Recovering a Hotrod Deluxe with cowhide?

Hey guys, a friend of mine gave me a Hotrod Deluxe in pieces: no tubes or speaker, chassis removed, and the tolex is ripped to shreds. I've worked on amps before so I'm going to do a few mods to the circuit and replace the tubes and speaker. Since this is a freebie I had the crazy idea to recover the amp in hair-on cowhide rather than tolex. I think it would be a pretty unique look.

I've never re-covered an amp before but I've been looking at a number of tutorials online and feel fairly confident in my abilities. Just wondering if this sort of thing was even feasible or not due to the increased thickness of the cowhide relative to the traditional tolex. I'm thinking that the corners would probably give me the most trouble and I'm also wondering if there would be any stretching issues. Finally, if I do decide to go this route, what would be the best adhesive to use?

Would love to get some ideas and suggestions from you guys. Should I decide to go for it, I'll make sure to post some build pictures. Thanks in advance!

Anyone???

I think the floor tile adhesive might be the best for this. If you've checked the same online tutorials I have you know what I'm referring to. Another idea for the corners would be using some 1/4 round moulding on the edges rather than try to go around the corners. Or any moulding at the local home improvement center that suits your fancy. I think it would be very cool but maybe expensive. Another idea for fastening it would be to use brass tacks. Or get some brass rivets & go clear thru the cabinet. Make it look like a saddle. (That guy sure knows how to ride his guitar!) Make a handle to fit the chosen motif. Put a halter on....... You need to do this & post pics. Sounds way cool!

Thanks for the reply! The tutorials I referred to were all about amp covering with Tolex...didn't see anything about floor tile adhesive. Thanks for the tip - I'll definitely look into that option. I had considered your idea of some type of corners in case they give me problems but was thinking more along the lines of traditional metal amp corners. The moulding idea gives me some more options to think about. I also like the idea about using brass rivets or maybe even brass tacks...it would certainly give it even more character, wouldn't it?

Great ideas! This is exactly what I was hoping for. I actually got a great deal on a piece of hair-on cowhide on ebay. 48" X 48" for only forty bucks so it looks like I'm going to go ahead and try it. I've never done a build thread before so maybe this would be a good place to start.

I'm lazy but I'd definitely would do it in 'panels' , or wrap around side to side, then a piece on top. Not that I've ever done that sort of thing, just wrap boxes with carpet. Panels, yeah.

I presume the material in question has been tanned. Not knowing how pliable it is I can't say if it will wrap around the edges. You could start on the bottom of one side & wrap around the top to the bottom of the other side doing it the way I outlined in the first post. Why do the bottom? Maybe cut strips for the edges & get some cool brass angle brackets for the corners. Also I saw a tolex tutorial that recommended the floor tile adhesive. Seems like it would be easier as you don't have a lot of leeway with contact adhesive.

Dooooooo iiiiiiiitttttttttt!

Seriously, Craig. DO it! Then bring it to the next Ampfest.

I don't know about sourcing for hair-on hides, but it'd be worth doing some research. I bought a hair-on strap from a guy who now sells on eBay. He gets his hides from Colombia, I think. He has family there who are in the cattle industry. I don't know about the feasibility of getting hides from that far away, shipping-wise, though.

I can, however, contribute a little help here with covering info. If the hide is pretty thick, especially in the area that will be tucked around and inside, you can use a palm sander on the back side to make the hide thinner. You'll have to be careful stretching it to be sure you don't tear the hide, but even if you do, it can be repaired and the hair will mask any small repairs. Also, once you get it tucked around a corner, you can shave the hair off the parts that won't be exposed.

I have wanted a hair-on hide amp for a long time now, so of course I think you should do this. Then I can live vicariously through you.

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys! I'm really excited about trying this. I figure there's not going to be a lot of middle ground - it'll either be a head turner or else it'll look like ass. I really lucked out because I'd probably never try this on an amp that I purchased. The fact that it was a freebie was what started the wheels turning.

Katillac, I scoured the internet for deals for cowhide and was surprised to find out how expensive they are. I finally was able to find one on ebay for $40 which was a steal! Thanks for the tip about the palm sander - I'm betting that will come in very handy. Sounds like you have some experience with this sort of thing so any further advice would be appreciated.

Hopefully my hide will ship today so I might be able to start on it this weekend.

Forty bucks for an entire hide?!?! Please tell me it's not a deformed calfhide or something like that. Calfhide would be softer and thinner, as those are usually reserved for handbags and such.

I learned the sanding trick when I was doing leatherwork about 20 years ago. I used to make custom belts, wallets, handbags and the like. I still have some of my old tools in storage, so I figure one of these days I'll have a Tele with a hand-tooled leather pickguard on it. Hmmm.. I just had an idea for using some of the tools on wood. Ponder time!

Yeah, I couldn't believe I lucked out and got it for that price. Most of the ones I looked at were in the $150-200 range. It's approximately 48" X 48" so I figure I can easily get enough material from it to cover the amp. Here's a picture of it:

Holy crapsticks! If I wasn't saving up for a practice amp right now I'd be all over you for info. Was that a Buy It Now or did you bid and seriously win? I'm wondering if that might be the same guy I got my strap from. I paid $30-40 for the strap alone, but it's sewn with a suede backing and was a really good deal considering the companies he sells wholesale to that charge $99 for the same straps.

