UD, here's a little trick I found a few years back while trying to cut a grill cloth. Both razor knife and scissors were very unsatisfactory tools due to the threads simply wanting to unravel. A very cheap soldering iron with a hot knife attachment did the trick. I simply sliced across with the aid of a straightedge. Gives you a nice straight cut AND seals (melts) the threads together. Try it next time you use a woven grill cloth, you might thank me as much as I Thank You for these fantastic videos!

Rusty’s unflinching uncompromizing standards are well tempered with his fairness and superior leadership skills. All toward a well made product of the highest order.

So I'm about to try applying grille cloth for the first time and imagine my relief to see an Uncle Doug video on that very topic come up. Thank you for making this.

Thanks Doug! Helped me out tremendously and I very much appreciate your excellent video style-nothing extraneous, and everything clearly and concisely explained. Top notch!

Thanks, Uncle Doug! I'm doing the front of a set of pine cabs I built this weekend. I had a plan of action, but thought I might check the wisdom of youtube before starting. I'm glad I did because I saved some money on glue! This demo is perfect. Thanks!

Thank you so much for this video. I had no idea before how to deal with this stiff material. Your instructions were simple, clear and comprehensive. My antique radio is going to look great now.

Thank you so much for these videos. I'm building my first cabinet and this is the last step left!

Uncle Doug thanks so much for all of your videos! You illustrate simply what others make complex! Also your videos provide a fundamental understanding of the original analog guitar effects, that the digital generation is anesthetized from understanding. You are informative without being arrogant, a great teacher! Thank you Again...Cheers and Excelsior!

Another thank you Doug. I was very worried about mucking up my speaker baffle but thanks to your expert advice I've got a nice straight, tort fender grill. As you said, deceptively simple

Dear Doug I love you and Rusty, I've just finished my first amp, a fender champ, a watkins dominator comes next, because I've watched most of your videos I know what I'm doing and I understand what everything does. I can't wait for your next uploads.

Thanks for this video, Uncle Doug and Rusty ! This was very useful information. And thanks for not making us listen to the hair dryer (or even the snap of the staple gun!) And I must agree, Rusty did some exceptional camera work on this one!

Genius, I have looked at a lot of grill clothes and this is almost indistinguishable, for a tube radio I'm restoring. I'll be looking on the web for lawn / lattice grade furniture fabric Thank you very much Uncle Doug !

I like it how you include Rusty in your videos :D thanks for teaching people stuff!

thank you for all the vids on cab covering. I have one to cover and now I feel confident about doing it.

Uncle Doug youve inspired me to build from scratch a Princeton Reverb amp. I thank you for making some great and helpful videos. I'm putting the grill cloth on my speaker front today...after I had it all stapled down I went to put a cool Fender logo on it...only to realize there needs to be some supporting wood behind it so it can be screwed in with the tiny screws...oh well maybe it will go on another amp in the future. Thanks again.

This is a very clear informative video. Thanks Uncle Doug and God bless you sIr!

Doug...you make everything look so dang easy. Thanks so much for your efforts and abilities.

Thanks Uncle Doug. I used your mitered corner method on some thick Marshall "Salt and Pepper" grill cloth on some square cornered grills for my loudspeakers.

The "Brace" was pure genius...wish I could have laid credit to it!

The corner technique was the best part. I'm just covering some 2 ft x 4 ft acoustic panels I created for my drum studio. Thanks.

Great video! Preparing for my first custom build, and these were some great tips! Really appreciate the time and effort. Great job!

Thanks for the awesome video! I wish I'd seen this before I re-covered the speaker grille on an old console television I'm restoring.

Very good video. You didn't mention it, but I always start stapling in the center of each side and staple from middle towards each end rather than go from one end to the other. This assures that you do not stretch the fabric and get the pattern out of alignment. Going from one end to the other can also warp the backboard. If this is all clear as mud, I'll elaborate. If you consider the cloth as a clock face, put in 1st staple at 3:00 o'clock position, then one below that one and above it, all the way to ends of that side. Then do other side, putting next staple at the 9:00 o'clock position and so on. Hope this helps someone.

Love Uncle Doug - even more with his Baracuta!

