Early Acoustic Research grill material

[teknofossil]

Hello all,

                  does anyone know the OEM manufacturer of the grill material originally used on AR products? It appears to be the woven plastic (?) fiber type popular in the 50's and early 1960's? Antique Electronic supply sells some products that look similar in weave/material to what is one the single AR1-W that originally was owned by my uncle. Thanks!

-Tom 

[JKent]

Mellotone. They still make it. Originally saran, now a more modern synthetic. I had a big roll at one time and sold pieces to CSP members. There’s an outfit in Canada that sells smaller pieces.

[teknofossil]

Thank you JKent. My dad in the late 50's built DIY audio. One was the Karlson (I still have the EV 15TRX that was in it) As I recall it was wrapped in Mellotone.

 

FYI: Dear old dad got me into this hobby....

[JeffS]

The modern samples I've seen are stiffer than the original cloth used on AR-1's/AR-1W's, so a good adhesive needs to be used if it's going to be mounted to a baffle board.

While you can get Mellotone for later AR-3's, what's difficult is finding the early grill cloth with the gold thread, and I think the only source of that is to get it from another speaker of that era. I've been able to find period grill cloths at swap meets / hamfests, where the seller has just the grill without the speaker, and they can at least be a good color match even though the gold thread isn't there. Years back I found a JBL C35 speaker that had enough maroon cloth to do three AR's. The trick is finding an old and unwanted JBL, EV, University, Stephens, etc., cabinet with grill, but that, unfortunately, requires lots of searching and patience.