Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Curmudge,

I have received my vintage Fender Twin Reverb (turns out it was made in 1970 not 1968 as I had surmised) and it was in a sorry state. Filthy beyond words. I have cleaned it up and it works well. Any suggestions though on bringing the original grill cloth back to it's former glory?

Brian,

I have cleaned up Fender grill cloth on a few amps. It's much easier if you can remove it from the baffle but there are "originality" issues with that.

I soaked the grill cloth with a mild Woolite detergent and it dramatically improved the appearance.

If you don't want to remove the GC from the baffle you can squeeze some plastic wrap inbetween the GC and baffle and then use a sponge with watered down detergent and go that route which may not be as effective but should work some.

Brian: I cannot tell you how long it has taken for me to get cigarette smoke out of my Fender amplifiers. Four decades later and the smoke smell is still there at times.

For one amplifier, the only sensible solution was new grill cloth. I think that we can get too particular at some point.

I am looking for the sound and original parts, but it does not bother me to go with new tolex or grill cloth. Then again, I am not thinking of this as a financial investment and I can see that this would be a consideration for some.

Thanks Jamie I am trying to find a "solution" that does not include removal of the GC.

Peter, I sometimes wonder why people abuse their gear as they do. I played all sorts of venues with my AC30 and it looked brand new right up to the day it was stolen from me. My 1975 Sunn Model T c/w 610 bottom was on tour with me and it could grace a showroom floor today.

I did not get my Twin as an investment. It will be a family heirloom along with my guitars.

Thanks for the advice. I would still like to hear from Paul, he may have a "solution" that will let me clean the GC insitu.

Brian: I am confident Paul will have a solution.

Go to your local automotive supply store and buy a spray bottle of Westley's Bleche-White. This is a more aggressive version of famous old "Fantastik" or "409". Its active ingredient is sodium metasilicate, and it does wonders for old grille cloth.

It helps if you remove the baffleboard, but you can leave the cloth mounted. If not, then no biggie, but you should at minimum take out the speaker and put a stiff piece of plastic or metal in the speaker hole, so you don;t stretch the grillecloth. Lay the board or amp flat and spray lots of the Bleche-White onto the grillecloth. Have some old towels handy to soak up the grungy solution. Keep respraying and blotting. Do not wipe or you risk stretching the grillecloth.

You can now use a wet towel to wet out the cloth, and a dry one to blot up the excess grunge water. When you find that you are blotting up clean water, you are done. In another 35 years you can do this again.

Wear rubber gloves and don't breathe the spray mist.

Many thanks Paul. I figured that you would know what to do to clean up the grill cloth.

Brian - before you do this just be aware that, in a lot of cases, the black paint is water soluble on Fender baffle boards. You'll need to slide some plastic between the board and the cloth (not just over the speaker holes) so as to prevent the board from getting wet in any way.

Not to mention the fact that if those fiberboard baffles get wet, they can swell and crumble very easily.

I've cleaned the cloth on my SF Fender amps with great results just by using warm water, a bit of Dawn dishwashing detergent, and a soft brush (I used my wife's fingernail brush ). It's easy to do, but don't get anything overly wet.

Steve,

That is sage advice indeed. I have just finished some research, since I considered taking the baffle board out altogether and cleaning the cloth from that vantage point.

It would appear that the baffle board is either screwed in or glued in. I still have not figured out which of those two options were used to construct my amp. The amp is constructed (as you probably already know) out of birch plywood that is finger jointed for better strength. The baffle board is indeed painted MDF.

Thanks for taking the time to point that out to me.

Brian - I'm not up on what year(s) Fender went with glued/dadoed-in baffles on various models, but it's easy to tell what version you've got.

Looking in from the back, if there are 1"x1" wood stringers on the sides with screws through those going into the back of the baffle board, then your complete baffle board is removeable.

Another way to tell if the entire front baffle is removeable is if you can see the edges of the grill cloth wrapped around it from a back view.

If, when looking into the back, you don't see any stringers/screws on the sides, then your baffle board is NOT removeable. Those amps have the grill cloth wrapped around a separate piece of wood that's attached to the front of the baffle with several pieces of velcro. To remove that kind of thing, just take a screwdriver and carefully pry it off from the front. The velcro is really strong, so you've got to be careful to not break the wood piece that the cloth is stretched over, and also try to avoid denting the edges of the amp cabinet.

Like I said, I'm not sure what year(s) Fender changed to the glued-in boards (with velcro fronts) on various models, but if you could send me some pictures of your amp I could easily tell you how to deal with it.

That's very helpful information Steve,

I'll send you some pics this afternoon. Thank you again for your help.

Brian and Steve, the black paint is not, strictly speaking, water-soluble on these baffle boards, but age has contributed to some of them "chalking", because the paint used by Fender was a flat enamel that does develop that characteristic (like house paint does) over a long period of time.

I apologize for not saying "test the solution first in an inconspicuous area", like it says on all cleaning products!

Steve's method is much more cautious than mine, I'll admit.

Steve,

Upon close examination it would appear that my baffle board is glued in. I do not see any sign of the stringers that ought to be there if the baffle board was removeable.

Paul the baffle board does appear to have been painted with a flat black enamel and yes it does show signs of chalking.

I am curious. What year was velcro invented and when was it made available on a commercial basis?

Also I presume that I should remove the Fender logo before attempting to remove the board upon which the grill cloth is mounted?

Here are some low resolution pics of the amp. A front view and one of the inside showing the baffle board construction.

Brian, Fender amps with the glued in baffle occured around 1970. Fender Amps with the fixed speaker baffle have the removeable grill cloth baffle held in with the velcro and there is no need to remove the logo when doing this.

This will definitely make it easier to clean the grill cloth!