Painting my grille... suggestions?

[rojo412]

The opportunity to paint the metal grille of my Avatar B212 has arisen. I brought the cab back from my practice spot, thinking it had a bad speaker, but I think it's okay! So I figure, what the hey, PAINT THE GRILLE!

I'm pretty sure of the how, but of course the question now is, what color?

As a red-headed, ginger, I am thinking red or orange.
But that's not a definitive choice. I'm honestly looking for inspiration, words of encouragement (or discouragement), ideas, maybe a design thought... I don't know. What cha think?

[punkrocko]

I think the Rustoleum Hammered colors look pretty cool. I'm not sure how they would translate on the grill though. I like the copper and bronze colors.

[dmrogers]

Go over it real well with a Scotchbrite pad. Clean it thoroughly with something like alcohol, to remove any oils.

If it were me, I would stick with a conventional color.

Good luck.

[Hopkins]

Go to the auto parts store and get some Duplicolor engine enamel. Its tough as nails as its designed to be used on engines. It looks good and it will stick to anything even if its not perfectly clean.

[Low Class]

It might also look at getting it powdercoated.

[rojo412]

I'm going to spray paint it, I know that. I've done a few before. I just want some inspiration for colors.
If I ever want to make it black again, that's a no-brainer... so I'm not afraid to experiment.

[ZachM]

I painted the grilles on my Eden XLT410's grey and was happy with the way that looked. I used paint designed for painting car rims as it was a little tougher than normal spray paint. For me it worked good to go with that color because it was close to the color of the primer as well.

[Joe Louvar]

I like your idea of going red or orange to match your hair color - red hair, red amp, red bass, red cords, and etc.

[rojo412]

Any inspirational pics?

[Vintage Guy]

My Markbass 106HF has a yellow grille,courtesy of Masterbass! Looks pretty wild at our gigs!

[schecter5string]

I would paint the grille black, and for the color I would use colored poster board. Pull the speakers, tape the poster board(any color) to the cab, take a knife cut out the holes for the speakers, put the speaker's back in. By doing this it is not permanent, and you can change the color any time you want. I have seen a thread here on talkbass about doing this and it looks great.

[rojo412]

I did this a few years back, the hammered pearl white paint on an SWR 4x8 cab...

[schecter5string]

found it!!!!!
great looking cabs in this thread, this is the route I would take.

Show your colored baffle cabinets!

[rojo412]

THAT is cool. I think I do want to do that... but I'd still want to do the grille. Accent color, obviously.

Very cool, though.

[Crabby]

This cab had a black grill before I painted it. Used an automotive base coat/clear coat combo and it turned out very nice. Just needed to be rough sanded and cleaned before painting. I love the color. Its kind of a gun metal grey but looks silver in bright light.

Before:


After:

[Dano59]

why not tape it off and do a two or three color yellow orange red type of thing. or spray it yellow at an angle then tape it off and spray it red so you end up with a red grill with two or three yellow angles 1" wide bands once you pull the tape..
Hey red with orange strips would look cool. If your going to do it why not go nuts. it's just paint and can always be changed.

[BassmanPaul]

I'm old school - at my age I have to be!

I always have felt that the focus of the audiences attention should be me, the performer, not my equipment! Black is what I feel is natural for a back line.

That said, to each his / her own. Do what pleases YOU!

[rojo412]

I'm surprised that construction paper is the material of choice. However, maybe I missed the part about whether the baffle was covered in ratfur or not... mine is.
I suppose I could just peel it to bare wood and go from there.

I am contemplating a mirrored background. Either plastic stuff or polished sheet aluminum.
(Of course, it probably is something that Gene Simmons already did )

Thoughts on that?

[dminer]

Although it doesn't look as good in this pic as it does in person, I used dupicolor on my hartke and avatar 210's. I wanted to match the avatar blue cones so I used something close to ford engine blue...I did use primer first and did lots of light coats...red would look great...please post pics when you're done...dm

[canadian*eh]

I had my fEARful Cab Grills Painted white....it looks soo good. It was a Trimclad Professional Flat White in a Spray Can. It soo eazy to touch up with a lil paint brush since it will never show the shinny touch up spots like gloss paint will!! As for The baffles They are done in a Flat white Duratex Paint!!