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A wall of fake Marshall amps? Please...


surferbeto

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I saw a pic of a major hard metal band - it was either Megadeth or Slayer if I remember it right. You could clearly see the cones in some of the cabinets from the angle of the lighting - and clearly see that others were totally empty. Not different cones, etc - empty.


I'm positive you'd never convince most fans of that. I'm also positive that's why we have so many guitarists with full stacks in clubs.

 

As a dude with a garage full of tools, it wouldn't be that hard to build a fake 4x12 cabinet. Shoot, it's almost a waste, you might as well pick up some 12" speakers and wire them up...

 

But it's easy. Get the basic dimensions of a real 4x12. Get take 1 sheet of plywood and cut 4 twelve inch circles in it (evenly spaced). Paint it black, and then cover with a black cloth that you can almost see through. This will make the "speakers" show up.

 

Then build a box to hold the speaker board in. You don't even have to make a back for it (heck, that'd let you use it for storing gear.

 

Take the box down to one of those shops that do the spray in bed-liner for trucks. That stuff's basically the same as Tolex. Spray the outside of with that stuff. or get the textured spray paint.

 

When it's done, finish assembly with the speaker board.

 

There's no reason you could make real 4x12's this way, or even take the guts of your combo amp and mount it into the 4x12 cabinet (or make a 4x10, 4x6, etc). Put all the sockets and knobs on the back. If you had smaller speakers (or fewer), you'd mount a secondary board behind the 4 hole speaker board, that would fit the smaller/fewer speakers. You could paint/mount fake speakr centers on the 2nd board, so it looks even more realistic.

 

Easy bake 4x12

 

Repeat as needed, per stage space available. If you had enough stage space, a bunch of these on the back wall, you'd look like a heavy metal pro. Or a wannabe. I don't offer a warranty on this advice.

 

If somebody asks, you can say they're custom built. It's not a lie. :)

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As a dude with a garage full of tools, it wouldn't be that hard to build a fake 4x12 cabinet. Shoot, it's almost a waste, you might as well pick up some 12" speakers and wire them up...


But it's easy. Get the basic dimensions of a real 4x12. Get take 1 sheet of plywood and cut 4 twelve inch circles in it (evenly spaced). Paint it black, and then cover with a black cloth that you can almost see through. This will make the "speakers" show up.


Then build a box to hold the speaker board in. You don't even have to make a back for it (heck, that'd let you use it for storing gear.


Take the box down to one of those shops that do the spray in bed-liner for trucks. That stuff's basically the same as Tolex. Spray the outside of with that stuff. or get the textured spray paint.


When it's done, finish assembly with the speaker board.


There's no reason you could make real 4x12's this way, or even take the guts of your combo amp and mount it into the 4x12 cabinet (or make a 4x10, 4x6, etc). Put all the sockets and knobs on the back. If you had smaller speakers (or fewer), you'd mount a secondary board behind the 4 hole speaker board, that would fit the smaller/fewer speakers. You could paint/mount fake speakr centers on the 2nd board, so it looks even more realistic.


Easy bake 4x12


Repeat as needed, per stage space available. If you had enough stage space, a bunch of these on the back wall, you'd look like a heavy metal pro. Or a wannabe. I don't offer a warranty on this advice.


If somebody asks, you can say they're custom built. It's not a lie.
:)

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just order some wallpaper from wherever guitar center gets theirs?:idea:

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As a dude with a garage full of tools, it wouldn't be that hard to build a fake 4x12 cabinet. Shoot, it's almost a waste, you might as well pick up some 12" speakers and wire them up...


But it's easy. Get the basic dimensions of a real 4x12. Get take 1 sheet of plywood and cut 4 twelve inch circles in it (evenly spaced). Paint it black, and then cover with a black cloth that you can almost see through. This will make the "speakers" show up.


Then build a box to hold the speaker board in. You don't even have to make a back for it (heck, that'd let you use it for storing gear.


Take the box down to one of those shops that do the spray in bed-liner for trucks. That stuff's basically the same as Tolex. Spray the outside of with that stuff. or get the textured spray paint.


When it's done, finish assembly with the speaker board.


There's no reason you could make real 4x12's this way, or even take the guts of your combo amp and mount it into the 4x12 cabinet (or make a 4x10, 4x6, etc). Put all the sockets and knobs on the back. If you had smaller speakers (or fewer), you'd mount a secondary board behind the 4 hole speaker board, that would fit the smaller/fewer speakers. You could paint/mount fake speakr centers on the 2nd board, so it looks even more realistic.


