The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am in the process of transferring the innards for my VE 9-55 from its original badly water damaged cabinet to a much better one that I have recently acquired. As you can see below I am just at the start of the transferring process and taking everything out of the old cabinet. However the cloth that goes over the speaker is incredibly dirty and also has a sag to it as shown in the photos below viewed from the front and then the back.

I was going to clean the cloth by gently spaying it with water to make it slightly wet and then dab it with wet cotton wool to remove the dirt as gently as possible and then use a hair dryer to dry everything. I wanted to ask whether this is the best way to do this and should I use just water or add some detergent? Also will the process of wetting and then drying the cloth be likely to tighten it through shrinkage? Any tips of guidance would be very gratefully received. I am just very conscious that I don't want to muck this up and damage the cloth as I want to keep the machine as original as possible by preserving the original cloth but just improve its appearance.

The best thing to do with old original grill cloth is leave it alone. Just be grateful it's still there. Almost anything you can try will likely turn it to dust.

I have used wallpaper cleaner (Absorene is one kind) which will remove surface dust but it must be rubbed on, and if your grillcloth is fragile, not a good idea. There is also a pad stuffed with ground rubber which is intended for lampshades and also must be rubbed onto the fabric. I attempted to remove and wash my orthophonic grillcloth with Eucalan which is a soap for fragile fabrics--the thing disintegrated. So no cleaning is probably safest.