Practice amps. Every guitarist has had one, or will have one. Most often it's a tiny solid state affair with 10 watts, an 8" speaker, and an amplifier circuit as cold as a ex-lover's heart. They are usually cheap, and passable for limited bedroom use. They sound awful, but they are cheap.
I have several amps in the 100+ watt range, and while they are great for different sized gigs, they really don't lend themselves to late night practice, or a jam on the patio. A while back I decided that I needed a small amp. I work evenings and like to play while everyone is asleep.
There are a lot of practice amps to choose from. Most of them are as I described in the first paragraph, but there are some great small amps. Cost was also a factor for me since the practice amp would likely never go to a gig, I didn't want to spend too much money on it. Why by a $300 amp just to play late at night? I really don't need the amp modeling available on some of the fancier combo amps, I have a Digitech RP-1000 that works for that. I did however want reverb which seems like asking for the moon in small amps.
I eventually settled on the Fender 25R Frontman. It pushes 25 watts through a 10" speaker. There is a clean and a dirty channel, a spring reverb tank, and it weighs about as much as my Telecaster. I ordered it and was delighted when I first played through it. It sounds like a much more expensive amp, but the cost was right about $100 US. Heck of a deal.
Small amps usually sound better if they are on an amp stand, and the 25R is no exception, but I really wasn't interested in dropping another $30 on an amp stand. I looked at several DIY amp stands on the web and thought most of them looked pretty ridiculous. For the money I might be better off just using a piece of discarded lumber to tilt it back.
I ran across several pictures of "Sound Enhancers" during my amp stand search. The company is no longer in business, but their stands still sell for quite a bit on eBay, and the reviews I've read were favorable. The photo on the left shows one of the mini models.Looking at the unit it doesn't seem all that complex. It looks like plywood covered in tolex. A home model for me could be painted and serve its intended purpose.
I started off by measuring the amp opening on the back, and the width/depth of the amp. Then just designed something that would encapsulate the opening on the back of the amp, and redirect the sound out of the front of the unit. Since the sound waves coming from that back are slightly out of phase with the front waves the amp sounds louder, and much richer. I ended up painting mine brown, putting on some feet I had laying around, and even put a carrying handle on the top. My design has an advantage over the professionally made one, mine has a flat surface on top that is large enough to hold a canned beverage of your choosing. See? I'm looking out for you...
The diagram below shows the dimensions of the amp stand/sound enhancer that I designed and built. Several people have used the design to build their own and have been pleased with the project. If you decide to build it, please send me a photo and I will add it to the website. Please feel free to share with anyone who can use it. Oh, and check out the DIY video at the bottom. =)
The dimensions in the measured drawing are in 16ths.
The measurement 9.07 is 9-7/16"
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