Dressing up Ampex 2012 tube amps

[whitfiel]

I'm seeking some ideas for dressing up a pair of Ampex 2012 tube amplifiers.

For several years now I've enjoyed using a pair of Ampex 2012 amps on my main stereo system. The 2012 amps were pulled out of a two channel Ampex reel-to-reel recorder. They are based on the 6V6 tube. Other Ampex amps with similar circuit topology include 612, 620, and 692.

I would like to dress these amps up a little, orient the tubes vertically instead of horizontally (see pix at URL below), and maybe find a way to stack them vertically. I like the front panels, which poses a problem in trying to orient the tubes vertically. I also like the "wrapped in wood" look similar to the BottleHead amps, which would be possible if I didn't keep the original front panels.

Here's a photo of my amps:
http://frontiernet.net/~whitfield/ampex_tube_small.jpg

Thoughts on how to dress these up a bit?

Thanks,
Art

[martinab2]

If they were mine I would leave pretty much as is. Maybe a mesh cage and a second set of speaker connections somewhere less noticeable, but thats about it.
I guess you could rebuild into another case but then you will lose that 'retro original' look

[planet10]

I can't see putting it into a new chassis... i do wonder whether you could stand it on end on a little riser (connections facing down)

dave