OAHU Project - Thank you @Powdog :)

[hcsterg]

Obviously. It was used in a lot of other things, too.

Strangely, it had not been used so extensively here in France : I saw the Moter-Of-ToiletSeat motif only on little objects, like glasses cases, napkin rings, coasters...

Oh, yes : now I remember the mid 30s vacuum-cleaner of my Grand-Parents, from the brand Electrolux. I was a cylindrical unit on metal skids, like a sleigh, and the covering was a brown Mother-Of-Pearl covering, similat to what's available for guitar pickguards.

A+!

 

[cielski]

Strangely, it had not been used so extensively here in France : I saw the Moter-Of-ToiletSeat motif only on little objects, like glasses cases, napkin rings, coasters...

Oh, yes : now I remember the mid 30s vacuum-cleaner of my Grand-Parents, from the brand Electrolux. I was a cylindrical unit on metal skids, like a sleigh, and the covering was a brown Mother-Of-Pearl covering, similat to what's available for guitar pickguards.

A+!

We had an Electrolux as well in the '50s. Ours had a grey leatherette covering. They came out of Sweden or Norway as memory serves.

 

[hcsterg]

Update - a bit of work on this little Oahu - Magnatone lap steel amp :

Restoration of the speaker - a 4 ohms P8U Jensen, now fully functional :



Cleaning of the cab, and... Which one for the grillcloth ? 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 ?





Oh, and I'd be pleased if I could find the matching Magnatone decal :





A+!

 

[Powdog]

Have you seen the vintage radio grill cloth on ebay? Lots of cool stuff with 40/50s vibe.

 

[Powdog]

If you have an ink jet printer you can make your own Magnatone decal. That how I make these swag switchblades.

 

[wildeman]

Update - a bit of work on this little Oahu - Magnatone lap steel amp :

Restoration of the speaker - a 4 ohms P8U Jensen, now fully functional :

View attachment 202145

Cleaning of the cab, and... Which one for the grillcloth ? 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 ?

View attachment 202146



Oh, and I'd be pleased if I could find the matching Magnatone decal :

View attachment 202147



A+!

I bought that decal for my eight string steel from a guy on the Steel guitar forum. His name is Doug Freeman.

 

[hcsterg]

Thank you Guys !

Yes, sure : there's locally several well-stocked fabric stores where I can find 40s Art-Deco styled cloth like you the one you showed, @Powdog

My printer is a color Laser one (Samsung CLP-320), but one of my luthier friend can make a decal for me, since he does this for guitars - I forgot it so fine for the reminder ! - so yes, I'll ask him, based on something like this :



And yes, I think that these ones below comes from pictures of the Steel Guitar forum, @wildeman :



A+!

 

[hcsterg]

OK - after a bit of rework, this is Ink-Jet decal-printable, I think :



A+!

 

[Bertotti]

Update - a bit of work on this little Oahu - Magnatone lap steel amp :

Restoration of the speaker - a 4 ohms P8U Jensen, now fully functional :

View attachment 202145

Cleaning of the cab, and... Which one for the grillcloth ? 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 ?

View attachment 202146



Oh, and I'd be pleased if I could find the matching Magnatone decal :

View attachment 202147



A+!

Right picture bottom right is that blue pretty close to tue cab wrap it looks good on my phone.

 

[hcsterg]

Right picture bottom right is that blue pretty close to tue cab wrap it looks good on my phone.

So this one ? It's the N°4 : at left bench light, at right flash light.



A+!

 

[Bertotti]

So this one ? It's the N°4 : at left bench light, at right flash light.

View attachment 202214 View attachment 202213

A+!

If the color is close I like it. Actually on my phone and computer it looks close in both images. My thought process is the others are so normal this one I haven’t seen used and I haven’t seen that color texture of amp cab before to my mind a match made in Heaven.

 

[64ChevSS]

@hcsterg I really dig how you add reverb to your amp build.
I am thinking of doing so to one of my Traynor amps.
How do you get a 9 volt supply to the pedal?
Do you insert the reverb in between the pre-amp and power amp sections; this would be easy for me on my TS-15 - it is solid state.

 

[Byron]

I like the original cloth, or is it damaged? The palm tree design could easily be redone

 

[wildeman]

I like the original cloth, or is it damaged? The palm tree design could easily be redone

It's wire mesh with flocking on those usually.

 

[hcsterg]

@hcsterg I really dig how you add reverb to your amp build.
I am thinking of doing so to one of my Traynor amps.
How do you get a 9 volt supply to the pedal?
Do you insert the reverb in between the pre-amp and power amp sections; this would be easy for me on my TS-15 - it is solid state.

Thanks @64ChevSS !

