Amplifier and Speaker Cabinet Coatings or Covering

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 29 Aug 2001 9:11 am

Has anyone tried coating a speaker cabinet or amplifier with the same type spray on material that is used in pickup truck spray on bed lining? Seems durable enough and less trouble than covering with Tolex, vinyl or Naugahyde. I have an old Carvin Bass Cabinet that sounds terrific but needs recovering, thought I might give this a try.

------------------
John

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 29 Aug 2001 11:00 am

John; When I was fooling around with Texas Sound, that was one of the improvements I was going to explore but time and fate beat me to the draw. I will be watching this to see if anyone went further with the idea.
Thanks for mentioning it. Comes In colors to.

Regards, Paul

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 29 Aug 2001 11:51 am

Thanks Paul
Carvin advertises in their catalog that they use this type coating on their top of the line TCS PA speaker systems.
BTW

Did you make the last show in Saluda? If you did, that was the cabinet all the Bass Players used on that show, and everyone wanted to buy it. Ugly sucker, but sure does sound good. I decided I wanted to pretty it up a bit, to go along with its great sound, Probably has something to do with the Vintage JBL D140F, no doubt.

I have read several posts about your Texas Sound Cabinets, Sounds interesting to me. I would like to know more about them.

I have a similar idea about making a horn cabinet out of 8 of the 5" or 6" bell horns similar to the ones they are putting into bass cabinets these days. Could have a Horn Array of close to 500 watts power handling on the high end of a PA Sytem on each side or 1000 total. Try and find a Horn Driver that will handle 500 watts. Not to be found unless you have mega bucks.

------------------
John

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Floyd on 29 August 2001 at 12:57 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 29 Aug 2001 2:38 pm

I've saw speakers in music stores that looked like they had some kind of liquid coating applied to them. The one I really remember had a rough texture coating, in fact some of the points in the texture were sharp.

I wonder about the cost of the liquid coverings compared to conventional Tolex or carpet types of covers.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 29 Aug 2001 4:51 pm

The spray-on plastics might be ideal...if it weren't for their weight. Typical coating thicknesses in a pickup bed range from 3/32"-3/16". This would add a LOT of weight over conventional vinyl (Tolex) or olefin fabric (Ozite). It would be quite durable, and waterproof, though.

Other than the extra weight, you might also have quite a problem removing the stuff...if you ever had to recondition (re-cover) the cabinets.

Fred Murphy · Post by **Fred Murphy** » 29 Aug 2001 5:11 pm

I have a cabinet with two twelve inch Lansing speakers, which I use oaccasionaly with a Mesa Boogie or a Crate amp. It sounds alright to me and it looks OK too. I don't use it very often and I only got it because the guy who built them owed me some money and he couldn't afford to pay me at the time.I only use it with lead guitar, and have never tried it with steel, as I don't care for the twelve inch speakers for steel. They were made by a guy by the name of Jay Wilfong, who lives in Greenfield Ind. He called them Dr. Fong speakers and sold them all over. I don't know if he is still in business or not, but he played guitar himself and he liked what he sold, and was pleased with them. I don't have any preference one way or the other. I don't like ozite coverings. They collect dust and dirt and are hard to clean. If you would want to talk to him about the procedure for using the spray on cover, you could probably get his number from information, and I am sure he would tell you what he done.

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 29 Aug 2001 5:40 pm

John: In Events and Announcements, you were in the Woody Woodell thread. I gave him the low down on those cabinets some time after you posted. Don't want to repeat it or bOb will be charging me commercial rates for his space here. Thanks for Asking !

Regards, Paul

Terry Downs · Post by **Terry Downs** » 31 Aug 2001 1:19 pm

I have considered this too. I build a lot of ATA style flight cases for delicate things like amps, but speaker cabinets are not practical for cases and need their own protection. The new Peavey cabinets have a coating like that. I have seen it chip off, but not any worse than a Tolex or Ozite covering.

The one thing I would consider is where you will be carring the cabinet. I would think the truck bed coating would really damage a car seat and interior, whereas transportation in a trailer or bus would be fine. I was placed in a position to carry my amp in its flight case in my car once. It was surprised at the damage for getting it in and out of the car while being careful as I could. The truck bed stuff seems to have the property of a high friction coefficient so articles in the bed will not slide. Sounds like sandpaper.

------------------
Terry Downs
http://nightshift.net
terry@nightshift.net

Doug Earnest · Post by **Doug Earnest** » 1 Sep 2001 7:53 pm

I fixed an old Vox bass case for Joe Willis last month. I used some brush on type truck bed coating from WalMart and it didn't turn out too bad. (Tolex to match the old Vox stuff wasn't readily available and Joe's kinda cheap...) If you wanted to do a nice job on a speaker cabinet it would take several coats, and then it would start to get pricey. And it stinks really bad.

------------------

Doug Earnest
Zum2000U12,Sierra12,Sho-Bud ProII D10