Tremolux dilemma
Ok so apart from being a funny band name I have a blonde piggyback dilemma, that you all might be able to help me with.
I have (or should say, had) a blond ‘63 blackface tremolux piggyback. Now here’s the thing, many years ago the head was stolen and the cab has sat in a corner of my studio feeling very sorry for itself for years. (Nearly 30 years!)
Due to lockdown I’ve been thinking about it lately and how I’d very much like to have the head back on it.
First let me say that I know the ab763 circuit backwards and have build and rebuilt fender amps many times. I had decided to rebuild the head as close to original specs as possible sourcing as many old parts as possible and a new repro chassis, I have a friend who can build the most amazing cabinets so that isn’t a problem and will undoubtedly make it spot on and even age it to the condition of the cab
But I’ve now run into a snag with this, and that is, no one makes a blackface tremolux chassis, I’ve found Showmans, bandmasters, twins, pros, bassmans, Princetons, vibrolux reverbs, deluxes, you name it, even BF tremolux faceplates but no tremoluxe chassis!
So my here are my avenues of thought on how best to achieve this
look for a Tremolux BF blonde head. Been doing this for years although not obsessively, it seems very few people have the heads seperate from the cab, so far I have had no luck. The search goes on.
Buy a blackface head and have it recovered - this has possibilities but it seems a shame to remove a original stock tolex and recover, maybe I could get it looking in keeping, but the amp will probably be later that 63
Have someone build me a chassis. There are blackface tremolux faceplates available, so this seems possible though I’ve only found one person who has offered to do it and their work looks a little rough tbh. I don’t have all the measurements for the hole knockouts and bolt alignments, trying someone to get that right could be difficult without original drawings or someone who could kindly measure a real one.
Buy a BF Showman chassis and faceplate and work from there. The showman is an inch wider than the tremolux, so first question is, will it fit between the piggyback thumbscrews or will it end up not slotting on. I have no idea not bring in possession of early blackface showman(not a dual with is much wider)
Wait and see if anyone has a broken tremolux in any state of disrepair or smashed cabinet and rebuild
So there we have it, any help would be gratefully received from anyone here I’d love to get a whole bunch of views, obviously there’s the “buy a vintage tremolux rig in good condition” but I don’t want to abandon my cab just yet, plus I’d love to build a tremolux, I’m currently building a blonde 6g15 reverb unit and it’ll go with it ever so nicely,
(I might post this on other forums so please don’t be mad if you see it twice )
Thanks
Tim