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Subject: Re: [motm] [OT] Tolex use question

From: jwbarlow@...
Date: 2001-01-02

In a message dated 1/1/2001 7:55:32 PM, elhardt@... writes:

>The last time I was in a synth store, I was looking at
>the guitar amps trying to figure out how the Tolex was applied. I don't
>think I could find any seam of where one end would come together with the
>other end. Any idea of what's going on there?

They dip the amps in liquid Tolex!!!!

No, seriously, if you look closely at a Fender amp you may notice the Tolex
was applied to the sides first so that it goes about an inch wide on the top
and bottom of each side. The Tolex is then applied to the top and bottom and
overlaps that first covering by about a half an inch. Both my Vibro-Champ
(early 70s) and my Deluxe Reverb (late 70s) use this technique while my late
70s Champ doesn't (it uses a much simpler single seam on the bottom, and
cheesy triangles cut at each of the corners -- the corners are having
problems with the edges coming a bit loose).

I think the first way I described is a good way in that it doesn't seem to
require too much work (simple straight edge cuts with "V"s being cut out on
the inside, unexposed part of the cabinet). My thought is that Fender has
been doing this for a while and the covering on my amps have stood up for the
past 20 years.

>And if anybody knows of a place that sells it for less than $15 a yard
>I
>would appreciate knowing where.

This has come up before and I think that Tolex is usually quite expensive. I
think some have found other similar types of coverings for a lot cheaper from
some places that sell grill cloth and similar stuff. I've also seen stuff
from furniture stores which looks kind of similar at a distance (in the dark)
but is a lot cheaper -- I'm not sure it's MOTM quality covering however.

JB