Fender Vaporizer butchering

spev11

I've got a Vaporizer, I like it (a lot). I'm using it at home as a stereo setup with my Princeton Clone head. My only gripe is the bloody thing is huge, 2 foot wide ( 60ish cm for the metric amongst us ), tall and a weird tapered shape. So i'm planning on putting the amp section into a head (along with the reverb tank) so I can use it with my other cab and it won't be enormous. 
 I've opened it up, its do-able but the valves will sit horizontally, i'm not moving it much so they should be fine. I'm not aware that the vaporizer is or will be a collectors item so I'm not concerned on keeping it original. I was hoping to re-jig the insides and make a new chassis to make it smaller but I'd have to sit the transformers under the PCB which doesnt seem like a good idea (without modding it will be about 50cm wide, if I were to chop it into a new chassis then i'd get it to about 35-40cm)
Should I ? Or just leave it well alone and live in it if I have to sell my house? 

Winny_Pooh

Hmmm. That the transformers and valves are not on the same plane will make it more awkward as a head than it currently is lol

ICBM

It's not easy to do this well. Moving the reverb tank closer to the head section could cause noise too.

You might be better off doing the exact opposite - separating the speaker wiring so you can use one with the Vaporizer amp section (the impedance mismatch won't matter if you're not cranking it) and the other with the Princeton head.

spev11

I’ve been out to the shed with it and after staring at it for about an hour it’s just a pain in the arse. I might make it into a 1x12 and suffer the control being at the back top, it will be smaller. Second plan is to shove it back together and just enjoy it whilst I build something else.

stylesforfree

What are the tone/sound characteristics of the Vaporizer? Also yeah, that's the same width as a fender deluxe reverb! 

I wanted to try one out for a while, same with the excelsior and one of the other pawn shop type chinese amps they put out.

spev11

its quite brash, the reverb is mental, after about 3 its a splashy nightmare. You can turn the volume down fully, put the reverb full up and you get a wet only mad reverb sound. can be quite clean/edgy sounding and it works well with pedals. But it is just massive.

BillDL

Obviously the amp was intended as a novelty retro "50s" idea (you just have to watch the comical advert for them), and I think the reverb was intended to sound the way it does to try and emulate the overuse of "surf" type reverb from that era.  Personally I don't like the reverb sound at all, and one of the most useful mods I've seen done to it was replacing the stock reverb tank with an Accutronics one that was less like a sproingy slap-back echo.  There are other electronic component replacement mods that people have done to improve the overall sound, but at what point do you stop tinkering and accept it for what it is?

If you don't anticipate the value of these amps increasing to unrealistically high prices over the next couple of decades (I doubt it but you never know), and the shape of the front is the thing that bugs you the most, then I think you could probably cut the bowtie hole into a rectangle and keep it looking neat.  It will depend on how well the covering is stuck to the wood and whether you can slice through it below where you intend cutting the wood and peel it back above that line so it can be stuck back down around the new straight top and bottom edges of the cut-out.  You would obviously also have to ensure that the grille materal would still cover the new rectangular aperture. The badge would also have to be moved upwards if you were cutting across that downward pointing triangle section and it would leave screw holes visible.

spev11

I don't mind the reverb as an occasional effect, shame its not on a footswitch (the vaporizer switch is completely useless). Its a 2x10 and its very wide, with the controls on top (a personal hatred of mine). I was hoping to make it a 1x10/12 and get it a little smaller but having removed the amp chassis its still bloody huge. I might still make a combo box to get it a little smaller. 
 Of all the things that annoy me about the shape , the bowtie hole oddly isnt one of them.

ICBM

spev11 said:

 Of all the things that annoy me about the shape , the bowtie hole oddly isnt one of them.

If time, hassle and cost isn't a factor you could actually make a very cool head with the chassis turned through a right-angle and the box with a bowtie cut-out in the front under the controls for ventilation.

BillDL

spev11 said:
 Of all the things that annoy me about the shape , the bowtie hole oddly isnt one of them.

I'm sorry to say that is the feature that would have annoyed me the most, and would have stopped me from buying one.  Just too "retro" for my liking I suppose.

spev11

ICBM said:

spev11 said:

 Of all the things that annoy me about the shape , the bowtie hole oddly isnt one of them.

If time, hassle and cost isn't a factor you could actually make a very cool head with the chassis turned through a right-angle and the box with a bowtie cut-out in the front under the controls for ventilation.

this might still be the best option, it will at least make it a little smaller and fit in the room better. I'll see what offcuts I have to make the shell out of and go from there.

spev11

I butchered it 
I reused some of the wood from the cabinet, some of it was too rough to use. It's a bit scrappy but it works well enough, I'm torn between leaving it is and calling it the scrapamp or getting some cloth to cover it. I'll think it over, but it is much better having the knobs on the front ( as mother nature intended)

thecolourbox

That looks very cool

spev11

Ta

lovestrat74

Agreed! Love it. I have always been tempted by the Excelsior but they never come up near me.

thecolourbox

I've always quite liked the idea of the Vaporizer amp but never had the requirement for something so big (and loud, on the vaporizer setting). I am a massive White Stripes fan (hence avatar pic) and this amp seems aimed squarely at that kind of sound. Glad you're finding a use for yours!

BillDL

The front cut-out and knob positions make me think of the character "Blakey" from the TV show "On The Buses".

spev11

BillDL said:

The front cut-out and knob positions make me think of the character "Blakey" from the TV show "On The Buses".

Can’t unsee that  . I shall call it Blakey 

andy1839

I loved my Vaporizer! It sounded brilliant with a good 12" speaker. It completely transformed the amp.

I think i can remember trying to see if a 12 would fit in the chassis.
I think it was an alnico cream, so unsurprisingly it didn't fit.

Neilybob

Looks great! 

Go forth and Vaporize!