So ever since I read the thread by Southbay Amps on The Gear Page I’ve been wanting to restore an old Marshall 1960 cab. This restoration is based on this thread. As you can see, I was the second one who posted so this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.
Marshall 4x12 slant cab recover 101
I started searching for the right cab back in February. I really wanted to spend about $200. I missed out on a couple and ended up settling on this one, 1960A JCM 900 Lead. I picked it up off local CL for $300. It’s loaded with standard Celestion G12-75. It was more than I wanted to spend but many of the parts were still in good shape and I knew I would save some money there. I soon found out this is something to really keep an eye on. The individual parts can really add up. The one below was actually in pretty decent shape. The Tolex was torn in several places, handles were chipped, netting had a hole in it, and it smelled like cigarettes.
My goal was to replace the Tolex and netting and add metal handles. I also wanted to replace the rear particle board cover with a real Baltic Birch piece. I kept the original casters as these things are really expensive to replace. I just cleaned them well.
Removing all the screws was pretty easy. No issues here. Removing the rivets was a different matter. Found using a combination of different flat head screw drivers and a hammer worked the best. I was able to pull all the corners without damaging them too much. They were used again for final assembly. The skid plates on top were not so durable. They cracked and I had to replace them. They’re not cheap either at $15 each. I also removed the old piping and staples. This came out easily.
Here are some pics of the baffle and some of the reinforcements 5/8” think Baltic Birch with particle board reinforcement. If you ever want to check if it’s a genuine Marshall cab, the thickness of the ply is a good check. 5/8” Baltic Birch is not easy to come by. The staples for the netting came out pretty easily. Just took some time. I repainted the front baffle with flat back paint.
Recovering the baffle with the new netting wasn’t too bad. Get your wife or someone else to help you keep the weave straight. It’s really straight forward.
This is a pic of the cab after the Tolex has been removed. It was actually pretty easy to pull off. I’d recommend going slow so you can have a reference as to the size of the replacement Tolex and how it all fits into place.
The next part was the hard part. Removing the old glue. I don’t know if they had a new shipment of glue the day this amp was made but this thing was covered in it. All that black is glue. I tried a variety of methods I read about on-line. Sandpaper, Goof Off, thinner, heat, and razor blade. I found the two methods worked the best: belt sander and palm sander.
When you using the belt sander, I used 60 grit. You have to be really careful. You can take off more wood than glue if you’re not careful. I found it worked best to get the large areas off first and then move to the palm sander for nooks and crannies and overall smoothness. The palm sander worked great. You can even use 80 or 100 grit which leaves a nice smooth surface. Birch is one of the softer hardwoods so you don’t need too rough of a grit. The original thread mentions to not plan on working out that night. He wasn’t kidding. I was fairly sore the next day. There’s a lot of squatting and grinding.
One thing I’m kicking myself on is I didn’t get a good pic of the stripped cab. I thought I did but missed it. It should look pretty white and smooth. No residual glue left behind.
Here’s a pic of the locking finger joints before glue removal.
I decided to go with authentic Marshall Elephant Blue. This stuff was a pain to find. It’s actually pretty rare. Special shout out to “skingy” for giving me the link. I originally was going to go with a cheaper blue but it wasn’t as dark as the Marshall Blue. $40 per yard at 4 yards, got really expensive quick. I’m so glad I did though as it looks awesome!
For glue, I ended up using Weldwood’s Contact Cement Gel. You can get this at Home Depot. You absolutely want to do this outside or in your garage if possible. It smells worst than a Doppleganger. My old AD&D Monster Manual said Dopplegangers smelled bad. Anyway, besides the smell, stuff is really easy to work with. I used a brush to apply to both Tolex and wood. Allow it to dry for about 15 min and then press the Tolex and wood together. It sticks on contact but you can still make corrections if needed. I went with one seam so I had one long Tolex piece. Make sure you leave some overlap for the seam and the sides. About 4-5 inches should so. Keep a small rolling pin handy. It works great for getting the air out of the Tolex. Start from the middle and roll out. One tip is to plan ahead on how much you want to do at one time. You’re only going to get one use out of the brush and then have to throw it away. Get the cheapest one you can find. 2” econo brush from HD worked well. They were like $2.
Weldwood Contact Cement Gel
For the seam, I over lapped each end. Then using a straight edge and a knife, I cut the seam. Peel back each end remove the excess Tolex. It’s actually pretty easy and mine came out ok. It’ll be on the bottom anyway so don’t be too hard on yourself.
