My completed build

[radiowires]

After spending a couple of hours each day for the past week, I've finished my Crack! It's technically not 100% complete (the shellac spray that I applied to the box has an "orange peel" texture that I want to try to rub out later; badge is in the mail; Speedball is awaiting installation in a few months), but I couldn't wait to plug it in and give it a spin.

I've attached a couple of photos, as I'm quite proud of how it turned out! I think that it actually looks better in person than in photos.

I also took some time to write a Reddit post to present some of the information that I've learned along the way, which might be helpful for beginners like myself: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/bkhqrc/a_beginners_guide_to_the_bottlehead_crack/ If you see anything inaccurate, please let me know and I can edit it.

Thanks very much to all of you for creating and maintaining a friendly and welcoming community. I appreciate the time and effort that you spend educating us newcomers -- I'm excited to try other audio projects...

 

[fromnowon]

Looks really beautiful!

 

[adydula]

Great Job!!

Enjoy it before you Speedball....so you will get used to its sound now etc..

Alex

 

[Deke609]

I really like the color of the base. Is that just from the shellac, or did you stain it first?

 

[radiowires]

Thank you! I used this dark brown walnut aniline dye: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L2LOP4/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The dye gave the wood a surprisingly violet tint, which wasn't bad, just unexpected. After applying the shellac, it is now a golden brown, which I like quite a lot!

 

[Deke609]

Looks great. Thanks for the link. I think I'll try some aniline dye for one of my amps.

 

[Crackawaka]

This looks fantastic! Like you, I'm also sitting on my speedball kit and are enjoying it stock right now.