Inexpensive faceplate building techniques

[Jag]

That looks great! What did it cost?

I've been using Lexan decals that I get done at a local shop. The decals like to curl up on the "roundover" of the bend at the edges of the chassis. They don't come off the faceplate though.

[Fretts]

Wow, that is a nice looking amp! What IS it?

The guy was perplexed, didn't know exactly what to charge, nobody ever asked for such a thing before at his shop, especially walking in with a ready-to-go Corel file. The first time he charged me $12. When I went back, they were $25 a pop, I figured I better get two more before something changed. He told me they won't be ordering any more of that shiny nickel, it never sells, it's been sitting there for years.

[Jag]

Thanks Fretts.

The Jagster is basically like a permanently jumpered Plexi with a single ended cathode biased 6L6 power amp and no NFB. I don't play as loud as I used to .

I've built 7 or 8 now. I gave one to Warren Haynes a couple of years ago and, from what Farmer (his tech) tells me, he likes it quite a bit and has used it on some recordings.

I have a friend who builds fine furniture and he does the cabinetry for me at a good price. I really like the look of figured hardwood. I've got a 1 x 12 combo version that we did in curly birch that looks incredible. I've also got a head and 1 x12 cab in Ash that matched a tele my brother built for me.

[Jag]

Since I'm not sleeping, I took a quick pic of the Curly Birch combo.

[Fretts]

If I were a termite, I would EAT that amp!
Very tasty!

[Sir Cuitous]

I took my Corel file to a printer and had a vinyl transfer made for a blackface style amp.



The photo is not great but you can pretty much see how it came out. However, the vinyl transfer over an anodized aluminum plate was expensive.

[Fretts]

Where did you find pre-anodized aluminum, if that's what I'm seeing in that picture? Cool logo.
And while we're at it, That's NICE. "What IS it?"

[Sir Cuitous]

I had the aluminum anodized - which is why it was expensive. I would probably get a better deal if I anodize more material at one time than just a front and back panel.

It's single-ended dual 6V6 amp called the Angela. I built it because it looked interesting and I had the resources at the time. It turned out to be a great sounding amp.

[Fretts]

Well it sure looks good.
I like the Fender design elements, esp. the white border.
I have a Gibson Discoverer, which the possible inspiration for the Angela; it also has 2 single-ended 6V6 in parallel class A. If yours sounds anything like mine, it's a monster!

[gdog]

faceplate label

I just finished the chassis for my current project. Some pics are attached. What I used was decal paper for laser printing. I drew up some text and graphics (I used gimp, but any semi-powerful graphic program will do). Then I just printed it with a 1200dpi laser printer onto the decal paper. Then I applied the decals to the painted chassis and sealed w/ Krylon acrylic spray.

The result is pretty decent. You can see the outlines of the cutouts if you look really close, but it's not too noticeable. I'm sure if you get good with the technique you can minimize this.

The cool thing is anything you can print you can put on your faceplate. Also it's cheap... I think it was $3 per sheet, and I only used one.

Hey, I know this post is a few years old, but I am getting ready to do an amp faceplate in this fashion. I was wondering how it has held up for you, and do you still reccomend this process for a good, economical way to make a faceplate.

Thanks