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What's a good size to contain an amp kit like the MAH5?

I can't find anything on the MAH5 site that indicates the parameters that work well as far as size. I'm looking for a cool wooden box to utilize and don't want it too small or too big. I'm thinking the components must be geared towards something about the size of the Pignose 7-100, which is about 11 x 8 x 6.

I found this box that's supposed to be made of wood and metal . . . the auction ended just as I found it, so I couldn't ask any questions to find out if the sides are made of wood. Does this look like it would work acoustically? It was 11 x 9 x 7.5. I thought it was pretty cool.

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Box, Signal Corps Test Set World War II.png, 804 KB
Box, Signal Corps World War II.png, 805 KB

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jacobsen on February 18, 2015 at 7:46am

Those look awesome! Thanks for the good advice.

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jacobsen on February 18, 2015 at 9:11am

That's a point . . . but at the same time, if it's 11 inches tall, it looks like a 3 or 5 inch speaker could fit on top of the label, and then I could put my knobs below. Whatever I do, it'll mess up the authenticity of the box itself, I guess, but I'd like to leave it as is as much as possible.

I'm SO hoping whoever put this on eBay responds to my message that I'm interested and puts it up again!

It's hopeful to hear you say a CBG "pretty much always works". I'm gathering the materials for my first one, which will have mahogany top and back (1/8"), bubinga sides (1/4"), a birdseye maple neck with bocote fretboard, and a maple headstock. I've got a small piece of oak from an old tree that was there near Longstreet's division at the Battle of Gettysburg . . . that'll be my bridge. It'll be 4-string so I can use regular tuning on 4 strings, or other tunings. I figure it'll give me the Delta possibilities with some variety for messing around.

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on February 18, 2015 at 9:11am

That's a great WW2 Signal Corps box. I agree with Wayfinder, that keeping the placard and inner schematic info intact is a good idea, to maintain the box's historical integrity.

The box is big enough for either a 6" or 8" speaker, and the MAH-5 will certainly be able to handle it if, as Wayfinder said, you match the ohms and recommended wattage range for the circuit. The current listing on fleabay for the MAH5 shows the kit with four 2.5" 8ohm, 5 watt speakers wired in series/parallel. It also indicates you can use either a 4 or 8 ohm load. So if you're going with a single speaker, chances are you can go with a 20 watt in either ohm load, or even a dual speaker setup, within the circuits parameters.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 18, 2015 at 12:41pm

Considering the historical relevance of the box, you may want to look into the possibility of building a lid for the deeper part of the box that would allow you to mount your speakers and use the amp by opening up the box for performances. That way the box can remain in its original condition while you still get a great looking speaker cabinet. It looks like the deeper half of the box has enough room to encase speakers.