The corners were easier than I thought. I was really worried about how these would turn out. You’ve got eight to do so by the end you’re getting pretty good at it. Take your time and follow the instructions from The Gear Page thread. I planned on still using the corner covers so they don’t have to be perfect.
The one lesson I did learn was the Tolex can get bunched up where the slant starts in the front. I think you have to make some small cuts to make it turn out right. I’ve got a small blemish on one side of mine.
Next I added the new skid plates and corner covers with new silver rivets. Just whack them into place with a hammer.
I replaced the old plastic handles with new metals one. These are pretty nice from Mojotone. I also replaced the old screws with Zinc machine screws and T-nuts. This thing uses 10 screws per handle so it’s not going anywhere. I had to enlarge the opening by about a ½” to get the handles in. I did this before covering.
The new piping wasn’t too bad to replace. I planned on using my air stapler but it was acting up. I ended up using a hand stapler and actually found it easier. Keep good tension on the piping when do this so it doesn’t sag or bunch.
One of the other upgrades I did was replacing the rear particle board cover with real ½” Baltic Birch. I found some in the next town over and picked up a 30” x 30 ” sheet. BB is not easy to find. If you have some look at the difference in plys from the Chinese birch they have at Lowes and HD. You can see why Marshall uses BB.
So here’s the final results. I couldn’t be more pleased. I think it really turned out well and looks so cool. I really enjoyed doing this and learned a lot. I always think about how I could be a much better guitarist if I spent my time practicing instead of tinkering with projects like this. Then again it makes me happy so who cares.
Couple things to point out. This is not really a way to save money. If you just want a cab, you’d save money by buying a mint used cab. Of course you wouldn’t have the customization. There’s no way you can build one and save money. Baltic Birch is not cheap. The little parts really do add up. I probably spent $275 in parts in addition to the $300 on the cab. You’ve also got to really enjoy woodworking or these kind of projects. They are time consuming to do right.
During the restoration project, I also picked up my first Marshall head in about 10 years. It’s a JCM 900 SL-X 2500 head with EL34s. We’re just getting to know each other. I’ve only had a chance to hook it up to the new cab once and not very loud. So far so good. You can see my main guitar in the pic as well. The bad assery of this combo is thrilling. At some point I want to replace the head Tolex with the blue since I have left overs. That’ll be down the road. I also would like to find a 1960B to complete a full stack. Eventually I’d like to replace the Celestions with maybe some Scumback M75s.
So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the thread.
Marshall 4x12 slant cab recover 101
I started searching for the right cab back in February. I really wanted to spend about $200. I missed out on a couple and ended up settling on this one, 1960A JCM 900 Lead. I picked it up off local CL for $300. It’s loaded with standard Celestion G12-75. It was more than I wanted to spend but many of the parts were still in good shape and I knew I would save some money there. I soon found out this is something to really keep an eye on. The individual parts can really add up. The one below was actually in pretty decent shape. The Tolex was torn in several places, handles were chipped, netting had a hole in it, and it smelled like cigarettes.
My goal was to replace the Tolex and netting and add metal handles. I also wanted to replace the rear particle board cover with a real Baltic Birch piece. I kept the original casters as these things are really expensive to replace. I just cleaned them well.
Removing all the screws was pretty easy. No issues here. Removing the rivets was a different matter. Found using a combination of different flat head screw drivers and a hammer worked the best. I was able to pull all the corners without damaging them too much. They were used again for final assembly. The skid plates on top were not so durable. They cracked and I had to replace them. They’re not cheap either at $15 each. I also removed the old piping and staples. This came out easily.
Here are some pics of the baffle and some of the reinforcements 5/8” think Baltic Birch with particle board reinforcement. If you ever want to check if it’s a genuine Marshall cab, the thickness of the ply is a good check. 5/8” Baltic Birch is not easy to come by. The staples for the netting came out pretty easily. Just took some time. I repainted the front baffle with flat back paint.
Recovering the baffle with the new netting wasn’t too bad. Get your wife or someone else to help you keep the weave straight. It’s really straight forward.
This is a pic of the cab after the Tolex has been removed. It was actually pretty easy to pull off. I’d recommend going slow so you can have a reference as to the size of the replacement Tolex and how it all fits into place.
The next part was the hard part. Removing the old glue. I don’t know if they had a new shipment of glue the day this amp was made but this thing was covered in it. All that black is glue. I tried a variety of methods I read about on-line. Sandpaper, Goof Off, thinner, heat, and razor blade. I found the two methods worked the best: belt sander and palm sander.
