Speaker cone repair

I had some bum luck today. When I was in the other room grabbing some packing tape to wrap up a set of speakers I'm trading away, one of my cats jumped into the box and punched a hole through one of the speakers. There's an inch long tear on the cone, right near the outside edge.

The other guy had already sent his trade in the mail and furnished a tracking number, so there was no changing the terms. I had to take one of the speakers out of my new cabinet (same model) and send that out instead. Now I'm rocking the "detuned 1x10".

Does anyone have an experience with speaker cone repair? I have clear nail polish and no material is missing from the cone, so I was able to lay the flaps down flat and "paint over" the tear fairly neatly on both sides, but I am worried about the sound and durability over time.

hook up that cat...get some ungodly tones

I happen to like detuned

I would have tried thinned rubber cement (speaker dope) and thin tissue paper...but what do I know

I'd consider the detuned cab thing if the speaker holes weren't so jagged and ugly!

As for the rubber cement and tissue paper/coffee filter fix... I didn't see any simple way to dismantle the speaker to put the paper on the back as reinforcement, so I had to work through the slots in the basket with a nail polish brush.

Sounds to me like the cone was repairable. I would also just wonder if the nail polish will be flexible enough to survive over time. If it cracks, you can probably clean it up, and go back with something more flexible.

Look into a speaker reconing service. A homebrew cure might let you down in the middle of an important gig.

It's a Jensen MOD 10-35... a $35 speaker. If the repair doesn't hold, I'll buy another.

Elmers glue works good so long as it isnt in a flex area. Just wet a strup of paper towel with the glue and apply. Dries hard so theres minimal sound absorbed up by it. For the flex areas use black 100% silicon calk and brush it on. I've done this on many old brittle speakers around the flex rim and they've lasted 15 years, and still going. If you do a nice job putting it on it looks good too.

Put the speaker in a box and try it out before you do anything else. I play through a borrowed bass amp regularly with a 3/8" puncture in the 15" speaker.

You could see this hole and imagine all sorts of bad buzzing etc. but it has no distinct audible effect.

I could glue it up but the owner says he doesnt want it messed with.

If it buzzes or even seems to vibrate more then the sorounding areas patch it as recomended above. My SVT cab has a small puncture patched with tissue paper and rubber cement for a decade or more and it sounds great.

If you get adventurous or it sounds bad even patched, try reconing it.

I did recone pair of cheapo peavey 'mod 0540' 8 ohm speakers from a pair of TSL PA cabs. I used parts from Ted Weber's (R.I.P.) site and it was really pretty easy despite the almost total lack of good DIY info on speaker reconing on the net.

Now I have been looking for cheap 'good' speakers to recone.

hey, good on you for keeping your soul and sending that speaker for the trade run.

I also have had good luck with rubber glue and thin nylon mesh. At the very least put a little on each edge of the rip so it doesn't grow. Never experienced any blowouts or sound quality issues, and the 2 I have done were in closed back cabs, lots of load on 'em.

The clear nail polish worked well. I had the amp cranked up today trying out my new overdrive and it's as good as new.