I've been through this exact same problem before. I found a brown Concert at my local store asking $800. I bought it for less as a fixer-upper. It had been modded, it was missing some knobs, it was missing the pilot lamp, but it had original speakers and iron. The biggest problem? It had been painted black once upon a time (very common in the 60s) and someone had tried to use chemicals to strip the paint. It was a disaster. The brown tolex had bee treated so aggressively with chemicals that it looked more like blonde tolex with an orange cast. I'm not sure if it was bleached or what, but the tolex was absolutely horrid. In spite of all of the chemical treatment, the people who stripped it still couldn't get the black out of the cracks, so it was obvious that it had been painted black and then abused trying to un-do the paint job. The original tolex was worthless, so I re-tolexed it in brown tolex.
One thing that you need to consider is that there's no value in the original tolex any more. Once it's been painted it's no longer original, and you don't lose anything by re-tolexing it. In cases of extreme tolex abuse, re-tolexing is the least intrusive way to make the amp look good again, and IMO that doesn't really degrade it's value, it only improves it.
I would refused to get involved in trying to clean up the tolex. It's an Uncle Remus "tarbaby" project if there ever was one.
One thing that you need to consider is that there's no value in the original tolex any more. Once it's been painted it's no longer original, and you don't lose anything by re-tolexing it. In cases of extreme tolex abuse, re-tolexing is the least intrusive way to make the amp look good again, and IMO that doesn't really degrade it's value, it only improves it.
I would refused to get involved in trying to clean up the tolex. It's an Uncle Remus "tarbaby" project if there ever was one.
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