Blues Deluxe Tart-up

Nomad

It's taken a while to get around to tarting up my Blues Deluxe, but it's finally done.

Here's the amp at the start...

http://imgur.com/Sawn4wk.jpg

http://imgur.com/Cr8kp7n.jpg

It looks rather pale. The minging handle was on it when the previous owner bought it second hand. Apparently, there was a batch with dodgy handles which tended to fail. After some online searching and discussion here, half a tin of amber shellac was received for the purposes of replacing the paleness with some tweedy mojo.

The amp was stripped down to the box and two coats of the stuff painted on...

http://imgur.com/0asqVQL.jpg

The badge and serial number plate are held on with sticky stuff as well as little pins, so they were masked off. The shellac dries really quickly, so the whole thing was done in an evening. With the second coat dry enough to handle, the amp was reassembled...

http://imgur.com/fuA6uEP.jpg

http://imgur.com/qodWjbo.jpg

While the baffle was out, I fitted the Celestion 75W Creamback that's been lying in a box for ages...

http://imgur.com/wyJsFyb.jpg

I'm really pleased with the result - looks the dog's bollocks. Can't really comment on the speaker change yet (from a V30, which was done almost right away when I got the amp in early 2015 - didn't like the stock speaker).

I'd like to add some thanks, to @MtB for the amber shellac, @MattFGBI for helping out with the handle and letting me know that the plates were stuck on (and thus at risk of damage if I tried to remove them), and @ICBM for pointing me in the direction of a G12H with better power handling (I had no idea what a Creamback was, but G12Hs is what I used to use back in the day).

markblack

a few pics were missing for me, just added them here.

MtB

@Nomad - Mate, that looks awesome. That Zinsser amber shellac is the real McCoy!!

Adam_MD

Looks really great much better than stock.

nick_s

I was going to say it looked fine as it was, but adding the shellac really gives it some character

Gagaryn

Yeah, that looks way better - good job!

equalsql

Bloody gorgeous that is mate. You've done your amp proud.
The shellac finish you've gotten there looks really even, did you brush or rag it on?

Nomad

Thanks all.

@equalsql, it was applied with a cheapie 1" bristle brush. It's actually not all that even when you look closely. I found that the tweed tended to grab quite a lot of the liquid in the first couple of strokes with each brushful (although not full by any means - only the first 1/4" or so dipped in and any excess dripped off). I would then try and work it in that area to spread it about a bit. After the first coat, it looked pretty patchy, so I aimed to put a bit extra in the lighter areas during the second coat. With both coats, I generally applied sparingly and did a fair bit of brushwork to spread the stuff out.