The History of "Pinhead" Randall 667

[Ghostman]

Since I'm new here, and banned from the forum where I posted this, I figured I would transfer it here. So without further ado, here is how I created "Pinhead" custom Randall 667.

I bought this Randall 667 used from Reverb, and unfortunately, FedEx decided that they didn't like it. Somewhere along the way it was dropped which broke the factory shell. The amp was tested to make sure it was purely cosmetic and this thing rips like it should. This gave me a reason to replace the weak factory shell and do some customizing.

The factory look:

Here's a few details of the main problems of damage:

Cheaply made headshell anyways which couldn't hold the beast:

Even the faceplate got some hate:

 

[Ghostman]

I'm going to be changing out the broken shell for a custom built one, and decided that the colors would be changed up as well. First things first, let's change out the black chicken heads with something a slight bit more sinister.

For the shell, no more black. It's getting a nice blanket of Carbon Fiber Red:

29 Red chicken head knobs later. D***, this has a ton of knobs.

The shell, will be Maple void-free Ply, built by a cabinet maker friend of mine. Some wood love:

Nicely radius'd corners for the factory corner caps, which will be reused. I will be reusing most of the hardware, including the handles, top grill and corner protectors.

A few weeks later, and the custom shell is complete:

However, my dumb*** couldn't measure correctly. The idea was to reuse the factory rear and front grills, but 3/4" short and that's not going to happen anymore. What to do? What to do....

I'll tell you 'what to do' ... build custom ones. Custom grills for a custom shell, seems fitting. For the front logo panel, I have an idea that's going to take a while to complete. My friend does custom vinyl graphics and laser etching, and after a few conversations and some pictures sent her way, we are going with something killer, but a PITA for her to cut out. We may have to resort to the laser etching side, which presents its own challenges. The logo plate design would be almost 28" long, but her etching machine only does 19" so it would be done in three sections.

For now, it's time for the rear panel. Keeping it simple with a wood trim and some black grill material.

Three sided wood panel parts cut out:

A mock up fit with the grill material I found at Lowe's in the furniture parts isle:

I painted the grill with four coats of gloss black

The wood trim will be wrapped in the same Red Carbon Fiber Vinyl that the head shell will be. I radius'd the bottom edge and the grill edges too. Next time I do this, it won't have the hard 90 degree inside corners because wrapping it like that is a royal PITA! A huge fight with the material and some burned fingers from a heat gun, i got it close enough.

 

[Far Rider]

Popcorn is popping.

 

[Ghostman]

The shell got all the holes drilled for the chassis mounts and the handles. I ordered the wrong length of screws for the handles so once the vinyl wrap goes on, the ones I have will most likely not fit anymore. Hello Amazon....

The majority of the work is done with the exception to the front logo panel. Since that's going to be a few weeks, I'm kind of at a stand-still. I have to put on the internal cleats to screw the front and rear panels to, but I need the front panel before that happens to make sure they are in the right place. I can do the rear panel cleats in the mean time, and a mock up of the progress so far:

 

[Amp Mad Scientist]

I'm going to be changing out the broken shell for a custom built one, and decided that the colors would be changed up as well. First things first, let's change out the black chicken heads with something a slight bit more sinister.

For the shell, no more black. It's getting a nice blanket of Carbon Fiber Red:

29 Red chicken head knobs later. D***, this has a ton of knobs.

The shell, will be Maple void-free Ply, built by a cabinet maker friend of mine. Some wood love:

Nicely radius'd corners for the factory corner caps, which will be reused. I will be reusing most of the hardware, including the handles, top grill and corner protectors.

A few weeks later, and the custom shell is complete:

However, my dumb*** couldn't measure correctly. The idea was to reuse the factory rear and front grills, but 3/4" short and that's not going to happen anymore. What to do? What to do....

I'll tell you 'what to do' ... build custom ones. Custom grills for a custom shell, seems fitting. For the front logo panel, I have an idea that's going to take a while to complete. My friend does custom vinyl graphics and laser etching, and after a few conversations and some pictures sent her way, we are going with something killer, but a PITA for her to cut out. We may have to resort to the laser etching side, which presents its own challenges. The logo plate design would be almost 28" long, but her etching machine only does 19" so it would be done in three sections.

