Boothill Amps’ “Six Shooter”
2w tube guitar amplifier kit
This very affordable kit offers a clean and empty canvas: with a raw aluminum chassis, an unfinished solid pine cabinet, a plywood speaker baffle with a front mounted speaker, and a black metal speaker cover.
I wanted to customize the amp so it visually aligns with its name. “The Six Shooter” has a 6 inch speaker and two vacuum tubes that require ~6volts for the filament/heaters.
I wanted the amp to have the same look as a handmade vintage revolver case
Inspiration came from the materials used for this gun case and from the pair of Samuel Colt revolvers. I don’t know much about guns, but an amp with this name seems like it should be redesigned with these qualities.
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The aluminum chassis is sanded to prep for painting
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Enamel Paint with hammered texture applied
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Now it is ready for lettering
Transfer Type
Because I was only making 1 amp chassis, I chose to use rub-on transfer type instead of the traditional silkscreen approach. FUTURA, ALL CAPS was used for all the controls and labeling the tubes.
The chassis was then sprayed with a clear coat to protect the paint and white lettering from being scratched away.
The Cabinet
The solid pine cabinet needed to be pre-treated with conditioner before the stain was applied to avoid splotchy patches on this soft wood. Stain was applied and then sprayed with a matte lacquer finish.
A brass and brown leather handle with visible stitching was installed to show the handmade qualities of the antique revolver case.
The Speaker Baffle
This birch plywood baffle had to be modified and converted for a rear mounted speaker with a front grill cloth. Wood slats were added to provide an elevated frame for the grill cloth.
T- nuts were installed into the font for the speaker to be mounted from the rear.
The entire front was sprayed with black paint so it would be invisible through the grill cloth.
Before all of that was done, though, the plywood piece was trimmed down a little so the grill cloth would fit on all 4 side., then the mounting holes were drilled so the baffle could be properly mounted to the cabinet with brass screws and brass finishing washers.
Once I knew the baffle would fit and mount properly, I added the cane grill cloth and installed the 6in, 4Ω speaker.
The kit came with all the parts and components required for a working amp. This amp uses a grid leak bias on the pre-amp tube. This seems to be a hold-over from tube radios—it was an inexpensive way to bias a 1st stage preamp tube that received a very consistent input signal. Since a guitar signal can vary greatly (unlike a radio signal), this bias method is not ideal for powerful humbucker pickups, but it shines with single coil, low output pick-ups.
The original circuit was designed by Dave Whalen at Boothill Amps and modified by Rob Robinette. I chose to use Rob’s circuit design (which required extra parts and more holes drilled into the chassis) since it provided more flexibility. Rob’s webpage has a great explanation of his mods and how the grid leak bias method works.
