Proper tweed amp chassis mounting

[EETStudent]

I just finished a stock 5e3 build in a 2x10 5F4 sized cabinet. Sounds great!

My only concern is mounting the chassis. I dont want the bolt head to dig into the tweed, but as a result the chassis is slightly wobbly. Any advice on tightening that connection without digging into the tweed?

[Johno]

Cupped finish washers are the usual way to secure screws. You need oval or flat screws with them.

[Alby]

Some digging in of the screw is normal if you are using the normal sized one used by Fender. Most people use pine and it's pretty soft as wood goes.

I have done a few things to make the chassis fit snug without too much muscle with the hardware. Make sure the area of the chassis in contact with the inside of the cab has the excess tweed trimmed evenly. If you have trimmed the tweed to go only an inch or less under the routered edge the entire hidden chassis area is not supported evenly and can cause movement. I trace the outline of the chassis inside the cab and make sure I leave enough tweed to fill this whole area. Secondly, I make my chassis to fit exactly the width of my cabs, that way I can put small brackets on either end of the chassis and screw it right to the sides also. It's really stable with this and you could knock the amp right over and the chassis won't budge.

I know where your coming from, you want everything to be perfect.

Alby.