Converting practice amp to a head?

[Psychobilly444]

Recent rabbit hole trip I found guys that were taking Fender Frontman 15's and "converting" them to heads and pushing a 412. Anyone have experience with this? My son needs an "upgrade" from his little Rage 158. Would be a fun father-son project I'd think. I can't see a 100w 412 being pushed too well by 15w. Thought about building a 212 or a 210 4ohm 20w cab.

 

[donepearce]

I used an alternative approach. I have a VT30, which is loud enough for small places and I really like its sounds. For more power I added a 300 watt class D amp with a couple of power supplies inside the cab. I got them on ebay. I can fully drive a couple of big external cabs that way, and the sound is still great.

The whole mod weighs very little, and takes almost no room inside. These are the parts I used. Total cost £35

 

[Psychobilly444]

Can you explain the process/assembly?

 

[kiko]

Well I did this for my son with the frontman amp that came with the squire affinity telecaster. It does sound mesa boggish plug to a 2x12. Btw, all I did as add a proper speaker wire extension with the right plug to the disconnected speaker wire. Try it!

 

[donepearce]

Can you explain the process/assembly?

Just wired up the amplifier and power supplies according to the instructions, then fed the amplifier from the headphone connection of the VT30. The new amplifier has two channels, so I hooked each of them to a speaker jack, which I can plug the big cabinets into.

 

[gball]

Recent rabbit hole trip I found guys that were taking Fender Frontman 15's and "converting" them to heads and pushing a 412. Anyone have experience with this? My son needs an "upgrade" from his little Rage 158. Would be a fun father-son project I'd think. I can't see a 100w 412 being pushed too well by 15w. Thought about building a 212 or a 210 4ohm 20w cab.

Actually, I find 4x12's to be the best thing for a small amp. They seem much more efficient to me than any other configuration. If I go from my open back 90W 1x12 or closed back 60W 1x12 to my 180W 4x12 without changing any amp settings, it is much louder and more punchy. My 25-watt amps have more than enough power to keep up with any gigging situation through the 4x12.

 

[cerebral gasket]

I like the idea of the powered cabinet.

 

[jvin248]

I've thought more than once of doing this type of conversion to the ubiquitous Squier SP-10.
Someone on a forum a long time back had converted an SP-10 to a head then made two matching cabinets for a "Squire SP-10 Full Stack".
This makes for a more portable headphone practice amp.

A Peavey Amp mod could be fun and useful. They make switching output jacks so you could plug in the cabinet or unplug and get the onboard speaker -- might be the easiest solution for you.

 

[Psychobilly444]

What about impedance? If the cab is 8 or 16 ohm? The peavey is 4 ohm.

 

[Psychobilly444]

Actually, I find 4x12's to be the best thing for a small amp. They seem much more efficient to me than any other configuration. If I go from my open back 90W 1x12 or closed back 60W 1x12 to my 180W 4x12 without changing any amp settings, it is much louder and more punchy. My 25-watt amps have more than enough power to keep up with any gigging situation through the 4x12.

You could seriously gig off a 25w amp in a 412?

 

[paul-e-mann]

What about impedance? If the cab is 8 or 16 ohm? The peavey is 4 ohm.

As long as the cab ohms are higher than the amp ohms youre good. Go for it and do the conversion with your kid, it will be a fun project and will work out fine.

 

[Col Mustard]

I have an Orange Micro Terror 20W amp head, and it is 8 ohms output and runs
various cabinets easily. People have posted videos of this little work horse running a 412 cab and it sounds excellent. Mine will run two 8 Ohm cabs in parallel (through a Y cable) with no problems. Two 8 Ohm cabs in parallel
means 4 Ohms. Two 4 Ohm speakers in series means 8 Ohms. It's either half or double, depending on how you wire it.

I can seriously gig with this, because I don't play in a really loud band with an insane drummer... and it's a great practice rig.


I think your project sounds like a great idea. There are online cabinet makers
who build empty speaker cabs, and who also build cabs to mount bare amps in,
so it would look more elegant if you like.
http://www.trmguitarcabs.com/index.html

 

[jvin248]

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[gball]

You could seriously gig off a 25w amp in a 412?

Easily. I've never had the master on my Mark 5:25 over 12:00. It's deafening through the 4x12 at that level. No problem at all keeping up, and the amp isn't even breaking a sweat.