Sticky speakers?

[nsmar4211]

Hi there
I was wondering if anyone's ever had carpeted speakers that were stored indoors become "sticky". Tacky, like gluey. It was suggested to me that the glue failed, considering these are 4 year old $1k speakers I hope not. Nothing has ever been spilled on them, its all over, and they were kept covered and the covers are not sticky so it has to be some sort of carpeting issue. I'm chicken to clean the carpet for fear of destroying it and was poking around to see if anyone else every had this happen. It's called carpet but others called it felt, I honestly can't tell which it is! The sticky comes off when you touch them making it rather , ick, to handle them. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[tk2k]

What conditions were they stored in, and for how long? I could see if they were exposed to humidity or heat for an extended period of time... it sounds like a glue failure in some respects, then again I've never had anything like that happen and we've got 10 year old felted speakers here.

 

[DuckJordan]

its really just a felt, taking a standard small household carpet cleaner should do just fine. If you are really worried about it just grab a small bottle of carpet cleaner and mix it 50/50 with water and whip with a cloth. I've never had speakers get that way from storage but they come back to the shop all the time from bars and other gigs with dried beer and vomit.

 

[nsmar4211]

tksk, they've been kept in my house the whole time. Humidity wise, I live in Florida so there's nothign to do about that. I mean I've had carpet come loose on speakers which is normal but never had the felt get sticky like glue sticky!

Duck, dried beer I could remove (unfortunatly I've had to)....this is like glue sticky and took a while to get it off my hands after moving them . Does carpet cleaner ever remove the glue?

 

[DJHiggumz]

could it be haze/fog solution breaking down or something on it?

 

[nsmar4211]

DJ- naw, we never use that stuff in my groups .

An update: I ended up contacting the manufacturer (Yorkville) and as it turns out, it's some sort of rare chemical reaction in the carpet/glue. They said they know of one other case of it. They are offering to recarpet the cabinets if I would strip them down to just the boxes (take out the speakers and such) and ship them in. Turns out the cabinets have a 10 year warranty! I'm waiting on a mailing address to figure out the best way to ship, but wanted to update the thread in case someone else has this.

It's not a sticky to the touch, it's a touch it and the carpet/sticky sloughs off on you (bleh). Pretty distinctive, I'd never seen anything like it! I'll let ya'll know how it goes with the manufacturer Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

 

[porkchop]

What kind of atmospherics have you been using? Pretty much all fluid based FX products can cause a sticky build up (fog, haze, snow, bubbles, etc....). I can tell you for certain that all Ultratec fluid is best removed with plain water and lot and lots of elbow grease.

EDIT: You posted while I was typing. Good thing you solved it and even better than the manufacturer doesn't think you're loony.