I can’t believe we don’t have a Project Amps thread yet ! Something like the Project basses thread but for amps and cabs.
So, here we go !
I’ll start with a little project that I finished a few weeks ago :
There are a ton of pictures 
So, a few times ago, I bought a non-working Line 6 LowDown 300 Pro, year 2002, with its FBV Express pedalboard. I paid 100€ for it, and the issue was mainly intermittent volume losses.
When I bought it, I said to myself that I could hopefully salvage at least the preamp, or the power amp (and the speaker), and obviously the FBV Express.
The amp has been easy to fix, because the issue was due to the pots. Their value was unstable and it totally messed up with the DSP. A good contact cleaner has been enough, luckily.
Then I wanted to do a simple mod : add a “Power amp in” input to use it as a power amp only. The power amp is really cool on this amp. It’s a quad monolythic class AB amp, bi-amplified for the speaker and tweeter. It’s very punchy, sounds and feels very natural. The mod has not been that easy, because there is a weird link between the preamp input and the power amp that cuts the power amp when no bass is plugged into the preamp. So I had to mod this to trick the amp and make it work even when only the PA in is used. Now I have a perfectly functionnal Power amp input and that’s cool. The amp is rated at 300w but it’s including the power of the tweeter, so the power sent to the speaker is most probably around 220 to 250w, which is still not bad.
The amp is fixed and modded but the big problem is the weight for such a big combo. So I cut it to separate the chassis and make a normal 1x15 cab with the wood left :
This cab sounds pretty good, actually better than what I expected. Interesting fact : the internal volume is almost exactly the same (less than 1% difference) as the Thiele TL-606. Don’t know what I will do with it, I never use it since I have my Yamaha 4x10, but still a quite good cab.
…
And now, the funny part : build a legit head, starting with the bare chassis. I wanted to build the head shell from scratch, and mainly from scrap wood that I had here, including small parts with very weird shapes (more for the puzzle fun than for the 2€ economy obviously 
).
So, here’s how the panels start. 15 millimeter plywood made out of 10 and 5 mm sheets and pieces glued together :
Then I tried a “finger joint” assembly for the first time. Not perfect but still acceptable I think.
Not sure it was necessary but I added a few dowels :
First try to check the dimensions :
Building internal rails and smoothing the angles :
Preparing for the tolex : painting the corners and interior in black.
I’m pretty bad at tolexing and I don’t like doing that. But, well, here we go !
I decided to add a funny feature : an integrated tweeter. It can be switched on or off from the front panel, and as the tweeter is integrated into the head, it works with every cab. This needs quite complicated wood parts because, obviously, the stock tweeter is not made to be mounted like this at all.
Painting the parts and showing the tweeter assembly :
Time to choose a front cloth. Here is my selection :
I went with the brown one.
White pipping :
I’m pretty happy with the look !
Time to build a back plate. This part looks strange because there is an internal wooden triangle that is necessary to guide the air flow in the right direction regarding the heatsink.
Wiring the speaker out plugs and power amp in
And that’s it
Here is the finished head :
I plan to keep it as a spare/backup head.
This amp (as well as all the LowDown range) is quite different than the POD’s. Obviously it is a modeling amp, but there are very few models and the goal is to handle the amp like a good’ol analog amp. No menus, no screen, no complicated things, just a few amps modeled and a row of physical knobs :
- “Clean” : Eden Traveler. This model is crazy cool and justifies easily keeping the amp.
- “R&B” : '68 Ampeg B-15. Well it’s not as warm and organic as a real B-15 but it’s still very decent in a live context.
- “Rock” : '74 Ampeg SVT-VR. Here again, not the more realistic SVT model ever, but still very decent and useable in a live context. I honestly would have no worry using this model as a spare for my '92 SVT, if needed. (again in a live context ; if I want to record a SVT model, I would use something else ; but that’s not the purpose of a LowDown).
- “Brit” : '68 Marshall Super Bass. Well, I don’t like this one at all. But it exists.
Also two fun things :
- “Grind” : SansAmp PSA-1 plugged into a SVT and blended with the clean signal. It’s very aggressive, a bit caricatural and you can’t very much tweak the sound. But it’s funny and very “early 2000’s”.
- “Synth” : a surprisingly useable synth. All the knobs of the amps have a different function on this mode. You have cutoff, resonance, envelope, attack/decay, wave shape knobs, that’s so cool. I’ve manage to get very, very good synth tones with this model.
Also only 3 effects (that I never use), only one at a time, with only one setting for each :
- Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron envelope filter
- EBS OctaBass octaver
- TC Electronic Chorus
Also 4 memories (and more with the FBV Express pedalboard), a compressor (based on the LA-2A but very different and less interesting than the one on the Bass POD’s) and a built-in tuner. And also each model has a 4-band EQ, which is again very useable in a live context. And also there is a XLR DI. This thing is made for live use.
So yeah, that’s it for this little project amp.
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