I took a few pics of the guts and the cleanup process of the 2204. This thing was pig-anus nasty on the outside of the chassis and the tolex. I mean it looks like it was in a pigeon coop or something.
Lots of work and more than a little purple power went into getting as much dirt out as is possible. It's better than before by a long shot, but I'm gonna have to wait for the part of the enclosure with the "Marshall" logo to dry out. This thing had tons of dirt in the grain of the tolex and more than a few tears. I'm gonna patch up the tears later or just send it off to have it re-tolexed by Mojotone if I can't figure out a way to get rid of the white paint specks everywhere. Whatever that white paint is, it's tough as nails. Denatured alcohol and purple power won't touch it. I will either have to resort to some extreme measures or I'll just have to scrap this tolex and put something else on it.
I agree. Not much to this circuit and that's what makes it sound so good IMHO. Not that more complex amps can't sound great, but they often seem to lack a little something for some reason. This baby (though she's a little on the abused side) definitely has it where it counts. I just have to get the exterior to match the interior and she'll be fine.
I'm thinking really hard about ordering the necessary materials to re-tolex this baby myself. I know it will be a PITA, but it will be worth it if I can make this amp look minty fresh. A minty fresh amp would be worth more and all the parts and tolex necessary to make it that way aren't exactly hard to find. This particular amp has plastic corner protectors, so that will help cover any mistakes I make. Get new end corners for it and a new handle for the top without all the paint speckles on it and just give it a shot. The old solid black handle would look really good upgraded to one with gold ends and the rivets would also be much cooler if they were gold as well. Matches the amp better IMHO. I know that tolexing a head won't be easy, but it can't be that much more difficult than some other projects I've taken on and it will really help the resale value of this amp tremendously if I do it right. The cost of all the materials is about $140 without shipping. It would cost me $150 just to have Mojotone re-tolex it for me alone plus the cost of the additional parts might just make it worth doing it myself. I'll give them a call and see what they say about the project.
What went wrong with it? Usually the simpler amps are less trouble IMHO. I've had more problems out of complicated amps than I've ever had out of these bassman circuits. They are usually so simple that few things can go wrong. Just looking at this amp, you'd think it would be breaking down after all the harsh treatment it has received, but it's still performing beautifully with almost all the original parts. New output tubes and one new pre-amp tube is all she has needed thus far.
Oh yeah... Forgot to mention that the white towel you see draped over the cabinet was spotlessly clean when I started. It looked like virgin snow before hand. Now it looks like slush from a NY sidewalk LOL.
Oh, just symptoms associated with age and heavy use (I took it on regular gigs, 2 tours, and used it a LOT): The caps needed replacing and the main board started to warp. I had Haryy Kolbe do a series of repairs and couple of mods to the amp, but there were issues with the Boost and reverb and after Harry fixed those issues, I gave up and moved on to the Splawn.
Yeah... I'm thinking through the options now. Part of me is thinking of buying a whole new enclosure and keeping the faded/tattered original for use when I take it somewhere. I could get something really "out there" for the new enclosure and then recover the original myself as a DIY project later just for giggles.
