[cessna1466u]

I have been asked a couple of times about how I painted my inuke amp and how much work goes into it so I thought I would post a quick tutorial. First every tutorial so please bare with me.


A couple of things I need to note first off: This will most likely void your warranty!


This is an electronic, so it has the ability to shock you, please make sure you disconnect the amp before you do anything. Be very careful when you work with the cover off.


1. Take your time, there is no rush.

2. Multiple light coats of paint is always better than one thick coat right away, it prevents drips and comes out smoother, in my opinion.

3. Carefully tape all the exposed places that will not receive paint.

4. I know living without an amp for a day or so is tough but let it dry overnight, the can says it dries to the touch in 20 minutes but its a lie. As soon as you start to press on parts to get them in place you will leave fingerprints and possible smudges. Wait over night.

5. I waited about 30 minutes between coats. I did 3 coats total.

6. No need to scuff of the paint, if you get a quality spray paint it will stick on there without needing to sand first.


Tools you will need:




Here we go.


First off you need to remove the top cover. There are 6 screws on top. Use your phillips #2 for this. Once you remove this the insides are exposed, be careful with your tools.



Once you have the top off you can begin to unplug the wires that connect the front of the amp to the main board. There are about 7 connectors and 1 screw that you will need to remove. Use your needle nose pliers since some have the glue on them. Grab the connector as low as possible and pull up. Do not wiggle from side to side. Take pictures of their location so that you can remember where they go or refer back here.

The power wires (Red/Black) go in in a certain location, the connector is the same for both so remember which one goes were. You will also be removing a couple of zip ties that hold the wires from the face to the body of the amp. Remember where these go as well. See the arrow that says to not remove that wire from there, it looks like a connector but it is actually permanent, so remove that wire further back on the board and not there.












Once the face of the amp is completely disconnected you can begin to unscrew that face. There are a total of 7 screws to remove the face. 2 on either side by the bracket that would be used to mount the amp to a rack:




And 3 on the bottom:







Your face is now free from the body of the amplifier. The next thing you will need to do is to remove the handles. To do this you will see 2 black screws on the inside of the face plate on either side. Remove these screws and the handles will come off.




After removing the handle the only other things I like to take off are the gain knobs on the face and the 2 bottom screws of the fan shroud on the back. This will make things easier when it comes time to paint.




I also pry off the rubber feet on the bottom, there us usually enough glue left on the rubber to attach them back to the amp after painting.




You amp is now ready to prep for paint, on posts 2 & 3 I will go over the steps to prepping/tapping and then putting it all back together.

 

[cessna1466u]

Ok, time to prep for paint. As I mentioned earlier you will not need to scuff up the paint on this since its already pretty rough and the paint will stick to it pretty good, especially if you due multiple light coats. I started by taping up the back of the amp, where the fan shrouds are. I use the smaller 3/4" thick tape to outline the back plate then fill in with larger tape. I run it over the edges on the sides and bottom then use a blade/exacto knife to trim it.





After the back is done I move on to tape up and cover the insides and the tabs for mounting to rack. I first run a thick strip along the bottom of the front and along the sides, I don't go all the way to the edges on the sides and the tabs because when you put it back together there is always a gap and if you tape to the gap and leave it gray it will show. See pictures. After the taping is done, I attach newspaper to cover the electronics. This part is crucial make sure to cover everything. Press hard on every edge to make sure its all sealed up.






Taping the face takes a little more patience and this is where you want to take your time and make sure all is good. For the back of the face I use 2 of the zip ties and tuck all the wires into the space behind the face plate. I then run tape around the entire back area to cover the wires. Yes there is vents in the front and unfortunately when you spray it some of the paint will get back there and get some of the wires but not much at all. There is a spot here where you don't want to tape all the way to the edge. See the arrow.





Once the back of the face plate is done then you can move to the front of the face (Controls). Make sure the knobs for the gain are removed and it usually takes only 2 long lengths of the 1.5" tape. I let it run over the edge and trim with a knife. Take your time, sometimes knifes have a mind of their own and will run off. There is a bit of a groove where the decal from Behringer and the plastic meet so your knife will run right along that as long as you take your time.





The last thing I did to prep was to get the handles and screws ready for paint. I turned a small box upside down and used a screwdriver to make small holes in it. I then pressed the scews in half way and used 2" finish nails with no heads on them to prop up the handles. Sorry for the terrible picture.




You are now ready for paint. See next post for some paint tips and putting back together.

 

[cessna1466u]

Paint time tips.


Do multiple light coats. I always run the first stream along the edges then work my way in. I do lines across one way then come back and do lines the other way. (crosshatch pattern) Lay the parts down on small scrap pieces of wood so that they are not touching your table/stand that you are painting on. Shake your can very good, and make sure you use a lint free rag to remove any dust from the pieces you are painting. Remember multiple light coats, don't rush it and don't just cake it on.


Let dry for 30 minutes or so between coats. Paint the backside of the face plate first, then you can turn it around carefully and it will sit on the tap and you can paint the front. The best way to get into the front grill area is to come at it at an angle. From both sides.


Same thing with the handles. Tilt them one way in the nail then get in there even underneath with the spray. When it dries, give it a second coat. After that you can til it the other way and get underneath that.





I didn't take many pictures of the painting process, its pretty simple. If you need instructions on how to spray paint, I am sure you can find info on google.


Once all the pieces are dry overnight, its time to remove the tape and put it back together. Take care removing the tape, again slow and easy.





When putting everything back together I like to start in this order.


Put rubber feet back on the bottom of the amp. This will help when you set it down to put the rest together.


Put screws back on fan shroud in the back of the amp.


Put handles on front face. They will be a little tight so be careful not to scratch the face when putting them in. Attach them using the 2 black screws on the back.


