amplifiednation wrote:waiting for it to dry takes longer than actually applying the material. it sucks because it takes a bunch of space and you've gotta have like a good 2 hours to get anything done, but it's worth it in the end. that H2O has worked to apply a lot of different materials, it works really well with suede and tweed too
Sorta off topic but the Gibson Maestro RVT you restored on your website looks AWESOME. Those are some hella cool amps!
Thanks! This amp was for a really great musician, Chris Stovell Brown. He's a tele guy and tours all over the place professionally.
Funny, I was at my cousins yesterday and he was showing me his collection of gear.
We're both in our 50's and this was the second time he has shown me any of it.
He has Gibby's, Gretsch, Rickenbacher's and Fenders from the 50's and 60's.
Also quite a few old tube amps.
That is an old Selmer behind on the shelf.
That is a cool old amp because it has these tone buttons with different effects.
Also has a magic eye in the front that pulsates with the effects like Tremolo.
That is a 54 Tele, and a 60's 335 in front of a Gibson RVT Stereo amp.
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Thanks to this forum, seeing pics of people's speaker cabs and heads that they have covered with tolex themselves, I decided to give it a go on a simple head cabinet built from pine plywood. I never thought I would attempt this. If you can cut and measure accurately, and good with your hands, it is not too much of a trial. I spent a lot of time on this one, since I've never done it before. Armed with a few internet tutorials helped. One problem was what glue to use, there are many threads with different opinions, I was going to go with PVA wood glue, but I found a full can of Scotch 3M 77 at work and was allowed to borrow it. I like it. So if you've been itching to have a go at building something and covering it with tolex, it might not be as difficult as you think. I can do better next time I hope, I learnt a lot. Thanks again to this forum.
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If you are looking for automotive upholstery vinyl, you should be able to locate it locally and avoid shipping charges. I found several here in the yellow pages. I used that for the first amp I built.
And the automotive vinyl is much thicker than tolex. It can be a real bear going around corners. It is however, tough as nails.
Ian444 wrote:Thanks to this forum, seeing pics of people's speaker cabs and heads that they have covered with tolex themselves, I decided to give it a go on a simple head cabinet built from pine plywood. I never thought I would attempt this. If you can cut and measure accurately, and good with your hands, it is not too much of a trial. I spent a lot of time on this one, since I've never done it before. Armed with a few internet tutorials helped. One problem was what glue to use, there are many threads with different opinions, I was going to go with PVA wood glue, but I found a full can of Scotch 3M 77 at work and was allowed to borrow it. I like it. So if you've been itching to have a go at building something and covering it with tolex, it might not be as difficult as you think. I can do better next time I hope, I learnt a lot. Thanks again to this forum.
You did a great job on that! I'd like to see a close up on the corners! I've tolexed a ton of cabs to make extra cash for gear. I learn a little bit about cutting corners and seams every single time. It's not that difficult, but you've got to have a good plan as to what your going to do. The hardest part is usually stripping the cabs and prepping them for new tolex.
I've got a couple distributorships set up for other vinyl than traditional tolex and the possibilities are endless. I recently got into doing suede for some Dumble guys around Boston and those cabs were really fun to do. It is hard work though when you're doing a big cab!!!
H2O glue is the best from Wilsonart. It's cheap and heat and water resistant...and I've done probably 150+ cabs with NO complaints. I did some Fender Rhodes for a company here in Boston and those things sit out in the sun for hours during summer concerts and the tolex is still spot on.
Taylor, I saw your website, that helped too. Very nice work, the suede is pretty cool. Thanks for the encouragement. A close-up of a corner? Clicking on the pic is not close enough? I did 2 cuts on each corner as there is a 45 degree chamfer, not a normal round corner. The pic makes the corners look good, and the internal seams look bad. Cameras always lie... Not sure if I can get H2O Wilsonart in Australia, it would be nice to use something that I know will stand the test of time, and heat. The way the seams join has a bit to do with the angle of the cut, I think it is possible to make the seams invisible if they are cut right, but I need more practice.
Ian444 wrote:Taylor, I saw your website, that helped too. Very nice work, the suede is pretty cool. Thanks for the encouragement. A close-up of a corner? Clicking on the pic is not close enough? I did 2 cuts on each corner as there is a 45 degree chamfer, not a normal round corner. The pic makes the corners look good, and the internal seams look bad. Cameras always lie... Not sure if I can get H2O Wilsonart in Australia, it would be nice to use something that I know will stand the test of time, and heat. The way the seams join has a bit to do with the angle of the cut, I think it is possible to make the seams invisible if they are cut right, but I need more practice.
Yeah I guess I couldn't really see it, i can now, they look good. I usually do one cut per corner and then have gotten good enough to eye ball the second cut to mesh up perfectly if I take my time. I like it when amps have corners so i don't have to be so perfect because it can be a bit stressful at times to get 8 corners perfect on the first try. I've found that if I do screw up a bit I can usually strech the tolex around and superglue it to make it perfect. Actually, I almost always use a little superglue gel around the corners to get them to stay in place. a good tip too, if you have a black cab thats not going to have corners, spray paint the corners of the bare cab black so they don't shine through if there is a small gap. works great.
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