Standalone Reverb Unit - Cabinet Dimensions?

[thousandshirts]

Hi

Anybody out there have some cabinet dimensions for a Standalone Reverb Unit, in the Fender style?

Thanks.

[vaia10]

I was looking for the same thing... Weber lists them as 19" x 10" x 7.5" Elsewhere on the web they're listed as "10 H x 19 1/8 W x 7 1/2 D" (close to Weber's.) The Fender reissue is Height: 10.5" x 18 7/8" x 7.5". The cutout is probably similar to the 5E3.

Cosmin

[thousandshirts]

Hi Cosmin

Definitely something that I'd enjoy tweaking. Not a big reverb nut myself. But I know plenty of people who simply can't play without it. For some that's a good thing, for some of them, it's a bad thing Seems like something I could put together pretty economically, too. Time to set up the router and the box jig I think. . . In any case thanks for the dimensions! Very cool.

Will

[vaia10]

Hi Will,

As it just so happens, I'm considering building one myself. But (for me, at least) the economics of building this are not what you might think. A nice chromed chassis and the parts will run you some $200+ and building a nice cabinet requires non-trivial effort (again, for me, at least) - I'd put a $150 price tag on the cabinet. On the other hand, you can get a used Fender '63 reissue for $350 (plus shipping). Is it the same thing? Of course not - you'd miss on the fun of building it, not to mention the pride

Cosmin

[thousandshirts]

Hey Cosmin

I plan on doing a brownface one. I'll grab a Hammond chassis at the local electronics store, and just paint up a front panel in brown. Then a bit of the decal making. Box wise, it's not a speaker cab, so weight and density aren't major concerns. I've got a couple thousand board feet of Maple lumber on hand, so I'll just make it from that. Pots, resistors, caps, are all items I have some of, but will need to fill in some missing values looking at the skeemo. Got the tubes boxed up on a shelf somewhere. Need to buy trafos. Some blonde or brown tolex and either maroon, or wheaty gold grill cloth. Some of the round brownface knobs. . . Won't be too bad.

Hi Will,

As it just so happens, I'm considering building one myself. But (for me, at least) the economics of building this are not what you might think. A nice chromed chassis and the parts will run you some $200+ and building a nice cabinet requires non-trivial effort (again, for me, at least) - I'd put a $150 price tag on the cabinet. On the other hand, you can get a used Fender '63 reissue for $350 (plus shipping). Is it the same thing? Of course not - you'd miss on the fun of building it, not to mention the pride

Cosmin

[spicoli]

I'm about to do the same thing. If you're going to use a blank hammond chassis (I am)- you might find this link useful:

http://www.el34world.com/Hoffman/images/Revface.gif

It's a guide for drilling the controls.

[WMThompson]

I'm in the process of making one also.
Does anyone know the thickness of the baffle on a reverb unit?
If I can't find one to measure, I'll probably use 1/2" ply.
I made mine to these dimensions:
19" wide
10" tall
7-1/2" deep
12-1/2" cutout
I'm going with white(cream) tolex
with maroon grill cloth
I'll post a pic when I finish the cab if anyone is interested.
WT

[vaia10]

I'm in the process of making one also.
Does anyone know the thickness of the baffle on a reverb unit?
[...]
I'll post a pic when I finish the cab if anyone is interested.
WT

Yes, please do!

I don't how thick the "baffle" is - does it even matter that much? I mean, it's not really used for a speaker so it's shouldn't matter... Are you guys going with the reverb tank mounted on the 'baffle' or on the bottom of the cab?

Cosmin

[tubeswell]

I'm doing one also.

Tank will be moutned on the 'baffle' on stand-offs - like the one in the 1st attachment - I will put it down bottom-front so will fit in just in front of where the tubes dangle (I need to make my cab pretty narrow because I will use it with my tweed amps, which it has to sit in top of).

The other thing I've been warned to watch out for is how you manage ground loops. Someone gave me a tip the other day that instead on mounting the 6A4 diodes on the ground leg of the HT secondary (as is done in the Fender RI), that its better if you put them in between the A/C mains earth wire and the chassis, with a parallel 630V cap. Anyone know anything about that?

I found some other pics on the net and the 2nd attachment is a gut shot of someone else's (can't remember whose)

[vaia10]

I'm doing one also.
[...]
Someone gave me a tip the other day that instead on mounting the 6A4 diodes on the ground leg of the HT secondary (as is done in the Fender RI), that its better if you put them in between the A/C mains earth wire and the chassis, with a parallel 630V cap. Anyone know anything about that?
[...]

I've seen the 'opposite diodes' circuit on some (reissue) Vox circuits, like the AC30CC2 - but it's mounted on the ground side of the PT's secondary (similar to Fender's 63 standalone RI). I asked the guys over at AX84.com about this circuit - you can see the thread here: http://ax84.com/bbs/dm.php?thread=339494

Also, from Fender's service manual for the 63 reverb reissue:

"CR5 & 6 (across R23) provide an important safety feature. IF the guitar amp chassis becomes electrified, current will
flow through the coax cable to the power supply ground of the Fender Reverb unit. The current will seek earth ground
through R23. When R23 opens, the earth ground connection is broken. This will electrify the reverb unit’s ground and
thus the guitar (ouch!). CR5 & 6 provide an alternate path to earth ground if R23 opens."

I have to say that it makes sense to me to have it on the secondary side of the PT, not between the AC ground and chassis. But then again, I haven't built one yet so I can only speculate...

Cosmin

[tubeswell]

Yeah I saw all that guff in the Fender Reverb RI manual. I guess the re-issues are full of safety improvements to comply with modern requirements.

[tubeswell]

Lifting Ground Loops in 6G15

Well I found the thread on another forum

here is the guts of it:

1) Disconnect the Mains AC ground wire from its connection directly to the chassis.

2) hook the following parallel circuit between chassis ground and the power line ground wire.

a) A 10 ohm 1/2 Watt resistor
b) a 0.1 uf 400 volt orange drop cap
c) two rectifier diodes like 1N4007 that are wired back to back.

That's 4 items, all in parallel.

The 10 ohm resistor provides the partial ground lift which gets rid of the hum. The cap is the high frequency AC bypass which gets rid of other noise. The 2 diodes clamp the voltage difference between chassis and line ground to one diode drop (0.7 volts), for safety.

The only thing I wonder is will 1A diodes be sufficient? or should they be 2A?