Can the grill of a guitar cabinet be spray painted???

8

89gtsleeper

New member
Can the grill of a speaker cabinet be spray painted??? I do alot of spray painted stencil work and was wanting to paint the front of some of my guitar amps. I just wasn't sure if it would negatively effect the sonic charcteristics or output of the sound leaving the speaker. Any ideas? I am going to keep the coats very light if I do this. Thanks.
 
If the mesh is close knit & the paint fills the gaps between the threads you'll be effectively putting a sheet of plastic between you & the music. If it seals completely, edges etc, you'll be putting the music inside a box albiet a thin fronted one - I don't know how that will effect the ability of speakers to move air...
If it's not so close knit you'll make the mesh more rigid - I don't know what that'll do.
 
I've seen screen printing done on grills, but as rayc said, if it's close knit, I wouldn't do it, as the paint can fill the gaps...If it's knit is spread a little you may be able to just get the paint on the mesh itself without it connecting and creating fillers.

Grills are cheap enough to replace though, I wouldn't hesitate to try it.
 
If the grill is light colored (gray, biege or something light) you can airbrush inks onto them quite easily without hurting the sound in any way. Ink wont show up well on black grills. If you are going to stencil a design or logo which wont cover too much area, chances are that you will not harm the sound. If the materal feels like a synthetic (plactic feeling) avoid using colored laquor, the solvents can react with the materal and cause it to stretch or sag. As already mentioned, the looser the weave, the less affect it will have. Avoid using laytex base paints, they are much thicker and will block more. Acrylic paint is your best option, it can be thinned and applied in several very light coats. Have fun, I hope it turns out OK.
 
Most textile paints act more like a dye, and shouldn't affect the acoustic transparency much at all. Some of the chain auto parts stores carry them in aerosol.
 
I did it to an amp, and it worked just fine. Actually I spray painted a grill black because the previous owner thought it be cool to stencil his band name on the grill.
 
i scored a gray 4x12 fender cab and i was wondering the very same thing..could this ugly thing be painted? It sounds good..but its ugly to me.
Thanks to the original poster for the informative thread and to all who answered! :D
 
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