(Stupid) question about rat fur maintenance

[agedhorse]

From what I've read in threads on TB, removing rat fur is a whole lot easier said than done.

My $.02 is to wait for a different cab to show up that meets your preferences.

Yes, often it’s just easier to build a new cabinet than remove the rat fur.

 

[DRBP]

what i want to know is what idiot EVER thought that stuff was a good idea? i have one cab and one combo amp with it (both SWR and both are otherwise great) and although i have kept them pretty clean i can't think of one instance where that stuff is better than almost ANY other covering. if it weren't so impossible to remove i would definitely have done so by now. so far my favorite cabs are my yamaha subs that came from the factory with line-x coating.

 

[groovepump]

Tolex is vinyl, rat fur is the cheap amp covering that gets fuzzy.

It's not difficult to remove if it's really past repair- they used contact cement. Once it's off and the remaining fuzz is left, you can use coarse sandpaper to get rid of that and make it smooth enough to allow recovering with something better. I suggest the black version used by car stereo shops for covering subwoofer cabinets- it's a tighter weave, is durable and not expensive.

Whatever you get- make sure it doesn't stretch easily- that is a good way to find the better quality material. It's often called 'trunk lining because it's used for, you guessed it, lining the trunks of cars. It also cuts well- pay attention to the way the old stuff was applied and use Weldwoof contact cement if you can get it- water-based contact cement isn't very good. You can roll, brush or spray it on and if you have a compressor, I strongly recommend spraying. Even if you don't have a spray gun, Harbor Freight has them and they're cheap. I know you're in Canada, but someone up there should have it.

Carpet (just to show the material)-
https://www.parts-express.com/search?order=relevance:desc&keywords=speaker cabinet carpet

Go to a car stereo shop and ask if they'll sell it to you or, if it's cheap enough, they can recover the cabinet for you.

Good resource for many parts. I bookmarked it!

 

[agedhorse]

The high quality, Ozite branded rat fur is actually quite good and holds up very well. Unfortunately, many manufacturers cheaper out and used the lower grade generic and off-shore materials which are very poor by comparison. This is what gave rat fur such a bad reputation.

 

[basscooker]

Roll through half of a lint roller tape on it, trimmers, yeah.

Taking that stuff off for a re-skin is a pain, the struggle is real. Getting a cab prepped for a roll or spray on after taking that suff off is a no-go for me. Until the day I can source a flame thrower I'm out. Even tolex removal too.

 

[SLPimp]

A little gasoline, a match, boom, rat fur fixed.

 

[mikecd1]

Yeah, I spent months shopping new combos to get rid of my boxy sounding Rumble 100 and ended up with the Traynor SB112 which has rat fur. The amp is so great though I just love it and got a cover so hopefully the fur won't get too bad. I've used the sweater shaver on rat fur before and swore never again, but damn this Traynor is a great practice amp! When we must fur, then shave her close!

 

[Jim C]

Thanks for the disposable razor / sweater trimmer ideas.
I just cleaned up a cab with a vacuum and then a coarse old bath towel with Spray 9 cleaner and some scissors.. Way more work than it needed to be. Looks good though.

 

[Liam Wald]

Think of how the word "ratty" is used in common vernacular. That is the answer.

 

[Riff Ranger]

Yeah, I spent months shopping new combos to get rid of my boxy sounding Rumble 100 and ended up with the Traynor SB112 which has rat fur. The amp is so great though I just love it and got a cover so hopefully the fur won't get too bad. I've used the sweater shaver on rat fur before and swore never again, but damn this Traynor is a great practice amp! When we must fur, then shave her close!

I couldn’t believe I found myself buying rat fur in 2020, but I got one of those myself a year ago and I can’t say I regret it.

 

[DwaynieAD]

Hi there! I’m looking at used amps and a turn off if rat fur style tolex that look like a wool shirt that went in the dryer too many times.

Any idea if it’s possible to restore that type of finish?

Get on Amazon and look at a fabric shaver. Probably do the trick

 

[Analogeezer]

what i want to know is what idiot EVER thought that stuff was a good idea? i have one cab and one combo amp with it (both SWR and both are otherwise great) and although i have kept them pretty clean i can't think of one instance where that stuff is better than almost ANY other covering. if it weren't so impossible to remove i would definitely have done so by now. so far my favorite cabs are my yamaha subs that came from the factory with line-x coating.

