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Hey guys, I'm new to this site and relatively new to the world of guitars. I have a question and it seems like this forum would be agood starting place ... and hopefully an end-point. Anyway, I recenty inherited a Philco Antique radio (circa 1941) that is not in working order. Honestly, I have no real interest in restoring the original parts, and would rather use the nice looking cabinet for another function(s). Basically, I'd like to either convert it to a guitar amp, or make it a dock/speaker for my iPod (or both, if possible). (The unit is about 3 ft tall x 2 ft wide x 1 8 in deep.)
Here are my thoughts on the 2 options. I'd be curious to know from experience what the upsides and downsides are for each.
1) Guitar Amp. Basically, I plan on buysing and dismantling a small 10-15W practice amp and placing the speaker where the OEM speaker used to be. If possible, I'd love to connect the knobs from the amp (volume, tone, gain, etc) to the dials on the radio where the tuner, tone and volume used to be. Is that feasible? If not, I'd consider making a small cutout on the side of the radio and placing the control panel for the amp behind it.
2) MP3 Player. Again, I'd replace the existing speaker with the equivalent of a car speaker so that I would have the highs, mids and lows in one speaker. I assume all I would need on top of that would be an amp, some sort of small "Radio Shack" type receiver, a 9V power cord, and some sort of adapter to connect the receiver to the iPod. Am I missing anything?
Ideally, I'd love to do both. However, I just dont see how I can do that since amp speakers arent the best for music and traditional speakers arent the best for amps. I guess I could double-up on the hardware and speakers and put both in there. The current OEM speaker is 10", so I could conceivably get a 6" for the guitar and another one for the MP3.
Sorry for the lengthy post. I'd really be curious to get some real-world feedback from anyone who has taken on a project like this before.
Thanks in adavnce,
Brad
Here are my thoughts on the 2 options. I'd be curious to know from experience what the upsides and downsides are for each.
1) Guitar Amp. Basically, I plan on buysing and dismantling a small 10-15W practice amp and placing the speaker where the OEM speaker used to be. If possible, I'd love to connect the knobs from the amp (volume, tone, gain, etc) to the dials on the radio where the tuner, tone and volume used to be. Is that feasible? If not, I'd consider making a small cutout on the side of the radio and placing the control panel for the amp behind it.
2) MP3 Player. Again, I'd replace the existing speaker with the equivalent of a car speaker so that I would have the highs, mids and lows in one speaker. I assume all I would need on top of that would be an amp, some sort of small "Radio Shack" type receiver, a 9V power cord, and some sort of adapter to connect the receiver to the iPod. Am I missing anything?
Ideally, I'd love to do both. However, I just dont see how I can do that since amp speakers arent the best for music and traditional speakers arent the best for amps. I guess I could double-up on the hardware and speakers and put both in there. The current OEM speaker is 10", so I could conceivably get a 6" for the guitar and another one for the MP3.
Sorry for the lengthy post. I'd really be curious to get some real-world feedback from anyone who has taken on a project like this before.
Thanks in adavnce,
Brad
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