He had a Buy-It-Now option, but I put in my minimum bid and waited it out. I was really nervous counting down the seconds before it ended and couldn't believe when nobody snuck in at the last minute. It's not exactly the color I was looking for but for the price I'm definitely not complaining!

I have been thinking about doing this also, so please post some follow-ups as to how you did things, and how it turned out. I bought a whole cowhide a while back, on-the-cheap, and had been considering re-covering an amp with it, but it has also worked fairly well as a backdrop for guitar photos, so I have waited on it, trying to decide.

My hide is not nearly as attractive as yours, but I only paid $10.00.

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I have been thinking about doing this, also, so please post some follow-ups as to how you did things, and how it turned out. I bought a whole cowhide a while back, on-the-cheap, and had been considering re-covering an amp with it, but it has also worked fairly well as a backdrop for guitar photos, so I have waited on it, trying to decide. My hide is not nearly as attractive as yours, but I only paid $10.00. .

OKAY that does it. I gotta ask. Where did you get one for that price? You can't even tan your own that cheap.

Want!

It looks supple enough to work around the edges without a problem. And one helluva deal. I asked questions of a man who has done this sort of thing. He recommends using contact cement to glue it down. Something about the tannins being difficult. Can't wait to see it.

I found it at a yard sale. I wish it had been the stereotypical black/white spotted cowhide. I was thinking that the amp corners could also be done with leather, and tacked in some way, like the leather corners that MESA uses.

Bumping for updates -- any progress on this project? I'd like to know how it's going, because I am about to embark on something very similar.

I have a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe clone that the person who built it put in this weird gray ostrich tolex covered cabinet with cowboy-print grill cloth. The Western theme gave me the idea to do the recovering (perhaps with new grill cloth), and I just picked up a nice brown/white spotted calf hide that looks big enough to cover all the panels.

What I need to do now is to plan how it's all going to come together. Details I'm still working out:

* Whether to remove the Tolex that's currently on the amp cabinet or just stick / tack the cowhide over the Tolex covering?

* How to cut the hide pieces so they fit together well, especially considering the direction of the hair. Around corners is the biggest tricky part -- I gather that Tolex is thin enough to overlap a bit, but that won't work so well here.

* What tool to use for cutting the hide pieces -- heavy-duty scissors? Stanley knife? Carpet knife?

* Are there patterns out there for Tolex cutting that I can download and print out?

* Whether to use adhesive (thanks for the tips on tile adhesive -- I was just considering hot glue; any reasons why that wouldn't work?), brass/bronze upholstery tacks, or some combination?

* How to match up edges of hides and deal with corners of the amp -- again, especially considering direction of hair growth. For instance, the top piece and where it meets the side edges: should it wrap over the edge a bit, or will that result in hair sticking up along the edge? Is it better to just have the top piece and the side pieces meet up directly at the rounded corner, and how can I cut the pieces so that there's a little bit of hair overlap concealing the seam?

* How to make the holes for chassis bolts, back panel screws, etc. Drill? Specialized leather punch?

* Where to find cool antique brass, bronze, or silver toned corner guards?

OP, if you've made progress since April, please share progress reports and/or pics!

Alex SF, I'm doing my tweed covering projects pretty haphazardly - first was done by gluing the tweed on, then cutting off excess. Second was done by making careful measurements, and cutting even more carefully. Check out my tweed on a Fender G-DEC Jr thread for those details if you're interested.

I use regular scissors for cutting fabric. Make sure they're sharp.

If I was really worried about the material sticking to the cabinet, I'd use Liquid Nails. That stuff will hold ANYTHING in place, permanently. Take this route only if you're positive you don't want to remove the material.

And here are a couple mockups I made of how I might lay out the panels. The first has the advantage of "bookmatching" the left and right sides, but has an abrupt color transition along the top edges. The second and third ones have somewhat better color transitions between panels, but might result in more mismatches in hair direction at the seams. (I figure I can use multiple pieces to cover the back panels.)

Thoughts on how to deal with hair matching at the seams, or flattening out the wrinkles and other parts of the hide that are less than flat (because the animal is not)?

that is sweet! Deffinately cant wait to see the finished product.

I vote third thumb. As far as wrinkles, I say leave them in. That's part of the character. Hair going different directions, same answer.

If you can post pics of the cab and the cow hide (without the panel imaging), I'll give it a shot. What I would aim for is getting the colors on the top panel to transition accurately to the sides. I mean, you want it to look like one big cow was used for the amp, instead of five or six miniature cows.

If you could also take apart one of those old Fischer-Price barns (the kind where you open the barn door and there's that cow mooing sound) and rig that up to the amp handle, you would be Amp King of Cow Country.

I was thinking along similar lines, only using some sort of trim material across the 90

Okay, I'm a visual kinda gal when it comes to building stuff, so I threw together a diagram/drawing of my idea. Plus, I'm procrastinating getting back to my power box project.

If it's not clear by the drawing, feel free to ask.