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[Bananayogi]

Hi All -

I am just cleaning up my beloved black Hohner Erica.

She's polishing up OK for an old lady(!) but the grille cloth is stained (with god knows what) and a bit tatty.

What is the recommended fabric for replacing it? At the moment it is white(ish) and quite open weave, which I presume is important so the sound can get out!! I might replace it with black or even red - can someone advise what I can use as a sensible replacement or point me towards a stockist of the real thing?

Thanks - BY

[HallelujahAl]

Charlie Marshall at CGM has the real thing. I have used a very light fabric called toile that most quality clth shops/merchants are able to sell in various colours and shades. It's lighter in weight than the real thing but has the right size meshwork on it to keep all the nasties out of the box. Being very lightweight it doesn't dampen the sound down either.
Best of Luck
AL

[DRUMKILBO]

A few years ago, a pal of mine was replacing the nicotine stained grill cloth of a very early Hohner Shand Morino. After making extensive enquiries he discovered that 'publisher's scrim' or it might be 'bookbinder's scrim' was the material. If you think about an old book when the end has come off and you see the stuff underneath that binds all the pages together..... Anyone else come across that idea ?

Ian.

[Lester]

Whilst we are on the subject how does one fix a new grill cloth in place??

[Prestidigitator]

I've done it with Copydex glue. I put a sparing amount around the edges and sufficient dabs (depending on the grille design) to stop it from flapping about in the middle. I've found that Copydex is quite easy to remove later if required.

I've also tried various sorts of scrim and suchlike, but I think that Charlie Marshall's supplies are the best (for me, at any rate). The metallic weave fabric is slightly thicker and stiffer, and this makes gluing it much easier, as it doesn't distort.

[Bananayogi]

Whilst we are on the subject how does one fix a new grill cloth in place??

Having removed the old grille cloth (too impatient to wait!) it is indeed stuck around the edges. Also (I suspect because the Erica has a curved grille) thin pieces of cardboard are suck into the back of the grille 'bars' and the cloth was also stuck to those. There were three like this regularly spaced along the back of the grille. I bought the box new quite a few (or more!) years ago, so that is how it came from the factory.

[HallelujahAl]

I think that Charlie Marshall's supplies are the best (for me, at any rate). The metallic weave fabric is slightly thicker and stiffer, and this makes gluing it much easier, as it doesn't distort.

Absolutely right! I use my old favourite - PVA - marvellous stuff! Usually the hardest part of this job is surely the getting the old off and cleaning through the grooves on the inside of the grill. Any bits of wood stuck in there? Leave 'em alone I think!
AL

[waltzman]

I think that Charlie Marshall's supplies are the best (for me, at any rate). The metallic weave fabric is slightly thicker and stiffer, and this makes gluing it much easier, as it doesn't distort.

Absolutely right! I use my old favourite - PVA - marvellous stuff! Usually the hardest part of this job is surely the getting the old off and cleaning through the grooves on the inside of the grill. Any bits of wood stuck in there? Leave 'em alone I think!
AL

I use 3M 77 spray adhesive.  A light spray allows the cloth to adhere evenly to all the little pieces of grill and yet it's still fairly easy to remove.

[Theo]

Absolutely right! I use my old favourite - PVA - marvellous stuff! Usually the hardest part of this job is surely the getting the old off and cleaning through the grooves on the inside of the grill. Any bits of wood stuck in there? Leave 'em alone I think!
AL

Best method I've found for cleaning is to pull off the old cloth than soak the whole grill in hot soapy water,  the glue softens and comes of with a pan scourer leaving everything nice and clean.  The water needs to be very hot, so wear rubber gloves.  Next time I might try the dishwasher.

I use PVA too, dabbed on with a cloth pad.

[Québécois]

I replaced the old stained and ripped grille cloth in my Corona II with black mosquito screen!

[Bananayogi]

Just to finish the thread...

I bought the black with silver grille cloth sold by Charlie at CGM (friendly chap!). It arrived in about a day - pretty good from Scotland - and was well packed. He advised UHU to fix it.

It is now in and makes the box look better than it ever did with the original white.

Thanks to all for suggestions and advice!

Jon

[theSmoiler]

I have replaced the grille cloth on the old Hohner wooden boxes ie the Club Models I and II and the wooden Erika, with the flat grilles, using muslin from a dress shop dyed golden yellow, to match the original, with Dylon cold die. The muslin is fairly open weave, you get loads of pieces out of a metre, and it comes up a very nice shade of golden yellow. You can keep the dye for ages in a sealed bottle once mixed up, and keep re-using it. The yellow does begin to get paler, though.

On one of my old Hohner boxes the grille cloth, which seemed to be the original, was a fetching shade of lilac.

Re. the boxes which have a curved grill, I used a piece of fairly open weave nylon net curtain on one of those. Looks fine - and the bright white makes a nice contrast against the newly polished chrome.

[rees]

Smoiler, you are sounding like a seasoned melodeon fixer.
Those 14 melodeons under your stairs - get 'em out and fettled.

[theSmoiler]

Those 14 melodeons under your stairs - get 'em out and fettled.

(Hmmm....who was it at ECMW who said I shouldn't show people the pics of the melodeon-strewn bedroom or they really would think I was mad [or, MAD!])

Most have gone back into the deep dark recesses now, Rees - probably not to reappear for another couple of years... (bedroom suddenly looked huge again!). But...still have enough innards and outers lurking temptingly, to make up 2 1/2 Model I's (the 1/2 coming from a particularly naff German eBay purchase, which had obviously been kept somewhere very damp - or, perhaps actually submerged  - so that the levers and reeds were only fit to throw away, where the wood ends were badly marked from the bellows having been sealed to them using pink cloth strip sticking plaster, and where the bellows themselves were also patched together this way, with only the metal corners and the fixing pins worth salvaging. You win some - like the Eb/Bb - and you lose some).

Am taking what may turn out to be a lengthy Sabbatical now - so, you never know...