Marshall 4x12 slant cab recover 101

[JasonP]

thanks!

 

[Scumback Speakers]

You're welcome and good luck, JasonP.

 

[drspencer]

Well, let's see. We have to unscrew the baffle board, and take off the old cloth. It's pretty faded, to say the least (fade resistant black, huh? Oh yeah sure! LOL) and it's got ALOT of staples, roughly 40 per side. Get out one of the #1 small straight tip screwdrives and start prying them up. Those cheap computer toolkits have the perfect size for this, and they also fit the really small piping staples exactly, so break out the small straight tip screwdriver, slide it under the old black cloth, center under the staples and start prying them up. Then get out the pliers and pull them the rest of the way out. See ya in about 1/2 hour. Boring work, but... you have no choice.
Man, this cloth is OUTTA HERE, huh? Yuch!

Staples freaking everywhere.

How your white, gold or silver piping is cut to go around corners inside. This is the lower lefthand corner (looking from the backside). Notice the cut to the corner thru the piping bead? That's to allow it to bend at the corner and stay flat. Use extra staples here when you reattach it, too. Keeps it in place.

Upper righthand corner (from the rear view) of the piping where it starts and ends (notice there's no cut to round the corner as in the previous pic?)

The tolex should all just peel off with your fingers, or with a little persuasion from a screwdriver or knife blade now. Rip it all off... go ahead, get nuts!

Get the bottom, too. No half assed stuff here!

Someone asked how they get the angle on the baffle board for a slant cab. Here's how, take a good look. A precision angle cut I guess.

In the next installment, we'll dowel up the extra holes, and sand the cab smooth with a belt sander, and sanding blocks for the inside corners, etc. We'll get going on this on the weekend. Check back in two or three days for more instructions! Have a good afternoon, OK?
Scumbag

Is this baffle made of plywood or MDF/particle board? It looks like both sandwiched together.

Thanks

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Is this baffle made of plywood or MDF/particle board? It looks like both sandwiched together.

Thanks

The baffle board is plywood, the MDF is around the edges to raise the cloth. So they are sandwiched together, but the MDF pieces are only an inch or so wide.

 

[GreaserMatt]

This thread is great! I just bought an old Marshall "mystery" cab that has the older style tolex (pre-elephant style), but has no piping up top. It does come with the inserts on the top for a slant cab & they have the Marshall logo on them (it's a bottom cab). I will post some pics tonight or tomorrow (wife has the digital camera in palm springs right now). It's loaded with G12 Modern Lead 70 Celestions, which I was told were JCM 800 era speakers. Non-orig grillcloth on a maybe non-orig baffle (it looks like a baffle from a slant cab may have been installed in this thing). My plan was to recover the grillcloth with period correct stuff (large checkerboard I believe) & rock the thing, since it's got non-orig drivers in it. From what I've read online, I think this is a 1976 cabinet. Matt

 

[Roccaforte Amps]

OK, we left off with stripping the cab, and now move to the most enviable task of all... taking off the glue residue. Thrilled, aren't you? (Yeah, me neither...barf!)

My advice is get one of the workbenches you can raise and lower, get two clamps, an electic belt sander of 4" or wider, a hand sanding block, 40 grit & 80 grit sandpaper for the sanding block. Outfit your belt sander with 50 grit, get two belts in case you find that hidden staple, screw, whatever. It happened to me during this..

OK start by getting your workmate bench up to a comfortable height you can reach WITH the cab on top. At 6'2" I had my bench about the height of my upper thighs, then added on the 30" of the cab height and got just around shoulder height. Do what's comfortable for you. Then clamp your cab with diagonally so it won't flex. Or use more if you want, it's up to you.

Make sure your clamps are tight, no deviations. Get out the belt sander. Keep two things in mind right now.
1) 50 Grit sandpaper cuts quick. Do not push in, let the sander's weight be your only force. I'll show you why later...
2) Hold on tight! The 50 grit paper will grip the wood and take off if you're not holding on. Forget the gym today, I did!
Use the belt sander going with the grain (side to side the long way, usually) of the wood. Move quickly, go back and forth. Typical time to do one side with FRESH paper, 2-3 minutes.
Back sides of the cab, you can do with the belt sander the long way only, and very sparingly, it will strip these small width pieces LIKE THAT, and if you hang on too long you have ruts, or rounded edges where you don't want them. We'll fix with wood filler, but it's easier NOT to make that mistake.
After 20 minutes of sanding your cab you should be looking like this on all four sides, but here's the top for reference:

Now you get to clean out the back indents. That's where the back panel fits in flush to the back of the cab. You have to get that goop, glue, sawdust, and crap out of there to finish the tolexing. I knew you'd be thrilled. Get a single edged safety razor, the 40 grit sandpaper, and a sanding block. Put the 40 grit in the block. Sand a little of the indent to get it warm, then take the razor and scrape the goop out. Here's the area I'm talking about:

After you get going on it, you'll get a feel for how much sanding you need to do, before it needs to be scraped with the razor. The glue will dry up alot, but still be sticky, but you can still get a nice little ball of crap each time you scrape. Anyway, angle the blade to scrape the goop off, and angle it into corners, press in and scrape those corners out good. When it starts looking like this, you're close. Remember to alternate the sanding block and the razor. Neither does it all, but they do well in tandem.

This operation should take around 30 minutes to an hour. Depends how diligent you are, and how many beers you've had, right? Stay focused, razors are shop, belt sanders can tear your skin off and screw up your hands, so let's celebrate after we're done, OK?
While you're tired of moving your hands with the sanding block and razor, take the time to brush off your baffle board with a whisk broom or similar, get the dust off, and the lint, then spray paint it FLAT BLACK. Get it looking like this, and you're good to go. The edges where the screws are don't show, so don't waste any extra paint on them, unless you want to.

