My New $20 Dollar AR2-AX Speakers

Picked these up today for a Jackson. Cabinets are rough :tears:

But that is why they were priced so low; next stop was the dump!. Owner said they were his at Berkeley back in the day then they traveled around the country with him settling in the Pacific Northwest. His daughter was the last owner and said one was not working etc.

They both ohm out at 5.9 so I think the drivers are fine. Suspect the level controls are corroded and the caps will need replacing. The poor cabinets look worse in person than in the pictures. Drivers appear to in great shape on the outside though. Trying to decide if I leave the cabs alone and keep them as the old survivors that they are or try to do something with them like paint them with a faux wood finish or sand and stain them as best I can or cover them with some more wood or veneer?

Anybody encounter the same situation? Could us them in my garage but I have an old painted pair of KLH 6's doing duty out there. They were painted with latex wall paint :tears: They have been re-capped and sound great. Neither pair have the WAF going for them no matter how good they sound.

Were those ever finished? Whatever, if it matters, you can sand/fill/stain/finish or veneer. Right now there's a pair of 2a cabs for sale on that auction site. They'd fit yer woofer (old style), but you'd need a filler panel for your midrange.

Or put them in 'your' part of the house

Great speakers. Good catch.

Sweet find !!!! Put some nice wood veneer on them, and new grill cloth!! They could look great! And still have there cool history!

The plywood finish is original on those early version AR 2ax's.
I like it.

The plywood version is also much rarer and prices for them on the used market can be higher than the veneered versions.

You may want to check out EBay before doing anything to that finish.

Thanks for the heads up on the Plywood finish. My gut kind of told me that it could be on the rarer side so I will probably give them a light sanding and get the controls cleaned up and check out/replace the caps and listen to them.

Do not know if all the drivers work at this point but I think they do. This weekend I should have some time to open them up and check out the guts.

Unfinished Pine was a finish available on the AR speaker line back in the day. A friend has a basically unused pair of these fresh from the boxes, but he has no idea what to do with them. His are the AR 2x.

Giving them a nice sanding, enough to smooth them (may want to steam the dents first) and get fresh wood visible might make them look good, if that is what you like (probably good for one of those grand log cabins showing all that wood). Painting, veneer and such are other options.

Hopefully, all the drivers work and then all you would need to do is rebuild the pots on the back and recap them to have them like new. Well grille cloth and a couple badges will help.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/ is the knowledge base on these speakers but there are some here that know their stuff about these, too.