TIP: Substitute for tolex/naugahyde

[Mark Hammer]

I've been working on a couple of small practice amps, and quite frankly I find the lingering stink of vinyl a bit much, and my staple gun skills are a bit lacking.  Reading an amp review in GP or somewhere a few months ago, they mentioned that the amp under review used a special tough paint as a coating instead of vinyl fabric .  I went looking in the automotive/hardware store for something like that and stumbled onto the black textured paint that is used for coating the running boards on cars at the bottom of the door and chassis.  This paint comes in a spray can and is meant to look decent despite pebbles and crap banging into it on a regular basis.  Sprayed on top of MDF or particle board, it looks terrific, and the stink goes away much faster than freshly unrolled vinyl does.  What's also nice is that I can sand or file down corners of a small cabinet, fill in cracks with wood filler and the sprayed-on coat hides a multitude of sins much more effectively than I ever could with readily available cabinet-covering material.

What's also nice is that gouges are easily repaired with a bit of spraying.  

Finally, if that wasn't enough, $6 can easily "cover" an amp cabinet the size of a Super Reverb....with a closed back.

[Jason Stout]

Great idea Mark!  

[Lonestarjohnny]

Cool Idea Mark,
I got a Buddy that sprayed his Tele body with Tuff Bed Liner, look's just fine and the guitar sound's the same as it did before he painted it.
the finish is sorta like an orange so i'm gonna check and see if it come's in color's, I was thinking of shooting a amp cab with it. this would make for super tuff finish on monitors and pa cab's that get scuffed up quickly under normal useage.
Johnny

[thomas2]

that would be great!!! i bet they don't sell anything like that here though  :cry:  it makes me sad... very sad..

[petemoore]

Yupp, when you get tired of tired looking stuff, put paint on the wood, and it can be filled, sanded, resprayed...try 'that with tolex...
 PA and really any cab will see abuse [if used], and need some type protection against the 'elements'.
 We used to periodically coat everything with Rustoleum flat black.
 This Stuff:...
 'the black textured paint that is used for coating the running boards on cars at the bottom of the door and chassis. '
 ...sounds like a great alternative.