Thanks uncle Doug! I learned a lot!

Hello, I just want to say that you have such excellent instructional videos! I am covering an amp head tonight, and will be referring to this a lot. Thank-you!

I'd like to contribute my experience here .. First of all, thanks again for the expert guidance here, Uncle Doug! So, I was applying Fender Oxblood grill "cloth". I didn't want to risk borrowing my girlfriend's hair dryer and forgetting to return it! So I used a Black & Decker heat gun. Truly enough, it does nicely soften the nylon fabric. But, towards the end of my wrap, I got a little too close .. and started melting the fabric! So, be VERY careful if anyone uses an atomic heat gun as I was! (Luckily, the melt was at the back side of the speaker baffle .. not visible.) Secondly, and this is unrelated .. I've ordered several components for my new 5E3 amp build from China .. 'cause it's cheap. Well, guess what .. my parts are stuck in shipping limbo .. probably an effect of the horrid CONVID-19 pandemic :-( Thanks again for this tutorial, Uncle Doug :-)

This one is a *blast* I need to find some of these durable cloth, since usualy i use metal lattice for the front grill to protect my rotor systems. Since if something suddenly come inside the box, it will damage the rotating horns and/or the speakers mounted underneath, as the rotors will give the watever goes inside a very high velocity. Great Show!!

I like to put some expanding metal behind the speaker cloth and screw it on then add the speaker cloth with a wood frame and thin finishing nails to secure the wood frame grill cloth front frame and that way keep the speaker safe from puncture and keep the grill cloth stretched and flat as a pancake too!

Wow, that does look really nice Doug. I was about to put a grill cloth on a cabinet I just made and thought I would see what others had been doing in the process. And, I'm glad I did, as you made some excellent choices that I will incorporate into my project. But, we are both going to be in trouble if we destroy our wife's hairdryer. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing your priceless knowledge .

Never thought of heating or wetting the grill-cloth. Awesome idea. Your KZfaqs are great.

Love the clamp to hold the grill in place. Was wondering how to make the cloth tight without the grill moving on me. You gave me the idea to use 1 or 2 of my 25lb weight discs to keep the grill in place so I can get a nice tight edge before stapling. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing all this great info. Can’t wait to apply this stuff on my next build.

More great tips, thanks again. ...and good camera work from Rusty:))

Great instruction on this video, much appreciated Doug! 😊

Hi Doug. Great video with some super tips. I had to laugh as I have been using this same material for a few years now but never thought of heating it up before...great idea! It is difficult to work with but you will never need to replace it and I bet if Pete Townsend tried to spear his guitar neck through it he would be replacing a neck and not a speaker...lol. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Took your advice and went to the fabric shop. Got some black nylon looking stuff similar to what you used. Hard to stretch but didn’t sag at all even though it’s a tad loose. Was hot when I wrapped it so doubt heat will change much. Came out great! Now if I could just find some wood that’s actually cut straight! 😂 Maybe Rusty knows a place? Lowe’s is miserable!

In case anyone is still using this video as a guide, although it's definitely helpful, I would advise to be cautious when trying to heat up grill cloth with a hair dryer. I just tried it on traditional fender blackface style cloth, and it turns out that the heating doesn't expand the cloth. Quite the opposite actually, it directly starts shrinking, quite quickly, not unlike approaching any thin plastic material with a lighter, if less drastically of course, but enough to risk deforming the flaps permanently, to a point where the piece is no longer usable. So my humble guess is that the heating process is very much dependent on the type of cloth used. As with anything, it's best to test with a sample before I suppose. Hope this helps.

Nice! I have a similar material, its very stiff and plastic-y and the heat gun makes a big difference. I hung the edge of the working side over the table end so I could heat it on both sides and get a tight wrap. (I didn't need to heat the center) The Clamp is another great idea. The other tricky part with my material was getting the tension even so there is no waviness in the rows/columns of the lines.

Thanks Doug! Doing a speaker upgrade, time to replace the cheap pantyhose grill cloth on my amp.

