I replaced the grille cloth on my Marshall Cabinet yesterday

[Hardrock69]

It was an interesting experience. At one point I had to go online to find info on removing the baffle, as the inset handles on the side were preventing me from taking it out.

Got it figured out (punched the rivets holding the handles on out with a punch & hammer) and put the new grille cloth on.

Here is the usual photo of it with the cloth that was on it when I got it. You can see that the grille cloth was kinda caved in...it was also some stupid kind of "vomit wine reddish dark brown" color:



Also the idiot that put the old grille cloth on did not take the baffle out...they just stapled it to the front of the baffle using a fucking stapler!!!

I have not yet gotten new pics of it, but I got black grille cloth, and I'll be damned if it does not look like an absolute professional job!

One more thing: I finally dated the speakers properly. I had tried to do so before, but could not figure out the date codes listed on the web page I had found.

I discovered that 2 of the Celestion G12 30-watt speakers were made on Sept. 23, 1974, one was made on Sept. 27, 1977, and the fourth speaker is a 65 watt Celestion someone put in it and it was made May 5, 1982.

So I will venture to say that my cabinet could be as old as 1974 (very likely), but could be as recent as 1977.

I do wish it were possible to date it by the serial number on the back of the cab. Having bought it here in Gnashville, there is no telling who might have owned it. I sure wish I could find out who (or what music store) bought this from Marshall originally.

One thing I did that made it even more "unoriginal" is that I moved one of the 1974 speakers so that the pair of 1974 are on top, and the 1977 and 1982 speakers are on the bottom.

One of my near future projects is to take the 65-watt Celestion out and put it in my 65-watt Crate 1 X 12 combo, and find a replacement black-back Rolla for the cab (preferably a mid-70s vintage).

Another cool thing is that the ORIGINAL grille cloth was still tacked around the edges of the speaker baffle. It looks unlike any I have seen, but sort of resembles this Marshall Large Check grille cloth:



Tonight when I get home I will put a piece on my scanner and post the image here.

I did also order all new plastic corners, but stupid me I did not get new tacks to put them on, and when removing the old ones, well, needless to say they are not reusable.

They are kinda weird too...split tacks like so:




I must say it looks much better with the new grille cloth.

Similar to this, though the tolex is slightly beat up:




Woot!

[ELVIS]

You should of went with something close to the original...

[Hardrock69]

Nahhh...I mean if I really want to do that, all I haveta do is take it apart and replace the grill cloth again.

I like the black look, and am not planning on selling the cabinet ever, so what the heck.

I noticed a difference in the sound this evening when I jammed through it, now that the 1974 speakers are both on the slant.

Sounds perfect. All the squeal, crunch, and harmonic distortional noise I could ask out of one of these babies.

Here is that image of the original grill cloth. The darker part of it (most of it) was on the side of the baffle, the lighter part (lower edge) was what would have been visible:

[yah]

Nice job...always cool to get projects like this done, Nice Flying V too.

[Hardrock69]

Thanks. It is my Number 1 Son.

[The_KiD]

Nicely done... Dig the V as well..

KiD

[62sg]

Killer...lotsa fun isn't it?
John

https://www.stoneagecustomcabinets.com

[Hardrock69]

Nice cabs....and like any industry, I am sure that it is much fun for me, as an individual to do it as a diy project, rather than to do it for a living haha.

At least once I have done the one, it is possible I may never have to do it again!

I have a friend who is designing a nice 100-watt tube head, and he may start selling them once he gets his design perfected...


Some peeps like open-backed cabs...but I just love the sound of a closed back 4-12 cab.

[Panamark]

Wow ! good job. Looks brand new.

I bought a JCM800 last year that had a really old silver
clothed slanted cab... At first I didnt like it (Ive always loved that
black look) But ya know, the old cloth totally grew on me after a while.
I wouldnt change it now. But I was totally going to do what you did.
You did a good job dude..

[Hardrock69]

I have not posted a picture of the actual cab....that pic I posted is omething I found on the net to post as an example....

So YES, that cabinet IS brand new...but it is not mine!

:D

However, the job I did looks that good.



