Picked up a ratty slant S&P Basketweave cab

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:38 pm

I've been ogling this cab since the end of last summer, and finally couldn't take it anymore...

It's in pretty rough shape cosmetically, but solid. The rear panel was replaced with a piece of particle board, the tolex was stripped, and one of the casters broke as I was wheeling it from the store. The speakers are just reissues, wired with what looks like 22ga. hookup wire. The shop in question actually had an early 70's Hiwatt cab with a quad of pre-Rola G12Ms. I'm kicking myself for not having bought both cabs and swapped around the speakers. You snooze, you lose, I guess...

I'll definitely be pulling these speakers, but I'm not sure whether I'll recover the cab. I do have a bunch of purple tolex kicking around...

Any way to guess at this cab's age by the pics?

SteadyEddie · Post by **SteadyEddie** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:16 pm

I like the banged-up look. Means it's been around, it's seen gigs.

Ooops, just saw that the cabinet was stripped and then painted. I guess anything's fair game at this point.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:48 pm

Yeah, it's not particularly obvious till you're up close. I definitely like the beat-up tolex look, too.

neikeel · Post by **neikeel** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:29 am

Basketweave
no skid trays
big sound post
metal handles (probably rivets originally - now screws and nuts)
9" logo

All point to 70/71. Would originally have bronze Homa castors.
You will need to get some captive 'T' nuts and 2BA pozidrives for the handles.
Can you see any holes drilled on the corner fillet for a Bass or 100 logo?

What speakers are you after, Scumbacks? Set of Heritage 20s?
Yes if stripped and painted I would recover it but I am boring, if it was black I would recover it black (unless I had a purple amp head to match

)

chrisom · Post by **chrisom** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:03 pm

Nice find. I would have definitely grabbed it up too. These are history and need the TLC they deserve...

Those looooong handle screws... LMAO!

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:32 pm

chrisom wrote:Those looooong handle screws... LMAO!

Yeah, pretty ridiculous! Somebody had to cut channels in the baffle to accommodate the ones closest to it.

neikeel wrote:Basketweave
no skid trays
big sound post
metal handles (probably rivets originally - now screws and nuts)
9" logo

All point to 70/71. Would originally have bronze Homa castors.
You will need to get some captive 'T' nuts and 2BA pozidrives for the handles.
Can you see any holes drilled on the corner fillet for a Bass or 100 logo?

What speakers are you after, Scumbacks? Set of Heritage 20s?
Yes if stripped and painted I would recover it but I am boring, if it was black I would recover it black (unless I had a purple amp head to match )

Thanks for the info, Neil. Which bolts do I need for the speakers? The ones I pulled were too small - a mismatch. Hopefully they didn't muck up the threads too much.

No, I can't see any holes or discolouration to indicate the presence of a corner logo.

I have a pair of Scumback M75s that will go into this. I also have a late 70's Blackback which needs a recone (I think there's somebody who will do it locally, as I don't want to spend $100 on shipping in addition to a recone fee). I'll probably pick up another Scumback or a random, vintage Celestion to round it out. Eventually, when I have money to burn, I'll find a quad of period-correct G12Ms.

908ssp · Post by **908ssp** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:33 am

Cool early 70s cab. I picked up a beater a while back ended up like this.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Mon May 02, 2011 5:03 pm

Nice.

We have similar beer stains, although mine somehow ended up along the bottom.

BaronGreenback · Post by **BaronGreenback** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:55 pm

yeah i would agree its from roughly spring 1970 - spring 1971. before that they used push-in casters and after that they used checkerboard grill cloth. I reckon it is more likely to have had the three screw revvos than the homas, but you cant really tell without looking at the bottom.

cabs that have been stripped and painted are generally a pain in the backside to restore. expect to use lots of wood filler! paint offers very little protection against knocks.

chrisom · Post by **chrisom** » Thu May 05, 2011 12:52 am

It looks awesome just like it is; I had one exactly like it when I was young & dumb, and I sold it on eBay to some guy who had it shipped to Hawaii. It had it's original greenbacks & I had put new good checkerboard grille on it. Man, I should have never turned loose of that...

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:29 pm

BaronGreenback wrote:yeah i would agree its from roughly spring 1970 - spring 1971. before that they used push-in casters and after that they used checkerboard grill cloth. I reckon it is more likely to have had the three screw revvos than the homas, but you cant really tell without looking at the bottom.

cabs that have been stripped and painted are generally a pain in the backside to restore. expect to use lots of wood filler! paint offers very little protection against knocks.

I pulled the shoddy replacement casters and there's holes for what would have been push-in casters (I assume). Yeah, there's definitely a lot of dings and random screw and nail holes.

chrisom wrote:It looks awesome just like it is

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll just sort out the hardware and speakers and leave it as is for now...

BaronGreenback · Post by **BaronGreenback** » Fri May 06, 2011 8:17 pm

I doubt push-ins were used on your cab, but maybe someone has tried to fit something similar in the past? With push-in casters you would expect to see a wider strip of wood at the back, and either triangles or a strip of wood at the front bottom near the baffle. Those features were put in place presumably to support the castor inserts, and are missing on your cab.

I think the copper homas have a base that screws on, which may explain the 4 smaller holes around the larger one in the center. Then the wheel part of the castor screws into a T-nut in the base of the cab (since been drilled out if your cab had them).

Look for three screw holes in an L shape for evidence of the large 3 screw revvos.

The 3 screw type are circa 1970 and the copper homas were used afterwards for a few years through the early 70s.

some pics:

neikeel · Post by **neikeel** » Sat May 07, 2011 5:24 am

If you are stuck Kevin I have a spare set of copper Homa bases (but no spare wheels).

The stock plastic Marshall bosses fit in those holes but I do not like them as I nearly trashed a cab before a gig when one of them caught and got ripped out of the plastic. I use the Fender pop-ins now and have nearly phased out all my later cabs

beaulieu · Post by **beaulieu** » Mon May 09, 2011 10:24 am

a year back I got a 71 cab and a 70 cab.The 70 was gutted,no handles or tolex. It looks like a new one now and I even found nos metal handles. I think they look cool beat-up but if they are to far gone I would retolex.If urs is painted Id say go for a restore! Nice cab BTW.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Mon May 09, 2011 12:01 pm

Yeah, eventually I'll go for the full restore/recover, but I'm taking it slowly...

I have some 2BA cheesehead bolts for the speakers and a NOS jack plate on the way. I'm just gonna pick myself up a piece of baltic birch plywood for the back panel and recover that later with the cab.

I'll likely just use readily available 8-24 bolts and tee nuts for the handles.

neikeel wrote:If you are stuck Kevin I have a spare set of copper Homa bases (but no spare wheels).

The stock plastic Marshall bosses fit in those holes but I do not like them as I nearly trashed a cab before a gig when one of them caught and got ripped out of the plastic. I use the Fender pop-ins now and have nearly phased out all my later cabs

Thanks. I think I'm also gonna go with the Fender-style pop-ins, as per Jim's tutorial.

Anybody know where to get the gold beading/piping that goes in the channel, not around the baffle?

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