Remember when "rat fur" cabinets were the latest thing?

[beans-on-toast]

There’s rat fur and there’s rat fur. The good quality product is called Ozite, made by Ozite, and was used on some pro-audio cabinets. It’s still available. I have it on EV cabs and it has worn very well. They still look great.

Nothing will stand up against a determined cat.

 

[Holdsg]

my first "stack" of cabs, circa 2010, served me well for a few years, and no cats (thankfully)

say what you will about rat fur, but you rarely have the "traveling micro head" problem when you put your head on one of those.

 

[CaseyVancouver]

I still have a small Yorkville bass amp in blue mouse fur. Just can’t kill it.

Sounds surprisingly good with a precision. For a few years we used it as a vocal pa in small jazz coffee joints.
The guys that sang through it are old or gone now, sadly. That amp carries on.

I can’t bring myself to throw away an ugly old amp that works great.

 

[sonic 7]

Rat fur. The worst trend in the history of amps.

 

[SturmUndDrang]

Rat fur is cool but why stop there? How about camel hair, valuer, corduroy, chinchilla, cow hide, acid washed denim and so on. The possibilities are endless. Wish the amp makers had a little more imagination.

 

[frankie5string]

Rat fur is cool but why stop there? How about camel hair, valuer, corduroy, chinchilla, cow hide, acid washed denim and so on. The possibilities are endless. Wish the amp makers had a little more imagination.

Don't forget Naugahyde and "Corinthian Leather" .. ;-)

 

[kjp360]

My first experience with Kustom cabinets.
I was doing lights, just getting into running sound, I was about 12-13. This gig was at Reed College. Anyway the bass player for a local Blues band, Brown Sugar had finished their set and he rolled his cabinet into the spotlights I had downstage and melted his tuck and roll something terrible.


The band in question Brown Sugar, miss you Paul very much, Jim too.

Oh my, I didn't realize that the cab in question is in this video

Hey, thanks for that video. Never heard of them. Really great dynamics, vibe and tone all around!

 

[SturmUndDrang]

Don't forget Naugahyde and "Corinthian Leather" .. ;-)

RIP Ricardo Montalban.

 

[Altitude]

I have a bunch of Carvin cabinets covered in the stuff but they are the later versions (the "Red Eye" era) and they seemed to go with a lower nap (and darker, more charcoal colored) version of the carpet than the earlier grey carpet covered models.

I ALWAYS transported mine with the covers though so they still look great.

That was the implied promise of rat fur though; oh you don't need covers for these things, the covering IS THE COVER!

Analogeezer

I had some Eden 210XSTs up until about 3 years ago. They were excellent but heavy, and it took me a long time to make myself buy anything else.

They had the same high quality low-nap carpet you describe. They wore very well actually, though I can’t say I subjected them to much abuse at all. I always wheeled them in and out of the club myself on my little hand truck.

But now I have some cabinets finished in tolex, so.

 

[Winton]

Sadly, I don’t have a picture but I remember my SWR 15” combo had bald spots. It was like an old un-vaccumed carpet.

 

[Altitude]

RIP Ricardo Montalban.

“From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.“

 

[CoffeeLove]

I still remember the first one I saw, I had a bass player friend who always bought the latest stuff and I go to their practice place to hang out and he had a new Hartke 4 x 10", this was probably 1985?

Anyway he was showing me the cab and I noticed the carpet covering; he said "yeah this stuff is great, it won't get all scarred up like tolex"

As I recall this was the promise of rat fur back then, no big scabs of tolex coming off you didn't need covers because well the things were carpet covered so indestructible right?

Boy did we ever get sucked in by that promise didn't we? LOL

Other than some super cheap stuff (maybe Seismic stuff?) can you even buy a rat fur covered cabinet anymore?

Sadly the promise of durability was a bit of a joke, and it turned out that good old tolex actually wore a lot better.

I'll confess to owning a number of rat fur covered cabinets, all purchased during the heyday of the stuff but I bought them WITH covers and used the covers religiously.

I also use a board underneath my fairly heavy racks to keep the feet from the rack from tearing up the rat fur. The net result is aside from the detritus that collects to the bottom of the things they still look great.

Anyway it's comical to look back on it now and realize that DUH, carpet wears and while you may not have big scabs of missing tolex like the old days, you kinda wind up with something that looks even worse.

Bonus points if you post pix of your rat fur cabs that have lived hard lives and look like it!

Analogeezer

Now that I am old-ish, anything with rat fur just means it ways 100 pounds and will break my back. Tolex tears much easier, but whatever, I like it.

 

[NOLA Bass]

I hate the stuff. Sucked up the smell of cigarettes from the bar, dog and cat hair stuck to them like glue, etc. etc. etc.

 

[Ben Clarke]

I've been working a pair of Eden D112XLT for something like 8 years. I recently discovered that a damp microfiber cloth is a really easy way to clean them up.

I don't get the bias against carpet as something to associate with cheap cabs - it's a compromise like everything else. The only comments I've gotten on my cabs have been how great they sound. And one guy that tours with A national R&B/urban acts, saying he knew I was serious when he saw my Edens and 80's G&L.

Yeah, we see them up close and if we like to take care of our stuff, they can be a pain to keep looking nice... but come on.

 

[Ben Clarke]

I still have a small Yorkville bass amp in blue mouse fur. Just can’t kill it.

Sounds surprisingly good with a precision. For a few years we used it as a vocal pa in small jazz coffee joints.
The guys that sang through it are old or gone now, sadly. That amp carries on.

I can’t bring myself to throw away an ugly old amp that works great.

That was Ozite! Used to work for Yorkville in the US sales office.

 

[4dog]

i still rock a 4×10 crate cab with the rat fur...its soft and cuddly!

 

[JES]

I was in a 2-bass act for awhile. My bassist has a SWR covered in rat fur. He left it my place. One of our cats discovered it. The cat ed it.

 

[Chickenwheels]

I’ve had rat fur bins (EV, Eden, SWR) and tolex (Ampeg, Bergantino), but hands-down the craziest thing I’ve had was a “sugar scoop” finished in gloss white when I was 11 years old! It was known as “the fridge” for more reasons than one. Impossible to move by yourself. Wild wild stuff.
(Example photo only)

 

[blastoff]

my dear old red fur Bags. aside from sounding great, they were down right the MOST COMFORTABLE cabs to sit on while playing. i only sold them because i finally got a set of birch bags which look a lot cooler but are not nearly as comfortable. compromises…

 

[chaosMK]

I want a white rat fur bass.

Old Ampeg style toltex was a little prone. One of the earlier generations of Mesa PH cabs (rear ported) had the thickest rhino, I consider that a top tier covering. Might scratch but you'd need to use a power tool tear it.