Easy bake 4x12


Repeat as needed, per stage space available. If you had enough stage space, a bunch of these on the back wall, you'd look like a heavy metal pro. Or a wannabe. I don't offer a warranty on this advice.


If somebody asks, you can say they're custom built. It's not a lie.
:)

 

I did this back in the 1970's. I had a small Fender combo amp that sounded fine, but just didn't seem to look right on stage next to the drummer's massive kit and the bass player's huge rig. So I took some scrap lumber and black cloth and built a 4'x6'x2' box and covered the front with the fabric. I painted the wood black and cut a quarter-sized hole in the side.

 

When I got to the gig, I'd set the giant frame on stage, then sneak my little combo inside it. I'd run a guitar cable through the hole and plug it into the combo. From the front it'd look like I was playing through this massive refrigerator sized speaker. Only problem was I couldn't adjust the amp while I was playing without giving the whole thing away.

 

Now that I'm older and wiser (well, older), I can't be bothered with such foolishness. Heck, most of the time I just plug into a Digitech RP250 and go right into the PA.

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Wouldn't it be easier to just order some wallpaper from wherever guitar center gets theirs?
:idea:

 

ya know, while I was painting the master bedroom today, the wife mentioned she wanted to paint all the rooms, including my guitar room. That got me thinking of building a fake wall of marshalls on one wall (just a front surface, not actual cabinets). Just so when I practice, I feel like a rockstar.

 

Yeah, it's pretty stupid, but deep down, y'all are thinking how that would rock!

 

It'd be do-able, but absolutely worthless for home-resale, and and some point, it would look pretty dorky.

 

Where the fake cabinet plan would almost make sense is a club that caters to heavy metal/rock, could fake up a the mega-stack backline for their wall. It's certainly better than some of the crappy looking walls I've seen in some photos posted here.

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Say what you want. But Kiss was the cutting edge for stage shows and set design. It goes to show, what hard work can do. I mean these guys are mediocre at best, but they worked their asses off and pulled no punches promoting themselves. And from what I understand it was a family affair, the sat around at home making stage props, costumes flyers, with their moms. They'd come up with elaborate schemes to create neighborhood buzz. All that and they still had to practice and get gigs.

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Say what you want. But Kiss was the cutting edge for stage shows and set design. It goes to show, what hard work can do. I mean these guys are mediocre at best, but they worked their asses off and pulled no punches promoting themselves. And from what I understand it was a family affair, the sat around at home making stage props, costumes flyers, with their moms. They'd come up with elaborate schemes to create neighborhood buzz. All that and they still had to practice and get gigs.

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Say what you want. But Kiss was the cutting edge for stage shows and set design. It goes to show, what hard work can do. I mean these guys are mediocre at best, but they worked their asses off and pulled no punches promoting themselves. And from what I understand it was a family affair, the sat around at home making stage props, costumes flyers, with their moms. They'd come up with elaborate schemes to create neighborhood buzz. All that and they still had to practice and get gigs.

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ya know, while I was painting the master bedroom today, the wife mentioned she wanted to paint all the rooms, including my guitar room. That got me thinking of building a fake wall of marshalls on one wall (just a front surface, not actual cabinets). Just so when I practice, I feel like a rockstar.


Yeah, it's pretty stupid, but deep down, y'all are thinking how that would rock!


It'd be do-able, but absolutely worthless for home-resale, and and some point, it would look pretty dorky.


Where the fake cabinet plan would almost make sense is a club that caters to heavy metal/rock, could fake up a the mega-stack backline for their wall. It's certainly better than some of the crappy looking walls I've seen in some photos posted here.

 

 

You should use them as actual cabinets. You know, a wall of storage lockers designed to look like marshalls.

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You should use them as actual cabinets. You know, a wall of storage lockers designed to look like marshalls.

 

 

that's not a bad idea. Good job coming up with something practical to my silly idea.

 

There's some logistics problems with doing it in my guitar room, but the general principal of "fake" cabinets as storage still makes sense.

 

When I get stuck watching HGTV (where the missus gets all her "we can do that too" ideas), I've seen plenty of funky cabinetry built/ordered, just to suit a theme.

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I'd put any one of those combo amps up against any amp out there.
:wave:

bradonstage2.jpg

 

Oh, I'm not laughing at the amps.

 

Just that he's got a fake wall of combo amps - that's freaking hilarious, and an obvious nod to the rock and roll wall of marshalls look.

 

I dig Paisley by the way - one of the few country artists that seems to have some integrity, and he's a smoking badass guitarist.

 

He also seems to have a sense of humor. :thu:

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