Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

[Got_tone?]

I have a marshall mini stack (G15MS) that I just got a couple of hours ago. **** you, GAS!!! Mainly got it for the cool 1x10 cabs, which will have the speakers changed sometime in the future. I might sell the head though. (If interested, let me know :deal

I think the owner was a smoker because it has a "light" smoke smell to it (tolex). It's not too bad but I CAN smell it. I was wondering how I could get it out. I have read the "smoke smell in a strat thread" but seeing how its a amp and 2 cabs, I want to be a bit more careful. I opened the speaker cabs/head cab to check if everything is in good order and its inside the cabs as well.

Here are some crappy pics I took in case you guys want to see them:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

hook it up with my strat and you have a smoking rig... ha ha hah hahah hah hah!!!

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

for the outside you can wash it with mild soap and water soloutions on damp rags and rinse with rags with clean water... wipe everthing down on the outside and becareful not to get any inside it... Then you can also use car vinyl products like Armoral...

saddly with a smoker lots of smoke and dust will be on the speakers too.. i would use a vaccum on the grill area and then wipe with a rag... you may want to check with other people on here if there is a need to remove the speakers to do more cleaning in areas like that...

smokers really don't know how bad smoke sticks to everything around them...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

ps-a soft fingernail brush works wonders on cleaning/scrubbing marshall covering

 

[Got_tone?]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

hook it up with my strat and you have a smoking rig... ha ha hah hahah hah hah!!!

:cool2: oh, I see what you did there... :friday:

I have some Armoral, I'll go ahead and try that. I'll vaccum the cabs too, thanx.

*edit* Hey, how's the strat doing? smoke smell gone?

 

[glassman]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

If you really want to get rid of any and all smells from the previous owner and can part with the amp for a week. Take it to a full service cleaning company (like Steamatic) and have them put it in thier ozone room. You don't have to dissassemble anything and there is no moisture of any kind applied. Pick it up in a week and it will be odorless.

By the way, this is how they get the smell out of heavily smoke damaged furnature that have been in a fire.

 

[WoodyTone]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

glassman, very cool!

 

[caucajun]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

that smell is part of th' MOJO!:crazy:...................waller in it!

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

Vinegar should take care of the smell on the tolex. For other parts, not sure.

 

[Got_tone?]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

that smell is part of th' MOJO!:crazy:...................waller in it!

:laugh2: If it was mojo from playing gigs, I would be ok with it. The guy told me that he only used it for practice and never took it out for a gig. It kinda smells like a leather jacket I have. :?:

Vinegar should take care of the smell on the tolex. For other parts, not sure.

I'm gonna try that when I get my hands on some, thanx.

 

[blakejcan]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

digging up this zombie thread

I have some rank cigarette stink from the new set of amps I just bought. I cleaned them all down with a natural cleaner. They look good and that helped with the smoke a little bit. It also seems to have kind of unleashed some nicotine aroma that was lingering in the tolex after having rubbed out the surface stains. I sprayed them down w/ febreze and it's better. I'm not sure I feel great about just leaving them outside all day while I'm at work to air out. I might take them apart, spray them with some air and maybe stuff some dryer sheets in there. Anything else people do to help this?

 

[Gaspasser69]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

Maybe put your own hot ionized particles in there and over lay a new smell. Burn some hickory or some such wood and let the smoke saturate the amp. Lots of mojo. Or at least cheaper than paying some body

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

What you're trying to get rid of is resin, so adding resin via burning wood is not going to help, and can in fact contribute to heat-related amp-death because it layers.

As long as the sockets did not sit empty and collect the resin/smoke (such as pulling tubes for whatever reason people pull tubes for), those should be fine, though you'll want to clean the bottles themselves.


Take it completely apart - chassis out of the shell, speakers out of the cab, and anything held on with screws like the logo and front cloth panel - and hose the chassis down with contact cleaner (electrical contacts, not vision). Let it soak, then hose it again and see what you can loosen up with a baby toothbrush (super-soft bristles).

If the pots are not sealed, you might want to look into replacing them since cleaning the inside will be nearly impossible.

If there is no exposed wood on the cabinet, the resin is only in the fabric/tolex and whatever they painted the inside of the cab with. Sandpaper on the inside will remove paint and resin, and lighter fluid should take care of the tolex. Armor-all is more of a wax/oil coating, not a cleaner. It also makes cabs impossible to hold onto, so don't get it on the handles.
Try warm water and some Borax and a bristled scrubber (the mesh type may be too coarse).

For fabric-covered cabs, I'd say have it stripped and recovered in tolex.

If there is exposed wood on the cabinet, you might try scrubbing it with freshly-brewed tea (unsweet, you don't want to replace resin with sugar). Get it while it's hot (wear gloves!) and the tea will penetrate better. Since tea is as organic as wood, you're not in danger of ruining anything. The water should evaporate just fine.
Don't panic if the wood stays darker than it was. Tea does that. If you're going to have it recovered, it's not an issue.


And yes, we smokers do realize what all smoke sticks to, we just don't care that anyone else is inconvenienced by it. Some of us smoke to keep from killing other people, so you have a choice: World War 4 or a funny smell?

 

[Securb]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

Cigarette smell doesn't bother me on amps. I have been in music stores where the amps smell like cat and I turn around and walk out.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Smoke smell in a amp/cabs

Yeah, indoor-pet funk is one thing I don't dig.