antique radio grill cloth ??

Anybody ever use this sort of material as a grill cloth on your speaker baffle?

I am looking at some pretty cool patterns from vintage radios of the 30s and 40s mostly cotton and rayon with some equally cool textured weaves.
iggy

IT is surprising how mush of the soundwave some of that material soaks up. The brown cloth of the early FEnder amps really mutes the sonics. There is a reason why true speaker grille cloth came into being...it allows the sound to pass through.
OF course, one might want to dull some amps' sound, right?

True these are reproductions from materials (cotton, rayon even polyester) I wondered if they would work.
How does the Fender oxblood cloth currently available from a variety of Mfrs differ say from a rayon radio grille cloth? what are they made of?
iggy

'Oxblood' usually is used in reference to the 'cloth' used in the first blond Fenders. IT is a true speaker grille cloth and is sonically transparent compared to the brown cloth of the very early FEnder TV front amplifiers. IF you go to Mojo, the brown cloth, which is sonically challenged, is part #6302000. The Oxblood and the oxblood with gold stripe are from the tweed and Blond/Brown eras of FEnder are part #6301004 and 6301001 respectively.

Wally thanks again for the info.
I am trying so source an equivalent fabric here in Canada that would do the job..
hell my wife sent me to fabricland !

Iggy, if you wanted the brown cloth look, then FAbricland would have what you want. IF you want some more sonically transparent thing, you would have to shop hard there...but they might have some heavy gauze type stuff that woudl not block everything the amp does.
How much and what color are you needing/wanting?

Wally,
I have just built a tweed deluxe cabinet as a demo and finished it with a paisley fabric (I have a post on the demo in this forum) and so wanted a dark brown or close look but dont want to compromise the sound of course. I am waiting for parts for the guts....Then I am planning a "Pro"...
so I am looking for enough fabric for 2 baffles (18X21 for the "deluxe" and 23 X24 for the "pro").
Those antique radio grills do look really cool !
iggy

Iggy, once when it was necessary to get thet least affected sonics out of a Wide panel Pro, we ordered a new grille with the Oxblood cloth...without the gold stripe. This cloth looks good on a TV front amp, and it doesn't interfere with the sound.This decision was made by the owner after I passed a piece of the brown cloth in front of a stereo speaker. When he heard the loss, he immediately decided to store the original baffleboard and go with some 'modern' speaker grille cloth.
Of course, there are fabrics that are not as dense as that cloth that LEo used in those TV Fronts; and you might find a better match for your cab covering by going that way.
A rayon cloth will not be as dense as the thick cotton stuff that the tV amps came with as grille cloth. THe sonic transparency is determined by the material and the weave pattern.
There is one other consideration besides sonic transparency and cosmetics. Some grille cloth provides some modicum of protection whereas thin rayon will not do much at all in that regard. The sepaker grille cloth that FEnder has used since the wide panel era is made of some sysnthetic...plastic or nylon??....weave that indeed has some strenghth and resiliency when applied correctly.

Thanks again Wally,
I did find a link to some sound comparison of a few linen and linen-cotton weaves at the link attached.
the cotton definitely cut some high frequencies but the linen at a couple of different weights cut nothing...I hope my interpretations are correct. If this is true then my repros may get a "brown linen" grille.
iggy


http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=1658

Hi all -

Just wanted to add this link as a resource:

http://www.grillecloth.com/

John is a great supplier...you can see the amazing variety he sells. You can also buy a sample sheet if you'd like. I've bought from him in the past (I restore vintage radios) and the quality is great.

-Kevin

My $.02, you-get-what-you-pay-for opinion:

Those old cloths are too cool to ignore. Everything that goes into an amp will affect the tone somehow. For my money, most amps could use a little less high end when they're close mic'd anyway. We're talking guitar amps here, not hifi. One man's "muffled" is another man's mojo. Make 'em look good and play the heck out of 'em. Cloth dampening your tone too much? Turn those knobs!

see also here:

http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/catalog@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?PAGE=SUBCAT&SEARCH_TREE01=22_RADIORESTOR&SEARCH_TREE02=GRILLCLOTH

20 dollars per foot....


see also here:

http://www.tubesandmore.com/scripts/foxweb.dll/catalog@d:/dfs/elevclients/cemirror/ELEVATOR.FXP?PAGE=SUBCAT&SEARCH_TREE01=22_RADIORESTOR&SEARCH_TREE02=GRILLCLOTH