Flocking ?

[Richard Tipple]

I have always wondered what the purpose of flocking the under side of cabinets was,,cosmetic ? It seems to me ,flocking has to have an amount of dampening effect

[Jake Gathright]

I've always wanted to see a guitar with that high-sheen crushed velvet for flocking...

[Jim Bob Sedgwick]

I have always wondered what the purpose of flocking the under side of cabinets was,,cosmetic ? It seems to me ,flocking has to have an amount of dampening effect

It does dampen the cabinet vibration slightly. On the plus side, it dampens a lot of undercarriage noise. On newer guitars, the undercarriage in very quiet, so not many manufacters flock the undercarriage today.

[Kevin Hatton]

Very good Jim. I was told by a grand master master builder to never flock a guitar. It reduces the body vibrations. It does look great though.

[Ron Pruter]

I like to spray the undercarriage with "Great Stuff". It really quiets it down. No seriously, the only thing I realized is I like to spray it white so it's easier to see under there.

[Erv Niehaus]

Flocking can cover up a multitude of sins.
I rebuilt a p/p Emmons that had been converted to an all pull and then converted back again. I removed the flocking and underneath it looked like a porcupine with toothpicks glued in the old holes. I cleaned it up, re-flocked it and made it look nice.

[Dick Sexton]

That's for the birds!

Lots of ways to cover either mistakes, poorly grained wood or worse. Flocking is one which is quick and pretty cheap, I expect. I know a cabinet maker that can make a pigs ear look like a silk purse, but he can't do it in the time flocking dries.

[Kirk Eipper]

What the flock?

[Ken Metcalf]

Flocking Flockers...

[Jack Stoner]

If flocking affects the tone, how come the old PP Emmons which have flocking are considered great tone? and the "holy grail of tone" by some.

[Jonathan Shacklock]

Flock me baby!

[Dick Sexton]

Flock Tone! Who needs it?

MMMMMMMEEEEEEEEE!

[Martin Weenick]

I built this guitar 4 or 5 guitars back and have played this guitar both flocked and un-flocked. I could not tell any difference except the guitar seemed to be quieter underneath. Could have been my imagineation, but I dont believe so because it seemed to make quite a difference, but I was specifically paying attention for that. Martin.

[Dick Sexton]

Martin that is one beautiful flocking job. What a piece of excellent craftsmanship you have created there. That rival or surpasses anything I've see. Double Wow!

[Cliff Kane]

Who was the first to flock the cabinet? Was it Emmons with his new modern design? My LDG had lacquer under the cabinet and was quite noisy, my Emmons with the flocking are much quieter. I have seen pictures of old Sho-Buds that look like under the cabinet is finished a cream/light green color. Is this flocking or paint? What was the purpose of this? Sho-Bud got away from it and went to the natural look under the cab.

[David A. Jones]

I worked for Bob Stufflebeme in Lubbock, Texas building the Sahara Steel guitars from late 1970 through the mid 1974. We flocked all those guitars. Frank Carter worked with Bob earlier and he could perhaps shed more light on the subject. Like Martin Weenick I doubt there was any reduction of tone. Lloyd Maines played several different Sahara guitars and I never heard him complain about tone at all.

Dave Jones

[Martin Weenick]

Thanks Dick, I appreciate that. Where bouts were you in Nam ???

[Dick Sexton]

Martin, I was one of the unbelievably luck few, never in country. My unit, MACS-1 Yuma, ended up on Monkey Mountain in 66, but I wasn't with them. Always haunted me that I wasn't... In a thirty year period, always in a support role. I guess those things had to be done also. Semper Fi...

[Ken Metcalf]

Very nice work Martin..

[Jack Stoner]

I live about 10 miles from Martin. I get to see the actual guitars and they are nicer than what a picture does for them. I've played a couple at his house and they play and sound good too.

[John Billings]

Although Dawn said that David said that they didn't use Roxatone in the early 60's, I'm pretty convinced it was Roxatone, or a copy of it.
http://roxatone.com/images/retroseries.pdf
'63 Fingertip;

[Cliff Kane]

Thanks, John. Cool looking stuff. It's like a paint? Other than cosmetics, what would be the benefit?

[John Billings]

Cliff,
Roxatone IS a paint. It was very popular in the late Forties through Sixties. Used in kitchens, on machines, etc.. Noted for it's durability, and it came in a huge variety of colors. Fender even made a short, custom-ordered run of amps in '51/'52 or so, for a music store in Indiana. Jody remembers them. Probably because they're so fugly!



For Shobud? Probably only cosmetics.

[Don Sulesky]

This is the underside of my Special #007 Weenick steel that Martin made for me in 2011.
The flocking hasn't hurt the tone at all and really dresses up the underside and helps me see the rods more clearly.
Don

[Jake Gathright]

I don't know what the rest of 'em looks like, But Martin can sure conjure up some pretty hardware and make the undercarriage look good.