Usually, I place it in front end position, that is to say like for a classic stompbox use, but integrated into the amp with the reverb control deported ont the faceplate :



That's what I did again on my last modding operation : the Marshall PLEXI 5, derived from a Marshall Class 5 gen. III. As you can see, the power transformer was unable to provide a 9V regulated supply (circa 100mA) for the EHX HGN, so I added a separate little power supply kit - it's what I need to do very often, by the way :

But this is not doable on Hi-Gain or multi-channels amps, as the reverb would completely flood the sound by the excess of following gain...

In this case, yes, the reverb unit must be inserted between the preamp section and the power amp section. To do so, you need to balance the signal level to be compliant with the stompbox / guitar level (-10 dBm) like it is done for an integrated FX loop for stompbow insertion. That's what I did on my Serial Tone Killer amp, where I installed a switchable FX Loop facility, which also include the EHX HGN :



So yes, as long as you provide from the preamp the suitable level drop to the HGN (-10dBm) and then recover the original level for the power amp, you are fine.

It's even more easy if you amplifier already has an FX Loop level providing the suitable signal level. In this case, you place the HGN in the loop on second position, in serie, just after the effects insertion jacks.

The HGN is easy to dismantle and deport the reverb control (you need a A5K pot).

Following @audept, I placed an order for this little unit :



I order to check if the sound is as good as the HGN and if it is integrable too in the same conditions, the advantage being its compacity, easier to manage in small amp chassis...

It's wire mesh with flocking on those usually.

That's it, exactly : that's what I discovered... I primarily thought that it was fabric with embroiding.

That said, the flocking in its original condition had to give a tight texture, which should not let the sound pass through well, I guess... Am I right, @wildeman ?

A+!

 

[ruger9]

1) just curious, what's the tube and speaker complement in the original?

2) I have a Holy Grail Nano... I find the mix knob SO touchy I can barely use it. Will this work any differently inserted into the amp circuit?

 

[hcsterg]

1) just curious, what's the tube and speaker complement in the original?

In fact, I don't know, except these were Octal tubes... @Powdog kept the tubes since I did not needed them. He can probably tell you what they were. This amp had no power transformer, though...

I think that the Speaker is original (JensenP8U from 1950 date code). The output transformer in under the amp chassis.

2) I have a Holy Grail Nano... I find the mix knob SO touchy I can barely use it. Will this work any differently inserted into the amp circuit?

That's curious : I do not front that problem of touchy mix knob setup, but for sure it won't work differently when the EHX HGN is inserted in an amp. The pot is already a A5K (5 Kilohms Audio taper) so there's nothing to expect from there IMHO. I tested a A10K with no great difference.

A+!

 

[Powdog]

I’ll have to look. I have one more of these little MOTS Maggie’s. Don’t think the sockets are labeled, but they’re all octals.

 

[Powdog]

Looks like the usual “death amp” tube lineup with a 35Z5 recto, 50L6 output and an octal 12SL7 preamp. Someone was kind enough to draw up a tube chart.

 

[wildeman]

Thanks @64ChevSS !

Usually, I place it in front end position, that is to say like for a classic stompbox use, but integrated into the amp with the reverb control deported ont the faceplate :

View attachment 202236

That's what I did again on my last modding operation : the Marshall PLEXI 5, derived from a Marshall Class 5 gen. III. As you can see, the power transformer was unable to provide a 9V regulated supply (circa 100mA) for the EHX HGN, so I added a separate little power supply kit - it's what I need to do very often, by the way :

But this is not doable on Hi-Gain or multi-channels amps, as the reverb would completely flood the sound by the excess of following gain...

In this case, yes, the reverb unit must be inserted between the preamp section and the power amp section. To do so, you need to balance the signal level to be compliant with the stompbox / guitar level (-10 dBm) like it is done for an integrated FX loop for stompbow insertion. That's what I did on my Serial Tone Killer amp, where I installed a switchable FX Loop facility, which also include the EHX HGN :

View attachment 202240

So yes, as long as you provide from the preamp the suitable level drop to the HGN (-10dBm) and then recover the original level for the power amp, you are fine.

It's even more easy if you amplifier already has an FX Loop level providing the suitable signal level. In this case, you place the HGN in the loop on second position, in serie, just after the effects insertion jacks.

The HGN is easy to dismantle and deport the reverb control (you need a A5K pot).

Following @audept, I placed an order for this little unit :

View attachment 202241

I order to check if the sound is as good as the HGN and if it is integrable too in the same conditions, the advantage being its compacity, easier to manage in small amp chassis...


That's it, exactly : that's what I discovered... I primarily thought that it was fabric with embroiding.

That said, the flocking in its original condition had to give a tight texture, which should not let the sound pass through well, I guess... Am I right, @wildeman ?

A+!

I haven't had too much experience with working examples of those, but the one I had seemed like just as much sound came out the back of the amp as the front.