(right) I was inspired by Charles Altmann to rebox some amps. The idea is to get pure tone by using wood that sings, no metal grilles or handles and very few parts. Would you put metal corners and carpet on a violin?

(left) I made this speaker box when I was about 10, and I still use it. It's got I think a 4" speaker. I love the sound of televison through a tube amp and a mono no tweeter speaker.

(above) I put these big chunks of pine resin from Norfolk Pine trees in glass jars full of turpentine. After a week in the sun you end up with your own varnish. It lets the wood breath and age and to me the difference is astounding. I was surprised at how it made the amps quieter and the sound seems very fast and responsive - as soon as you play a note it's at your ear.

(above) the amp on the left was a GK micro pa that was in a metal cabinet. It was convenient but the sound drove me nuts. The amp on the right was a Boss powered monitor. A Miicro monitor something. It was unbelievably bad from the start. It's still unbelievable that something that bad would ever make it into production. Both these amps sound totally different since being reboxed. You can actually play a keyboard through them and play for an hour or two. In the original cabinets I couldn't do that. I take a lot of time selecting the wood, and go for the lowest pitched pine. And the finish is the pine resin and the grilles are my old Hawaiian (cotton or silk) shirts. Organic!

(left) this is a K-12M tube amp kit. I made the cabinet - the grille top is an upside down letter holder from the hardware store. The amp puts out 8W per side and I only have to run it at about 30%. I was surprised that it is as good as it is. It's more than enough to power my NS-10M monitors. I use a 80W Harman/Kardon 430 receiver to power a 12" homemade subwoofer. The K-12M amp doesn't have a funky tube sound like a guitar tube amp. It's real quiet, I'm never bothered by the hum, and it doesn't roll the top off like I thought it might. The amp it replaced was a 40W per channel Sony solid state amp. At less than $150 for the basic kit, this is probably one of the best bargains in sound on the planet. I want one for my car and another one for my tv.