Check out my custom made Marshall amp, and the construction process by clicking HERE.
MARSHALL AMP BUILD
After a couple of years of steady shows, my Marshall DSL 401 combo amp had seen better days. It had started it's career in my musical life already used and fairly abused, and even after cleaning up the Tolex it was still looking pretty trashed. I decided that I would build a new cabinent for it, but after much thought, decided that I would discard the 'combo' and build a head cabinet for it, making it more portable.
The design phase was a bit of a pain, having very little to go on from online sources- most examples of someone turning a DSL 401 into a head looked amatuerish and, well, ugly. I took as many design cues as I could from classic Marshall amp heads (only this would be 'upside-down') and once I ironed out the kinks and settled on what would be the strongest, most well-constructed and visually appealing way to do it, I set out to get materials. I found a website, http://www.partsisparts.net that dealt in genuine Marshall parts and ordered virtually everything through there except the Tolex and glue.
After thoroughly measuring all of the dimensions of the amp itself, I cut a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood into four pieces to build the box. Routing the edges, I also cut two front pieces that would make up the lip that the amp and front panel would butt against. After joining the top and sides together, I measured the holes for the bolts that would secure the amp to the cabinet, fit the amp in to make sure all was going well, disassembled it and secured the bottom of the cabinet to the top and sides.
I then sanded down the edges thoroughly so there would be no snags for the Tolex and to give a good factory look, fit the handle, and attached a furring strip to the bottom inside, to make sure the back grill would butt up against the back of the amp. Once I meausred the metal grill, I installed 'ears' inside the box that the grill could be affixed to.
After I settled all of that, I installed the reverb tank to the bottom and ran the wires along the side, careful to make sure the wires wouldn't interfere with the amp.
I also built the front panel out of 1/2 inch plywood and 3/4 inch plywood so that the front of the panel would be level with the rest of the front of the box. I had thought about adding a grill to the front, but I thought better of it- I wanted the front to be as structurally sound as the rest of the box. Centering a smaller section of 3/4" to a longer piece of 1/2", the front went together well, and looked especially good with the amp installed as well.
After dry-fitting all of the pieces, I disassembled it, and began making a pattern for the Tolex out of newspaper, getting a rough idea of dimensions. I tried my first attempt at Tolexing on the front panel, and realized with good planning, a clean surface and the right glue, the process would be a breeze.
The first step I took was to put a thin layer of glue on first and let it mostly dry, giving a good surface for the next layer to affix to. Putting on another thin layer, I centered the Tolex and laid it on, smoothing and pushing out to the edges. Once mostly secure, I glued the edges and clamped them down.
The real tricky parts were to come- cutting the rounded edges for the main body of the cabinet to make it fit. After glueing one section at a time, letting it dry, then applying another layer, smoothing the section down and clamping the corners down, I was able to take my time and get it as right as I could.
The mistakes I made were fairly easily fixed, and totally understandable due to my inexperience with Tolex. Putting on the corner caps really helped to make the entire cabinet look professional and hid my poor corner wrapping.
Once I let the Tolex dry for 24 hours, I drilled out the mount points for the amp and the handle and made sure all the screws would fit well. I installed the Marshall handle easily, and drilled in the front panel to the main box which made the cabinet even more rigid and rugged.
All that was left was to install the amp itself, and put in the back grill with fans attached to cool the insides. The DSL 401 has an overheating problem that I solved with a custom heatsink and two computer fans to draw the hot air out of the cabinet- works like a charm.
The final touch was centering the 6 inch logo to the front and polishing it up with some WD40- voila- a custom, upside down Marshall amp head made from a DSL 401 combo amp.
