also curious how much weight I can drop when I finish the Bandit.

 

[sluglas]

Peavey Bandit coming along. Still more sanding and shaping to be done to get all the corners right.
Then I'll remove the screws, drill out the holes and glue in wooden dowels and sand some more.
I thinking maybe a transparent barn red for a finish. Coupla more pics to give you an idea of how it may look.

 

[greenhornet]

I had done the same thing with a Vox VT50 and if I remember correctly I reduced the weight by 12 lbs. I painted it red cause it goes well with the white knobs. I am also curious how much weight I can drop when I finish the Bandit. View attachment 769336 View attachment 769337 View attachment 769338

That is one nice looking amp! MDF adds quite a bit of weight, and, to my ears is a sound killer.

 

[Ringo]

Cool project, interesting that you opted to keep the plastic corners, I would be more inclined to go with a traditional Fender combo cab look but that's me. The Vox looks great too by the way.

 

[Telecastoff1]

Beautiful work...I'm really impressed.

 

[sluglas]

Any thoughts on a stain color?
I am leaning towards red.

 

[wrathfuldeity]

Looking great (and the Vox also). I'm all for natural type finishes like tung oil and stuff. But also the idea of doing some spray on truck bed liner stuff; perhaps take it to a pro shop.

 

[11 Gauge]

...But also the idea of doing some spray on truck bed liner stuff...

Actually, Rustoleum makes a textured black metallic called 'Galaxy Black' that sprays on very easily, and dries quickly to a fairly durable finish.

I've already used it on a parts Tele, for the body, with good results. Actually, I also used it on the back and sides of a LP parts build (with a bolt on neck).

I have a Marshall head cab that I painted with textured khaki green paint, and it doesn't look so great, so I intend to redo it with the Galaxy Black.

 

[mexicanyella]

The transparent barn red idea sounds to me like it would look nice, and different, and go nicely with the more modern blacked-out cab hardware and delta-era logo also.

 

[trxx]

Cool project. Have you put a speaker in it to see what it sounds like yet?

I have one of these amps, and I don't really use it like I thought I might after picking it up for not much money. The cab is a major tone killer, having tried various speakers in it and trying the amp with other cabs. And this thing is definitely on the heavy side for a 112 solid state amp, on par with a 112 tube amp, maybe heavier than some of them.

I thought about head cabbing it to lose some of the weight of the useless cab, maybe just chopping the bottom off, shortening the sides, and screwing and gluing the bottom back on so as not to put any money into it. And recently I had maybe a more useful idea, using it as a spring reverb tank for other amps that don't have reverb, given that it has an effects loop and preamp out jacks already. I think maybe the preamp output might need to be padded down somehow though since it puts out something closer to line level than instrument level according to the block diagram in the Bandit 112 Transtube manual.

 

[sluglas]

Project continues!
I removed the screws from top and bottom of cab. Then drilled out 5/16 holes where the screws used to be. Then glued in 1 1/2" long pieces of 5/16" wooden dowels. When they dry I will sand em down. This way the bare cab will not have any metal in it.
I glued and screwed in the rear baffle. The stock piece was 1/2"x 4" mdf. I replaced it with a piece of 3/4 x 10" pine ( actual width is 9 1/4") basically closing off half of the back of the cab.
Using 2 highly accurate bathroom scales I found that the stock mdf cab with no hardware is about 21.5 lbs. My pine cab which still has 9 screws that need to be replaced with dowels and still has alot of sanding to be done weighs in at 12 lbs. So the bandit will be losing almost 10 lbs of weight.

 

[kLyon]

That's great!
I love AC 15s (and 30s) but hate the weight.
You should turn this into a business.

 

[sluglas]

I could make a business just building pine combo cabs for strictly Peavey Bandits. Lord knows there are plenty of them out there.
However, the red stripe is quite a bit of work if you want to keep the crazy rounded front corners.
I wasn't sure if I was going to stain this project cause pine never takes stain well. Though I just tried some Varathane Barn Red Premium Stain on a sample piece and it's looking like I found a winner. And I didn't even use a wood conditioner on it.
Now back to sanding.

 

[mexicanyella]

I am kind of excited to see this come together. I have been contemplating painting the baffle board of my Special 150* with some dark red leftover paint (actual color name: “fireweed”...yeah!!!) from one of our outbuildings. It would be to cover an epoxy repair to chunked-out speaker mounting holes...but I think the hint of red might look cool showing through the black grille cloth.

Now you have me thinking about a whole ‘nother cabinet. But with maybe 10% of your woodworking skills, by the look of it.




*Sort of a super Bandit, late 80s style.

 

[sluglas]

I am kind of excited to see this come together. I have been contemplating painting the baffle board of my Special 150* with some dark red leftover paint (actual color name: “fireweed”...yeah!!!) from one of our outbuildings. It would be to cover an epoxy repair to chunked-out speaker mounting holes...but I think the hint of red might look cool showing through the black grille cloth.

Now you have me thinking about a whole ‘nother cabinet. But with maybe 10% of your woodworking skills, by the look of it.




*Sort of a super Bandit, late 80s style.

A Peavey Special 150 cab wouldn't be that hard to build. At least it's all right angles and no curves.
You should give it a shot!