Twenty minute beautification project

Redboy

a few good watts
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I picked up someone else's nice little DIY passive preamp on Audiogon about a year ago. It's made with nice parts, but the enclosure was a little... um, lacking.

Jaymanaa will recognize this one - I loaned it to him for a while, and just got it back a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I decided to put a few minutes into prettying it up a bit tonight.

Here's a "before" shot (I had already taken out the corner screws before I remembered to take a picture!):

01 004.jpg
 
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Here's what it looks like now, with about twenty minutes of work put into it:

01 009.jpg01 010.jpg
 
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What I did:
  • Removed the plastic bezels around the front and back panels
  • Peeled off the cheesy "Attenuate" and "Input" labels
  • Rounded out the corners of the front and back panels with a file, and smoothed their edges
  • Sanded the front panel smooth
  • Put a faux brushed finish on the front panel
  • Replaced the corner fasteners with black hex-head screws (they had been ugly Phillips-type screws)
That's all.

The backside of it still looks like crap, but I can ignore that for the time being.

I like it better, now. :)
 
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Hard to believe it's the same box! Very nice.
Yeah, I'm fortunate that it was in such a crappy box, actually. The guy that that I purchased it from on Audiogon was the second owner, and he wasn't sure what parts were in it. Nobody was interested at his asking price, so I made a lower offer. He accepted, and it turned out to be a really nice deal for me.
 
Funny you should be sayin' that Peter, 'cause I just remembered a couple of different knobs that might work on this - some cool aluminum knobs I got from you a while back.

EDIT: Nevermind. Just checked and they don't fit. :sigh:
 
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Some of the Roberts tape amps had really cool knobs that would look perfect on that. What kind of shaft are you dealing with?
 
Wow! That looks MUCH better, already. Do the back and yes, consider upgrading the knobs (although the current ones aren't bad)... it'll go from looking "DIY-junky" to looking very high-end. Good job! :thmbsp:
 
Hmmmmmm?

That BEFORE picture kind of looks like MY work.....only neater!?
Yes, that AFTER picture is certainly a BIG step up in the looks department.

NICE job!!

Steve
 
Nate, if I was not so busy trying to pack for moving, I'd build you little metal sculpture knobs. I've always wanted to do that.
 
Nate, if I was not so busy trying to pack for moving, I'd build you little metal sculpture knobs. I've always wanted to do that.
Thanks Dennis, that's a cool idea! Good luck with the move, BTW.

I'm pretty content with the current look for now, so I'll live with it a bit unless I stumble on something nice.
 
Thanks Dennis, that's a cool idea! Good luck with the move, BTW.

I'm pretty content with the current look for now, so I'll live with it a bit unless I stumble on something nice.
Nate, if I get around to it in this century, I have a lathe and some Ebony or Cocopolo turning blanks around here.........:sigh:
 
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