my dean markley signature 120 was a rack mount amp in a wooden cabinet. yes, the eric clapton amp. fuck you it sounded amazing. here it is from the back and out of the box, yes, it just has perforated metal around the tubes and transformers. the amp attached to the box with only the rack ears. There was a small fan in the back, it still got hot, so i cut some holes in the box with a 3/4 inch spade bit on the side for the fan intake, and above the tubes for some passive ventilation. Played it loud as shit for years, and it never broke.

That actually seems…useful and efficient. Cool design idea.

Have you guys not ever seen an SVT II?

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:27 am For those that crave the wildly impractical:

You rang?

Nate Dort wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:08 pm Have you guys not ever seen an SVT II?

To be fair, for the racked amp thing the fact that it was posted in this thread made me think the question was more along the lines of "how hard would it be for ME to this" as opposed to, say, Ampeg. Of course its doable, and lots and lots of people have done it before, but they're getting everything custom fabbed for them and not working around the economies of small scale.

bdm wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:16 pm

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:27 am For those that crave the wildly impractical:

You rang?

Hell yeah! What's up, Ben?

FWIW I had a rack mounted Mesa Dual Rec at one stage. It had a fan blowing across the tubes.

Worked just fine.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:16 pm To be fair, for the racked amp thing the fact that it was posted in this thread made me think the question was more along the lines of "how hard would it be for ME to this" as opposed to, say, Ampeg. Of course its doable, and lots and lots of people have done it before, but they're getting everything custom fabbed for them and not working around the economies of small scale.

Oh, I know what you were getting at, but it kinda shifted into "here's an example of a rackmounted guitar amp," like it was some obscure concept.

I like the 1U chassis with secondary 2U or 3U faceplate above it. That's probably the most flexible.

Ahhh classic bishopdante post.

bishopdante wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:53 pm you'll be cursing the mesa engineering people.

Wouldnt be the first time! They're well known for putting 10 lbs of shit in a 5 lb sack.

bishopdante wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:53 pm Presumably there's a calculation of how much airspace in what sized metal box with a tube of what specification produces a stable temperature, and there's ways of validating that with experiment.

Probably, yeah, but the pic you posted was of a UA 610 preamp. A couple 12AX7s generate a minuscule amount of heat compared to a couple EL84s. I've built a few fully enclosed preamp boxes before, but I wouldnt attempt that with power tubes.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:33 am

That looks cool. What is it?

VaticanShotglass wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 11:21 pm That looks cool. What is it?

Also curious and don't mind doing a little guessing. They look a little more interesting than just a standard tube pre-amp.
That top one uses a tube I don't recognize and can't make out because of the reflection.
Bottom one looks setup to take an IEC so I guess that's what that (rather serious-looking) transformer is for?