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Does anyone else prefer Rat Fur over Tolex?
- Thread starter Jugghaid
- Start date
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
- Aug 21, 2013
- 6,669
- 2
- 16,476
- Disclosures
- I privately own and operate a local musical instument repair shop.
I own all 3 types of cabs. And the only reason I've kept the fur on my Bag End 2-10 is because they use the toughest kind in the biz and it was in great shape when I bought it. Otherwise I strip and change to Duratex.
Our cat has 6 toes each foot (20% more firepower), so…
Our cat has 6 toes each foot (20% more firepower), so…
It seemed like a good idea until I had to use a vacuum to clean it instead of Windex and Armor All. Tolex, please.
But then, I often wondered if I'd bought wooden Bag Ends, would I use Tru Oil or linseed oil.
But then, I often wondered if I'd bought wooden Bag Ends, would I use Tru Oil or linseed oil.
IMO Rat fur is the worst thing to happen to speaker cabinets in my 56 years of playing bass. It always ends up looking like crap. Give me good quality tolex any day or duratex.
Hardwood. These cabs are indestructible and I love the default road-worn look from schleping to rehearsal and gigs.
Have you checked into the Automatic Watches thread?
Rat fur is indestructible and I can scrub my pots and pans with them.
When I was touring in the early 70's everything was tolex and the damn stuff kept tearing if you looked at it sideways. and if you didn't glue down the tear, a patch would tear off leaving bare wood shining through. You just don't want to be pushing your amp on the tolex like we'd do back in the 60's. It won't hold up to it.
My first amp had been a 1966 Fender Bassman amp that I bought new in 1966 and the tolex on it was torn by the time I traded it in towards my Standel amp in 1971/72 (was either late '71 or early '72)
In 1971/72 when I bought my Standel amp, it came with covers and I always used them to protect the tolex because I knew how fragile it was. Then one night we were playing a private party on the top floor of a building on the Sunset Strip just down the street from the Playboy club and a couple of our friends came along as "roadies" for the night. I'd always loaded and unloaded my own gear while touring and we typically played for two weeks at each venue, so it wasn't a constant load-in and load out.
The car I was using was a station wagon (remember those?) with the fold down seats and the back seat had a piano hinge running across it. I supervised them loading it in and taking it out and warned them to lift it over that hinge or it would tear the covers up. They loaded it and unloaded it just fine but at the end of the night they put it back in the car before I got back down from the top floor. When I got home and went to take it out I saw they had just shoved it in car and didn't lift it over that piano hinge and it tore the covers up to where they weren't usable anymore. But at least it didn't tear up the tolex, which it would have done without the covers.
My cabs now have rat fur on them and yes, I have to take a lint roller to them from time to time, but they are NOT fragile and easily look better longer if you take care of it. If you get pilled up balls on the rat fur a sweater comb that you use to remove pilled up wool from a sweater works just fine. If your cat uses it as a scratching post, you can use some hair sheers like my beard trimmer to even it back out. So I much prefer it.
Another option that I've seen and would be happy with was a spray-on coating like they use for pickup beds. Eden actually offered that option back in the early 2000's for a while. You had to order it but you could get it with that spray on rubbery coating. It looked surprisingly good and is super durable. I wouldn't be averse to having that on my cabs. But tolex is a big NO for me. May as well cover it with a T-shirt as far as durability goes.
When David Nordschow was ready to put his DNA cabs into production in 2010 there was a pole on the DNA forum asking what folks thought he should use to cover them with. Choices were Tolex, Rat fur, or that Spray-on Truck Bed coating. Rat Fur was the #1 choice, Truck Bed Coating was #2 and Tolex was a distant #3 in the poll results. Pretty much all of the respondents were Edenites who had purchased Eden cabs with the Rat Fur. So Rat Fur is what he ended up using and that's what's on my cabs. I'll never use Tolex again.
My first amp had been a 1966 Fender Bassman amp that I bought new in 1966 and the tolex on it was torn by the time I traded it in towards my Standel amp in 1971/72 (was either late '71 or early '72)
In 1971/72 when I bought my Standel amp, it came with covers and I always used them to protect the tolex because I knew how fragile it was. Then one night we were playing a private party on the top floor of a building on the Sunset Strip just down the street from the Playboy club and a couple of our friends came along as "roadies" for the night. I'd always loaded and unloaded my own gear while touring and we typically played for two weeks at each venue, so it wasn't a constant load-in and load out.
The car I was using was a station wagon (remember those?) with the fold down seats and the back seat had a piano hinge running across it. I supervised them loading it in and taking it out and warned them to lift it over that hinge or it would tear the covers up. They loaded it and unloaded it just fine but at the end of the night they put it back in the car before I got back down from the top floor. When I got home and went to take it out I saw they had just shoved it in car and didn't lift it over that piano hinge and it tore the covers up to where they weren't usable anymore. But at least it didn't tear up the tolex, which it would have done without the covers.
My cabs now have rat fur on them and yes, I have to take a lint roller to them from time to time, but they are NOT fragile and easily look better longer if you take care of it. If you get pilled up balls on the rat fur a sweater comb that you use to remove pilled up wool from a sweater works just fine. If your cat uses it as a scratching post, you can use some hair sheers like my beard trimmer to even it back out. So I much prefer it.
Another option that I've seen and would be happy with was a spray-on coating like they use for pickup beds. Eden actually offered that option back in the early 2000's for a while. You had to order it but you could get it with that spray on rubbery coating. It looked surprisingly good and is super durable. I wouldn't be averse to having that on my cabs. But tolex is a big NO for me. May as well cover it with a T-shirt as far as durability goes.
When David Nordschow was ready to put his DNA cabs into production in 2010 there was a pole on the DNA forum asking what folks thought he should use to cover them with. Choices were Tolex, Rat fur, or that Spray-on Truck Bed coating. Rat Fur was the #1 choice, Truck Bed Coating was #2 and Tolex was a distant #3 in the poll results. Pretty much all of the respondents were Edenites who had purchased Eden cabs with the Rat Fur. So Rat Fur is what he ended up using and that's what's on my cabs. I'll never use Tolex again.
What he said. After hundreds of gig my rat fur cabs look brand new. My tolex cabs which actually get used much less are all chewed up.
Anything but Tolex for me. Matt or satin black emulsion paint on plywood has the advantage of being exceeding cheap and exceeding easy to touch up. Rat fur has its advantages for stuff that will rattle round in the van and go straight into a cupboard at home, now that venues over here are smoke free and its reasonably isolated from animal fur.
I remember having this old stage lighting and light show system that used the old colored flood light bulbs. Anyway at one lighting gig I was doing for multiple bands, one bass player rolled his 315 Kustom tuck and roll cabinet up against on of my floor flood lights and melted a nice big hole in the side of his cab
