Sexy new side panels for Otari B3! *PIC*

[joeljoel1947]

Today I installed my new piano black finished side panels on my Otari MX-5050 B3. You can see the nice reflection on the side of a large reel of film I have hanging on the wall in the shot below.

IMHO, these really snazz-up the deck and now it matches the rest of my main system! :D

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg315/JoelKozlowski_2007/Newsides5050B2.jpg

[Web Police]

Great Looking side panels. :)

[joeljoel1947]

I appreciate the comment.

[jcmusic]

Hi Joel, it is kind of funny that you posted about side panels. I am right now putting the finishing touches on my side panels for my BII, and touching up the stand as well.

Jay

[Doug_Olitsky]

NICE-NICE

I did fin birch sides w/ clear laquer for that retro-Danish look on my Otari

[jcmusic]

That's great Joel I am sure the pic's don't really do them justice, well time to get back to the music. I am listening to The Best of Eric Clapton on R2R 7 1/2 ips pre-recorded tape, can't wait for the TP tapes.

Jay

[joeljoel1947]

Thanks all. Glad to see others had the same idea as me. The stock sides look rather, well, industrial.

I saw yours Doug and loved them. :D

Yes jcmusic, the pic really sucks as compared to "real life". The area is lit by halogen track lighting and it does weird things to my camera. I can never get a good pic of my stuff in this system, always looks grainy. :(

[Des-Lab]

Looks very nice. I'm impressed. I've wondered if maybe I shouldn't build a custom one for one of my decks.

Now re: pictures, I don't know what you are shooting with or what settings you are using, but you might want to consider some of the advanced settings: reduce the white balance by .5 to 1.0, increase the f stop to around 5 or 6, and set the exposure time to around 1/125 sec. Experiement a bit and see what you come up with. I seldom ever use the "auto" settings when taking pictures. Go look at the Maxell cassette gallery. Nearly every picture there was taken at a custom setting. It took about three days, two hours a night to take all of those pictures. Although all were taken in the same light, the different colors react differently to the camera. Play around with it a bit. You can really get some good shots. How do you think I got my "system in lights" in the dark pic? That one picture took almost an hour and umpteem shots to get just right. Also, depending on what image processing software you are using, you might want to try sharpening them up a bit. Most images tend to be a little on the soft side and for best results to see all the finer details, you almost always have to sharpen just a bit.

[joeljoel1947]

Hi Matt,
Thanks for the comment!

As for the camera: It's a basic Canon Powershot 6 mega-pixel that's a few years old. Nothing special. I have not played with any setting but "auto" and "flash off" so that shows what I know! I tried to get a shot in the dark like yours once and couldn't get ANYTHING close to that.

Looks like I'll need to dig into all the settings, thanks for the tip! :)

[Scorpion8]

Very nice. Looks great like that.

[Fast Forward]

I,m, ill, I,m trying to replace the factory sides on my A-6300 which were damaged in shipping, the dark stain came out ok but after applying the clear poly either by spray or brush I could never get the sides to look decent,, I have started to sand them down again,maybe I,ll leave them Light maple and not mess with them unless someone can tell me what I,m doing wrong

[joeljoel1947]

Hi FF,
Love to tell you I can help, but my friend did those panels for me. Why? Well, because I have had the same exact problems you are describing in the past!!! :o

[Doug_Olitsky]

Looking at that piano black, I may knock together some other sides and finish in different colors to spice it up a bit... red, yellow, perhaps a hammertone???

[joeljoel1947]

Sounds great Doug! I'd like mine ultraviolet purple! Then you can get them up for sale on Ebay for $6,000 like others do with the Technics 1500's:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Technics-1500-Reel-To-Reel-ULTRAVIOLET_W0QQitemZ160246119481QQihZ006QQcategor yZ15000QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Fast Forward]

Hi FF,
Love to tell you I can help, but my friend did those panels for me. Why? Well, because I have had the same exact problems you are describing in the past!!! :oYea, it,s getting rid of the brush strokes that botthers me , I heard that shellac might be worth a try or maybe try a hand rub, linseed oil or stain it then go to my local body shop and ask them to finish it in clear lacquer

[joeljoel1947]

Lots of sanding...

To get the finish on my piano sides, here is what my friend did. Keep in mind, this gets you a mirror like finish:

The process involves priming with Krylon sandable primer, appling three or four coats of Krylon gloss black lacquer, sand smoothing with 1000 grit wet/dry paper, appling three or four more coats, sand again with 1000 grit, apply three or four coats of gloss Deft lacquer, wet sand with successive grades of 1000, 1200, 1500, and 2000 grit paper. Finally, a buff with automotive rubbing compound and polish with 3M Finesse-it polishing compound. Yeah, it's about 12 hours labor per-panel.....

[grncoup]

Yea, it,s getting rid of the brush strokes that botthers me , I heard that shellac might be worth a try or maybe try a hand rub, linseed oil or stain it then go to my local body shop and ask them to finish it in clear lacquer
unfortunatly in most areas of the country lacquer paint is no longer available. fortunatly the urethane clears are much better. the bad part is if you don't have the proper safety gear, the stuff can kill you. take your side panels to a custom paint shop for clearing, color sanding and buffing and they will look like a piece of glass!