What would you do? Bassman painted black...

[DrGonz78]

So I got this 1962 Fender Bassman on the bench to get it all up and running great. Taking a look at the inside of the amp the only components changed are two screen resistors and everything is all original. On the outside cab it's another story altogether. Apparently people thought it was a good idea to spray paint the blonde tolex to black. So I have a few ideas on which way to go but none of them involve re-tolexing the head cab. So I could do nothing and leave it alone. I could get the cab to be a better black again and make it look like it is really black tolex. Or I could consider options on how to remove the black paint and bring back the original blonde look. Has anyone here successfully removed black spray paint on a blonde tolex cabinet before? The option to remove the paint seems like the least likely option honestly, but I would love to hear everyone's opinion on the matter.

I attached some pics of the outside of the amp. Of course the knobs have been replaced and I will put some of the cream one's back in place.

[darkfenriz]

Sell to colourblind guitarist.

[Justin Thomas]

I would clean it, but not necessarily scrub it, until I had the time & money to get it professionally done. Which likely means never...

Otherwise, I'd hope Chuck H sees this post...

Justin

[Tom Phillips]

I have been successful removing paint from tolex using Goof Off heavy duty spot remover and degreaser. However, it depends on the type of paint that was used so the first thing I would do is a test spot on the bottom of the cabinet.

[J M Fahey]

You can´t, even less on such old and degraded Tolex which will hold fine if unmolested, but Plastics in general and WAY more ultraflexible vinyl became so by generously doping it with plasticizers, oily substances added to the plastic mix when molten which allow molecules to "slide" against each other, enhancing flexibility.

But such plasticizers evaporate/oxidate/get cracked by UV (all 3 effects at the same time ) , which is easily visible on old car cracking and crumbling seat Tolex/Vynil.

Amp/cabinets do not *show* it to such a degree simply because Tolex is glued to a rigid backing so no flexing, but degrading still happens.

If anything, this amp might be in better "chemical" condition because black paint on it might have both kept some oxygen away and stopped UV, go figure.

Even if you happened to remove 95% of black paint, same solvents used to soften and wipe it away will cause at least some to migrate into blonde tolex plastic layer and colour it, you´ll probably end with ugly splotches here and there.
If it were the opposite way, trying go get black back (suppose earlier owner sprayed it bright pink fluo or whatever) is way easier , since "black is black" , hues hardly apply to it.

Personally I see 2 options:

1) leave as is, and if owner finds it very important, or his friends ask or he wants to sell it, he can be candid and frank about it and if/when asked he can plainly state: " this IS a Blonde Bassman,;some early Rocker, think around 1965, envied his friends´fancy new Black Fenders and he painted his to match, it has been unmolested since, I will definitely not touch that and in fact it´s the most f*ck*ng original ´62 amplifier I ever saw"

2) if visuals are important (say owner plays in a Rockabilly or Country band or whatever and *all* other band members use period correct Blondes, his being the Black Sheep in that flock) then he may Retolex and *age* it.

FWIW soaking fresh Blonde Tolex with acetone or paint thinner , letting it absorb a little and then wiping out with crumbled newspaper will in 4 or 5 applications remove some plasticizer and leave surface rough and less flexible, then 1 year touring without a case or cover will look like 20 or more years on the road.

Just you don´t get involved in this unforgiving and failure prone job, only what you do best: the Electronics/sound side.

[Jazz P Bass]

Hah!

My brother painted his '63 Bassman black.

I ended up with the amp and had it retolexed.
Installed new cream knobs & a Logo.
Happily, the oxblood front grill was unmolested.

There are two different textures used on the Blonde's.
A very coarse & a smoother 'coarse.

A friend has a '62 & his is the smoother one.
The '63 is coarser & there is no way you would get the paint out of the nooks & crannies.

Interestingly, the '63 had the holes drilled for the T-bone handle but it has the single strap two holer.

[Leo_Gnardo]

1) leave as is, and if owner finds it very important, or his friends ask or he wants to sell it, he can be candid and frank about it and if/when asked he can plainly state: " this IS a Blonde Bassman,;some early Rocker, think around 1965, envied his friends´fancy new Black Fenders and he painted his to match, it has been unmolested since, I will definitely not touch that and in fact it´s the most f*ck*ng original ´62 amplifier I ever saw"

Some 25 years or so back I was tasked with repairing a similarly treated Bassman. Its owner, Larry Hoppen (Orleans) explained in late 60's it was common for owners of early 60's Fender amps and even tweeds to paint them black to have a newer-looking back line. Yes it was folly but . . . isn't that what the music biz is made of?

I don't have any special solutions. Just the usual 3 and a half choices, leave alone or repaint(!), try some paint remover or similar, or re-tolex. Great amp though, no matter what the box looks like!

