Too Busy - Made Time Anyway - Wharfedale Super 12 FS AL

To say that I'm insanely busy today and through Sunday is a major understatement. I even turned down work so I could handle the load today, I'm doing it all.

And then? My cell gets a call, my home phone gets a call, then I get a text. The messages/calls are from my wife and all she says is, "SPEAKERS". Well, I'm never "that" busy, ya know?

Unloaded treasures from truck and blew out the front door, my wife works 11 minutes away. She said a 93 year old client was going to drop off the speakers she promised me last year. I'm not obnoxious about it, but most everyone that meets me knows how I feel about old speakers. She was due in 20 minutes.

I parked and waited for her to show up, she was going to need help. They were too large and cumbersome for her to load by herself, she needed help loading and unloading. When her trunk popped open I knew they just had to be juicy. Old, real wood veneer, decent size. It wasn't until I got home and unscrewed the back that I found these!

Oh, I did get 2 pairs of speakers. The other ones are Altec Lansing 101's, real wood veneer. Nice and all, but I don't care much about them at the moment. Ya know?







Pretty sweet, eh? Looks like I may have found a pair of Keepers for the Scott 222c, when and if I ever get it taken care of.

I did read a little bit and it seems as though these may have been the series that used some experimental foam surround. I realize that if that's the case, I got no idea if the "correct" foam is anywhere near available.

The cabinets seem to be made well enough, but the wood screws used have a lousy purchase for both the front baffle and the rear of the enclosure. All the holes will need some help, surely a beefier set of screws as well.

And yes, I'm aware of the powdery nasties on the speaker's magnet.

xo, Biggles

Congratulations!

Look forward to seeing more of those as you delve inside. I've got one loose one that someone "re-felted", but I think the surround is too tight. :thmbsp:

Nice! I have a big 8" midrange from that same series sitting around. Insanely well built - cast frame and all.

These are not nearly trashed out enough for Dr. Big.

foam is almost certainly gone. rick cobb has one that fits -- not same as original but may work. i am in the midst of dealing with the same speaker.

toxcrusadr said:

Nice! I have a big 8" midrange from that same series sitting around. Insanely well built - cast frame and all.

These are not nearly trashed out enough for Dr. Big.

Click to expand...

Not even any water damage. Sand, oil. Humph.

rogerfederer said:

foam is almost certainly gone. rick cobb has one that fits -- not same as original but may work. i am in the midst of dealing with the same speaker.

Click to expand...

Excellent, thank you. I've read his name here over 9 million times, I suppose I'm now ready to contact him and get the ball rolling.

Biggles

Welp, I finally got the pork loin ribs in to the smoker, 2 hours late. But it was well worth it! Once they were in, I got both drivers out of the enclosures. It was a lot easier than I suspected, and not in a good way. One front baffle just fell off, the other was close behind. Out of the 4 possible screws holding the drivers in, only 2 were utilized and they were each different.

The enclosures are nice enough, but whomever installed these drivers had very little idea as to how it should be done.

This worries me only because I'll bet they ran these rigs with bad foam surrounds, I'll bet you. I'll check them both with my meter later on today, maybe.

I'll get to all that when I get to it, I'm not going to worry about the "what ifs" today. There's no sense in that.

Check out the tags in the last image, 1959!











Biggles

Yeah, I couldn't wait either. They both measure 11.5 ohms. Someone wrote nicely with a grease pencil on the back of the paper cones 38, 39 of 9/59. Sequential. Neat!

Biggles

Biggles, you are the man! Those should be right up your alley after a little TLC. Good score. :thmbsp:

Excellent!

Mind is meandering, am considering putting them in these old Pioneer enclosures. They're larger, had a 12 in them.



Biggles

rogerfederer said:

foam is almost certainly gone. rick cobb has one that fits -- not same as original but may work. i am in the midst of dealing with the same speaker.

Click to expand...

Hey Roger or anyone,

I did a search in the users here for Rick Cobb or just Cobb. I wasn't able to find The Rick Cobb. Any help would be much appreciated!

xo, Biggles

He's not an AK user, he has an eBay store looneytune2001 or rcobb at tampabay.rr.com

Jeffery said:

He's not an AK user, he has an eBay store looneytune2001 or rcobb at tampabay.rr.com

Click to expand...

Ahhhhh, okay. Excellent, thank you sir !!!

I pulled out an enclosure today, to see if I could find some clue as to who made these enclosures. No luck, so far. But I measured the spacing between the mounting holes for the speaker and it's 8". I then went and measured the mounting holes for the speaker itself and it measures 9".

