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Burlap fabric for Advent grill screen or something else?

I_Wanna_Rock

I_Wanna_Rock

Active Member
I've been restoring an old stereo system from the 80's that I sort of inherited, of which those six speakers are all restored. But while I'm at it I've got advent 4002 plastic grill pieces and am ready to re screen. I wanted to get as close to the original material as I could, but didn't find much. I decided to try "burlap fabric" and realized searching web that all burl. fab. is not the same. I wound up picking up a nice enough looking piece, (2 yd) at Michael's Store for about 10 dollars. The staples were 1/8" about. I'm not sure how small my Arrow t50 staple gun will accept staples or where to get them? Upholstery staples maybe? I think I could get buy w/o staples, with the glue I'm using. I'm not so worried about this pair, other than I'm going to need to find a home for them and want them to be nice and fresh sounding, and looking! Dye burlap orange maybe?!
-John
 
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I've found burlap to be hard to work with, and too thick.

I have often used 18-28 point linen needlepoint material, in oatmeal or sand color. There are also sources online for speaker grill cloth.

I use staples for opposing corners, then attach the cloth with fast set fabric glue...it holds extremely well, but can be adjusted for a brief time. I take out the initial staples once cloth is in place, but do apply one or two to hold down the corner folds.

This thread may be helpful.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/where-to-get-advent-grill-cloth.763188/
 
I myself went down the burlap road on a set of KLH's - Wrong Answer. Have to pull the grills off to listen......homebrew's suggestion would be my choice
 
I used burlap on my sub. I agree with others, but personally I’m too lazy to replace. It does look nice though in my opinion, but that’s just me. And it dyes rather well. But I’d say put a little money into grill designated for speakers.
 
you do not want to be using just any fabric, it can significantly impact the high-end. You want fabric specifically made for acoustics, any good speaker shop or online parts place will have it. There is no point in investing your time if the only way it's going to sound right is when the grills are off, 'just saying...
 
UPDATE: First of all I'm overwhelmed with all the responses and have "bookmarked" everything. Secondly, I went ahead with burlap, (before seeing most of the above comments!) but I didn't use staples and only minimal glue, so a "do over" won't be to hard. I'll post pics below. I suppose I'll have to connect up and see what they sound like with/wo grill. I consider these to be the lesser of my 4 pair of speakers, so before/if I redo them I'm gonna experiment a little, (depending on how they sound). This was some really cheap, thin burlap, maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Actually the only experiment I had in mind was spraying on silicone to protect as well as darken slightly? I do have some New Advent, (bull nose) with fantastic condition original grills, and a pair of advent 6003's which came with blackish/brown cloth. With the info above I can see at least 4 speakers with that "guitar amp fabric" or some of the others.
Also these 4002's ea. had a nice condition black screen behind grill material, which I reused. The 2 part frame is designed so the "inner" part of the frame hosts the black factory material. Will sound test asap. To everyone who contributed to this thread, thank you very much!
-John
 

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I_Wanna_Rock said:
I just had to go dig out my old fender amp to look at, it's more of a blackish gray. Did your material work with glue, or did you use staples, I wonder? The material on this amp I have seems almost plastic.
Click to expand...

I used Gorilla Glue Clear. Then I used ammo boxes to hold each side. The fabric is very strong and hard to stretch.

20200302_073251.jpg 20200301_151203.jpg
 
I_Wanna_Rock said:
UPDATE: First of all I'm overwhelmed with all the responses and have "bookmarked" everything. Secondly, I went ahead with burlap, (before seeing most of the above comments!) but I didn't use staples and only minimal glue, so a "do over" won't be to hard. I'll post pics below. I suppose I'll have to connect up and see what they sound like with/wo grill. I consider these to be the lesser of my 4 pair of speakers, so before/if I redo them I'm gonna experiment a little, (depending on how they sound). This was some really cheap, thin burlap, maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Actually the only experiment I had in mind was spraying on silicone to protect as well as darken slightly? I do have some New Advent, (bull nose) with fantastic condition original grills, and a pair of advent 6003's which came with blackish/brown cloth. With the info above I can see at least 4 speakers with that "guitar amp fabric" or some of the others.
Also these 4002's ea. had a nice condition black screen behind grill material, which I reused. The 2 part frame is designed so the "inner" part of the frame hosts the black factory material. Will sound test asap. To everyone who contributed to this thread, thank you very much!
-John
Click to expand...
I've owned many OLAs through the years... stacked, three pair, every which way... and the stock grills, most grills, when removed the speaker sound changes... a bit louder and more energy in the mid and high.
 
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