Great video, I was just about to spray down some contact adhesive when I thought... Hmmm I should youtube this. Glad I did, your method worked great!

you inspired me to change the cloth on my Boss Katana with oxblood grill cloth. It went ok but it could have gone better. I didn't have a way to clamp the works to the table so I pulled it tight by hand while stapling it down. Now my cloth has a wavy appearance in some places because I didn't get a consistent tautness. I have enough cloth left over for another attempt.

Seriously? Woulda bet my last nickel on that. My apologies are all I can offer, andI offer them sincerely. I am very grateful for this video.

Hey, Uncle Doug! This is so trippy. I’m finishing a speaker cab build and need the grill to look just right. This video, your video, is extremely helpful to me, not least because my choice of grill cloth, which I bought online, is much more plastic-y and stiff than I expected. However, the staples you showed on the back of the baffle were not driven pneumatically: those staples came out of the Swingline. I found it interesting that you continued to keep the pneumatic (and narrow-crown) stapler in the frame. Callin’ you out on that one, amigo! 😎

Nice, Uncle Doug! I got stuck on my corners, and appreciate the heating tips. BTW: I long wondered why mid-late-70s Twin Reverb amps (from my formative days) which included Master/Channel volume pots were discontinued. For years, I thought manipulation of these pots for overdrive was ‘the secret’ to gritty rock-n-roll tone. After watching your attempt repair of a 1978 Twin, I now know why. 👍🏼

hi doug, your vids are great and informative.that doping with the glue realy works fine, all very helpful mate.thanks

Looks great! Very helpful video. Thanks.

...first class video...!!!!

Thanks!

Thanks very much ! really good tips ! Cheers

Great video. For me, the screws holding the baffle from the front destroy the look though. Other builds have a separate speaker baffle and a frame for the cloth that attaches with velcro or screws through the baffle from the inside. Just makes the look cleaner. But thank you for the great video!

I absolutely love your videos! I've learned so much watching. I'm gathering parts to build my own amp very soon and your videos were so helpful. Thanks a bunch and keep it up!

Nice work! I like your choice of grille cloth, very classic looking.

Great work great video. Many thanks!!!

I applied cane cloth (salt and pepper) to my Marshall 1960B cab recently. After assembly I noticed it is angled one twill off. That material is thick and not pliable. I wished I had seen this video first. I didn't clamp it down. live and learn.

Thank you very much. Going to try mine today...

Great video! Rusty needs to take a more hands on active role though!!!

Hi Uncle Doug, I just stumbled over your little gold mine of a youtubechannel. Currently watching through your clips and really enjoying them. I find them very informative and the subtle humour makes me chuckle ever so often. Please throw a bone from me to your trusty ol' buddy Rusty! :o) cheers JC

Hey love your videos just got a fender twin, its got velcro on the grill frame to hold it in over the speaker no screws :) of course it will cost a bit more and need the speaker panel set back a bit for the added frame width. but it makes for a very clean grill cover

Hey Doug, guess what I am doing, yep working on grill cover for the magnatone. Now originally they just roll out some glue and then adhered the cloth directly to the face. Well since I had to do a speaker repair, I want to be able to take off the grill for inspection So, I made a frame that will be used for grill material. i like that cloth by way that you had. I got mine from china, I will the use blow dryer Idea and the clamping devise both great Ideas . but .... all that work you put into and then you put the four screws I gasped. trying find the screws with the wide head and will lock into the wood and then use nuts on the inside. I want mine to be invisible. other than the screws good video

Thanks for this video! I'm gonna need this pretty soon for my newest acquisition of the Gretsch version of the Fender champ 600 reissue. The grill cloth included is annoyingly thick and muffles it too much. I like that cloth, but I saw another idea I think I'll use. They recommended one of those mesh tarps from Harbour freight. It won't look as nice with a tweed tolex, but it's definitely thing enough and won't muffle it.

