none of this was expected
- March 25th, 2015
- Posted in diy . touring equipment
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I got given a couple of terrible, terrible looking- and sounding- speakers, and a pretty good power amp that has been in storage for a while, as a set. I haven’t started working on the amp yet, but it’s supposedly actually just fine. Yay!
But these speakers, goddamn. I mean look at this. This is already cleaned up. The other one is not better.

Already Cleaned. No, really.

HONK HONK

If only we had some phasers…
The second one, I looked at, and tried to figure out what the hell they were doing with this weird circuit and this giant pot that like varied between 0 and 10 ohms maybe, and seemed to be in parallel with the speaker. Eventually I decided it was part of an inexplicably assymetrical Zobel circuit and realised that making it symmetrical would fix other problems too, so that’s fine, except…
…then I got the same circuit out of the now-working other speaker and discovered the one I’d been analysing had been misassembled since construction.
That’s as in at least 25 years. Probably 35 or so. SPEAKERS SURE DO SOUND DIFFERENT WHEN YOU ACTUALLY HOOK THE TWEETER UP, DON’T THEY? Or rather, hook it up so you haven’t filtered around it.
Which is what someone had done.
I am apparently the first to try to figure this out. I’m certainly the first to find it.
Honestly, I don’t even know what to say about that.
This post is part of a series on restoring these infamous vintage stage monitors. Spoiler: they made good, in the end.
2 comments on Livejournal.
Looks they’ve been used outside, say, under the eaves of a house over the porch,maybe in a garage or barn. Could that horn just be corroded on? Corrosion can be like welding. Maybe try a little silicone spray on it? Not sure if I’d use petroleum based stuff on it. Any spiderwebs, dead bugs or mouse nests in it? Mold?
Could there be hidden screws? Like a recessed setscrew? Then, there’s always the possibility someone jammed or glued it on in the past. At least nothing looks burnt..
Scott: There’s no sign of corrosion. The outside has definitely been muddied up a bit, which makes sense given that before previous owners, the owners before them were Gaia Consort, and they played a lot of outdoor events. (And still do, as Bone Poets Orchestra.) But the insides are pretty clean.
I can find no sign of a set-screw or any other similar piece. I’m really worried about the glue idea. I really hope it’s not that.
For the record? The answer involved a hammer. I GOT THIS FROM A TECH WHO WORKS ON THESE. Worked great tho’!