Marshall cab - patched and repaired the tolex

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clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
edited July 2017 in Amps

Went from this sort of condition (this isn't all of it by any means):




to this, with a lot of work (and patches!):




Came out pretty well, hard work but worth it:



Posting this in case there are people looking to do something similar.  I have no experince in anything like this and I scoured the internet just trying to work out how this could even be done.  I picked up bits and pieces and thought I'd pass it on.

I bought this cab from @Timmyo a couple of months ago, it's an 80s 1936 cab which apparently a few people on this forum have owned.  He made it clear it was well used! I wanted one for home use, and thought I'd have a go at cleaning and fixing it up.

Firstly, the cab was covered in sticky black spray paint.  I didn't want to use most solvent-based paint removers as they might damage the tolex, so I found this water-based stuff, Graffiti-Go, which worked like a charm, with a LOT of scrubbing with a nail brush (I wore out two of them).  I got it from Toolstation but this is what it looks like:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eco-Solutions-Graffiti-Go-500ml/dp/B009YF9F0I

The cleaning revealed the extent of the damage to the tolex, it was pretty severe.  I thought briefly about getting it recovered but I thought I'd have a go at repairing and patching the tolex first.

I read a lot about glue.  I used Titebond ORIGINAL pva/wood glue, it's been great for patching, not so good apparently for complete recovering.  Must be Original (Type 1), not the other two, because Original is water-soluble, meaning you can clean up excess glue that gets sqeezed out with a damp rag.  I didn't use contact adhesive because I needed time to make sure the patches were perfectly in place before applying pressure, and contact adhesive works very quickly.

Dan Erlewine did this video that includes the method I used for patching.  This is perfect.  I watched a ton of videos but Dan (of course) nails it.  It's a short video but everything he does is important.  I wished I had some of the cool tools he uses, that right-angled straight-edge thing would have helped a LOT.  If I ever do this again I'll get something similar.  He's not kidding about removing EVERY trace of the old glue, you have to get everything back to the wood or the new glue will not stick and you'll have to do it all over again.  I used a set of Stanley blades and I kept using new ones so the tip is sharp.  They're 20 for a quid in Poundland.

(side note - vid is worth watching just to hear the sound of the old Ampeg, wow!). :



Couple of other points -

 - you have to be patient, rush anything and you will regret it.  The cab needed I'm guessing about 50 patches, whole thing took about six weeks.

 - careful with the paint remover.  I damaged the silver serial no plate on the back by trying to wipe some spray paint off it.  Took half of the original lettering off as well before I could stop.  If anybody has a spare please get in touch  Ditto the JCM 800 logo on the front, it's badly sprayed but I don't dare clean it.  I took the white Marshall logo off and cleaned it separately, came up a treat!  

 - don't go cheap on the glue, use Titebond Original.  Yes you can get cheaper stuff and yes it's nowhere near as sticky.  Use this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Wood-Glue/Titebond-Original-Aliphatic-Wood-Bottle/B0002YWZPW

 - with that glue you have about three minutes to get the patch in place and a lot of downward pressure applied, so I kept the patches no bigger than about 6 inches square.  Get a lot of downward pressure on it if possible, I used my Marshall head on the three (individually applied) large patches on the bottom of the cab over three days.  For a lot of the smaller patches I used industrial-strength gaffa tape when I had to patch a rounded surface.

 - I left the pressure on for about maybe 6 - 8 hours.  Might be overkill but I didn't want to risk taking it off any earlier in case it didn't stick and I'd have to go again.  Leave it any longer and the excess glue is a bitch to remove, it sets like concrete.

 - recycle bits of the old tolex (get the old glue off with sandpaper) to patch smaller damage, it looks better.

 - never mind measure twice cut once.  Measure everything a lot then do it again.

 - nice man on eBay helped me out with the old replacement corners (originals long gone), old rivets, old casters, old feet, replacement elephant-hide tolex, this chap:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/rich145-2009?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

I've got other photos I took during the process if anybody wants to see them, and if you're interested and I haven't covered something let me know.

Hope this helps someone down the road


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Comments

  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    Ha, fantastic job!

