Many thanks to Karl for permission to use the following pics of his Dominator 50 head.

 

The following pics show a Dominator 50 that I used to have in my collection.

Ok, I confess. The amp started life as a combo but the grill cloth, logo and metal strip were all missing and the drivers were damaged beyond repair. Also, I already had a Dominator 50 combo so the decision was made to convert the amp to a stand-alone head.

This wasn’t as easy as it may sound as the Dominator 50 head casing had a completely different design to the combo casing.

I had a reference point, thanks to the Bells Musical Instruments catalogues that I have.

The amp was removed from the combo and given a full health check. It needed new EL34 power valves and new switches plus a good clean up but, other than that, it was good to go.

First step was to make a casing using 12mm ply. The measurements were estimated based on the pics although the width was fairly obvious as it had to match the amp chassis –

I then covered the casing with black basket-weave tolex and fitted original air vents from the combo and a new handle which was an exact match for the original, plus a new set of feet acquired from an old WEM amp. At this point I was also able to fit the amp into place.

Next step was to make new front and back panels. I managed to get 2 metals strips made up by a local company and a local sign writer did the lettering for me. The amp is now complete and looks pretty good and sounds even better.

Here are some pics of the finished head –

 

And here are some pics of the inside of the chassis which you may find interesting –