For now, it's time for the rear panel. Keeping it simple with a wood trim and some black grill material.

Three sided wood panel parts cut out:

A mock up fit with the grill material I found at Lowe's in the furniture parts isle:

I painted the grill with four coats of gloss black

The wood trim will be wrapped in the same Red Carbon Fiber Vinyl that the head shell will be. I radius'd the bottom edge and the grill edges too. Next time I do this, it won't have the hard 90 degree inside corners because wrapping it like that is a royal PITA! A huge fight with the material and some burned fingers from a heat gun, i got it close enough.

WTF you were banned from?
The only thing missing is the cigarette lighter and cup holder.

 

[Ghostman]

Some weekend progress.

Mounted up the grill and feet. Predrilled the holes first.

And then the one thing I was not looking forward to; replacing the front panel.

And here you can see better how the ends got curled up and bent.

Another weekend push:

The internal wood cleats for the front and back panels went in. The back panel will be attached by the sides only, since I ran into an issue with clearance on the top cleat. I predrilled, set them in, and then disassembled and glued them in place.

When I tried to put in the top cleat, and ran into the clearance issue with the transformers. This is because the box was built too short.

The top cleats go directly over the T-nuts for the handles, so I have to notch them out so they sit flat in the box.

The front went in nice and clean I think...

I was going to wait on the front panel until I got the new one, and make sure its all good, but I'm pretty confident on the design of the new panel. I verified with my wife's friend the new vinyl, and the acrylic panel has been ordered, and should be here this week.

I gave up on the black oxide screws for the handles, so I decided to go with Brass since it's a compliment to the front panel colors. I think it will look good. And they were sourced super quick and easy at my local Lowe's.

And now the back panel is in place and mounted up. I think I may get red screw covers instead of the black washers.

next weekend, unless I have other things planned, it will be black paint on the inside, and then vinyl wrap.

 

[Ghostman]

WTF you were banned from?

I called out the owner of the forum on FB for a stupid post and then just quit the forum. That was months ago. A week or so ago I logged back in to get some information in my PMs and I was met with the ban notification.

 

[Ghostman]

...and now back to the story....

small setback today. I received the new acrylic face plate.

Nicely finished round edges and the cool Matte finish I was hoping for:

And then it all falls apart when I got it home. Apparently, a measuring tape used for garments or body measurements are not that accurate. That was all that I had at the time before I ordered, since my tool bag was at work. I should have waited.

I used a real measuring tape and re-ordered the face plate again. This time I ordered it without the polished edges, just the round over. Hopefully it comes out as nice, but if not, the edges won't be that apparent, or I can use some elbow grease and polish it myself. The new plate should be here Friday or Monday. If the weather is good, I will finish the inside of the head in flat black.

The weather held out today, so I took the opportunity to do the interior spray. Painted the interior flat black, after masking the outside. the outside would have been covered regardless by the vinyl but sometimes I've had the experience of glue not sticking to the painted surfaces as well, so that's why it's masked off.

And the new faceplate came in today!

The edges aren't polished but they are not that bad actually.

Better yet, it fits the box! No more gap. There's a little bit of play which will be minimized after the vinyl goes on.

 

[Ghostman]

I received some info from my friend and the vinyl graphics. She has it printed out and is finishing up the details today. I will hopefully have it by this weekend. In the mean time, I did a test run on the carbon fiber vinyl run. I'll have to put a seam in the covering when I wrap it. It's been years since I've done that kind of work, so I'm testing it out a few times before I do the final run on the head.

Test piece turned out pretty good so far:

Nice straight edge and the vinyl glued down nice and clean:

I masked off the interior black areas I want to avoid getting a bunch of glue on it.

Good time to recycle some old note pads

I'm going to sand down the top surface lightly as some of the grain raised when I pulled the blue tape off after the black paint went on. Weird.

 

[Ghostman]

And we're off to the races. I've never been more nervous about a box...

Got the vinyl laid out and cut down to size. It's long enough to wrap over itself on the bottom side.

I

I marked the centerline with a marker and then coated the vinyl and the box top. I laid it out and got the first part on. After I wrapped it up over to start the bottom seam. I put down a strip of blue tape to be a guide for cutting the seam in.

Since the seam went fairly well. It's time for the rest of the wrap up....