    Yes I bought it from @keithf - as you have doubtless discovered it sounds somewhat magical, please don't listen to anyone who tells you they "need" to have the speakers changed! 
    Red ones are better. 
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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    Thank you :)  And you're right, it sounds great, in fact so good I immediately bought two more 80s  G12T-75s on the bay just in case :)  Sometimes stuff is just, right :)
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  • keithfkeithf Frets: 371
     No Idea why but that cab is mystical, It's easily the biggest sounding 2x12 i've heard.
    It fills a stage with no trouble,
    why did i sell it :(

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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    :) Did you buy it originally from someone on the forum @keithf ? 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    It was probably the huge holes in the tolex allowing the cab to resonate much better than usual ;).

    Impressive dedication, I have to say... I would just have sent it back to Marshall and paid them to do it :).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    Yeah it's shit now, I'll go ahead and rip the lot off again :)

    Thing is it was really badly tore up, I want to have it at home and didn't want it sitting there looking like it fell off one cliff too many.

    Also I'm inquisitive and wondered if I could figure out how to do it properly.  Once I started I sort of kept going till one day there it was, done :)

    I never really actively looked into getting it recovered, it's a cool old thing, making it look new would have been wrong somehow :) 


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  • keithfkeithf Frets: 371
    clarkefan said:
    :) Did you buy it originally from someone on the forum @keithf ? 


    no, I got it new  in 85 ish I think


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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    Nice! Well, either you or @TimmyO or both of you played the living snot out of it that's for sure! :)
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  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    I played it a lot, but it was already singing by the time I got it 
    Red ones are better. 
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  • Bygone_TonesBygone_Tones Frets: 1528
    clarkefan said:

    Dan Erlewine did this video that includes the method I used for patching.  This is perfect.  I watched a ton of videos but Dan (of course) nails it.  It's a short video but everything he does is important.  I wished I had some of the cool tools he uses, that right-angled straight-edge thing would have helped a LOT.  If I ever do this again I'll get something similar.  He's not kidding about removing EVERY trace of the old glue, you have to get everything back to the wood or the new glue will not stick and you'll have to do it all over again.  I used a set of Stanley blades and I kept using new ones so the tip is sharp.  They're 20 for a quid in Poundland.

    (side note - vid is worth watching just to hear the sound of the old Ampeg, wow!). :



    Couple of other points -

     - you have to be patient, rush anything and you will regret it.  The cab needed I'm guessing about 50 patches, whole thing took about six weeks.

    Nice results, but I'd have been tempted to do a full retolex instead.

    The technique I normally use for patching is to make the patch piece slightly larger than the missing piece. Glue on the patch piece so it overlaps at the edges, and then cut through both layers where they overlap. Remove the cut original piece underneath, and the seam should be perfect when you bring them back together.

    For glue, any contact adhesive will do. Evostick is fine for small pieces. Just make sure you brush it on nice and thin, and wait for it to become touch dry before bringing the pieces together.  


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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    I looked at your patching idea at the time, @Bygone_Tones , but I discarded it. Maybe I should have at least tried it, too late now :)

    I saw people doing that a lot in recovering vids, it's a great way of getting a tight join when done right.  Problem for me was getting off the old glue once the old piece of tolex is removed.  Maybe it doesn't matter but I didn't want to risk the patch not sticking properly and having to go again.

    I read and heard all over the internet (including Dan's vid above) about how important it is to get right back to the wood before going in with a patch so I abandoned the idea.

    The black mess on the bottom of the cab in the first photo above isn't just crap and paint, it's lots of old glue as well.  Sanding just that, with an electric sander, took about half an hour and about four sanding pads.  That shit is tough to shift :)
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  • Bygone_TonesBygone_Tones Frets: 1528
    If it's the old style Marshall glue, the brown coloured stuff they were using before the black stuff. It should come off very easily with paint stripper and a scraper. Can be quite fun. Thats what I use when stripping down cabs.

    The modern black glue they use nowadays is more difficult to remove, but apparantly if you re-heat it with a hair dryer, it becomes soft again. I dont buy many cabs with that stuff on it though so cant really comment.
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