Hi Doug! I learned something new today! (beside Rusty doing a good job on camera). I've always turned down re-upholstering guitar amps for customers, one, because I really never knew the tricks to doing it, and it uses a lot of time in which I need to focus on the electronics end of things, however, I just might attempt to do the speaker grill on an old Fender Pro Reverb for a customer...The original grill cloth is like Swiss cheese anyway, so this will be good practice for me :) By the way, I see David is back in circulation again! Was starting to worry a bit :) Another great video as always :)

fantastic video uncle Doug super video

On an important sidenote, acoustic transparency of the material used for grill cloth is a key consideration. Not sure that I’d go with the deck chair material selected here. Before going to the trouble of covering a speaker baffle, it may be worthwhile to give the fabric an audition with a speaker behind it. Playing recorded music (incl vocals) that you’re familiar with is a good point of reference. Listen for changes in tonality or coloration in the vocals - since these typically fall in the same spectrum as guitar, this should give you a good ideas as to the acoustc transparency of the material.

Thanks a lot for the tips

Doug, every time I see you repair an old amp I wish you'd go ahead and restore it like new, like people do with vintage cars. But I don't even know if those old materials are still available.

Fender amps don't wrap the speaker grill around to the backside except On the top edge. They also don't use tnuts. They use #8 x 1-1/2" machine screws interference fit through 3/32 holes. They also spray paint the staples black prior to installing in the gun... Kindest Regards DW

very informative.....I have to attempt this on my Orange 4x12 cab after a forklift truck pierced the cloth and one of the celestion V30's at the courier depot!

very helpful thanks!

Great tips. Need help. I don't have access to inside the box once it is assmbled and I don't want to see screws outside the front of the box. Can I attach grill cloth to a thin wooden frame and velcro it to assembled speaker baffle or use some type of plastic tabs like speakers do that have removable grill covers?

thanks. excellent tutorial. next time use velcro or magnets for front grill mount or screw it in from back ;) excellent tho

Nice job !! You make it look easy !! :)

Just thinking of, what you´ll be doing with this little Amp when its finished. As we all see the whole thing growing up, may you just let him go simming in the bay. I´ll go fishing for it ;)

Thanks again for another fantastic instructional video! I'm just about ready to cover the baffle on my replacement Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve cabinet. I'll be using Fender blackface-style silver cloth (which will go well with the black Tolex I'm going to cover the cabinet with), which is definitely not as stout as the stuff you're using in this video. How worried should I be about the staples tearing the fabric?

Have you considered moonlighting as a radio announcer or voice actor? You have that articulation that reminds me of radio.

Thanks 😀

holy crap uncle doug, you do some amazing work. Im glad I found this page on youtube. thanks for making such great content. the straw-scarecrow like grill cloth reminds me of one of those jim kelley amps. did you make this baffle yourself?

Great video, thanks! I'm in the middle of refurbishing an old 1940s radio and will need to replace the grill cloth. What I'm wondering is, is there a point where you can realistically stretch grill cloth *too much* and damage it (such as pull apart the threading, especially near your square cut corners)? I haven't worked with grill cloth yet so trying to learn as much as I can before doing it.

This is my second round watching your series of videos for this and I have to say, they're great, informative, and to the point. You do a good job explaining things and showing a process without being too wordy or excessive with information. With that in mind, I have a question in regards to attaching the baffle on a cabinet such as this. Seeing as how you have installed cleats already for the baffle to be screwed into, would it be just as easy to mount the baffle from the back? I know in your cab you have the amplifier guts in the bottom but in just a regular cab, it seems this would work just as well. In my design, I'd prefer to not have mounting screws on the front. Thoughts? Thanks for your info and I subscribed.

What about rounding off the edges, front and back, a little (1/8" radius??) with a router to soften the break in the fabric. Especially if it is really stiff.

Great Idea :)

It seems that when you heat the fabric in the speaker hole it will be easy to stretch, but the areas covered by wood can't be heated and not as stretchable. How do you ensure that lines in the fabric don't become crooked when stretching the fabric?

I've bought some nice Tibetan-patterned brocade fabric made from some kind of polyester. Would it be suitable to replace the grille cloth directly, or should I add it on top of it it so that it doesn't break from the sound since it's obviously not as thick as actual grille cloth?

