Bored while family is away: mod a cheap amp

[honyock]

Have had this little Peavey a while, didn't feel like adding an output jack to run a extension cab, was looking at it, looking at the 10" speaker I bought for a long departed project, pulled out the stock speaker, put the WGS 10" in and noticed it would fit.

I had a piece of 12mm birch plywood that has been in my garage for years, too small for anything else, but perfect width for this with a quick pass with the jigsaw.

Popped the hole for the 10 and viola, it is like a whole new amp. I happen to have a 2nd 10" I bought for the same project, may make a small little whiteboard cab with the rest of the board I think there is enough length to make a little slant face cab to sit below this and have a little stack setup if I use a switching jack and run them in parallel I'll get back to 4 ohms the amp is supposed to run at.

The birch ply baffle and the 10 really wake up the amp, it sounds like a much more expensive amp, and the cabinet seems like it was build for a 10 as there is exactly enough room between the chassis and the bottom for the baffle to sort of float between the sides which probably lets it resonate more than the particle board the rest.of the cab is made of.

I need my staple puller to transfer the original grille cloth and I will need to paint it black to hide my craptastic cutting job on the hole.

[toomanycats]

Nice job. I've got the same amp minus the reverb, otherwise known as the Peavey Rage 158. Did a similar 10" speaker mod and it really does improve the amp. What I really love on those amps are the cleans when pushed to the point where there's just a slight touch of hair on the edges. It's warm, full and compresses beautifully.

[tlarson58]

Happy New Refurbished Amp Day! Send pics of the cab too if you build it.

[honyock]

Nice job. I've got the same amp minus the reverb, otherwise known as the Peavey Rage 158. Did a similar 10" speaker mod and it really does improve the amp. What I really love on those amps are the cleans when pushed to the point where there's just a slight touch of hair on the edges. It's warm, full and compresses beautifully.

my 1st amp was the Rage, reason I wanted the Blazer when I saw it pop up on Shopgoodwill for a decent price ($33 picked up).

I had installed an output jack on that one and was running a 1x12, I agree, it was surprisingly good particularly when pushed by a good set of pickups. Unfortunatelyt, I had decided at that time it was tubes I was needing (not learning how to play better) so I foolishly sold it for less than a meal out at even the cheapest fast food joint for the family nowadays...

[honyock]

This thing rips now. I just tried diming everything (nowe that the speaker can handle all the power) and holy crap, it is like a whole nother amp was hiding in there.

When you really crank the pre and post, normally it was terrible, but it is almost like it drove right off the other end, the feedback and the clarity it sounds so much more musical and less harsh/gross/muddy. It is honestly surprising. If I had maybe played an electric more than a handful of in the past 6 months, I would try to record something...Maybe the time off from playing has messed with my ears, but it really rips. It reminds me of the tone of this song by Joe Bonamassa.

[honyock]

added the grille for the heck of it, didn't have any black paint or stain, but it doesn't look too off when looking at an angle. I need to fix the trim piece on the top, I didn't do the 100 staples like the factory, so it will be easy to remove. The birch ply is so hard, my Arrow T-50 doesn't have the oomph to send the staples flush so it will make it easy to pull them out.