Larry: I'll suggest something that you might consider--it's not Maple, but it will make a great sounding amp stand--should really be good with tubes. You will need access to a machine shop--not too hard to come by. Get four aluminum plates 1/8" thick (you can go thicker) that are the size of the amps. Have 2 grooves put in each them that run about 1 inch in from the side and go within an inch of the length (or width). To determine whether you want to go length or width, determine the alignement of the transformer. The coil should be perpendicular to the direction of the grooves. (I'll explain why in a minute) Now you can "sandwich" two aluminum plates for each amp. In the grooves put either marbles, or better yet tungsten carbide balls. You can get these ball bearings from McMaster Car Supply (they are online www.mcmaster.com) Putting the lower aluminum plate on some form of rigid coupling seems to work best (tip toes or other cones), but you could experiment here. Basically you now have a rigid coupling stand that disappates energy through the very slight movement of the ball bearings. The reason for chosing the grooves in the direction you choose them is most of the mechanical energy created by the amp comes from the transformer which vibrates. If you can disappate this energy the tubes should sound much smoother. This worked remarkably well for me on a solid state amp. It should be even more dramatic for a tube amp. My total cost was $20 for the aluminum, $20 to the machinist that did the work (he was really happy with that--it only took him about 10 minutes), and $45 on the tungsten ball bearings.
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- 3 posts total
- 3 posts total