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From Wicker to Walnut


HANGAR18

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Posted

Once upon a time I bought a Mesa Boogie JP-2C amplifier head, pre-owned, in mint condition and at a very good price. (I think I saved about a thousand dollars from what they were new. Ballpark.) But the amp head came with a Wicker front cover. I never liked the wicker, but the guys on the HOC said that wicker was a classic Mesa Boogie sort of a thing. So I thought I would give it a try; I imagined the song Wicker Man from Iron Maiden in order to have positive mental associations with the wicker covering. I even tried ignoring my wife's relentless mocking of the wicker cover... "Is that your Grandmother's amp?".  Brutal.

 

Eventually, I could no longer deal with the wicker front cover. I priced a new one from my local Mesa dealer. The most basic plain replacement front cover was at least $100.00 and I definitely balked at that price. I searched for alternatives and even tried to trade some guy on Facebook cover for cover who also had one of these amps. Eventually, I decided to make one myself as anything would be better than wicker! (See next post.)

MESA_JP-2C Wicker.jpg

Posted

What I wound up doing was to order a piece of Walnut from the Internet. Cut, sanded, recycled the piping and badging and boom... done! The original Mesa piece of wood was a crappy piece of particle board with some textured, flat black paint sprayed on it. My new piece of Walnut was sanded until it started to reflect light and a little bit of 3D effect became visible in the wood surrounding this swirly portion of the grain which I wanted to highlight. Here are some additional photos. (I type slow Daniel.)

The stain is a Minwax Sedona Red.

 

MESA-JP-2C-Walnut.jpg

MESA-JP-2C-Walnut2.jpg

Posted

Nice cover.  Does it need air flow through that panel or was the wicker just for looks?

Posted
6 minutes ago, AP515 said:

Nice cover.  Does it need air flow through that panel or was the wicker just for looks?

I was wondering that too but in the picture he shows the old panel was solid behind the wicker

Posted
36 minutes ago, AP515 said:

Nice cover.  Does it need air flow through that panel or was the wicker just for looks?

 

29 minutes ago, rockabilly69 said:

I was wondering that too but in the picture he shows the old panel was solid behind the wicker

Correct. It was a solid piece of wood which provided no air flow. I showed the pictures to Mesa via Facebook and they said " Next time, try installing the screws from the rear so you won't have those screw holes detracting from the look they way they do. "  So, yea that makes sense but I was trying to reproduce what was already done. If that idea had occurred to me, my next thought would have probably been something like "Hell no I ain't sticking a metal screwdriver through the body of an amplifier".

Posted

Very nice work!  She looks beautiful.

Posted
11 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Although I like wicker, hey, I'm old, and a grandfather, that looks great! Although I think it would look even cooler with the screws into

these stainless washers...

 

c501-8_small.gif

https://www.amprepairparts.com/screws.htm

I second that. There is a precedent - I have a Mesa Maverick 1x12 combo and the grille is held on by four screws in screw cup washers. Also if you search for pictures of Maverick  heads, you'll find the front panel is held on in a similar manner, e.g. -

Image result for mesa maverick

Posted
13 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Although I like wicker, hey, I'm old, and a grandfather, that looks great! Although I think it would look even cooler with the screws into

these stainless washers...

 

c501-8_small.gif

https://www.amprepairparts.com/screws.htm

 

1 hour ago, bobmeyrick said:

I second that. There is a precedent - I have a Mesa Maverick 1x12 combo and the grille is held on by four screws in screw cup washers. Also if you search for pictures of Maverick  heads, you'll find the front panel is held on in a similar manner, e.g. -

Image result for mesa maverick

Okay, I'll look into it.

But on mine, wouldn't black metal look better than shiny stainless steel?

 

Posted
9 hours ago, HANGAR18 said:

 

Okay, I'll look into it.

But on mine, wouldn't black metal look better than shiny stainless steel?

 

I think the shiny washers would tie it into the shiny bits (jacks, switches, etc), on the faceplate a bit better.

Posted

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason with regards to when Mesa Boogie screws the grille in from the back, or from the front with the washers. Just look for Maverick 2x12s, and you'll find both examples. It's the same with the heads and the combos.

Posted
9 hours ago, bolero said:

Wicker Man, I have never seen. I do keep hearing it's a good movie though

See the 1973 original with Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, not the 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage. A properly unsettling horror film. which doesn't resort to lots of gore and buckets of blood for effect. It didn't have a massive budget, and the musical score is very good.

 

Posted
30 minutes ago, bobmeyrick said:

See the 1973 original with Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, not the 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage. A properly unsettling horror film. which doesn't resort to lots of gore and buckets of blood for effect. It didn't have a massive budget, and the musical score is very good.

 

 

Weird... I'm not watching that one.

 

 

Posted

hahaha, I try to stay away from anything featuring Nicolas Cage!!

did not know there was a remake; that original is the movie I keep hearing about

although, Nicolas Cage would have been perfect....if they'd cast him as Bobby Fischer, instead of Tobey MaGuire in "Pawn Sacrifice"

Maguire was just a whiny, pale shadow of Fischer in real life

Posted

I like the wicker but the walnut looks good as also.

Could be tempting to make different front covers for different occasions. Knobs also.

Posted
1 hour ago, JeffB said:

I like the wicker but the walnut looks good as also.

Could be tempting to make different front covers for different occasions. Knobs also.

Yes, and the one thing about all  this is that I can always undo what was done by simply ordering a replacement front panel from Mesa Boogie.

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