rebuilding l300's

[travis5049]

After years of abusing these speakers and not even listening to them for the past 4 years I finally came up with the funds to rebuild these awsome speakers. At the time they're being used as speaker stands for a set of 4312A's.
I picked these up some years ago when I was just a kid and was DJ'ing down on the Gulf coast of TX. I really didn't know what I had and drug these from wedding receptions to NASA landing party's using just a JVC 100 watt amp to drive them. Anyway I'll try and take as many pics as possible during the process. The internals, (control board and Woofer, also the pads) are heading to Austin Speaker Works in the morning for a recone and board upgrade. The Cabinets are going to a neighbors garage and we're going to put these back to as close to a new look as possible. The first thought about the cabinets is to use Walnut cabinet wood instead of veneer. Im ordering the new foils tonight with my serial numbers put on. Also we're only going to tackle one cab. at a time.Wish me luck and let me know if you have any advice...........no I'm not Bi-amping these.

[travis5049]

Here's some others...........off to find new foils. Oh yea this was my New Years resolution, I thought it was a good one.

[BMWCCA]

Don't remember ever seeing an L300 with aluminum dust domes on the woofer.

[57BELAIRE]

Don't remember ever seeing an L300 with aluminum dust domes on the woofer.

looks more like a D140 than a 136A.....take good care of those crossovers...hard to come by in any condition.

[hjames]

Don't remember ever seeing an L300 with aluminum dust domes on the woofer.

Same ones - from 2009 ...

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...l=1#post268779

Hopefully they can be brought back to their original glory.
Nice project to restore!

[travis5049]

Same speakers, just now getting around to this project, Austin Speaker Works quoted me about 250.00 per speaker, ballpark........Life kept getting in the way of this getting done, bought a new house, 2 new cars since then, yada,yada,yada.
Im dropping the woofers off at lunch time today with the x-over's. Really excited about finally getting this done.If these speaker could talk,man, there would be some stories.

[travis5049]

Man you guys should have seen the look on Ron's face, (the head tech), when I brought those 136a's in for reconing at Austin speaker works and he saw that paper w/aluminum dust cap. Then I showed him the pics I have on my phone of the cabs, I wasn't sure if he was going to cry or slap me. I told him someone should have kicked my butt when I was in my 20's for tearing these things up. We talked a bit and he's going to replace the caps that he can get to easily but the large ones in the bottom are covered in resin an it would probably be about 700.00 bench cost to dig them out and replace them. I have a buddy that repairs Peavey amps and if I have to I may dig these out myself and get him to help me upgrade them if they absolutely need it. Ron's going to call me in a few days and let me know for sure about the x-over work and the cost . He's going to order that 2235 recone kit so here we go. I still have to pull the tweeters and horns and start stripping the cabs tomorrow.

Anyone know where I should order the Veneer from?

[travis5049]

Oh yea I'll have some more pics tomorrow or Sunday.

[WDJ]

i've used both www.constantines.com and www.woodcraft.com

Woodcraft has several stores in Texas.

Good luck!

[travis5049]

That's awsome thanks............man I've got lots of reading to do on trying to get this MDF back in shape to the point that I can re-veneer it. a buddy of mine has some solid Walnut that he wants me to consider. Man looking at the Kendrick sound videos on you tube is screwing me up, If i can get these within 70 percent of there l300's I'll cry. And post the video.........lol. L8tr

[subwoof]

Just attaching solid walnut on top of old particle board is not going to fly...humidity and expansion will crack them in no time..

Just go with walnut veneer and make sure the substrate is clean and smooth.

For networks, it might be a lot easier and cheaper to just build another pair and put the originals aside for whenever you part with them... The pro model 4333 is the same and it's network schematic and build notes can be found on this site. I might even have a pair of nice home made ones from a swap deal in the shop...?

sub

[travis5049]

no he was talking about actual replacing the MDF with solid walnut, but damn, thats rebuilding the whole cab.Im looking at veneers now but they all seem darker than whats on the speakers.

[richluvsound]

In my experience solid is not an option unless you use a laminated walnut - too much movement and with this movement comes a change in the tuning of the cabinet .
If you can remove the old veneer with an hot iron and a scraper, then thats the best way to do it ? It you have the skills I would build new cabs from scratch.

Depends whether you want the speaker or the provenance ?

As sub woof pointed out .... spend the money on a modern network and store the originals !

Rich

[travis5049]

Yea of course you guys are right and I think it really wont be that terribly hard, just don't gouge the MDF underneath. You wont believe though, I sent Kenrick sounds an email asking about the wooden lenses, cause I didn't know where they got them and I was pretty sure I couldn't afford them anyway but what the hell, it doesn't hurt to ask. To my amazement they replied, anyway he said it was their own design and they're no longer available..........whooooo, I don't have to take out a second mortgage on the house!

Aren't those cool? Damn! If I ever win the lottery I'm flying out to see their show room. Then I'm going to get a Geisha massage...lol

Ordered the foils today but didn't get to work on the cabs. