Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers

I bought a used Ampeg J-20 (20 watts 6V6 PP w/ 12" speaker) tube amp last year and was never happy with its thin and boxy sound.

Last month I bought another Ampeg, this time a solid state GT-10 (20 watts w/ original 10" CTS speaker). Comparing it to the J-20, it sounded much more full with a better low-end.

The previous owner of the J-20 swapped the original alnico 12" speaker for an Eminence Wizard so I tried a couple of vintage Alnico 12" JBL's, D131 & D123. They both sounded better than the Eminence but not nearly as good as the GT-10 with 10" speaker.

Since the previous owner (and myself) had mauled the baffle by swapping speakers, I decided to make a new baffle and cut a hole for a 10" speaker instead of the factory 12" which seemed to crowd the cabinet. I used threaded inserts instead of tapping the screws directly to the plywood as the factory did, it's much more secure and allows me to easily swap speakers in the future if the need arises.

This was a good move, the 10" Celestion is a very good match for this amp and enclosure, it sounds as good and maybe better than the solid state GT-10...

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Great job, and I love using threaded inserts for speaker mounts.