Re: Grill Cloth - any tips?
Well, it wasn't a piece of cake but not too bad, especially for first time DIY with this type material. With a couple of breaks it took me maybe 2 hours once I started stapling.
I followed the advice posted by "george76" in this thread on the Marshall forum ...
http://www.marshallforum.com/cabinets-speakers/49897-marshall-4x12-grill-cloth-replacement.html
I'm not sure that would be enough info for someone who never did anything with grill cloth before. As I mentioned, I have covered home audio speakers and a couple cabinets with a different type of material. Never worked with this stiff, weave stuff before though, until now. It came out pretty OK for my first time. And it's on a garage sale cabinet so it was a good practice piece. Only tips I would add would be to follow the advice of not pulling tight when stapling the corners. It will end up taught when you are done. There is basically no stretch in the material. I pulled too tight when doing the 3rd corner and couldn't get lined up on the final corner so I had to remove the staples from the 3rd corner and try again. Other than that, I didn't have any major problems. The second tip would be to get a piece that will give you at least an extra inch on all sides. The piece I bought was 29.5" by, I think 32.5". There was a little more than 29.5" because of a factory edge but, if there is a next time, I will buy a wider piece because it was just enough to work with. Other than that ... just go for it.
Some background on this cabinet. It's a cheap cabinet I picked up at a community yard sale about a year ago. I hadn't played in years and sold most of my large gear a long time ago. The son of the family I bought this from had gone to college and they were trying to get rid of this cab. Funny because he was a friend of my kids (all now grown) and I fixed the electronics in a low end ESP guitar he had, probably a dozen years ago. It had no back panel, the baffle was stripped of grill cloth and attached with 2 screws. It's a big cab and everything is (or was) MDF. The "tolex" is more like a very thin vinyl. But the shell was in good shape with rabbet joinery plus some internal bracing and there were only a few minor tears in the covering. I had just started back playing and needed a cab without spending a bunch. $25 and a little sweat was OK by me. I built a back panel out of ply. Reattached the baffle and loaded it with 4 WGS speakers. I have a couple Avatar cabs I've picked up since. This cheap cab isn't road worthy but it sounds good and I decided to keep it. I ended up building a new plywood baffle and it had to be presentable, so that's where this grill cloth comes in. I guess it's a "hybrid" cab now. Ply baffle and back panel with an MDF shell. The flash is out on the old, cheap digital camera so forgive the dark photo. And, sorry for writing a book here but maybe it will help someone else.
