Painting speaker cones.

[Painy]

I have a nice collection of Ashdown cabs (a 610, a 410, a mini 4x8 and a mini 15) that I'm very happy with apart from one slight niggle. They all have Ashdown's trademark blue speakers - apart from the 610 so it doesn't match the others when using them together. 

After a chat a couple of weeks ago with the very helpful Dave Green at Ashdown, he kindly sent me some proper speaker cone paint in the correct shade of blue and yesterday I finally got around to doing it. It didn't take too long to do and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. 🙂

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 8, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Reggaebass]

That looks so much better, nice job painy, I know Dave quite well, he’s very helpful isn’t he 

[Painy]

19 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

That looks so much better, nice job painy, I know Dave quite well, he’s very helpful isn’t he 

Yeah he's a top bloke. I was mainly speaking to him at the time about a problem with my CTM30 head which he suggested was probably one of the preamp valves. Along with the paint he sent me a replacement valve on the understanding I could just send it back if it didn't fix the problem or phone him back later to make payment later if it worked (it did work and they only charged me for the valve at cost - no charge for postage or for the paint). No better customer service in the business in my opinion! 

[Merton]

Love the outcome, love the story behind it. Ashdown rock

[ped]

Wow I had no idea such a thing existed!! Big thumbs up to Ashdown again. Always such great customer stories on here and it just goes to show how the small things which take thought and care are worth their weight in gold. 

[40hz]

Ashdown have surely got the best CS in the business. Great company and great amps. 

[Merton]

@Painy you're clearly far more talented that I am with respect to this sort of thing. Your ABM case, the load box and now the blue speakers... if I'd done any of this they'd have looked more like something the Wombles would need to clear up instead of a useful thing I could proudly use 🤣

[Painy]

2 hours ago, Merton said:

@Painy you're clearly far more talented that I am with respect to this sort of thing. Your ABM case, the load box and now the blue speakers... if I'd done any of this they'd have looked more like something the Wombles would need to clear up instead of a useful thing I could proudly use 🤣

Don't forget my custom pedal artwork! 😁

Thank you very much though. I like to think of myself as something of a talented bodger for what it's worth. 😅

[Skybone]

Painy the Painty

[Lfalex v1.1]

I'm genuinely surprised that paint stays put!(Rushes off to get silver paint to make a Hartke transporter suddenly much better)

[Painy]

56 minutes ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

I'm genuinely surprised that paint stays put!(Rushes off to get silver paint to make a Hartke transporter suddenly much better)

The paint is actually surprisingly quite watery so rather than just sitting on the surface which might flake off, it soaks into the paper. I believe it's designed so that, once dry, it actually stiffens the cone. 

For your Hartke cab, maybe you could try sticking on some bacofoil? 😁

[Lfalex v1.1]

6 minutes ago, Painy said:

The paint is actually surprisingly quite watery so rather than just sitting on the surface which might flake off, it soaks into the paper. I believe it's designed so that, once dry, it actually stiffens the cone. 

For your Hartke cab, maybe you could try sticking on some bacofoil? 😁

I tried that. It just buzzes really badly ! 🤣

[Dan Dare]

Treating cones oneself is tricky. Ideally, they need to be as light and rigid as possible, so they move quickly and precisely and translate whatever signal the motor receives into movement of the air. Cone shapes and profiles are important in this regard. Paper cones are often doped or treated to increase their stiffness, but you have to be careful not to add too much weight. Many companies have experimented with sandwich/composite materials and plastics, which offer greater rigidity, but can carry a penalty of increased weight, which can make them inefficient and mean they need a beefier motor and consequently more power to drive them. It's a bit of a balancing act.

[Phil Starr]

On 11/08/2020 at 00:09, Dan Dare said:

Treating cones oneself is tricky. Ideally, they need to be as light and rigid as possible, so they move quickly and precisely and translate whatever signal the motor receives into movement of the air. Cone shapes and profiles are important in this regard. Paper cones are often doped or treated to increase their stiffness, but you have to be careful not to add too much weight. Many companies have experimented with sandwich/composite materials and plastics, which offer greater rigidity, but can carry a penalty of increased weight, which can make them inefficient and mean they need a beefier motor and consequently more power to drive them. It's a bit of a balancing act.

Amen to this before anyone reaches for the paintbrush. Anything other than the thinnest paint is going to add mass (OK anything you apply adds mass) and is likely to add stiffness. your speaker cone works under cone breakup for a lot/most of it's frequency response. The inner part of the cone moves faster than the outside and the cone flexes. A heavy coat of paint could wipe out a lot of your top end or change it unpredictably. There are all sorts of other things to think about too, there is often quite a bit of design work that goes into that cone of paper pulp. If you aren't too bothered about the sound and prepared to scrap the speakers if it goes wrong then that's fine but just be aware before you add three coats of Dulux. I imagine Ashdown tried this before putting it out to market and that is why the 'paint' is so thin.

[stevie]

Normally, applying any kind of paint or lacquer to a driver will dampen the top end response, as Phil explains. However, I did measure a blue Ashdown 15" driver a while ago and the top end was all there. So it seems that they (and Sica) know what they're doing.