barrymclark Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 So... I'm taking off the old tweed cover and the first thing that came to mind was this amp wad never a show piece. The method for putting on the covering was just not pretty. But....as I remove the tweed..... A very, VERY well built solid redwood cabinet. Fingerjointed! Once I get all that mess off, a light sanding will have to be done to get the old residue maybe.
barrymclark Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 Tweed is off. Hands smell like old amp. haha. My 5 year old son helped me get some of the tweed and loose staples out.
barrymclark Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 So... my son was so excited to help with the amp... that he ran off and made this checklist. haha. He drew an amp and then checked it off as task complete. haha.
rockabilly69 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 I'm getting more and more interested as I see the bones of this amp exposed. There's just something great about bringing an old instrument back to life, and making it work for you!
barrymclark Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 I'm getting more and more interested as I see the bones of this amp exposed. There's just something great about bringing an old instrument back to life, and making it work for you! This is definitely a fun experience. Just taking the tweed off I can see the difference how it would have been done 60 years ago as opposed to now. The cabinet is really WONDERFULLY built. The tweed covering... oh wow was it just horrible. At first, I thought this might be a hack job of someone trying to recover it themselves. Nope. Matching it up with pictures, that is just how they did it. It was literally just throw the tweed on and.... oh, look... you can see the wood in this spot... glue on a piece of tweed over it. haha. I KID... YOU... NOT. haha. The aesthetics were not well executed but the functionality of the amp seems to be super solid. As expected. Right now is the easy part. Once my buddy Jon gets it working, then I gotta go over and we do the small nudging this way or that to get it to sound JUUUUUST right.
rockabilly69 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 My buddy Troy (the amp whisperer) has two vintage Gibson GA series amps that sound righteous, but they have both had problems that he has gone to great lengths to sort out, I think both being related to transformers. That said, playing slide guitar through amps is quite the experience with tweed like compression and killer tone! He loves these amps for good reason. I think Ry Cooder liked them too, although I think his was the GA40.
DOGBOY Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Tweed is off. Hands smell like old amp. haha. My 5 year old son helped me get some of the tweed and loose staples out. There's your before shot, really cool, this is gonna be good. Sounds like your boy's pretty fired up about it too, great stuff.
barrymclark Posted February 26, 2015 Author Posted February 26, 2015 There's your before shot, really cool, this is gonna be good. Sounds like your boy's pretty fired up about it too, great stuff.Indeed he is!
barrymclark Posted February 26, 2015 Author Posted February 26, 2015 Handle removed and the last bit of tweed was removed. Had to drill out the pop rivets. Kinda neat how the handle was so rusted but the underside that was attached was as clean and polished as the day it was installed.
barrymclark Posted February 27, 2015 Author Posted February 27, 2015 So I used Mojotone's cabinet configurator and a little MS Paint to make this mock up of how the Gibson will look when complete. I don't have a Gibson logo on it... but then I am not so hot with Photoshop... and I don't have Photoshop. haha.
pressure Posted February 27, 2015 Posted February 27, 2015 I do have Adobe Photoshop and I know how to use it.
barrymclark Posted February 27, 2015 Author Posted February 27, 2015 I do have Adobe Photoshop and I know how to use it. Thanks a million! That's EXATCLY it!
barrymclark Posted March 1, 2015 Author Posted March 1, 2015 The amp badge has been ordered as well as the grill cloth swatches.
barrymclark Posted March 5, 2015 Author Posted March 5, 2015 The art-project Gibson logo against the blues breaker grillcloth swatch.
Kuz Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 I am really enjoying this step-by-step restro pictorial!!!
DetroitBlues Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 Almost looks good just being natural. The English look on an American amp doesn't seem right to me...
barrymclark Posted March 8, 2015 Author Posted March 8, 2015 Almost looks good just being natural. The English look on an American amp doesn't seem right to me... oh but it does to me. I've already put the swatches of everything together and it looked awesome to me. I have no issue being sacrilegious on music gear. haha. I get what I want... or I make it what I want. Either way, I get what I want. That's how I ended up with the stunner of a Gretsch 6120. This too will be a stunner. I will admit, while it isn't the reason, I do get a little kick out of the "NO!" response. haha. I guess the difference is that, to me, it is just amp... or just a guitar. I wouldn't do this if the amp was in decent shape or was even functional. Same with the Gretsch.
DetroitBlues Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 Well, I did intentionally once have a Deluxe Reverb made up to resemble a cross between a Marshall and an Orange in design...
barrymclark Posted March 8, 2015 Author Posted March 8, 2015 Well, I did intentionally once have a Deluxe Reverb made up to resemble a cross between a Marshall and an Orange in design... See?! It's perfectly ok to have a little fun. Sometimes it doesn't work the way you hoped.. some times it does. My Gretsch went through several states before getting where it will stay.
Shoman Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 Wow, what a beauty. Sure hope your not replacing anything external.
barrymclark Posted March 8, 2015 Author Posted March 8, 2015 Nothing external is staying. Most of the amp's guts is staying save for some caps that just didn't make it and the iron. The iron will be oversized by MM. The original Jensen is being replaced by a Celestion Gold. Black Taurus tolex with the old Bluesbreaker grill. There will be very little original when I'm done save for most of the signal caps and resistors. Wow, what a beauty. Sure hope your not replacing anything external.
barrymclark Posted March 8, 2015 Author Posted March 8, 2015 Ok... so... after some looking... I won't be putting the white piping around the grill cloth. The reason is, without some modification that I just don't care to do, the piping would be mostly hidden from view along the top and, at the bottom, would protrude beyond the face of the amp. So... it's out. No worries. This wasn't a deal breaker. It will still look very nice. Oh yeah... then there's this. The bottom rear panel is actually afixed in a way that it should make for some interesting Tolex origami.
rockabilly69 Posted March 10, 2015 Posted March 10, 2015 A recent review from Goodreads... "The Art Of Tolex Origami" read here how master amp and guitar reconditioner / mad scientist Barry M Clark can retolex your ratty looking amp then make a little crane or bowtie with the remnants:) Highly recommended, 5 Stars.
barrymclark Posted May 6, 2015 Author Posted May 6, 2015 Well... this is still going but some things have changed. I have a big move coming with a lot of moving parts so I have opted to not do the tolex myself. I had to take some things off my plate and this is on a bit of a schedule so I opted to let MojoTone in NC do it. Amplates is doing my control panel and badge. ...and something very interesting is happening to the guts. I will release more details as comes along.
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