I have always wanted a "rack that matches my cab" type of look that I have seen on TB from time to time. I also wanted a rack that was light. Unloaded my gator 2u rack bag weighs a bit over 9LBS. So what I have is built a 2u rack out of 1/4 inch pine ply and I have managed to get the weight down to 4LBS unloaded. The rack is not perfect and is still not quite finished... but close.
Front - As you may notice the bottom corner protectors are not quite right. I tried to cut them square with a razor but that is harder than it sounds to get perfect. I have been thinking of trying to correct this but hey perhaps the imperfections add to the charm? That's what I try to tell myself anyway.
Rack rear. The rack is built to fit perfectly on top of my fEARful 15/6. I have about 6 inches of space behind my gkmb800, but darn it to heck its not enough to fit my mini pedal board in there. Bummer. I like to keep things simple with just two cords. Power cord attached to an extension cord and a speaker cable I built with speakons. On the left you can see a small block of wood I put in there who's purpose is to keep the cable from the amp and the cable from the ART 341 Dual band EQ tidy. It works well.
Another shot of the front. I built the rack ears out of Italian Poplar scraps I had left over and wrapped it in tolex. I used PL adhesive to join them and its very sturdy. Certainly enough for a 5LB amp and much cheaper than the $30 rack ears from GK. One thing I don't like is that the protector 'bars' from the amp jut out quite a bit, but I guess they serve a meaningful purpose.
Bottom edge opposite the handle. Small feet used to convserve weight... plus its what I had on hand. This is the first time I've used tolex like this and as you can see my seams are far from perfect.
Bottom. Big feet used for clearnace of the strap I have on my 15/6. I actually had the box for this rack given a 1/4 inch round over at the same time I had my cab rounded over (the guy who cut my 15/6 wood also did the round-overs). However, unfortunately, I initially built the height of this box too small and it was probably 1.5u or something. Pretty useless so I sawed the bottom panel off and made it the correct 2u space. The result was I lost the roundover on the bottom edge. I can live with that, but another imperfection... charming though right?
Handle side. I bought this bone style handle at the local music shop... hence the Fender script. I suppose some people think that's cool, but I could do with out it. Very combfortable handle though. You are probably wondering about the pirate sticker. What happened was there was a dime sized blotch of PL on there that dried over night. Try as I might I could not get it off. I asked my 7 year old son if he had a sticker he could give me (he as MANY) and he gave me this one. Perfect! It might be a little corny or unprofessional looking, but I don't really care. Plus, I had to cover it with something!
Top. As with the bottom you can see slight ripples in the tolex. If I could go back in time I would have placed something heavy and flat on this thing to prevent the ripples. The top isn't as bad as the bottom but I can live with both. By the way, PL does work very well with tolex. I love the fact that it doesnt stink and I can do the work in my condo with my family nearby.
If you weren't convinced that this was DIY (not likely) you should be now! The Jenga pieces were more or less a good fit for the back pieces where I will use velcro to attach the back panel. My son doesnt seem to mind the two Jenga pieces missing.
I purposely used a liberal amount of PL around the edges of the tolex to prevent fraying.
Here is the back panel piece and the last bit of work to finish on this thing. I need to cut the tolex where the hole is and put PL it on. Pretty sure the hole will be a good way of getting the panel off and it doesnt extrude out. I also placed my mini pedal board in the pic. From left to right - Sansamp paradriver, pitchblack tuner, and boss GEB7. The yellow box is where I keep my picks (used maybe 3 songs a night) and earplugs. This pedal board gives me alot of versatility and I easily stick in the pocket of my gig bag to use wherever needed. I plan to improve on this thing too. I have a Source Audio Programmable EQ enroute which will give me 4 different eq settings and that will replace the GEB7. I removed the top of the GEB7 so I can tap it easier with my fingers. I'm crazy like that.
I'm also going to replace those small cables with some George L's and shorten them to 3 inches. Too bad this pedal board won't fit in the back of the rack as I intended. Well it will but the speakon and amp plug are in the way.
With back panel on. It will keep the cords in nicely. Eventually, I'll get a nice cover made for this thing. Probably should do it before the tolex gets ripped up.
Once my Source Audio Programmable EQ arrives and I re-do the pedal board, I will make changes to the rack. I will remove the ART 341 Dual 15 band eq and move the gk mb800 all the way to the opposite end of the handle. This will be best for balance and will allow me to stick the pedal board in the back of the rack with the new found space.
Anyway, that's my DIY 2u rack. It looks quite nice on top of my 15/6.
