Pretty Potato Masher

[Reconer]

While I'm still looking for questions to truly challenge the high level of intellect in here, this will have to do for now. I need suggestions on making my potato masher(s) pretty. I'm really only concerned about the exposed face, not the entire horn. Would you guys completely disassemble, sand, prime and paint? If so, what type paint would match the original? I think I count at least 10 plates of cork, felt, and metal. Would you break it down that far?

TIA,
<<JJ>>

[Oldmics]

Man, I took apart a pair of them years ago and I am still haunted by the images.Giskard prefers flowers sticking out of them for beautification purposes.Seriously though they are muthas to reassemble if you do decide to take them apart.Good luck.
Oldmics

[Mr. Widget]

I would follow Girkard's suggestion. With a bunch of daisies sticking out of them, you won't notice the scratches or the missing high frequencies.:D :D

Well if you are hell bent on keeping them, I would not paint them assembled as the felt will absorb the paint which will glue the whole mess together and probably tweak the sound a bit.

[subwoof]

Give the face a super quick spay of good paint ( krylon semi-flat black is good ) after getting the major flakes off with a wire brush.

Then put the masher face first into a vertical belt sander w/150 grit on SLOW speed and burnish the aluminum.

This takes only a few minutes, is easier than the whole dissasembly route and looks sharp.

Of course according to the purists ( sorry guys...:) ) it will "impede the visual aura" and become not "original" but it's better than planting daisies...

sub

[Reconer]

I assume there are not many fans of the masher in here. Thanks for the idea, subwoof, but there are at least 10 plates stacked in this guy. Wouldn't the belt sander just get the top one?

And just to explain, as we say in Georgia, I'm fixin' to build me a speaker enclosure just for onstage reinforcement. Low end is undecided, but I want to use my LE175 and a bullet tweet.

Certaintly not hi-fi, but it will beet the piezo that was in the previous cabinet. Anybody else in here use JBL for sound reinforcement? Or have I touched a taboo subject?

<<JJ>>

[Mr. Widget]

There are several members who do pro sound here. I used to venture into that realm a bit. Actually as a stage monitor the potato masher is a good choice. How about wrapping a small piece of grill cloth around the horn before stuffing it through the baffle?

[Oldmics]

Are you building this as an onstage monitor?Is this for personal or rental application?If its a rental piece you know its going to get puked on or end up with a beer poured down the horn.Might be just easier to install it in the condition it is in and put a grill cover over it and be done.
Oldmics,who has mixed a show or two!

[Reconer]

Well oldmics, it's for personal use. After years of not playing live, I may be getting back to it again. But I need to downsize from what I used years ago. So I've bought a used TOA KD-2 keyboard amp, but I hate the top end, or lack of it. (Broken piezo)
And since woodworking came shortly after music as a hobby....thought I'd try to build something somewhat attractive.
I know it'll get beat up, but hey.....wood is cheap. Unless I go with my favorite.....9 ply Birch ! ! !

My old setup (which I still have) was insane. But it was a house gig and I never had to move the stuff. 15" JBL (forget the model)
12" Cetec Gauss (cause I also played guitar), 2080 Gauss mid-horn and JBL LE175 (Dukane) for top end. Hey, there was a fire sale at my old store. Gauss stuff wasn't moving.
I didn't bi-amp, or tri-amp.....but quad-amped. Is that a word?
Talk about control ! ! ! Man, I loved the sound I got.

Anyway, now that I'm sadly older, just like many folks on here I'm just trying to re-live some of my past. You may have a good point regarding the grill cloth. Certaintly less effort. I'll post pics of what I finally get built. But how did that guy post such large pics on here?

<<JJ>>

[oldr&b]

At the long gone Peppermint Beach Club on the Virginia Beach beach front in the late 60s, a semi-famous beach music guy, Bill Deal, had a JBL potato masher perched right on top of his Hammond B3 pointed right at his face as his personal vocals monitor. Apparently he couldn't hear AT ALL!

[Steve Schell]

What I would probably do is wet sand the exposed surfaces with 320 or 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper until any roughness from chipped paint was gone, then apply a couple of coats of the appropriate Krylon spray paint. I've been a fan of Krylon for years- works much better and dries much faster than most other spray paints.

If the horn was done originally with wrinkle paint and is beat up, then I'm not sure what the best repair would be. With old RCA wrinkle painted drivers, I have successfully oversprayed with Krylon and renewed the color, while keeping the wrinkle effect.

[johnhb]

I was about to take the front off a pair of 077s and take them to a metal plating shop to have them gold anodized to use in my home made L-250s. I'm thinking you should do the same with the plates. Why not?