Speaker cone hole.. big deal?

[matt117]

Hey. Noticed a hole in one of my speakers cone today when I took them out to clean off dust.

is this a big deal? I’ve been hearing a sort of weird low warble/buzz lately when playing. I even just retubed thinking maybe it was related, and put wet effects In the loop incase it was them distorting. I tried capturing the sound on my phone but it is hard to hear on it.
Anyways. This lead me to thinking to clean my amp (2007 lonestar classic - mesa boogie). Down here in the Dominican Republic, there’s a lot of bugs that get into stuff. I imagine one of them
Made the hole

I suppose I can un solder the leads on one of the speakers and try without the one with a hole. But wanted to get a feel what the general consensus on this was.

 

[muscmp]

piece of toilet paper and glue will work.

play music!

 

[vhilts1]

Worked great for the Kinks

 

[uriah1]

Tp and nail polish too

 

[TwoBear]

I’m gonna say about 99% sure that hole is not making any noise at all. I’ve had old brown era fender speakers that completely came apart around the whole outside edge and glued them back together with thin fabric and rubber cement and they worked fine. Almost everyone has speakers with a hole that got poked through when they were mounting it and it got poked on a stud, it’s no big deal at all except for resale. Yes that definitely looks like a bug. If you want I guess you could get a little rubber cement and a tiny piece of paper and carefully apply it from the rear of the speaker, or a tiny dab of silicone? If the voice coil is going it’ll sound more like a glitchy fizz, when you hit the strings hard especially with a strong clean signal that’s not as compressed as a dirty one would be, and also a little easier to hear without the distortion. When you start to hear that there’s not a lot of life left on the speaker unless it’s pampered from there on, and never driven hard.

 

[Sea Devil]

A slit would sound bad, since the edges would touch and cause a buzz, but a round hole shouldn't make any difference.

 

[corliss1]

I would not expect that tiny hole to make a difference in the sound at all.

 

[JL_LI]

That’s a tiny hole. If it were mine, I’d pick out the debris with a fine tweezer and fill the hole from the read with a drop of black silicone gasket cement available from any auto parts store.

 

[schmee]

I doubt that hole is making a noise issue. Put some silicone seal on both sides pressed thin. Or TP and glue in that area is probably ok. The silicone is flexy.

 

[stormsedge]

Uh...I'm supposed to dust my speaker cones? Didn't see that coming.

 

[Jonzilla]

Coffee filter patches dipped in watered down elmers glue applied to both sides of the hole. Tear the filter patches pieces instead of cutting with scissors and the frayed fiber edges will never let go.

 

[guitar_paul1]

A repair guy one time told me "Tacky Glue" - fabric glue from a fabric store because it stays flexible. That and a paper towel patch. Cheaper than a recone.
Coffee filter - that seems like a good idea, too.

 

[NoTeleBob]

It will cause you to lose .00001
SPL. I'd toss the speaker.

Or ignore it. Or tiny patch it.

 

[jays0n]

I have used a piece of black construction paper and Elmers glue. Worked great and is not conspicuous.

 

[mexicanyella]

Every time I see the thread title I read “cone” as “corn.” That would be a very different thread.

I have a Peavey with a Scorpion 12 speaker with a tiny round hole like that, but nearer to the surround. It still sounds fine to me. I plan to follow the advice in this thread next time I dig that amp out, but because of trace OCD, not a functionality problem.

 

[DavidP]

Shoe Goo works wonders in such situations. A little dab will do ya!

 

[Drew617]

I'd repair a hole like that one if it was in the surround, or another area I thought might be prone to flex and tear further. Where it is, I wouldn't even bother.

If the original material is mostly intact, I just work it back in place and bond the original fibers with a little Aleene's glue. I don't bother with TP unless material is actually missing. I wouldn't expect a hole like that or repair to affect much, but added mass can. TP doesn't weigh anything, but the extra glue it might absorb does.