Name: Steve Kennedy
Email: steve@pacair.com
Subject: Re con a 112RD
Thread: 80
Time: Wed, 16 May 2001 04:10:47 GMT
I have heard of Ruby speakers, but I have never used one. My 112RD came with a Peavey Black Widow which isn't too bad (at least it has a large vocie coil and cast aluminum frame and doesn't sound bad). I think that maybe these amps came with an Electro-Voice EVM and a previous owner swapped it out for a "lesser" loudspeaker before parting with the amp. They ARE loud, that is for sure!
I re-tolexed my 112RD-100 using black Fender tolex and a special contact cement I got through Smart Parts. The adhesive is called "Rodgers Ultimate Amp Glue" , "Developed especially for tweed and tolex." This stuff is pretty spendy at about $20 a quart, but it works great, is non-toxic and cleans-up with soapy water.
There are two ways you could redo your amp's tolex. One way is to use a heat gun to gently remove the original material one piece at a time (after removing all amp hardware of course!), labeling the parts as you remove them. Use the old parts as a template to trace onto the back of the new tolex with a "Sharpy" pen, then cut them out a bit oversized to ensure that you have enough material.
The other ways is the simply use a single piece of tolex wider than you need, go around the entire outside of the cabinet with it and shape and form from there.
I chose to replicate the factory parts and it came out fine. The amp glue is a contact cement, so you have to paint it on smoothly to both amp cabinet and tolex. Allow it to dry (I used fans to speed this up) then carefully position and press-apply the Tolex into place. Trim to fit immediately upon application. This stuff really adheres well and a quart should be enough to do several combos or cabinets. I did the 112RD-100 and an HD-130 head and have about 1/3 quart remaining. A "yard" of Tolex will do a 112 cabinet with material to spare.
Of course, I used a vibrational finish sander to completely sand-off the old glue and used wood or body putty to fill any cracks and gaps in the cabinetry. I them gave the cabinet several coats of acrylic gloss finish to seal the wood from moisture and provide a snooth/clean surface for the adhesive.
I used "0000" ultra-fine steel wool to shine up the original factory chrome hardware and bent everything back into shape before re-installing the corners and handles. I also ordered a Fender caster kit (which fits Music Man amps perfectly)from Smart Parts while I was at it.
The pop you experience with the footswitch could be caused by a variety of factors including power supply problems, bad capacitors or bad grounding. On my amp, I replace ALL of the elctrolytic capacitors in the amp (including the power supply and signal caps), resoldered all the chassis ground connections and cleaned & treated all pots and jacks with Cramolin De-Oxit.
A good cleaning and new knobs finished off the amp chassis itself. Before re-installing it I painted the interior of the cabinet (flat black), cleaned or replaced all the speaker, power and reverb wires, re-installed the ground screen (staple gun) and totally refinished the grill board (grill cloth and paint) as well.
It looks and sounds like a brand new amp which is a good thing!
Steve