White scuffs on the VM tolex

[jsegovia]

After a few months of rehearsing with the VM (and I insist on taking the head and 428A cab with me everytime I play) I've noticed that when it gets banged you end up with white scuffs on the tolex. Is there anything that can be done to clean that up? The amp is still in great shape but I'd like to keep it looking new longer.

Jesse

[surfnorthwest]

Try fingernail polish remover that should do it. I don't think it will discolor the tolex but try it on a small area first.

[jsegovia]

Finger nail polish remover??? That's one of the craziest sounding ideas I've ever heard but lots of very effective remedies are crazy sounding, so I'll definitely give it a try. And in a house with three daughters and a wife I'm sure there's lots of fingernail polish remover to be found here. :)

Jesse

[SteveD]

Hey Jesse,

The white is the natural original colour of the covering material. The scuffs are where you have taken the paint off revealing the base material so nail varnish remover will do nothing.

The only thing you can try (short of getting it recovered) is getting some paint to match it in. The purple is a complete base coat and the black is stipled over the top.

[jsegovia]

Thanks, very much for the reply, as always, Steve. As I'm one of those rare lead guitarists who didn't go to art school I don't think I'll be painting my Marshall just yet. :)

Covers or cases, I guess that's the choice for me. I'm very careful with the head and cab but putting those things in and out of cars and houses all the time, they really get scuffed and banged. The band I'm with now is supposed to be getting very serious about gigging (our first date is a big 4th of July party on, well, you can guess) so I'd better do something before I completely relic my amp.

Jesse

[LivewireBlanco]

Try a D2F cover. They are cheaper than a hard case and will protect your cab from getting scratched and scuffed. Just type D2F in on Ebay and you'll find them.

[surfnorthwest]

I didn't realize you had taken the color off with the scuff, thought it was simply a scuff. You could try some black shoe polish to cover it up

[DeanM]

I didn't realize you had taken the color off with the scuff, thought it was simply a scuff. You could try some black shoe polish to cover it up

or purple shoe pollish!!

[surfnorthwest]

Don't you guys have those lepercons over there, I think they would have some purple shoes polish. Man I would love to come to Ireland and hunt for one of those little bastards, shoot it right in the ass.

Could also try to touch it up with some dark purple nail polish

[slowpokerhino]

I think that if you try to touch it up it will probably just end up looking worse. Best just to accept the scars you now have (chicks dig scars) and take precaustions so that it doesn't get worse. Ebay always has a pretty good selection of covers & cases.

[Tnjpekar]

pain heals

(chicks dig scars) .

and glory lasts forever

[ironlung40]

I don't know how important it is too you or how deep your pockets are, but you could order a new head box for it. Marshall has them in purple or black....then you could have a gigging head, and a pristine replacement if you ever wanted it to look brand new again. Just a thought and an option. Might be crazy, but wanted you to know.

Ironlung40

[jsegovia]

The cab is also starting to get nicked at this point. I'm trying to be REAL careful with it, but that's hard when you're carrying it in and out of houses, cars and clubs all by yourself. The tolex is in excellent shape except for the dings and tears where it bangs into the door jamb or the car door or whatever. I guess I'm going to have to get covers for it pronto, ether that or continue relicing it so it looks like Jimi Hendrix or Pete Townshend played it. :(

Jesse

[ironlung40]

I saw your demo on youtube. Is it true that you sold your JMP setup for the vintage modern?

I have the vm and the jmp. I couldn't part with either one, but I'm constantly on the fence about my tone. One day I'm all about classic heavy rock from the 70's. Then the next I'm wanting the more metal sounds that the JMP can deliver. Not that both amps cannot cover lots of genres, but I guess I just like the differences in tone that they do have.

Anyway, good demo you put on there, and good luck with your cosmetic issues with the amp.

sincerely,
Ironlung40

[jsegovia]

I saw your demo on youtube. Is it true that you sold your JMP setup for the vintage modern?

I have the vm and the jmp. I couldn't part with either one, but I'm constantly on the fence about my tone. One day I'm all about classic heavy rock from the 70's. Then the next I'm wanting the more metal sounds that the JMP can deliver. Not that both amps cannot cover lots of genres, but I guess I just like the differences in tone that they do have.

Anyway, good demo you put on there, and good luck with your cosmetic issues with the amp.

sincerely,
Ironlung40

To be honest, what I did was check out the VM over and over at the music store and decide I don't need a vintage single channel amp like the JMP 2203, I need a modern multi-channel amp that sounds as good as the VM so I can get a really nice overdriven hot-rodded JMP sound like the VM and also get a good clean sound. So I bought the TSL-602 and set it up next to my 2203 and got what I thought was a really good approximation of the 2203's overdriven sound on my 602's middle or rhythm channel. I then got a nice clean sound and a nice lead sound and I thought I was golden. THEN I sold my 2203 (and I got good money for it and the cab so no regrets). But I soon realized the TSL wasn't doing it for me. I went out a bought a TSL-100 thinking that might make a big difference (I've always played 100 watters - they sound so much bigger to me even at the same volume) but that didn't do it either. I finally wised up and sold both TSLs and bought the VM.

Because of the volume difference I can't really use the VM's clean range much except for really quiet things like Dave Mason's 'We Just Disagree' or the Beatles 'Dear Prudence' where I don't need to switch over to the high range, but in high range I absolutely have my perfect Marshall rock tone. The 2203 may have some range that you can't get from the VM but I don't hear much of it. Now that I have the VM I don't miss the 2203 at all.

We auditioned a new keyboardist last Saturday and the first thing he commented on was how nice my Strat sounded - what he meant was how nice my amp sounded! :)

Jesse