Corners SUCK! But at least I have corner protectors to cover them up.

First side done...

As I started to get more done, I had to cover up some of the new vinyl to prevent a bunch of overspray of glue.

More progress pics...

This was the end of the first side.

With some lessons learned on the first side, I made some strategic cuts before I began the glue up.

Corners prepped

And the final wrap is complete.

Next steps are to start the trim on the insides, cut out the grill opening, and then on to final assembly.

 

[Ghostman]

When I got home, I started to trim up the insides and excess vinyl. There ended up having a few spots that I didn't glue up, that I will fix with some spot gluing.

Front and rear seams turned out pretty well still.

Trim turned out clean.

The rear panel is tight, but fits

The hardware starts. The handles and grill go on first.

The vinyl thickness makes the brass screws fit perfect and don't stick out the bottom.

Starting to come together. I will put on the corner protectors and feet tonight. If I can stop myself, I will wait on the chassis and front panel. I did receive word that my new graphics are complete and ready to be picked up.

Ok. Hardware is complete. Corner protectors are on, and the feet are on. The only thing left is the custom faceplate.

She got a sexy backside. And tight too!

I temporarily put on the old panel just to get an idea...

This weekend, I'm driving an hour and half South to go pick up my new graphics. I can't wait for it to be shipped. Then hopefully it will be done by Sunday night.

 

[Ghostman]

Last day of customs:

The vinyl graphics showed up while I was in Denver. What a way to get welcomed home.

I opened the package and there were two of them. She printed me a second just in case something went wrong. She said that she marked the better of the two.

I wonder if I should use this one?

Problem. I Didn't take into account the loss of surface area when I had the edges rounded off. The width would fit, but the height, the edge band falls onto the top and bottom edge.

It's a big sticker. I ended up cutting it into sections to make it easier to put on, especially since I'm losing the edge banding.

Marked the center to get it all lined up, and then put some blue tape down to keep the center mark after the protective layer gets pulled.

First and second squares went on without a hitch. Making progress

This is the center section and I kept this as a single piece. It also shows some of the process. I line up the vinyl to the previous square that went on, and then tape it in place. I pull the vinyl from the other end, and pull off the substrate. I'll cut it down slightly and then apply it to the Acrylic plate. Once that's in place I can pull up the blue tape, and then peel the backing off carefully. Since the graphics are anchored with the first application, I just roll it on.

After getting the graphics to transfer, it's time to mark the drill spots for the Randall Logo.

Logo plate time. Setting the Randall logo up to get it aligned.

I traced the center graphics cutout which is the void where the Randall logo will sit. I marked the mounting posts and drilled. Acrylic does NOT like to get drilled so it kind of broke out on the backside. Good think I can't see the back. Holes drilled and logo in place.

The final peal starts:

I forgot to drill in the mounting holes to attach it to the head cabinet. Since the acrylic is easy to break, I drilled pilot holes and then made them larger with the correct drill bit size.

And then mounted the final plate up.

Final product. Fortin has the Meathead. Well...

... meet Pinhead

 

[Ghostman]

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Thing is Sic lookin. Love it. Nice work.

 

[Amp Mad Scientist]

When I got home, I started to trim up the insides and excess vinyl. There ended up having a few spots that I didn't glue up, that I will fix with some spot gluing.

Front and rear seams turned out pretty well still.

Trim turned out clean.

The rear panel is tight, but fits

The hardware starts. The handles and grill go on first.

The vinyl thickness makes the brass screws fit perfect and don't stick out the bottom.

Starting to come together. I will put on the corner protectors and feet tonight. If I can stop myself, I will wait on the chassis and front panel. I did receive word that my new graphics are complete and ready to be picked up.

Ok. Hardware is complete. Corner protectors are on, and the feet are on. The only thing left is the custom faceplate.

She got a sexy backside. And tight too!

I temporarily put on the old panel just to get an idea...

This weekend, I'm driving an hour and half South to go pick up my new graphics. I can't wait for it to be shipped. Then hopefully it will be done by Sunday night.

dude, those graphics are Mary Tyler Moore on LSD.

 

[eSGEe]

oh man I woulda Done her

 

[Far Rider]

That is hypnotizing. I can't look away.

 

[Don O]

Great documentary Ghostman!