50 Cal Ammo Can Amp

[Nitro Express]

I have a bunch of 50 Caliber ammo cans. I use them for all sorts of stuff from white water rafting (keeps water out of your stuff) to storing parts. I never thought of using one to house an amplifier. Kind of a cool idea.

[GAR]

I have a huge ammo can I use to store about 130 pounds of pickup magnet wire spools, all different gauges.

It definately keeps out the moisture.

This BC sounds creamier than the Metro plexi!

[GAR]

This is really interesting because it uses the 6SL7 as a preamp instead of it's decendant, the 12AX7 which actually contains TWO 6S's.

I had a very old Masco theater amp I picked up in my yard sale travels, the thing had one 6SN7, and one 6SL7.

Since then I noticed quite often what the did back in the old days was one of each, for whatever reason.

LOVE that "sag" it's very early Sabbath isn't it? Only 25 watts though. Quite often you get these boutique amp guys making incredible-sounding stuff, but then they leave out all the extra features such as channels, channel switching, recording-level outs, gain presence and tone controls.. and I realize that's what the whole "minimalist" thing is that's goin on here with the amp..

But on the other hand, there's something to be said about flexibility, too. I don't see why guys like this can compute the math required enough to get an amp to sound great up to the basic function of amplification, but then stop short of all the ancilliary circuits that provide great functionality to really knock a home-run tone right out of the ballpark.

This is the problem I have with these guys that want to make $1500 off an amp design, but won't give you anything further past a basic tone. And an awesome tone it is! But hey - after I've worked 13 hours today, spending 4 hours in traffic, do I get to reward myself with 20 mins of quiet riffing before I go to bed without waking everybody up in the house - just me the guitar and the computer?

That's what i'm talking about. Flexibility, useability. Thinking about what great tone is just sleeping in my office on a cabinet collecting dust will really piss one off if they can't ever use it.. because 25 watts is minimal at 6pm but pretty friggin LOUD after 10pm. Nobody wants to hear it.

[Nitro Express]

I have a huge ammo can I use to store about 130 pounds of pickup magnet wire spools, all different gauges.

It definately keeps out the moisture.

This BC sounds creamier than the Metro plexi!

yeah I store parts in them with a silica gel pack. The rubber seal never seems to go bad on these ammo cans. I have some pretty old ones and the seals are still good.

[Nitro Express]

I'm on several acres and my amps are in the barn. In fact I have a cab down where my cars are in the lower part of the barn and I play up in the loft. I love the sound of the sound bouncing off of everything, so I play my 5150 II on 7 at night. It's great! When we lived in a townhouse I used a modded Sovtek 50 which actually was loud as hell. I made an isolation box to put the cab in so I could crank it and the sound would come through but be muffled. You just make a plywood box and put some sound dampening foam on the outside. Mine had little slider vents you could open or close. It worked great.

[GAR]

I used to see ammo cans alot in the 70's here in SoCal, not so much anymore. We don't have any nearby bases anymore - they're all spread out and the surplus stores don't sell surplus stuff, they sell chinese camo tees and bandanas plus other crap you find at Walmarts.

Are your army surplus joints any better?

[Nitro Express]

Well Jackson Hole is a resort town but if you go over the border into Idaho all the sporting good stores and farmer co-ops sell ammo cans. Also, there is a huge Army Surplus store. Lot's of stuff was coming in front Eastern Europe and Russia. I lucked out and found a WWII German helmut in a pile of helmuts. I flipped it on Ebay for $230 and only paid $18 for it. They didn't know what they had. Also in some East German surplus I found a WWII German entrenchment tool, ammo pouches, and web gear. The buckle has the eagle and swastika. The Y strap was made in Berlin and has the name of the soldier penned on it in fountain pen. The dude's name was Wieder.

[GAR]

Do NOT tell the Dumpmeisters about this, they will most certainly need pics of this buckle in The Dump.

In LA we get NO such surplus stuff like that from europe = we get NOplus goods, fake stuff.

Either they lack balls or connections, I don't know what it is but we used to see the Swastika tchochkies behind the counter, when I was a kid. Now - nothing.

Cool digs!

[Nitro Express]

When I was a kid there was Nazi stuff all over. The GI's brought a ton of that stuff back home as trophies. My uncle had a Luger pistol he took off a German prisoner. My hunting rifle was made from an old K98K Mauser and it still had the Nazi proof marks on it. There were so many of those in surplus in the 1960's they turned them into sporting rifles because the action was strong. But I remember going into pawn shops and you would see old German medals (lot's of iron crosses) and various dress daggers. All original stuff. I remember the state fair had an antiques display and they had all sorts of cool German war stuff from both wars including a big Nazi flag. It was collectable stuff in those days. The Germans were the bad guys and each item was a rare trophy from the war. Now if you collect the stuff people think you are some sort of racist or something.

[Nitro Express]

Our wars nowadays are boring. The Nazis were the best the get trophies off of. They had lot's of cool stuff. The japanese had the katana swords. Some of their rifles were trophies. What do you want from the Taliban? Nothing collectable at all and not a particularly interesting foe.

[VanHalenFan5150]

That's because there's nothing left to take as a trophy when the bomb goes off

[Nitro Express]

They won't let you keep trophies anymore to boot.