You are doing professional! But I did't see Rusty bad boy in this video :( :D

Uncle Doug- so I followed these instructions to replace the grille cloth on a fender deluxe. However I am using the same thin fender-type webbing material with my recover. I almost got it just right, but I noticed when I stretch that after stapling the lines in front of the baffle are stretched/slightly crooked despite the cloth being lined up correctly and measured properly. I also noticed that using a blade to mitre the corners only shreds and frays the material. Any suggestions? A scissor seems to be best for the second issue but getting the material right while keeping it straight so that it lines up perfectly in front seems to be a challenge. Thanks so much!

hi uncle doug, your vids are awesome, i have a doubt, if i want to use an original fender grill cloth, should i use a hair dryer to heat up the grill cloth before staple it (as in this video)? cause i did it once on a bafle and i staple the grill cloth and after everything was on place i used the hair dryer to kind of shrink the grill cloth, it went ok but the think you said of shrink it and then when it cool down it expands itself makes more sense to me, but you're the pro. thanks a lot uncle, say hi rusty for me please

Interesting. I've replaced the grill cloth on Marshall cab's but never on a Fender. On a Marshall you don't wrap the cloth all the way around to the backside of the baffle board but you staple it into the sides of the baffle instead. The grill cloth on most modern Marshalls is as junky and cheap as what's on Fender amps which is why on a Marshall cab I always use a thick classic salt & pepper cloth which I order from Mojotone. What you've used here is a bit similar in terms of it's thickness and a far better option for Fender amps than any Fender replacement cloth.

I almost hit the skip button when you mentioned buying a pneumatic staple gun from Harbor Chinese Freight. I'd donate that POS to charity and pick up something worth owning.... Porter Cable, Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, ect. Take my tip young viewers, Junk tools are like crazy women, don't even get near them : )

Extremely helpful! I’m building my first cab, and since I live in an apartment, and no longer have a shop, I bought an empty box and am installing a G12T-75 (from Ipswich, not from China,) and when the pricey-but-perfect grill cloth showed up, it proved to be much as you’ve described the material used in the demo. Thus, this video is invaluable to me - and I have a hair dryer! I also have a heat gun, but that might be overdoing it, even on a low setting. Thoughts?

Great video and great channel! I'm doing a re grill on a 1983 Marshall JCM 800 4012 1x12 combo. QUESTION - Wouldnt it be easier to start the grill cloth by stapling on one side a little long without any stretching since you have to start stretching anyways? It seems thats what Marshall did on this - one side (top) stapled about an inch in then all other sides are cut right to the edge. I havent started the grill but all prep is done. I want to get it right the first time!

Hey great job but to let you know you could have use magnets to hold the front grill in instead of putting screws in the front of the grill

thank u so much

Wonderful & very informative presentation. I'm going to replace the grille cloth on my Fender Acoustasonic Junior & if you could tell me the name/manufacturer of the cloth used in your video I'd be more than grateful.

I wonder if hippos work for tennis balls. just like rusty.

Hey just wondering, I’ve got a Harley Benton 1x12 cab that I love but the grill cloth is a pretty generic black. Basically I want to pop the cover off, and replace the cloth with some kind of patterned fabric (floral/cosmic/geometric/etc. design) is there a fabric style or material that I should be looking for, or will a normal fabric store like material due, especially if I don’t mind a slight muffling of the high tone (I play stoner metal mostly)? It’s mostly a cosmetic job but I don’t know who to ask.

why didn't you use actual grille clothe made for Amp cabs?

HELP! How do you repair dented grille cloth on an amp?? My husband’s

Shouldn't the screws for the speaker be in the baffle before you cover it?

Few thoughts as a speaker cabinet builder. This method is fantastic for the purpose it is being used for in this video, covering inset baffles. If you're trying to wrap a magnetic or plug attached grill frame with this method, you won't get the best results because of the corners. You'll really need the stretchier melatonin cloth, and you'll have to settle for a little bit of ugliness on the back where you glue/staple. Sometimes folding the mesh cloth and stapling through the fold makes the final product look a bit nicer. All together, speaker grills are very difficult to make. If you are making an amp or can inset your baffles, it makes certain things a lot easier. I would like to give a shout out to a business partner of mine with some great custom made foam grills. Check him out at foamspeakergrilles.com/ FYI this is not my business and I am not self endorsing. This guy can just be a huge help to anyone watching this video. Cheers folks