OK, when you're done, it should look alot like this. That's right THIS WHITE! All of that black goop was glue. Make sure your back indents, and your inside cab edges are all this clean. We need that area to wrap new tolex around, so if the old glue is there, it won't stick as well. Want your tolex to unroll? Didn't think so. We'll reconvene shortly for new cloth for the 4x12 baffle board. Thinking of BluesBreaker reissue cloth with white piping... whaddya think? Here's the cab before today...

And now...

Check in with you later for the grill cloth installation...

Is that picture that shows bars on the window from Kerry's shop?
It looks like it. That's a lot of work!

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Doug, nope, all that's around my place. I have heard of, but not met, Kerry Wright (if that's who you're referring to).

 

[Ge_Fa]

Hi Jim,

great guide, I finally got it after seeing the pictures. Thank you.
Do you, by any chance have some tips on how to do inside corners too?


cheers.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Hi Jim,

great guide, I finally got it after seeing the pictures. Thank you.
Do you, by any chance have some tips on how to do inside corners too?


cheers.

Yup. Either a hand sander with 50 grit sandpaper on the bottom AND the side, or the old razor blade scrape, depending on if you have the normal old glue or that ugly black stuff from the 80's to present, which is MUCH harder to get off:

 

[Ge_Fa]

Hi Jim,



whooops, my bad, I wasn't clear enough.
Thanks for the pic, my fingers hurt just by watching.
What I meant was, how to apply tolex to a radius like this:




Thank you, cheers.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Hi Jim,whooops, my bad, I wasn't clear enough.
Thanks for the pic, my fingers hurt just by watching.
What I meant was, how to apply tolex to a radius like this:
Thank you, cheers.

Ok, pics here:
You have to cut the tolex in the corner, cut it at a 45 degree angle, like this.

Here's a pic from another angle. Notice how I've cut the trapezoidal pieces that go in the corner? That's so you have them cover the triangle left bare by the cut in the corner. You cut that only deep enough to fit under the point of the triangle left, and only wide enough to cover the bare spot between the other end.

The you pull back the pieces around the back side (you'll only have one corner to deal with, not four like I did).

The finished back should look like this. You can see the trapezoidal cut pieces coming over the edge just slightly in this pic.

 

[Ge_Fa]

Hi Jim,

Ok, pics here...[/IMG]

thanks a lot, I'll try this weekend. Should go well with your detailed pics.


cheers.

 

[B Money]

Dudes, here's a re-tolexing job I just completed. I followed this tutorial to the letter and the results are very good. I've never tolexed anything before so this was a real learning process.

I had been wanting a Marshall 1960B cab, so I watched craigslist for awhile and bought this fixer-upper for $275:

honestly, the cab wasn't in too bad of shape. It had some big rips in the tolex and had "exploding boy" spray painted on the back, but it wasn't near death or anything.
So I got to work taking it apart and stripping off the old covering. While I was pulling off the grill cloth I found this little suprise:

a wood screw partially imbedded in the side of the baffle board. So much for legendary Marshall quality
After all the tolex is removed your left over with a bunch of sticky black glue. Heat gun and power sander took care of that situation:

I had a friend of mine route channels in the top and bottom so I could add piping like the old style cabinets. It looks cool, plus you get the added benefit of using multiple pieces of tolex to cover the cab instead of one large piece that wraps all the way around. Much easier to work with.
I also replaced the stock MDF back board with 1/2" thk birch ply
I used "black snake" tolex from Mojo (which you will agree is totally bad ass looking) and also replaced the cracked plastic handles with new metal ones.
After a lot of cutting, glueing, hammer, stapling, etc.. here's how she looks now:

 

[crimson on pink]

that looks really nice!!!

 

[primerib]

wow that cab in the original post was truly "used" in its lifetime. yikes

 

[Lonely Raven]

Just found this thread. GREAT thread!

B Money, interesting choice on that cab. I really like the black snake!

 

[GreaserMatt]

Does anyone know if a straight baffle out of a 70's cab in the same dimentions as one from say a 90's cab? I'm looking for a marshall 4x12 straight baffle (for a bottom cab). Thanks in advance, Matt.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

wow that cab in the original post was truly "used" in its lifetime. yikes

Yep, it sure was. I had to fix a few things on that one! LOL It's solid now, though, although after 3 years plus of shows, travel and demos it's starting to get a little frayed around the bottom corners. Oh well, there's always super glue and a black Sharpie to fill in the nicks and abrasions.

Does anyone know if a straight baffle out of a 70's cab in the same dimentions as one from say a 90's cab? I'm looking for a marshall 4x12 straight baffle (for a bottom cab). Thanks in advance, Matt.

While they should be the exact same size, the only way to tell for sure is to try the baffle board in the cab.

 

[GreaserMatt]

B Money, were the plastic recesses on the top of your B cab originally riveted in place? Do/did they have the Marshall logo on them? How about the original handles on the side (did those have the Marshall logo on them)? Thanks in advance... Matt

 

[Scumback Speakers]

B Money, were the plastic recesses on the top of your B cab originally riveted in place? Do/did they have the Marshall logo on them? How about the original handles on the side (did those have the Marshall logo on them)? Thanks in advance... Matt

IME, the cabs from 74 and earlier had the Marshall logo embossed on the caster cups and handles. They were definitely not there after 75, since I had an original 76 cab at one time and it had generic plastic handles (original, still riveted in place).

I've never seen plastic handles from this era screwed in, just riveted in, as well as the caster cups.

When the piping channels disappeared is about the time the Marshall embossed plastic parts went bye-bye as well.