I started a thread on this topic a while back.

My theory is (and at least me and my friends bought the promise) was carpet is more durable than tolex, so the idea of covering a cabinet with carpet made it less susceptible to the covering getting ripped off....which was true but the downside is looking like crap when it gets wear on it.

Hey the stuff was pitched at the time as being hard to kill, with names like "Duratuff", etc.

I guess the part about not getting skinned up like Tolex was true but we did not think about the downside.

I suspect the companies went to it for cost reasons, and ease of assembly. Tolex usually has a "grain" you need to get straight relative to the edges of the cabinet, rat fur is just the same any direction so probably more forgiving of a piece of it being put on not quite straight.

The other thing I wonder about is the rat fur thing came in around the same time as carpet in houses started to become old fashioned in lieu of hardwood and fake hardwood flooring products.

Just pure theory on my part but I wonder if at the time the carpet companies (most carpet in the world is made in Dalton, GA BTW) were looking for markets to go into after sales of home carpet went down some and made the cab companies great deals to undercut the cost of tolex even further.

Analogeezer

 

[Milo Spleen]

Carpet is easy to install, which is why this TL-606 has it. Truck bed liner is even easier.

 

[agedhorse]

The cost of real brand name, commercial grade lightly backed Ozite is in many cases more expensive then the common grades of vinyl, and it's a lot harder to install well than it looks.

The same argument was used with vinyls, there are the heavy grades of commercial brand name materials such as Tolex that were developed originally for use in the auto industry for landau tops and upholstery and they were very rugged but costly and difficult to install. Later many in the industry evolved to thinner, cheaper no-name generic vinyls that were easier to install.

Incidentally exactly the same thing exists in the coated cabinet world, there are the real 2 part catalyzed finishes that are incredibly durable but really expensive, difficult and costly to apply, and there are 1 part water based latex type paints with hardeners and epoxy solids incorporated. These are much cheaper, easier to apply and work ok for lighter duty applications but do not hold up well under real touring conditions IME. The 2 part finishes typically run from 2X to 4X the cost of the water based coatings.

 

[Analogeezer]

Funny all the "sweater shaver" recommendations; I have never gotten those to even work on a sweater much less tried them on a rat fur cabinet but maybe they work better on rat fur than for the sweaters they are designed for LOL

I have a Genz-Benz guitar cabinet with rat fur I bought very used that needs a touch up, will try the used shaver thing and report back on how it works.

Analogeezer

 

[agedhorse]

Carpet is easy to install...

I doubt you have ever installed in in a commercial environment, it's easy to install if you use the thin unbacked material and don't care about the quality of the job, very hard to install well using thicker backed material and with cleanly finished seams and edges.

I've done enough with both types to know exactly how difficult it is. That's why we saw a shift to the cheap, thin, unbacked materials. That evolution was absolutely cost driven.

 

[agedhorse]

Funny all the "sweater shaver" recommendations; I have never gotten those to even work on a sweater much less tried them on a rat fur cabinet but maybe they work better on rat fur than for the sweaters they are designed for LOL

I have a Genz-Benz guitar cabinet with rat fur I bought very used that needs a touch up, will try the used shaver thing and report back on how it works.

Analogeezer

That would be the heavy backed Ozite, try a BIC disposable shaver and lightly clean it up. Also, a medium stiff horse grooming brush works wonders.

Your cabinet has to be 20+ years (maybe even 30 years) old by now.

 

[Milo Spleen]

I doubt you have ever installed in in a commercial environment, it's easy to install if you use the thin unbacked material and don't care about the quality of the job, very hard to install well using thicker backed material and with cleanly finished seams and edges.

I've done enough with both types to know exactly how difficult it is. That's why we saw a shift to the cheap, thin, unbacked materials. That evolution was absolutely cost driven.

I was a carpet installer in the 80s and had my share of fuzz and contact on my hands.

 

[agedhorse]

I was a carpet installer in the 80s and had my share of fuzz and contact on my hands.

Then you appreciate how difficult and time consuming it is to get consistent radius, tight edges, and clean, tightly bonded seams.

 

[Milo Spleen]

Then you appreciate how difficult and time consuming it is to get consistent radius, tight edges, and clean, tightly bonded seams.

Yes I do.