re-tolexing a Mesa OS 4x12

'Re-tolexing' amps and cabs can really bring an old piece of gear to life. At Zilla we still pimp up quite a few amps and cabs in need of some cosmetic love, this time it is the turn of a Mesa oversized 4x12. This cab has a nice story too....
We all remember our first proper amp, guitar, distortion pedal etc.... well at Zilla we all remember our first cab. Mine was a Marshall 1984 bass 4x12 in white elephant and I wish I never sold it. Joe has one of those stories we all wish we had, selling a piece of gear and secretly longing for it back... well years after selling his Mesa 4x12 he realised a good friend actually had it and had been using it for testing, better still he gave Joe the cab. He decided we wanted to recover it to match his other gear and we decided to film the process and Joe talks through what he is doing.
I think for anyone working in a company that specialises in a certain product it is important to know and love gear from other companies, to appreciate how and why it works, and it is also important to pimp it out to hell and back!
www.zillacabs.com/

[@Tonetwisters]

Helped my son get a Triple Rectifier and a Mesa 4X12 somewhere around that age. I personally own TWO MESA 1X12 cabs in the 26.5" size ... Load each with a 4 ohm Weber and oh the joy!

[@javiermp81]

Man... you make tolex application look so incredibly easy. And I can’t even wrap Christmas presents decently 🤣. Love the black on green tolex with black pipe!

[@ZillaCabs]

hahaha thanks, plenty of practise. Black on green with black pipe is always a winner for me, I was thinking about doing our Roadking in that colour scheme too. Thanks for watching Javier.

[@MckinleyDjents]

Would love to see more videos like this! This was so much fun! :)

[@ZillaCabs]

Thanks mate, your cab was cut yesterday, it should be glued up today all being well.

[@andrewb1667]

Awesome all around! Thanks for the video.

[@ZillaCabs]

Thanks for watching!

[@GodlessSuns]

Love the sound of the massive old Mesa cabs :)

[@ZillaCabs]

They are quite different to the British designs but do sound really big. Got to watch the low end though.

[@kristianbrn2959]

Not to forget the UK-made Mesa Voiced vintage 30’s. Those speakers makes a huge difference.

[@BillyMuircroft]

Great video, I regret getting rid of my mesa 4x12. I had the same one you have, straight body w/ slant grill

[@navadvipachandra6770]

thank you. that was rad

[@stratjunky]

Great work! the music in the background which band is that?

[@alastairtilley3585]

Epic work! Sacrilegious in my opinion, but epic!

[@ZillaCabs]

Sacrilegious because of the colour change or because it's a Boogie :) ... thanks for watching

[@alastairtilley3585]

@@ZillaCabs Only cos it's a Boogie. Nah not really, nothing lasts forever. Love your work guys!

[@samanthaharvatt9013]

Tidy!

[@ZillaCabs]

Thanks.

[@talpajam]

great vid. where is the black/green tolex available these days & does it match the vintage stuff ? i have 2 1970 cabs in black/green - my favorite look..thx.

[@ZillaCabs]

Thanks. The 2020 black on green doesn't even match the 2019 black on green ;) Batches can change ever so slightly so if you jump between different batches it can change quite a bit sometimes. I think the older stuff was a lot darker, but it can also fade differently too... so in short it is really hard to match. Those 1970 cabs sound like fun!

[@markblagdon]

What sort of amateur puts all the bits in a bag! Half the fun is crawling on the floor looking for the bits you’ve dropped in the sawdust ;)

[@ZillaCabs]

hahaha, we've all been there in the sawdust hahaha

[@ericolson326]

What is the device being used @ 13:00 ?

[@petkopeet]

Is that a regular wood glue, or some special adhesive? I was thinking about retolexing my cab with adhesive in spray, do you think it will last?

[@jeffallen3382]

It's a water based contact adhesive. If you look at tolex sellers you will see them selling it. Some leather shops will have it as well as they use something similar.

[@juliansedor7101]

Spray adhesive should work fine as long as it's strong enough. I used 3M 45 last time I did a cab and it worked well. It may be more difficult to remove in the future when using spray adhesive but otherwise it works fine.

[@snapascrew]

How’d you pop the grill out???

[@ZillaCabs]

They are screwed in from the back.

[@snapascrew]

@@ZillaCabs thanks. I’m trying to maybe change out the piping on the front of my Mesa (i have “stiletto” era traditional cab so the piping on the front is silver not black and I’m not a fan…” do you know where I could get that and/or how to remove the old and install new?

[@dougleydorite]

Ohhhhhhhhh the shipping 😢

[@ZillaCabs]

Shipping's not too bad, we ship cabs all over the world. Give us a shout if you are interested in anything.

[@zanderfication]

Are the mesa cabs made of a birch ply? Or are the slabs just solid pieces?

[@andrewb1667]

Marine grade plywood

[@thomasring3022]

What did you use for glue?

[@garrettmccormick7382]

I was wondering the same thing, it looked like wood glue