xmas111 Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Hi guys, Don't know if you remember my thread when I restored a set of 3A's earlier in the year? Well just picked up another set and will be restoring these too. Saw them on Craigslist's last night and emailed the guy right away. Figured I would be to late but he got right back to me. He claimed they were in excellent shape so I figured I'd buy them. Had an hour plus drive this morning to pick them up. The guy was right! They're in awesome shape.....kinda. The cabinets are some of the best looking I've seen. Hardly a scratch to be seen except for a few very small one on the bottom. But that's where the excellent condition ends. The pots will need to be rebuilt or replaced.....couple of them are intermittent. And the woofers.....well the woofers will need some attention. They've been refoamed but it must of been done by a three year old. I suspect he bought surrounds that where bigger than the woofers and cut them down to size...wtf! Anyway, I'll keep you guys up to date as the restoring goes along.....should be fun.Some pics for you......by the way I paid $450.00 for them. More than I would normally pay but the cabs alone are almost worth it.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Nice!Yes, the refoam job looks like it was done by a trained chimp.If you don't want to re-do them yourself, try Bill LeGall. He did an amazing job on my AR-91 woofers that had been botched. See Post #12 here: http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=6565&hl=ar91Based on your previous work I'm sure you'll have these in perfect condition soon.Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fran604g Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Sweet! I'm going to get my cabs to look that nice, I hope. Did you check the mids and highs yet? I'll be lurking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted September 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Both mids and tweets work.I took one one woofer already and remove the surround. I didn't see any date on it so I'm not sure how old they are.But I know they're one of the new versions because of the rear wired mids and tweets.The guy also used the old foam gasket when he put the woofer in.I'll be making new gaskets for these with the foam I bought for the AR9's that I'm almost done with. It seems to work very well for the 9's.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyC Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 I didn't see any date on it so I'm not sure how old they are.But I know they're one of the new versions because of the rear wired mids and tweets.JohnHi John,The serial numbers in your photos indicate a manufacture date of early 1975.Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ar_pro Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Yes - there was a time when correctly-sized replacement surrounds were not available for the AR 12" woofer, and the alternative was to cut down a "standard" 12" surround to fit.Bill refoamed four AR-3a woofers for me in this manner - I believe it was around 1991. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted September 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Hi John,The serial numbers in your photos indicate a manufacture date of early 1975.RoyHi Roy, Thanks for the info. I figured if anyone would know, you would. Good to know.Yes - there was a time when correctly-sized replacement surrounds were not available for the AR 12" woofer, and the alternative was to cut down a "standard" 12" surround to fit.Bill refoamed four AR-3a woofers for me in this manner - I believe it was around 1991.That's very interesting...never would have though cutting a surround would work very well plus achieve a good air tight seal. Guess if glued correctly it would work.These were refoamed recently according to the seller (not refoamed my him). You'd think getting the correct surrounds would of made life a lot easier.Thanks guys as usual for your insight.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted September 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Got the first xover done.Lot more difficult to work on these when all the work is done inside the cabinet vs last time I did everything on a piece of wood then placed it in the cabinet.Not as pretty as the last ones either but should work fine.The old pots I tried cleaning but there were a few spots as you turned it were iffy at best so I went with the Ohmite pots. Meaning I had to make some more boxes ....pain in the butt! Hopefully have the other one done by next weekend then a little refinishing of the cabinets, reinstall the woofers then take 'em for a spin. Looking forward to see how they sound stacked. I'll let you know. Here's a few pics as usual of the first xover.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryM Posted October 1, 2012 Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 You do really nice work xmas and I might be a little jealous that your going to have 2 pairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fran604g Posted October 1, 2012 Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 You do really nice work xmas and I might be a little jealous that your going to have 2 pairs.Ditto Looks great, John! If and when I open mine up again, I will model mine after your example!Did you really need to replace the nichrome resistor? Was it out of spec? I never thought to check mine (duh). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted October 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 Did you really need to replace the nichrome resistor? Was it out of spec? I never thought to check mine (duh).This set didn't have the nichrome wire, I think only earlier production units had it. These were manufactured in 1975 and had two 1Ω 5 watt resistors in series, probably didn't need to replace them but figured while there apart might as well.The set I did earlier this year did have the nichrome wire in them. I was told by people here to leave it if possible, so I did.Thanks for the compliments....John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted October 1, 2012 Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 This set didn't have the nichrome wire, I think only earlier production units had it. These were manufactured in 1975 and had two 1Ω 5 watt resistors in series Just to avoid confusion; you meant to type "in parallel." That gives you the needed 0.5 ohm resistance.Beautiful work, as usual.What is the green filter material in your Ohmite enclosure?Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted October 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2012 Hi Kent, Thank you for picking up my error.....I meant parallel getting old is really screwing me up! That green material is just some green felt I had laying around. It's dense enough to keep out the fibers from the stuffing but porous enough to allow air to pass through it. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmas111 Posted January 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 Guess I screwed up and never finished my thread with the outcome of these 3a's. These are my second set.I'm very happy with the results.In another thread here I posted a picture of the two sets stacked.Well I finally got another Yaqin MC-100B amp now both sets run together and the sound is awesome!Took me a while to get everything up and running. I couldn't find a table the would fit in the space I had so I had to make one...that took a little while.Anyway, as I said I'm very happy with the two sets running together.The bottom ones are the one I rebuilt in this thread.Couple pics for you.Sorry for taking so long to let everyone know how I made out with these 3a's.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Talk about a Wall of Sound! Phil Spector would be impressed!Those amps are pretty. I've been thinking about going back to separates.Happy listening!Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryM Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 It looks awesome. I bet those plants dance when you turn it up. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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