Removing years of smokers stench from an amp grille

barnsleyboy

Anybody got any ideas? It stinks!

Lots of suggestions on Google to sprinkle upholstery/ carpets/ fabric with bi-carb of soda and leave it to soak up the smell, not sure if it will work as well on grill cloth material. And will it corrode the staples holding the material in place?

Winny_Pooh

Bi carb should be fine as you can vacuum up the remains easily. I've used lighter fluid on a 70's fender grille and it's all good if you dont try and scrub the colour off
Test an area that is not visible and grab an old toothbrush. 

barnsleyboy

Did you leave the bi-carb to soak in overnight?

viz

I had the same with a guitar case. I put the case outside on the garden table in the sunshine for 2 days - totally cured. 

Wazmeister

Fabreeze.

pintspiller

These are good ideas. I generally just give anything a squirt of Lynx or whatever.

fandango

This does a great job for my car interior. Could do the same for an amp grille.

https://www.autoglym.com/products/interior/air-freshener/odour-eliminator

Philtre

Wazmeister said:

Fabreeze.

Please, no. It took years to get rid of that stink from a s/h amp I bought.

JAYJO

barnsleyboy said:

Did you leave the bi-carb to soak in overnight?

I think you sprinkle it on dry and leave for a while then hoover up. I dont think you want to make a paste to scrub it. not sure but best research before you add water.

Majorscale

I bought a CS Fender with a tweed case a few years ago. The seller had stored the case in its shipping carton in his loft for years and unfortunately it had turned to a mouldy mess inside and out. Whilst the outside was stained, the musty stench inside was repugnant. Tried lots of bicarb, sunlight, dettol surface cleaner and fabreeze. Nothing shifted the awful mustiness but the Fabreeze took it to the point of no return... never ever use Fabreeze! 

JezWynd

viz said:

I had the same with a guitar case. I put the case outside on the garden table in the sunshine for 2 days - totally cured. 

That worked for me too. I don't know what they'd been doing in there but it stank.

barnsleyboy

Philtre said:

Wazmeister said:

Fabreeze.

Please, no. It took years to get rid of that stink from a s/h amp I bought.

Yep, Agree with that - Feb ain't so Fab!!
I'll try the bi-carb sprinkled on dry overnight. Lynx.... hmm if I was in a K-pop tribute band it might just work.

If all else fails, I'll give it a good dowsing with patchouli oil, drill some holes in the sides and stick some inward facing joss sticks to mask the smell!

Jalapeno

Bit of a diversion - but this is precisely why  I took my own mic to rehersal studios.  The battered SM58s the studio had smelled like somebody stored then up their anus, yuk !

On the amp - take speaker out for a good clean as well, then a good vacuum (both sides) & sunshine/breeze before chemicals

barnsleyboy

Jalapeno said:

On the amp - take speaker out for a good clean as well, then a good vacuum (both sides) & sunshine/breeze before chemicals

I've stripped everything out of the amp and deep cleaned pretty much everything. I removed both speakers and used a soft paint brush on the speaker cones to remove any dust/ fag ash. The speaker chassis have been cleaned with micro-fibre cloth and Windowlene (one of the greatest cleaning products known to man!). I was a bit worried about vacuuming the speakers in case my old pre-EU power restricted Henry put a large hole in the cone. Last bit is the grille which for some reason Peavey changed the side silver trims to plastic on. They have turned from silver to smokers yellow, but amazingly Wickes came up trumps with a 1m length of 40 x 15mm aluminium trim which I've cut to suit It looks practically the same as my old Peavey Classic VT. I'll reassemble once I've sorted out the smoke smell.

Thanks everyone for your assistance - now to source some bi-carb - with everyone in the lockdown world doing baking that might be trickier than I thought!!

MattNovak

Just thinking outside the box: start smoking?