I took some actual photos, and will post them once I get them developed (I still lack a decent digital camera).

[GAR]

Thing I hate about redoing cabinets is pulling out the staples, there's 38 to 40 staples a side=160.

My trick is taking a flatblade screwdriver and lifting just one side of the staple leg "up" so you can grab it with diagonal wire cutter pliers.

I'll do this every other staple because doing it that way allows you space in between to grab the staple completely out getting both legs out of the wood successfully without breaking off the legs which then leave little bitchy spikes that will jab you in the palms when you try to go over the edge tightening the grille with your fingers and palms during the tightening procedure.

I try to save all the original pieces for repairing old cabs to original because usually it's just a bash-in break from a mic stand gone flying which can be stitched up with a pulled-out thread or two of the black plus some Elmers' White Glue brushed on behind it (gotta take out the speaker first for this trick).

Another trick I do is when all the cloth and staples are out, I brush or spray any kind of clear coat lacquer, gloss or sealer around the edges after sanding them smooth and leaving an 1/8" radius on the front face of the baffle to make that tightening procedure easier for the cloth material to roll over.

After that baffle's prepped I pop the face stringers up a bit and glue them. Especially on the 60s and 70's cabs, all they did was nail them to the face to space the fabric away from the speaker. I glue them then nail them back down sometimes using a few extra nails (3penny box nails with 1/4" cutoff the sharp end) if they stringers pop back out while glueing.

then, I run a bead of glue like caulk around the entire inside edge of the stringer - against the face just to let it soak it up. then I spray about 3 cans of cheap flat black spray can paint and let it dry 3 or 4 days before starting the grille.

One trick to delicately removing the Marshall-logoed plastic handles (which you can't get of the logoe'd type anymore) is I drill out the rivet HEAD until it spins off using an 1/8 or 3/16" drill bit. Then when all the rivet heads pop off gently tap the handle cup from behind and it should just doink off into your hand.

To get the rivet shanks out of the wood you just take a hammer and the 3/16" drill bit and push the shanks into the cabinet with a few taps.

[GAR]

(I do not discuss my tightening sequence for grilles because mine are indistiguisheable from factory and if I give out my secrets then everyone's gonna have perfect grilles. So do not ask.)

[Nitro Express]

I remember being in a public library and I was seeing what kind of guitar books they had and they had a book about Marshall Amplification. I don't know the name of it but it was an older book.

In one section it showed Jim Marsahll himself building speaker cabinets and showing the process in great detail. Then when he built an entire cabinet himself and covered it in the elephant vynle. He signed the inside. If I remember right he had a special streatching jig at the factory that made shure everything was nice and even before the staples went in.

Grill cloth is such a pain sometimes. I have a cabinet that has these really heavy duty steel speaker grills made in England. The hold the speakers in place by using large screws and special L shaped brackets. The system is heavy duty and is convientient as hell when you want to take a speaker out or get inside for some reason. The problem is the speaker cabinets just don't look as good as a Marshall nor do they get that special Marshall sound.

Sure there's some good cabinets out there but I like Marshall speaker cabs with the wierd rivets, pain in the ass grill cloth, and all those screws you have to take out of the back just to get into the thing.

[Hardrock69]

There were many staples in the edges of the baffle.

Yes.

I used the screwdriver blade of a Swiss Army knife to loosen them, then pliers to pull them out.

When I stapled the new cloth on, I used just as many staples.

As for the handles on the sides, I used a #40 punch to punch the center out (from the outside in), then used a #30 punch to punch the entire rivet from the inside out.

Worked like a charm.

As my cabinet for the most part never gets moved, I did not bother buying new rivets. The rivet shanks having ridges on them, I simply tapped the rivets back in, and they are holding nicely.

Perhaps someday I will get some new rivets to put in, but for now, it is unneccesary.

I would keep my grille cloth stretching technique a secret,, but I have no techinique.

I simply stapled one edge after making sure the weave was in the proper direction, and pulled the cloth super tight while stapling the opposite end.

Worked like a charm.

Good as new.

[Nitro Express]

Now it's time to play Jimi Hendrix and ram a guitar neck through that new grill cloth!