The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Specifically: Edison Diamond-Disc players.

I have two C-19 DD players that need new grille-cloth: one in Golden Oak, the other in red mahogany.


The mahogany machine still has its original gold grille-cloth, which is a fairly fine square-weave fabric, like chintz. At this point it is looking slightly greenish, and is starting to shred from dry-rot.


The Oak machine appears to have had a green fabric of similar weave & texture / reflectivity...


and one more:

Silvertone in Golden Oak, and a former machine - DD S-19 Sheraton: these had a black cotton(?) chintz, slightly more open square weave than the "shiny" fabrics described above.


any suggested sources for this sort of stuff ?

Yes, your local fabric store. My Edison grill cloths have been replaced with a slightly shiny gold/beige polyester fabric from Jo-Ann.

There are also suppliers of grill cloth on ebay, but I would be willing to be they are simply buying at Jo-Ann and cutting to smaller pieces for resale.

I second the Jo-Ann fabrics recommendation. I've taken scraps in (sometimes attached to the grille!) and found virtually perfect matches.

Another tip: take a flashlight with you. The florescent lights in the store can throw off the true color. By shielding the fabrics with your hand, a hat, or your jacket, and using an incandescent light source, you may get a better match.

Of course, it's always a good idea to let the store personnel know what you're doing!

George P.

This is what is in my brown walnut Silvertone- like a glossy cheesecloth.

estott wrote:This is what is in my brown walnut Silvertone- like a glossy cheesecloth.

Estott -

That is about the mesh-size of the black stuff I'm seeking...

My Grandmother had an old upright piano - Heinkamp, I believe - that had grille-work in the upper-board, flanking the music rack, adn it was backed with a similar black "cheesecloth"...

Eric,

I would be more concerned about the freaky face looking at you from behind that grill cloth! You may want to replace it with something a little less revealing

I am working on an Oak Amberola 50 which has a recently replaced black grill cloth.

Can anyone advise me what the original grill cloths would have looked like and what colour they would have been?

Bruce

Frank, I am in the processing of cleaning up a recently acquired oak C19. I am not certain whether or not its grille cloth is original, although it would in my view certainly have been very appropriate to the machine. It has a soft golden-toward-coppery metallic sheen to the front, which, when the grill is in place and in normal light, complements the colors in the wood. The back was apparently originally white and has vertical red threads running through it. As an aid in correct orientation during installation possibly? By all appearances it has been in place for a very long time and was there when the person I bought the machine from acquired it in 1992.

Clay

That appears to be cloth which has been sprayed on one side with metallic paint.

estott wrote:That appears to be cloth which has been sprayed on one side with metallic paint.

Possible, but I don't think so. I thought about that at first, because of the variance between the front and the back, but the color and texture on the front seem much too varied and subtle for that when looked at close up. Whatever the technique, though, it works visually when in place on the machine.

This cloth could well have been put on in later years. I do have a vague memory that silk was originally used on these machines, which this definitely isn't, but not sure now where I may have read that. On the other hand, when I Google for images of C19s, there are quite a few examples of oak models with a similar appearance to the grilles.

Has anyone else ever seen that white backing with the red stripes?

Clay