Marshall SL-5: From combo to head

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

So i love my SL-5 but it sounds crap through through the internal speaker cab. Also i cannot stand cabs made from cheap shit MDF which Marshall seem to be using for the last how many years.

Hence why I've always ran the amp through a 2x12 and it sounds fantastic.

Anyway I've been wanting to do this for a while and finally got round to cutting the cab down into a head.

I'm sure it was @underdog who was looking at doing this with his SL-5. I may be wrong

RaymondLin · August 2015

Looks amazing, did you do this yourself?

Great job!

underdog · August 2015

Oh it was me that looks nice. You didn't end up getting one made then? Done a really nice job would you care to describe and difficulty rate the procedure for me please.

BigMonka · August 2015

Great job, you'd think it had come from the factory like that!

not_the_dj · August 2015

Excellent.

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

RaymondLin said:

Looks amazing, did you do this yourself?

Great job!

Thanks buddy and yes i did it all myself

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

Here is the back

RaymondLin · August 2015

That is very professional looking head you made there, right down to the piping, the corners, the mesh, the grille at the back. I am trying to spot some kind of DIY job but can't see any. /thumbs up.

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

RaymondLin;757797" said:
That is very professional looking head you made there, right down to the piping, the corners, the mesh, the grille at the back. I am trying to spot some kind of DIY job but can't see any. /thumbs up.

The top of the head ( handle and corners) are all original.

All I did was gut the entire cab then removed the bottom 4 corner covers.

Then I peeled back the tolex from the underside and pulled it right the way back up the sides. Stopping a few inches from the top.

Then I cut the bottom off the cab.

Then cut the sides down to the required height.

Rejoined the bottom section back on with Titebond and a nail gun. And that's the shell.

Contact adhesive was then uses to stick the tolex back on.

Baffle cut down to new size and covered with existing speaker cloth.

Piping stapled back in and trimmed to new size.

Baffle back in and new sized back panel cut and installed from existing wood.

Done

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

I had so many stupid quotes for a head box it was unreal. Which is why I just modified the combo myself

All it cost me was a few hrs of my time and a £3.99 can of contact adhesive.

Flanging_Fred · August 2015

Looks very cool indeed. Nice job.

underdog · August 2015

I'm very tempted now to do some DIY, this could get very ugly very quickly

Fortheloveofguitar · August 2015

underdog;757858" said:
I'm very tempted now to do some DIY, this could get very ugly very quickly

It's pretty straight forward to be honest.

I ended up with 2 tiny tears in the tolex on the back but once it was glued back in place you'd have to really look hard for it.

Just go easy when peeling the tolex back and you'll be fine. That's the only part of the job that required a little bit of effort.