These are not original enclosures for this speaker. Dangit. Not that it wouldn't work just fine, and I may just do that. But, dangit.



Biggles

dr. big,

check out my thread re super 12s. bunch of info re the orig cabinets used with these drivers. looks like 5.85 ft3 is about right for a bass reflex cabinet:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=596394

but you might want to give open baffle a shot. your woodworking chops would make is easy to try. here is the monster OB thread:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=566879

rogerfederer said:

dr. big,

check out my thread re super 12s. bunch of info re the orig cabinets used with these drivers. looks like 5.85 ft3 is about right for a bass reflex cabinet:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=596394

but you might want to give open baffle a shot. your woodworking chops would make is easy to try. here is the monster OB thread:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=566879

Click to expand...

Excellent, thank you Roger! That was a good read, tucked full of good info.

I'm not convinced my skull has the bandwidth at the moment to erect an Open Baffle setup. If they're somewhat like my old Magnepans (needing some reflective space behind them), I'm hosed. I don't have that available to me.

I just measured the interior of these enclosures I have, and they're just a tad over 4 cubic feet. That ain't enough!

I've contacted Rick Cobb over on ebay, so we'll see how that all goes.

Onward!

Biggles

yeah, really need 3' or so behind your open baffle. still, you can pull them out for listening and slide them back when you are done:yes:

rogerfederer said:

yeah, really need 3' or so behind your open baffle. still, you can pull them out for listening and slide them back when you are done:yes:

Click to expand...

Hey Roger,

I will certainly look into it then. Because I need to find something to do with these little gems!

No luck on the surrounds from Rick Cobb. Any other avenues, ideas?

Biggles

Hey,

I spent some time hanging out with the Super 12's and the enclosures over the weekend. I ran through a bunch of scenarios, most of which just didn't sit right with me or the speakers. I decided that I'm going to restore the enclosures both cosmetically and physically, re-install the Super 12's. This will get them safely inside an enclosure, get them up on display in my living room and put them into rotation. When I find an appropriate enclosure or decide to go with an open baffle, I can do that. Will they be at their peak, no they won't. But being 54 years old they deserve some respect and they deserve to be used.

Roger gave me the product number so I can order the surrounds he ordered, I've contacted Rick Cobb once again and they'll be on their way in the near future. After they're installed, it's all downhill from there.

Biggles

ps - Here's what he ordered:

Foam surround dimensions (Un-mounted) p/n #610-345F-1
Inside diameter: (edge to edge) 9.0"
Outside diameter: (edge to edge) 11-7/16"
Inside attachment lip: 7/32" (Flat 1/4" attachment lip)
Outside attachment lip: 7/16"
Roll: 5/8"
Cone diameter: 9-1/2"

Fun with Finishes

It's Monday!

I rolled in from work today around noon, a nice day indeed. I had been considering sanding down and oiling up the veneer on the enclosures. But let us be honest here, those Super 12's ain't the rolled surrounds and at best sell for maybe 50 bux a piece, even less. The original surrounds are not available and us owners have to make do with what we can to make them work. I'm not going to get close to factory intended sound from them. It is possible that it might be better, but I'll cross that road when I get there. In any case, I would like to refinish the veneer to make them presentable. Give the 50 year old geezers some love without breaking my time bank. And, I needed to use what I had on hand.

The first question is, "Can I undo what I'm going to attempt to do?" Yes I can. I used Murphy's Oil Soap and a green Scotch Brite Pad to clean up the veneer. The years and years worth of googe came off with 2 solid applications. Let dry. Apply Howard's restor a finish. I have plenty on hand, bought a few cans early on in my speaker restoration fever. I found out pretty quickly that I don't like it, would rather sand down and Danish Oil. But as it turns out, it works just fine for what I'm doing. I'm not sure how I'm going to complete it all. The obvious is to use Feed n Wax, but I don't like that stuff either. It dulls within a day or two, no shiny finish. So, I'll find something else, no biggie.

It looks as though they'll be perfectly presentable and it took just over an hour to do the entire job on one enclosure.

I also pulled the front baffle and removed all the damned staples holding the fabric on. There had been other installations and the particle board is flaky and rough at best. I'll soak the s.o.b. in penetrating epoxy, then paint it black. The same will be done for the back of the enclosure.















Biggles

Crumbly particle board handled, soaked with penetrating epoxy.

Paid for replacement foam surrounds, should be leaving Florida soon.

Biggles