Just a few more points to consider:
1) Note how the valves are near the front of the amp? That means that they'd be right under the top of the cab when the chassis is tilted so heat build-up would be quite severe without some top-mounted vents in the cab. On the plus side that probably means they wouldn't foul the speaker.
2) The valves would be mounted sideways, not vertically as they normally would. As the kit is for an upright head, the kit doesn't seem to include any valve retaining devices, so adding some of your own would be pretty vital otherwise they will vibrate loose over time.
3) The reverb tank is attached to the top of the chassis. If left like this, it would then be hanging sideways and reverb tanks are not meant to hang like this and will sound terrible. So it will need to be re-located to the floor of the cab. Easy enough to do, just need a longer dual RCA lead. Don't be tempted to re-use any reverb tank left on the Kustom, as it will invariable have the wrong input and output impedances and not work.
^^^ This is the side of the amp chassis that will be facing outwards (towards the back). So any vents in a back panel (see below) won't really do much for the valve heating problem. There's not a lot of heat-producing components within the chassis, so it doesn't really require much cooling. The big hot items (transformers and valves) are all on the other side of the metal, away from the back panel. You will need top vents, but as said before, it looks like this amp chassis is smaller than the existing one, so some mesh grilles at either end of the control panel cut-out will help a lot.
^^^ So you'd end up with something like this -(you may even be able to re-use the same panel depending on the chassis size. Note that the current panel is bolted to the chassis only, so you'd probably need to add battens to the sides of the cab to screw the back to. Looks like there are 8 small screw holes for fixing the chassis to the base of the head, but fixing to wood, you might be better utilising the four larger square cut-outs with cage nuts and bolts (like 19" rack fixing use) to get larger-sized bolt heads. It's also easier to undo 4 large screws than 8 small ones!
However,
I'd also suggest that this isn't a 'kit' amp in the true sense of the word. You get complete PCBs, so you've only really got to fit some leads together, wire in the transformers, screw the PCBs to the chassis fit the valves, fit the knobs and you're there. You won't learn anything worthwhile about valve amps along the way. Not like getting a kit where you have to wire components to tag or turret boards, do all the wiring yourself and then (carefully) test it yourself. But maybe that's just what you want?
You'd really learn just as much by getting say a Blues Jr (or a Chinese copy), taking it apart and then putting it back together again.
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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
). I was concerned about the heat generated by the amp damaging the speaker (valves practically sitting right next to it) or causing glue to melt and the leather (or faux leather) to separate off.
