Bringing a pair of C36 Viscounts back to life

[astroman]

I recently became interested in vintage audio equipment. I'm in my thirties, so I'm more of the generation that used boom boxes and mini systems, and more recently earbuds and Bluetooth speakers. Over the years I've been interested in vacuum tubes but they never seemed practical/obtainable. I lived in Japan for a couple of years and I would regularly see tube amps for sale at even "regular" electronic stores. It was always in the back of my mind as something I wanted to get into. I currently work at a musical instrument museum, and I have some real audiophile coworkers. This inspired me to start looking again.

I picked up a pair of C36 Viscount cabinets a few weeks ago. The previous owner had painted them white for some reason, maybe WAF, I don't know. Most of the goodies-- the legs, crossovers, tweeters had already been pieced out on eBay. All that remained were the cabs and a pair of non-functional D130s.
I'm going to slowly rehabilitate them (I hope). I'm probably going to return them to their original 030 configuration, so I'll need to find a pair of 075s and a pair of N2600/N2400s. Maybe I'll luck into the aluminum legs too (one can dream, I'll probably go with wood legs or repros). The prices on eBay of some of these parts kinda frighten me, but "at least" they're not as nuts as some of the other JBL.

But for now I need to tackle the finish problem and reveal that beautiful walnut veneer!

[ARMED]

welcome to LH, the veneer still looks good!

[astroman]

After I had stripped them, they unfortunately sat in storage. Too many other things had gotten in the way. I dug them out and restarted working on them.

Almost all of the refinishing products that I've used are "mohawk" brand- sanding sealing, grain filler, epoxy repair filler, graining markers, toning lacquers, and clear lacquer. I hope to have the cabinets completely refinished very soon. Then I will need to get the D130's re-coned, rebuild the N2400 crossovers, and find legs.

83769

sanded, grain filled, ready to get sprayed

83770

sanding sealer applied, ready for lacquering

83771

not quite done, needs a few more clear coats

83772

[Mr. Widget]

After I had stripped them, they unfortunately sat in storage. Too many other things had gotten in the way. I dug them out and restarted working on them.

Almost all of the refinishing products that I've used are "mohawk" brand- sanding sealing, grain filler, epoxy repair filler, graining markers, toning lacquers, and clear lacquer. I hope to have the cabinets completely refinished very soon. Then I will need to get the D130's re-coned, rebuild the N2400 crossovers, and find legs.

...not quite done, needs a few more clear coats...
Beautiful! Keep it up!

Widget

[Drugolf]

Good to see you are lacquering these.

[astroman]

Had the D130's re-coned by Colleen Harshaw at Sundance Speaker Repair. As per info on this forum about rebuilding the N2400, I added some mills wire wound resistors to my crossovers to pad the tweeters down some more (my crossovers only had the L-pad on the tweets). There's still some little bits to finish, a dab of black paint here, a few screws there, but they're together, and I've been listening to them, finally, after THREE YEARS!
84520

[Mr. Widget]

Only three years? Damn you’re fast compared to me!:D
Looks magnificent too, well done.

Repro feet? How do they sound?


Widget

[astroman]

Only three years? Damn you’re fast compared to me!:D
Looks magnificent too, well done.

Repro feet? How do they sound?


Widget
yep, three years to get them mostly done...

Repro feet. I looked for originals, never found or gathered a full set. Even repros can be a little pricey at twenty bucks a leg, and they're a little wonky if one were to look close.
In this photo repro on the left, original on the right--
84533

As per the sound, it's good. The re-coned woofers still need to break-in I think, after a bit I'll think about doing something to the ports to tune the cabs.