My trusty A cab, getting a little beat up. The attenuator fell off the head and punched a hole in the grill cloth.
Not really related, but this is a MUST for any stereo Marshall cab - get rid of the shitty PCB stereo switch assembly and wire it mono with parallel jacks. Do it. Do it now.
Take the back panel and handles off, and we gotta get the whole baffle out.
Greenbacks and WGS Green Berets. The Green Berets are okay, but they're not my favorites. More on that later.
Speakers out
Baffle out...and joy to the world, the piping stays with the cab.
Gotta get the old logo off. An automotive door panel puller does the trick.
New logo, 70s sized, more on that later.
Gotta remove the old cloth off the baffle. And OMG the fucking staples....
Gotta drill new holes for the slightly smaller logo. Getting this centered and in the right spot was a real pain. I made a template.
Had to fill some of the old holes with golf tees because the new holes are too close to the old holes. I discovered that the locator peg on the "M" is the key to the whole thing. On both size logos, it is what everything else is referenced from, so as long as the M peg is the same, I just needed to mark and drill the rest. Looks shitty but it's good.
Now it's just a matter of stapling on the new grill cloth. Marshall 70s style checker. Not too hard. The trick is to get the corners right first. I bought one "yard" of cloth - perfectly fine to cover one 4x12 with a little trimming. Use the pattern in the grill cloth to line up the edges and staple the corners. Don't pull too tight yet, just get it a little taught and staple the corners securely. Then walk down the sides pulling and stapling. This is where you get the tightness. Use the threads in the pattern to keep yourself lined up. This grill cloth came out perfectly straight and square and a little tighter than the stock Marshall cloth. I think it came out great. And I used even more staples than I took out!
Now it's just time to put it all back together. I'm replacing the WGS Green Berets with some old stock early 90s G12T75s to X-pattern with the Greenbacks. I really like this combination. I've used it before and it's a great combo for rock and roll tones.
And it's done! A 90s cab turned into a 70s-looking cab. Early/mid 70s-era Marshall cabs are by far the best looking 4x12s. No debate. I will fight you over it. And with the rips and dinginess of my existing tolex, it looks fairly legit. I just need some beer and smoke damage now.
