Working with suede

[rootz]

Since the day I saw a suede covered guitar cabinet I knew I wanted one. The texture, looks, just everything yelled 'you need this!' to me.
Long story short: I hesitated and dragged my leg for a long time, but finally I have two cabs finished in suede. And the thing is I always thought working with suede would be much more difficult tan with tolex. I was wrong! It actually is easier tbh, if you take some precautions.
Here's what I have learned doing two cabs with suede:
- Thinner is easier. Thick suede might be tougher, but makes stretching and mounting corners more difficult. My thickest suede was 1mm, the thinnest 0.7mm. The latter was a bit easier to work on.
- I went old fashioned Fender style. Different suede parts for to, bottom, sides, etc. With an overlap at bottom and top. This makes working with smaller hides easier.
- I used heifer hide for the cabs. The texture is a bit nicer than pig suede IMHO.
- I did a couple of tests on scrap wood with suede patches. How does it stretch? How long does the glue need to dry? How well can I brush away stains? Does the glue soak through?
- I worked slow, clean and very precise. Nothing wrong with taking it easy. There is something wrong though with wobbly lines and cuts, and glue stains IMHO. YMMV.
- You want to use water based contact cement. I used the one from Tube Town Germany. I believe Amplified Nation uses Wilsonart H2O, though not entirely sure about that. I've worked with other contact cements before, but always smelly stuff. With water based I could glue the suede in the living room. I'm aware other glues could work as well, but I'll stick to this.
- The glue I used did not soak through the suede and give stains. It does stain if you accidentally apply it where it should not go! Again, take your time to work as cleanly as possible.
- I used razor sharp knives to cut the suede. You need that to get nice clean cut lines. Good basic tools really help.
-I masked areas where suede was already applied if I had to glue next to that area. You don't want stains you can't remove. Sometimes you can rub out a stain (e.g. with , but at the risk of changing texture and colour of the suede in that spot.

Feel free to ask any question or do suggestions. But If you have cold feet about working with suede like I did: don't! It's fun to do, not much more expensive than tolex (I bought 3 hides for 100 bucks and do one head with one hide) and not harder than normal tolexing.

Okay, some pictures of the almost finished products than?

[bepone]

nice!
how many hands of glue did you put on surfaces? 1(on suede)+1 (on the wood)? or 2+2?
how much time to cure between the layers of glue? 2-4h?

lately i have started to use PVA glue, it seems permanent..and fast. al the contact cements after years in use starting to "open" on the borders, so need to repair with cyanofix..

sometimes i use 3+3 hands but too much time is lost in drying between,

[Guy77]

Looks absolutely great Bas! Congrats you have mastered the art of suede!
I imagine this was cow suede, if so where did you purchase them from?


Cheers
Guy

[ijedouglas]

Wow! Stunning work!

[10thTx]

Impeccably great work!

With respect, 10thtx

[Reeltarded]

LOOKS FANTASTIC!

Way better than the pants I made out of ostrich tolex, plus this glue itches more every day.

[timrobertson100]

Beautiful work - I’ve been intimidated at the thought of suede too for some reason.

(Also intrigued to know where you bought from and how many coats of the tube-town glue)

[pompeiisneaks]

That looks excellent!

well done.

~Phil

[erwin_ve]

Looks stellar! I'm still intimdated

[rootz]

Many, many thanks for all the kind words!

Let me first state I'm certainly no expert on glues. There are just too many variables to factor in. Like Bepone says glues can come open again. I had that once with Tube Town glue, but I must admit I left a cab in my car on a hot and sunny day. The glue I use is thermo plastic, much like PVA wood glue is. It gets very sticky again when heated with a heat gun.

Here's what I do as a precaution against parts coming off. This is especially possible inside a head shell or combo cab where you slide the chassis in (and out). It is rather easy to jam the chassis against the tolex or suede when you load it in a cab, thus ripping the tolex or suede from the wood. Staples help, but what works best IMHO is making sure the whole edge of the suede or tolex os glued down properly; no upstanding ridges, no loose parts, no paint underneath it. Tube Town glues does not adhere well to painted surfaces, so make sure you glue mostly on bare wood. Then it sticks like hell. Also please note my amps have very little sharp corners, so I do need to stretch tolex and suede all that much. This helps too. And again I must say that the suede I used is much more supple and elastic than any of the tolex I ever used. It doesn't seem to have any memory of its previous shape like tolex does.