When you using the belt sander, I used 60 grit. You have to be really careful. You can take off more wood than glue if you’re not careful. I found it worked best to get the large areas off first and then move to the palm sander for nooks and crannies and overall smoothness. The palm sander worked great. You can even use 80 or 100 grit which leaves a nice smooth surface. Birch is one of the softer hardwoods so you don’t need too rough of a grit. The original thread mentions to not plan on working out that night. He wasn’t kidding. I was fairly sore the next day. There’s a lot of squatting and grinding.
One thing I’m kicking myself on is I didn’t get a good pic of the stripped cab. I thought I did but missed it. It should look pretty white and smooth. No residual glue left behind.
Here’s a pic of the locking finger joints before glue removal.
I decided to go with authentic Marshall Elephant Blue. This stuff was a pain to find. It’s actually pretty rare. Special shout out to “skingy” for giving me the link. I originally was going to go with a cheaper blue but it wasn’t as dark as the Marshall Blue. $40 per yard at 4 yards, got really expensive quick. I’m so glad I did though as it looks awesome!
For glue, I ended up using Weldwood’s Contact Cement Gel. You can get this at Home Depot. You absolutely want to do this outside or in your garage if possible. It smells worst than a Doppleganger. My old AD&D Monster Manual said Dopplegangers smelled bad. Anyway, besides the smell, stuff is really easy to work with. I used a brush to apply to both Tolex and wood. Allow it to dry for about 15 min and then press the Tolex and wood together. It sticks on contact but you can still make corrections if needed. I went with one seam so I had one long Tolex piece. Make sure you leave some overlap for the seam and the sides. About 4-5 inches should so. Keep a small rolling pin handy. It works great for getting the air out of the Tolex. Start from the middle and roll out. One tip is to plan ahead on how much you want to do at one time. You’re only going to get one use out of the brush and then have to throw it away. Get the cheapest one you can find. 2” econo brush from HD worked well. They were like $2.
Weldwood Contact Cement Gel
For the seam, I over lapped each end. Then using a straight edge and a knife, I cut the seam. Peel back each end remove the excess Tolex. It’s actually pretty easy and mine came out ok. It’ll be on the bottom anyway so don’t be too hard on yourself.
The corners were easier than I thought. I was really worried about how these would turn out. You’ve got eight to do so by the end you’re getting pretty good at it. Take your time and follow the instructions from The Gear Page thread. I planned on still using the corner covers so they don’t have to be perfect.
The one lesson I did learn was the Tolex can get bunched up where the slant starts in the front. I think you have to make some small cuts to make it turn out right. I’ve got a small blemish on one side of mine.
Next I added the new skid plates and corner covers with new silver rivets. Just whack them into place with a hammer.
I replaced the old plastic handles with new metals one. These are pretty nice from Mojotone. I also replaced the old screws with Zinc machine screws and T-nuts. This thing uses 10 screws per handle so it’s not going anywhere. I had to enlarge the opening by about a ½” to get the handles in. I did this before covering.
The new piping wasn’t too bad to replace. I planned on using my air stapler but it was acting up. I ended up using a hand stapler and actually found it easier. Keep good tension on the piping when do this so it doesn’t sag or bunch.
One of the other upgrades I did was replacing the rear particle board cover with real ½” Baltic Birch. I found some in the next town over and picked up a 30” x 30 ” sheet. BB is not easy to find. If you have some look at the difference in plys from the Chinese birch they have at Lowes and HD. You can see why Marshall uses BB.
So here’s the final results. I couldn’t be more pleased. I think it really turned out well and looks so cool. I really enjoyed doing this and learned a lot. I always think about how I could be a much better guitarist if I spent my time practicing instead of tinkering with projects like this. Then again it makes me happy so who cares.
Couple things to point out. This is not really a way to save money. If you just want a cab, you’d save money by buying a mint used cab. Of course you wouldn’t have the customization. There’s no way you can build one and save money. Baltic Birch is not cheap. The little parts really do add up. I probably spent $275 in parts in addition to the $300 on the cab. You’ve also got to really enjoy woodworking or these kind of projects. They are time consuming to do right.
During the restoration project, I also picked up my first Marshall head in about 10 years. It’s a JCM 900 SL-X 2500 head with EL34s. We’re just getting to know each other. I’ve only had a chance to hook it up to the new cab once and not very loud. So far so good. You can see my main guitar in the pic as well. The bad assery of this combo is thrilling. At some point I want to replace the head Tolex with the blue since I have left overs. That’ll be down the road. I also would like to find a 1960B to complete a full stack. Eventually I’d like to replace the Celestions with maybe some Scumback M75s.
So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the thread.