[DrGonz78]

Thanks for all the great responses everyone!! This pretty much settles it for me on the idea to even attempt to remove the paint in any hope for a blonde recovery. At this point I will probably leave it as is and only focus on the circuit restoration. Might go the route to repaint it better so the blonde within is not so obvious.

[J M Fahey]

Oh ye ruly Colonists.
Can´t even make decent Scotch, your Beer must be drunk very cold to hide the taste, and have no clue about paint cleaning so fumble about all day long with no clue.

Please step aside and let the British Masters teach you how:

[66tele]

I am late to this thread, but see my account of paint removal from Tolex:

Removing Paint from Tolex

This worked very well, did not harm the Tolex, corners or the handle. I still own the Sunn 1200S and it looks great!

And please ignore the subsequent posts about shoe polish and wire brushes!!!! Not recommended!

[DrGonz78]

I am late to this thread, but see my account of paint removal from Tolex:

Removing Paint from Tolex

This worked very well, did not harm the Tolex, corners or the handle. I still own the Sunn 1200S and it looks great!

And please ignore the subsequent posts about shoe polish and wire brushes!!!! Not recommended!

Hey thanks for posting. I actually did come across that exact thread of your Sunn 1200s and it nearly inspired me to get going on it. If this amp was mine I would just go to town on the thing and cross my fingers. I might entertain the idea while sitting on the amp waiting to help sell the guy off to somebody. If the owner of the amp reads this thread he might get hopeful that it can be done. However, I feel that the paint on this Bassman is not spray paint but some type of brushed on acrylic type or something.

I actually like black shoe polish on hard to clean tolex. Not saying I would use it all the time but the few times I have, it was natural black again. Once it is on it does not rub off onto things like I have read on a few other forums. Now using a wire brush is just a horrible idea of course!! lol

[Chuck H]

I didn't get in on this thread, but I read once where a guy had success removing most of the paint from a Tolex amp with duct tape. I'm sure it's not always the same depending on the condition of the Tolex and the type of paint used, but most paint won't stick to Tolex very well. So this guy just kept putting strips of duct tape on the painted areas and rubbed them in, then pulled it off, taking a lot of the paint with it. Easy enough to try.

[66tele]

So.....

Hey thanks for posting. I actually did come across that exact thread of your Sunn 1200s and it nearly inspired me to get going on it. If this amp was mine I would just go to town on the thing and cross my fingers. I might entertain the idea while sitting on the amp waiting to help sell the guy off to somebody. If the owner of the amp reads this thread he might get hopeful that it can be done. However, I feel that the paint on this Bassman is not spray paint but some type of brushed on acrylic type or something.

I actually like black shoe polish on hard to clean tolex. Not saying I would use it all the time but the few times I have, it was natural black again. Once it is on it does not rub off onto things like I have read on a few other forums. Now using a wire brush is just a horrible idea of course!! lol

No need to cross your fingers......I've already done this. And it restores the Tolex back to original. Why would you paint over the paint on the original Tolex? Who will want this amp? What are you thinking?

[52 Bill]

I've done two of these Bassman heads in my lifetime one a customer's '62 (rough) and my own '63 (smooth). Neither one was easy, but neither one was all that hard either. The worst thing is that hidden under the black paint will probably be cigarette burns and maybe some resin stains from the pine knots bleeding through the Tolex.

When they are done they look great and in my opinion better than a recovered cabinet. A lot of the paint can be removed mechanically and some chemically, but the hardest part will getting the paint out of the deep nooks and crannies of the Tolex.

If you decide to do it, test whatever cleaner or stripper on the bottom or on the edge of the rear panel. Some solvents will melt the surface of the Tolex making for a real mess and a ruined job.

[DrGonz78]

No need to cross your fingers......I've already done this. And it restores the Tolex back to original. Why would you paint over the paint on the original Tolex? Who will want this amp? What are you thinking?

Well my thread posed 3 scenarios: Do nothing, Paint it black or Try to remove the paint. Most of the replies were right in line with my thinking and that was to just get the amp running great. I am a repair tech first and that is my most important goal for any amp. I am not going to paint it black. The person who buys the amp can decide what they want to do with it. Hopefully they just play it for it great tone. The blonde tolex is not as forgiving as black. So if it was red, white or blue paint on top of black tolex I would have more hope for a successful removal of the paint. With the blond tolex I have a feeling that the end result of removing the black paint will reveal a stained looking blonde. I just don't have faith in the time honored labor it would require and it might just end up looking a mess anyway. That time I would spend on it would also take me away from repairing the amps I have to work on daily. Trust me I have imagined the amp blonde again and it irks me that some lame brained hack painted it black in the first place. That is my thought process on it all.

Edit: P.S. If I can convince the owner to try to remove the paint, which is one great reason why I have not done anything to it yet, then we might just try your method 66tele. Start at the bottom of the amp and clean it all off there first to see what it could look like.