Bepone, I apply multiple layers of glue (2 most of the times) where it matters: corners, parts that get stretched, edges. The big surfaces only one layer of glue. Every time I let it dry half an hour more or less. Time is not the most important, but it needs to be dry! You don't want any wet glue at all. It stays sticky for hours, so you have some margin. Sometimes I use a heat gun to speed up the process, or to make the glue stick more (thermo plastic, remember). I work with a large brush to apply glue, not a roller. Believe me, the suede got a thick layer of glue! I made sure the 'hairs' of the suede were standing up before applying glue. This means more surface area and hopefully a better bond. My cabs needed the most attention and glue. Both are poplar ply and that wood just sucks up a lot of glue. Dries like madness too. So I didn't need to wait 2-4 hours before a next layer of glue.

My oldest cabs with Tube Town glue are now 4 years old. No problems with them on the form of loose tolex (yet; you never know).

Gaetano, this is cow suede. From a heifer to be exact. The hide were only 120cm long at best, so not that big. I purchased them locally from a shop in The Hague, www.leerlooier.nl I think the hides originated in Italy. The lighter brown suede came from an Italian Amperage member. I imagine there are many sources in Canada, the US, just about anywhere. But you have to search and I advise to take a look for yourself and not buy from the internet. De Leerlooier (which means as much as the stainer) had a huge amount of hides, ranging from foxes to zebras and everything in between. But it are products of nature, so not every piece of suede is as nice as the next one.

Erwin, you can give me a call anytime. Some day the stars and our agenda's are gonna line up!

[bepone]

Bepone, I apply multiple layers of glue (2 most of the times) where it matters: corners, parts that get stretched, edges. The big surfaces only one layer of glue. Every time I let it dry half an hour more or less. Time is not the most important, but it needs to be dry! You don't want any wet glue at all. It stays sticky for hours, so you have some margin.

thx.. i have also using 10 yrs tt glue but with that glue you need days and days to finish work sometime i have no patience for this glue..

nowadays discovered express PVA works fast and clean.. for heads. but for cabinets im poisoning myself with old neoprene ruber glue cement stuff, and dying slowly .. because i have opinion that PVA will be like an layer of plastic on speaker cabinet, and kill all the sound? who knows maybe i'm wrong. but the best sound to me had nude cabinet without any paint, tolex protection at all. has resonance, sustain, harmony, all! after that, tolex is "necessary evil" and glue even more IMO, so i quit with PVA option for the cabs

[M Fowler]

I like your work, very good.

Mark

[talbany]

Awesome work as always Mark

Congrats!.. Carry on my friend

Tony

[rccolgan]

Amazing job! I learned a thing or two reading this!

[Guy77]

Many, many thanks for all the kind words!



Gaetano, this is cow suede. From a heifer to be exact. The hide were only 120cm long at best, so not that big. I purchased them locally from a shop in The Hague, www.leerlooier.nl I think the hides originated in Italy. The lighter brown suede came from an Italian Amperage member. I imagine there are many sources in Canada, the US, just about anywhere. But you have to search and I advise to take a look for yourself and not buy from the internet. De Leerlooier (which means as much as the stainer) had a huge amount of hides, ranging from foxes to zebras and everything in between. But it are products of nature, so not every piece of suede is as nice as the next one.

Erwin, you can give me a call anytime. Some day the stars and our agenda's are gonna line up!

Thank you for the information Bas. Yes I have learned my lesson with buying suede off the internet! I really like it better when I see the suede in person,

I have a Tandy leather near my house (https://tandyleather.com/) I think I will stick to buying in person, but your prices and quality are great!
I actually like buying a complete cow hide and then I wrap the cabinet with one piece so it saves me time but it cost a little more. But then time is money LOL!

Congrats again on the great work!

Cheers
Guy