Shawn's Tuba 18 Build

[shawn_g]

Thanks guys! I'll post some "finished" pictures in a few days.

[shawn_g]

It's been more than a week since my last post, thought I'd give a small update.

I finished it up about a week ago and really didn't care for the stain combination. The top is made of aspen and wasn't accepting stain like the birch veneer, so the two colors didn't really match that well (it was really noticeable in person, not so much in the picture).

Blurry pic:


I thought I'd give it another shot with the same color. I sanded the top down, applied some stain conditioner, since I had skipped that step previously, and came out with the same basic result again.

I finally said screw it and sanded the top down again, but went with ebony stain for the top to match the legs. I've done about 3 coats so far and it's starting to match:

Another blurry pic:


I think I like it better and I'm wishing I would have went this way to begin with. At this point, I'm starting not to care, I just want it to be done.

[caliberconst.]

Wow! very nice work that looks incredible!! You should be proud of that bad boy!!

[mems]

Nice work. I showed this to my wife and she said that is something she'd be proud to have in our living room. Thanks for proving that a speaker can be a nice piece of furniture. This will be a nice place to put my Bud Lites when its not in use.

[Jon Barnhardt]

+1 very nice work

[shawn_g]

Thanks guys.

Nice work. I showed this to my wife and she said that is something she'd be proud to have in our living room. Thanks for proving that a speaker can be a nice piece of furniture. This will be a nice place to put my Bud Lites when its not in use.

That's awesome. Glad I could provide some inspiration.

[Gregory East]

Nice indeed. If you take a better pic you could wind up on Bill's plans sales page.

[Tom Smit]

I think I like it better and I'm wishing I would have went this way to begin with. At this point, I'm starting not to care, I just want it to be done.

It's tough, isn't it, to remain patient after struggling for a while? But stay tough, and get that finish nice so that you can always look at it with full pride (and no regrets).

[LelandCrooks]

Niiiice. Birch is a bitch to stain. My TT is not the color I wanted, but like you, after 3 tries I said screw it.

[shawn_g]

Here's the finished product.

I'm fairly pleased with the way it came out. There's a low spot in the wood where I must have gotten a little happy with the belt sander (from one of the 2 times where I sanded the finish down to start over) and didn't notice it till after the fact. It's not too big of a deal, but you can see it in the pictures. I still have to make a box to put the plate amp in, but it's finished otherwise. It sure took me long enough!







Purposely left the top on the dull side to help mask the low spot.




It's new home:

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

WAF +100.

[bassmonster]

^^High complements from Bill!^^ That looks main page-worthy too.

Beautiful work.

[shawn_g]

WAF +100.

That was definitely a goal. It must have worked, because she already asked me to build another one.

...
Beautiful work.

Thanks for the kind words.

[benjammin]

Very nice! I'll definitely be showing this to my wife.

[Spoon]

Not familiar with the performance of these cabs, I have to ask, should the lamp be velcro'ed, glued....something? Really thinking it might walk away. Very nice work shawn_g!