Can I repair this speaker cone?

DannyP

I was inspecting a spare V30 the other day. 

I held it up horizontally to blow a bit of fluff off it, and my finger slipped off the basket and straight through the cone.

There's no material 'missing' as such.

Can I fix it myself with dope or something? Will it sound rubbish? 

(Yes I said dope. Hilarious puns will NOT be lol'd!)

ICBM

Yes, provided the hole doesn’t go across the edge surround, and even then you can usually get away with it.

Mix some white PVA wood glue 50/50 with water, and use that to moisten the edges of the tear. If it’s too ragged to bind properly, get some kitchen roll - or black artist’s paper if it’s going to be very visible - tear (not cut, you want ragged edges) a piece big enough to cover the damage and overlap about 1/2” all round, soak that in the glue mixture and apply it as a patch - on the back is often less visible through the grille cloth, but can be tricky if the frame is in the way. You can paint the patch black with poster paint after it’s dried if you need to.

If the hole does go across the edge doping you will need to put the patch on from the back or it won’t stick.

Normally they sound fine.

BillDL

For the last two speakers I repaired I cut out patches from the cardboard cones of small, low powered desktop PC speakers I had in a box in my loft for the same reason as I hang onto loads of other junk ..... they might be useful for something someday.  They did.  The cardboard from small speakers like those is obviously much thinner than cones of guitar speakers, so it's good for small patches where you ideally don't want to have a thick stiff patch.  It's also quite absorbent (almost like blotting paper) so nicely thinned white glue, as recommended by ICBM, soaks in well and makes the patch nice and floppy to apply.  I used external white PVA wood glue as it dries waterproof/resistant, which I thought might be a bonus, but mostly just because I already had some.

roberty

I put my thumb through a cone once and repaired it with a combination of wood glue and coffee filter paper, on both sides. Looked a bit rough but worked a charm

I hate handling speakers for obvious reasons :-) 

DannyP

Thanks all, I’ll give it a go!