Source for speaker cloth?

[berntd]

I was absent here for a while (!)

I now need some speaker cloth for my restoration machine.
Where would I be able to order that from nowadays?
Maybe even in Australia?

Regards
Bernt

[VanEpsFan1914]

I'd say go to Ebay and order the silk cloth used for an Edison diamond disc phonograph grill--it is a light tan silk that looks great on most of your windup phonographs.

If you have a special brand? Who knows. I'm not even sure what machine you are trying to fix.

[AudioFeline]

You could visit Spotlight or another fabric store to see what they have in stock.

There are sellers on eBay which specialize in guitar amp speaker cloths, which have interesting and less common weaves available, many in a traditional style.

[berntd]

You could visit Spotlight or another fabric store to see what they have in stock.

There are sellers on eBay which specialise in guitar amp speaker cloths, which have interesting and less common weaves available, many in a traditional style.

Spotlight? I was under he impression that is has to be special cloth so as to have a flat frequency attenuation spectrum.

I have no clue what is needed as I do not even have any sample.


Or do you mean that one should not worry about that and just get something that looks nice?

[gramophoneshane]

Hi Bernt,
Can I ask what you'll be using the cloth on?
Certain brands used a particular type and coloured plain cloth, while others used some pretty unusual patterns and colours.

Another good place to look apart from fabric stores, are op shops.
I've found close matches to original grille cloth in some dress or shirt fabrics, and even in some lingerie.
And it's often cheaper to buy a suitable second hand garment than to buy a metre of new fabric off the roll.
I even found on one machine that a pair of mums old pantyhose/stockings were a perfect match to the original grille cloth.
If you find something that looks suitable, just be sure that sound will pass through the cloth uninhibited.
I've found some fabrics that look fine actually won't let air pass through the weave, so it would almost be like putting a sheet of plastic over the grille.
I normally hold the fabric across my mouth and see if I can blow through it without any resistance, but that probably isn't a good idea now days with this virus floating around.

[berntd]

Hi Shane,

What would I need for a Tonaphone?
I mean colour?

Regards
Bernt

[gramophoneshane]

I only recently sold my Tonaphone.
When I got it I found a few small patches of the original cloth in the glue behind the grille.
It was a faded olive green colour, but as the fabric hadn't been exposed to light, the faded colour must have been what it was originally, rather than it being sun bleached.
I found a ladies blouse in an op shop that was a very close match, and actually used it on my Diamond Disc as well.
I've included a picture below which is a pretty good representation of the true colour of the fabric.
I can't remember what the tag named the fabric as, but it's pretty much a synthetic silk, perhaps with a cotton mix, but you may even find a pure silk in a similar colour.

[berntd]

Interesting.
You must have had another Tonaphone when we last corresponded because you sent me a paper stencil of the grille. It was different to the one above.

It took me all those years to get it sorted and it still is not done. Ha.

Regards
Bernt

[gramophoneshane]

The picture above is of my Edison C-19 grille, as I no longer have the Tonaphone. I just used the same material on both machines.

[berntd]

Ahh, that makes sense.
Thank you.