NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Virtual Kevorkian

Virtual Kevorkian

New member
New Tolex Day was technically on Wednesday, but I couldn't get ahold of a belt sander until Friday, so my weekend has been split between getting shloshed on festive beverages and getting this bugger sorted out! Still need 2 leather corners to complete it, and I want to replace the front 4 with brand-new ones anyways.

The other guitarist in my band picked up a Mesa 4x12 this summer, and it's decently beat up - he's been wanting to retolex his, so we decided to do both our rigs in a matching color that wasn't black. I actually ended up finding a beat-up, older (removable front-grill, not metal-grill) Mesa cabinet for cheap locally, and recovered it (anyone want to buy my other Recto cab? :wink: ). Since orange is already taken and iconic, and turquoise tolex is incredibly hard to find and a bit tacky, we decided to go with white - I think bookending the stage with our rigs will look awesome.

I wanted to get a different look on my 5150, as well, so I decided to add a beveled front plate covered in Mesa grill cloth to go with my cab, and lined with white piping. It's basically a Peavey version of a JCM head - just waiting on the logo to complete it!

Cell phone pics for now, waiting for the rain to stop and to finish the other guys' rig before taking proper shots outside.

Front.jpg


Side.jpg


Head.jpg


Grill.jpg
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Cheers guys! I'm convinced this older Mesa cab sounds better than my new one... both are the more modern style with the black grillcloth/Oversized designation, but this one's speaker baffle is glued into the cabinet... no way of removing the speaker baffle itself, and the grillcloth is attached to another baffle that's velcro'd on the front. I could change baffles in 15 seconds if I had another one lying around! Could also be the V30's being more worn in, as this cab is definitely a lot older than my other Mesa.


Guitarkid, I've always read that tolex is tough to work with and it's hard to get things looking clean... honestly, it's not hard as much as it is just time-consuming. Removing the old glue completely is the biggest PITA and takes the most time, by far - it's less sanding the crap off as much as it is heating it up and scraping it off. Went through four 40 grit belts between the head/cab, and that's after manually un-gunking the belt after every 15-20 seconds of sanding.

The other part that takes more practice than time/effort are the corners; once you have the technique down it's pretty straightforward, though!
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Ayrton said:
This is the key, and the reason why Mesa and Bogner cabs sound the way they do.
Click to expand...


The funny part is I don't think my newer Mesa is like that - I want to say you can remove the baffle entirely, as that's the only way to get at the grillcloth on those. It's almost like the older one could've been frontloaded, but there's no way of doing that on the newer one. I'm going to call Mesa tomorrow to ask about replacement corners and see if they can look up the dates they were made based on serial numbers, we'll see what they say!


Jolly_Rancher said:
all I see is confusion, sorry.
Click to expand...

I have no clue what this even means? Nice job padding the post count, though.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

I have no clue on Mesa stuff, but it is cheaper to build a cab with a one piece removable front than a fixed baffle.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Virtual Kevorkian said:
I have no clue what this even means? Nice job padding the post count, though.
Click to expand...


Apparently you think post count means something grand? That has to do with your confusion I was talking about :chairshot Yuh don't have to do be so butthurt, dude. Also, even if your tolex job was perfect, the pictures are so bad no one could even tell, unless you had flaps hanging over the grill or something retarded like that. GET SOME DECENT PICTURES.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Jolly_Rancher said:
Apparently you think post count means something grand? That has to do with your confusion I was talking about :chairshot Yuh don't have to do be so butthurt, dude. Also, even if your tolex job was perfect, the pictures are so bad no one could even tell, unless you had flaps hanging over the grill or something retarded like that. GET SOME DECENT PICTURES.
Click to expand...

Out of the two of you, I don't think VK is the butthurt one.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Agileguy_101 said:
Out of the two of you, I don't think VK is the butthurt one.
Click to expand...

I understand how dumb most people are, partially from meeting them in person, and partially because of all the terrible youtube videos, bad ideas, and crappy pictures that are supposed to show off something visual that comprises the internet. Seriously you think his anger at my response and him immaturely accusing me of some retarded internet meme is not butthurt-ism? :14:

Sounds like the two of you have been playing with each other's butts, and you liked it.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Looks like a nice job on the retolexing Virtual Kevorkian!
Although the white tolex with black hardwear combo certainly is not a bad one, and it looks pretty classy too, I would be worried about keeping it "white" ;) Having the experience from white car interiors that look very classy, but are a bit of a pain to keep them that way if you know what I mean, it stains real easy!

Seeing your amp and cap this way makes me re-realise something, the non-black tolex (away from the standard black tolex and black grillcloth, it's always the same) combined with the grillcloth of your choice looks SO MUCH better then the boring standard all black. (at least in my opinion).
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Jolly_Rancher said:
Apparently you think post count means something grand? That has to do with your confusion I was talking about :chairshot Yuh don't have to do be so butthurt, dude. Also, even if your tolex job was perfect, the pictures are so bad no one could even tell, unless you had flaps hanging over the grill or something retarded like that. GET SOME DECENT PICTURES.
Click to expand...


If you were at all literate, you would've seen in the OP that I said I'm waiting to finish another halfstack to get high-res pics up. I'm sorry that I couldn't meet your standards of photography - next time you could just say "Hey, pics aren't that good, wanna take some better ones?" instead of coming across as an asshole.


Jolly_Rancher said:
I understand how dumb most people are, partially from meeting them in person, and partially because of all the terrible youtube videos, bad ideas, and crappy pictures that are supposed to show off something visual that comprises the internet. Seriously you think his anger at my response and him immaturely accusing me of some retarded internet meme is not butthurt-ism? :14:
Click to expand...


Yeah, because I was totally angry in my response to your nonsensical comment, and my taking/posting cell phone pics with a disclaimer that there would be better pics following is most definitely an indication of how dumb I am.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

Albino means lacking most pigment. Black grill and corners is not albino, but it does look pretty good. I wouldn't bother with a 5150 logo because it doesn't even look like a 5150 now. If I saw that head on stage with a 5150 logo, and I didn't know better, I'd think it was a wannabe 5150. Get a custom nameplate made up and bolt that on. I'm not even going to respond to any more immature rationalizations.
 
Re: NTD: the albino JCM5150 + Mesa 4x12

So you're mad because you took the thread title way too seriously?

5150's are too cheap for anyone to seriously consider doing a 'wannabe' 5150 treatment on another amp. Bugera has their take on it, but the build quality and reliability is crap compared to the amp that costs the same used as the Bugera does new. Still definitely looks like a 5150 to me, though - chrome face, chicken head knobs, much-longer-than-it-is-tall headbox shape, side screws, etc. Not to mention that given the money I've spent on the rest of my setup, it would make zero sense to cheap out on something like a fake 5150.
 
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