Disclaimer: if you're paranoid about things like warranty and maintenance of a mint finish, don't do this. I wanted a modular system more than a spotless small-gig combo.
Recently I wanted to downsize, and I also wanted a small head, and I'm really cheap. After doing the search grind I found that the TC was pretty well reviewed and that the head is pretty much identical to the head sold separately (the high eq has a different cut and boost setpoint on the 208 than on the separate head), so I bought it with the intent of hacking it in two.
STEP ONE: REMOVE THE HEAD
I took the 6 screws off of the grill, and found TC had stuck the grill on with some tar looking adhesive (TC loves this stuff). I had to wedge one corner up high enough to get a screwdriver under it and then it was pretty easy to slowly get the grill pulled up. I chipped a tiny bit of grill paint here and put a barely noticable bend in the same place.
From there I took off the four screws on the upper speaker and removed it, setting it on the lower speaker. From here you can access the 6 inner screws holding the amp in place..
TC glued these in with some sort of flexible enamel or something. It feels like a PL glue after it's dried but before it's cured. I had to chisel this off with a beating screwdriver and a hammer. The screws themselves are a 10-32 with a torx head (I forget the exact tip size).
Once I got those removed I expected the amp to fall right off, but no. The amp was glued to the cabinet with more adhesive like was on the grill. I wedged up the amp off of the glue and found two pieces of wood used as spacers that were stapled to the can and needed removed.
(Here they are removed)
The pic above shows how the empty back is is with all of the final pieces installed, but you can see the hole layout and how they didn't bother with finishing there.
STEP 2: REFITTING THE PARTS
The bottom of the head has 6 sleeves fitted to receive 10-32 screws, so putting feet on was easy. I used after market furniture feet because we had them around the house, but I saw better stuff at the hardware store later so I might change those down the road.
I wanted to be sure to seal up the cabinet and also make so the amp can't move when installed with the cab, so I put 4 #14 screws below the feet and 2 10-32 'blind inserts' into the middle two holes. I then installed two nylon 10-32 studs into to inserts on the head so they'll slide into the blind inserts on the cabinet, holding it in place.
STEP 3: TYING IT TOGETHER
I attached 4 angle brackets and tied some 3/32" rope to them and through a small locking hook. This hasn't been vetted by much time yet, so we'll see if this needs some updating.
There's a few things I might tweak to make it more sturdy, but I need to see how it wears before making those changes.
This was WAY more of a PITA than I expected when I started; the way TC locked everything down with adhesive was maddening. For me it was worth it since I like working on these sorts of things and I've used both the combo and the head since pulling them apart. Hopefully this thread helps you decide if it's a thing you'd like to do.
You can see the little guy here on my Jack210.
Thanks for your time.
Recently I wanted to downsize, and I also wanted a small head, and I'm really cheap. After doing the search grind I found that the TC was pretty well reviewed and that the head is pretty much identical to the head sold separately (the high eq has a different cut and boost setpoint on the 208 than on the separate head), so I bought it with the intent of hacking it in two.
STEP ONE: REMOVE THE HEAD
I took the 6 screws off of the grill, and found TC had stuck the grill on with some tar looking adhesive (TC loves this stuff). I had to wedge one corner up high enough to get a screwdriver under it and then it was pretty easy to slowly get the grill pulled up. I chipped a tiny bit of grill paint here and put a barely noticable bend in the same place.
From there I took off the four screws on the upper speaker and removed it, setting it on the lower speaker. From here you can access the 6 inner screws holding the amp in place..
TC glued these in with some sort of flexible enamel or something. It feels like a PL glue after it's dried but before it's cured. I had to chisel this off with a beating screwdriver and a hammer. The screws themselves are a 10-32 with a torx head (I forget the exact tip size).
Once I got those removed I expected the amp to fall right off, but no. The amp was glued to the cabinet with more adhesive like was on the grill. I wedged up the amp off of the glue and found two pieces of wood used as spacers that were stapled to the can and needed removed.
(Here they are removed)
The pic above shows how the empty back is is with all of the final pieces installed, but you can see the hole layout and how they didn't bother with finishing there.
STEP 2: REFITTING THE PARTS
The bottom of the head has 6 sleeves fitted to receive 10-32 screws, so putting feet on was easy. I used after market furniture feet because we had them around the house, but I saw better stuff at the hardware store later so I might change those down the road.
I wanted to be sure to seal up the cabinet and also make so the amp can't move when installed with the cab, so I put 4 #14 screws below the feet and 2 10-32 'blind inserts' into the middle two holes. I then installed two nylon 10-32 studs into to inserts on the head so they'll slide into the blind inserts on the cabinet, holding it in place.
STEP 3: TYING IT TOGETHER
I attached 4 angle brackets and tied some 3/32" rope to them and through a small locking hook. This hasn't been vetted by much time yet, so we'll see if this needs some updating.
There's a few things I might tweak to make it more sturdy, but I need to see how it wears before making those changes.
This was WAY more of a PITA than I expected when I started; the way TC locked everything down with adhesive was maddening. For me it was worth it since I like working on these sorts of things and I've used both the combo and the head since pulling them apart. Hopefully this thread helps you decide if it's a thing you'd like to do.
You can see the little guy here on my Jack210.
Thanks for your time.
