Vintage HiWatt 4x12 cabinet

[Lefty Lou]

My HIWATT badge looks exactly like chrisom's, but I got mine years ago most likely off eBay and (cheap/cheaper) then. Instead of using T brackets, maybe a newer sturdier baffle board is in order. It's quite a thing to try and re-stretch grill cloth that is already shy of barely wrapping around the baffle board as it is. What I'd like to do (if I had the time and materials) with all of my combos and speaker cabinets is to utilize those T-screws. The ones that bite into the baffle board wood and the speakers mount through the threaded screw receptacles or T-screw. It would also tend to make the speakers more stable than the common way of mounting speakers.

[yngwie308]

Lefty Lou Emerald and I are the same person, when I'm not yngwie308, I am Atomic Playboy as well some places.
Yes I am still as much into Gary Moore as I ever was. Steve Stevens I am cooling off on after some past issues.
yngwie308

[chrisom]

Steve Stevens is great and all, (I love reading his gear interviews) but I have to pick and choose what I really like from him musically. EVERYTHING on Rebel Yell, and Flamenco-A-Go-go too, and his Merry Axemas piece were outstanding, top-of-the-line pro stuff. But his Black Light Project(s), Atomic Playboys and Vince Neil stuff- not so much, IMO. Didn't care much for the Top Gun Theme or Dirty Diana either...

Gary Moore- I loved Victims of the Future, and Wild Frontier, and his back-to-the "Bluesbreaker" type albums, and his "Blues For Jimi" DVD...

[Lefty Lou]

Speaking of 4 x 12" cabinets, I once owned a cab that I acquired through some bartering with a friend that had vintage Celestions combined with Goodmans. It was one of the best cabinets I ever heard, which sent me on a journey to locate these wonderful speakers w/o much luck. If I had the money and time, I might do what Jim Seavall did only with the Goodman brand, and maybe some Fanes thrown in for good measure.

[Lefty Lou]

Lefty Lou Emerald and I are the same person, when I'm not yngwie308, I am Atomic Playboy as well some places.
Yes I am still as much into Gary Moore as I ever was. Steve Stevens I am cooling off on after some past issues.
yngwie308

I found out just how human Gary was after reading some stories about him, of which I won't go into detail about here. BUT, I also heard of the good he did for people as well like a benefit given for victims in Haiti in which he played a function to raise money for. The bad stuff made me cringe, but after hearing the good stuff it made me feel much better about Gary's true character.

[Majorlead78]

Mine were staples too; I got those t-brackets at Lowe's so it wouldn't break when I stretched the grille. The Hi-Tone website is where I picked up the repro badges. Good eye! Only problem now is the baffle won't fit back in the cab now that I added piping and thicker grille...

Chrisom, I thought I was the only one with this problem. Looks like you & me are in the same boat with this issue.

After I put the new Salt & Pepper Basketweave grill cloth & stapled the white piping back on the baffle, I was having a problem fitting the baffle back on the front of my Hiwatt cab. After I removed the piping, it went into the cab, but it still didn't look right, so I tried again by putting the white piping back on & sure enough, the baffle wouldn't fit again. So for the 2nd time, I took the piping back off & the baffle now fits inside the cab.

After seeing your picture with the T-brackets, I'm going to redo the baffle & start all over. What I might have to do is use a 90 grinder or a sander & take about 1/16th of an inch off the sides of the wood baffle (maybe 1/8th). That could do the trick. I'll keep you posted.

David

[chrisom]

That's what I thought I might have to do. I figured I would try to peel back the tolex before removing 1/16", then reglue the tolex back down. I hate to do anything though that will visibly noticably change the frontal view of the cab. The only other option is to remove the piping and the grillecloth, remove the wood from the baffle, then re-grille and re-pipe the baffle. That would be the correct way to do it, but hey- this is an old mid-late seveties (I think) particle-board(?) Sound City cab. Don't know if I want to go so all-out on what's going to be my knock-around cab...

[Lefty Lou]

Chrisom, pull that particle board out buddy and use some good sturdy plywood of at least the same thickness.

[chrisom]

The baffle's made of real wood, it's the cab shell itself that I think might be made of the cheap stuff. It's an old mid-seventies front-loaded Sound City B412 (bass) cab, but I'm not sure if they made particle-board back then or not... It looks way better now than it did when they issued it...

1973-75 Sound City B412.JPG (53.37 KiB) Viewed 1707 times

[Lefty Lou]

If the wood is exposed in any way you should be able to visually tell whether it's particle board or not. My 1960A cabinet apparently has a particle board back. One of these days I'll get around to replacing it, and re-tolexing the back cover. I need to re-tolex another Marshall 70's cab with Greenbacks that I have in storage first, but not having money and other more pressing priorities place these items on the "wait list".