Attach the face back to the amplifier. Start with the 4 screws that are on the sides. These will be painted black and they are the sheet metal screws. They look the same as the others but have the course threads. Only 4 of them total.


Then attach the 3 that go on the bottom.


Now you can attach all the wires back. Be careful to not bend the prongs and to put them back in the correct places. There is a little diagram on the wafer board the shows which way the wires go.


Use zip ties to clean up the wiring along the edge of the amplifier as before. No need to put any glue on the connectors, if you want to it doesn't hurt but its not needed.


After all this is done you can now put the top on. It only goes one way, if you put it the backwards the screw holes will not align. Screw on the top 6 screws and you are set. I like to tape a sharpy afterwards to all the visible screws and touch them up. If you are careful and not forceful you might not need it.


One other thing I found that works nicely, is these o-rings to cover the front of the knobs where the blight orange light comes out of. At night this is pretty bright. These are from Lowes, plumbing department.





Ok, moment of truth. Here she is.

 

[chalugadp]

Awesome so far. Love the arrows

 

[kevings]


cess,

 

GREAT JOB!!!!

 

i know myself, and lots of other have been looking forward to checking this out.  I hope someone at behringer see's this and says to themselves... "hey, how about a new inuke HT line, painted black, AND with filtering below 20hz! "

 

yeah right, lol.  

 

and ps - and only cause we all hijack each others threads.....tomorrow another forum member is coming over to my place with his darbee.  Im excited to check it out.  If i end up buying one cess, which is likely, I would have no problem shipping it to you to try out for a week or so, considering you let me borrow the mic. 

 

[chalugadp]

Let us know how it is kevings. I know he will be impressed with your Marty's

 

[cessna1466u]



Quote:
Originally Posted by kevings  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24600316


cess,


GREAT JOB!!!!


i know myself, and lots of other have been looking forward to checking this out.  I hope someone at behringer see's this and says to themselves... "hey, how about a new inuke HT line, painted black, AND with filtering below 20hz! "


yeah right, lol.  


and ps - and only cause we all hijack each others threads.....tomorrow another forum member is coming over to my place with his darbee.  Im excited to check it out.  If i end up buying one cess, which is likely, I would have no problem shipping it to you to try out for a week or so, considering you let me borrow the mic. 

That would be awesome, I saw a few on ebay from $239 to $399 I don't know the difference between them but would love to try it out before I buy it.


Also since we are dreaming here, maybe Behringer can do a 5 channel with dsp. One of those and a 600dsp and you have a very nice setup. I can only imagine what these MTMs, Tempests and such will sound with some true 200 watts or so to them.

 

[chalugadp]

Sending 220 watts from my parasound to the mtm 8. It eats it up.

 

[cessna1466u]

I saw your signature yesterday with the Parasound on it and looked it up online. One guy has one local for $750. Ouch. My Yamaha is maybe sending 80 W to it.

 

[chalugadp]

Why not get a used three channel amp sometime in the future. There is plenty on ebay for around 400-500. Just use them for front stage. Thanks to the high sensitivity your yamaha will be fine.

 

[Sibuna]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chalugadp  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry/0_100#post_24600387


Sending 220 watts from my parasound to the mtm 8. It eats it up.

i run my tempests from the XPA-3, i have hooked them up to the EP4000 before /evil grin


we had the volts running of the EP or the XLS 2500 at Rillas as well


used XPA-3s are really reasonable in price

 

[cessna1466u]



Quote:
Originally Posted by chalugadp  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24600465


Why not get a used three channel amp sometime in the future. There is plenty on ebay for around 400-500. Just use them for front stage. Thanks to the high sensitivity your yamaha will be fine.

OCD, it wont match my other amplifier.

I was thinking of the inuke 4-6000. I can run the front stage of 3 channels and use the 4th one for my outdoor speakers. I wonder if you can run 3 channels at 6ohm and the 4th at 4ohm. Or do all channels need to be at the same ohm rating?

 

[chalugadp]

All have to be same ohm.

 

[jpmst3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by cessna1466u  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24600514


OCD, it wont match my other amplifier.

I was thinking of the inuke 4-6000. I can run the front stage of 3 channels and use the 4th one for my outdoor speakers. I wonder if you can run 3 channels at 6ohm and the 4th at 4ohm. Or do all channels need to be at the same ohm rating?

You can run any load on any channel as long as it within the recommended load range for the amplifier. Each channel is independent...

 

[cessna1466u]

Thanks, this is all down the road. I need to get my mains and surrounds first. I just put them in my cart today to see how much it would cost and I cannot believe it. For about the cost of what my store bought sub cost a few months ago I can get 4 awesome sounding speakers. I cannot wait!

 

[jpmst3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by cessna1466u  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24600816


Thanks, this is all down the road. I need to get my mains and surrounds first. I just put them in my cart today to see how much it would cost and I cannot believe it. For about the cost of what my store bought sub cost a few months ago I can get 4 awesome sounding speakers. I cannot wait!

It is a hell of a deal. I might go that route in the future.

 

[chalugadp]

I know it's crazy. For the price of my commercial center channel a year ago , I could buy a pair of tux 1099.

 

[Bombelman]

nice!!

 

[jbrown15]



Quote:
Originally Posted by kevings  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24600316


how about a new inuke HT line, painted black, AND with filtering below 20hz! "

I agree with the part about having it come black from the factory, but it already can high pass filter below 20hz.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1496365/another-ltd02-designed-sub-build/100_50#post_24005480

 

[cessna1466u]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombelman  /t/1527053/painting-your-inuke-aka-black-berry#post_24601288


nice!!

Thank you. How is that sub sounding. I was following your thread about it but never read anything about the how it sounded.