Let's make a Trainwreck amp cabinet in London Plane (not walnut as originally thought)

Neilybob

Last year I bought a Ceriatone Expression head which is a clone of a Trainwreck Express. It's amazing, never have I ever played an amp that is so touch sensitive, you can go from beautiful cleans to JCM800 gain with just your volume knob and picking hand. I was in love. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/234215/i-bought-a-trainwreck-express-clone-and-wowsers#latest

Anyway the head came in less than perfect old amp shell (see link above) that had the front control panel facing the ceiling, which made accessing the rear panel a nightmare! So I decided to build a amp cabinet. Well me and a buddy did. 

When it comes to wood working I have all the ideas but none of the knowhow on how to get there but my buddy Andy does and he has a workshop. Only issue is I'm about an hour from him and I only get Monday evenings every other week to make progress. Sure he could have made it by now had I said get on and do it but I wanted to be part of the process, especially as he was doing this as a favour/friend experience. Now Andy has made lots of furniture and even the odd guitar body and neck generally working in softer woods like pine so this was going to be new ground for both of us. 

Here is what we are aiming for! 

Neilybob

First port of call was get wood! 

Had a good look around to see what was around on gumtree, FB marketplace and local sawmills for a good hardwood. 

Stumbled across this old (not sure how old) walnut London Plane mantle piece with live edge on FB marketplace which looked great. Did me Del Boy haggling and got it for £70 which from what I can see is a bargain! Off to the workshop it went! 

paulnb57

Wow, nice wood!  Ooooerrr!

elstoof

Got a similar cab for my TC15 head made from Pau Ferro/Bolivian rosewood, love the look. Now I fancy a trainwreck clone!

Neilybob

elstoof said:

Got a similar cab for my TC15 head made from Pau Ferro/Bolivian rosewood, love the look. Now I fancy a trainwreck clone!

Wowsers, thanks for sharing. What a beauty! 

The Trainwreck circuit is something special! 

Neilybob

Before attempting chopping up the walnut we decided to use some cheap pine (previously a broken toy box) and make a proof model.  Went well though it was a little short in height to enable valve removal without removing the amp from the cabinet. So we adjusted the design to suit.



Pleasantly surprised to find some old Mullard preamp valves and Sovtek EL34's in there. 



We then created a slab cut plan for the walnut. The plan was to slice it into small slats that would be workable with Andy's table saw and then glue them together. 

Neilybob

We started off by cutting the live edge off and putting that aside for a future project (thinking epoxy table of sorts?). Then sliced the remaining walnut into slats that we could work with. Then as per the plan we glued the slats together to give 3 large pieces of workable walnut. Next job was to plain and sand it flat. 

PeteC

Lovely job.  I built a 50W Trainwreck Express during lockdown using the info and layouts over at Ampgarage - and man are they amazing amps.  In the end I installed a post phase inverter master vol and a vox-style cut control which means i can now play the amp in the house without getting arrested.  

Opened up in a studio or rehearsal room though its an absolute beast.   Mines housed in an old ProAmp headshell but now youre making me think I really ought to buy some walnut and put into something Ken Fischer would approve of.   

Have you checked out all of Glen Kuykedal’s TW videos? Some amazing tones there - especially the clip with the SG.   

Good luck with the rest of the headshell build - i bet it will be superb. 

Sporky

Those pictures with the table saw give me the screaming heebie-jeebies. 

Neilybob

I identified (through the magical powers of the internet) the front panel is zebrawood or zebrano wood (see the first photo in this thread of what we are aiming for). So I found a lovely piece from Evilbay which we will cut to veneer thickness (or thinnest) when we get to that stage. Oooooh look at that grain. 



Now it's been plained flat and sanded, it's time to cut it to size. 



Then we strapped it together to make sure the amp fitted in it, and it did!! Happy days. 

Simo

Looking good. Although that's definitely not Walnut.. judging by the end grain and fleck pattern on the quarter sawn pieces, I'd say it's likely Beech.

roberty

Sporky said:

Those pictures with the table saw give me the screaming heebie-jeebies. 

elstoof

Simo said:

Looking good. Although that's definitely not Walnut.. judging by the end grain and fleck pattern on the quarter sawn pieces, I'd say it's likely Beech.

Looks like London plane to me

Simo

elstoof said:

Simo said:

Looking good. Although that's definitely not Walnut.. judging by the end grain and fleck pattern on the quarter sawn pieces, I'd say it's likely Beech.

Looks like London plane to me

Yep, could well be. Beech does vary in colour but after taking a second look at the glue up photo, the colour does look more LP like.

Neilybob

Simo said:

elstoof said:

Simo said:

Looking good. Although that's definitely not Walnut.. judging by the end grain and fleck pattern on the quarter sawn pieces, I'd say it's likely Beech.

Looks like London plane to me

Yep, could well be. Beech does vary in colour but after taking a second look at the glue up photo, the colour does look more LP like.

Oh wow. It was sold to me as walnut but looking up London Plane wood I totally agree.  Thank you.

How would you finish it? Wood oil? 

elstoof

Some sort of oil would let you touch up any inevitable scratches. Osmo is good, don’t think there’s much between the usual danish, tru-oil etc. pure tung oil is nice if you aren’t in a rush

Neilybob

elstoof said:

Some sort of oil would let you touch up any inevitable scratches. Osmo is good, don’t think there’s much between the usual danish, tru-oil etc. pure tung oil is nice if you aren’t in a rush

Brilliant, thank you.

Jonathangus

@Rabs uses London Plane a lot for his builds.  Suspect he would be the man in the know.

Rabs

Hello...

Well actually I think it looks more like Beech than Plane..  Hard to tell from those pics. Cant quite get close enough...

Its usually easy to tell. Beech has very small and tight grain like this...


When it is quarter sawn it can have fleking which does look quite similar to the lace on London Plane like this


As for finishing. Well its like any other wood. Use what you want. Tru Oil has an extra hardener in it than other oils so is quite a good finish if you want a bit more resistance. Theres a good video about that



 

Neilybob

Ug how life seems to be getting in the way of getting this finished but made some progress since the last update -

So the head cab is now glued together which is a great milestone to get to.  Routed out the front panel so the transformer doesn't touch it. 





We've cut the beeding and glued and clamped it ready to be rolled. 



Made a jig for the jig (I call that jiggling!    ) ready for us to cut the zebra wood into 3 pieces of veneer for the front panel.

Lots still to do!  

duotone

Love the look of those Trainwreck amps, they are beautiful.

Enjoyed watching Pete Thorn play through a Trainwreck Liverpool model (in July 2021) this evening

https://youtu.be/jYEyX_Ng79w?feature=shared

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.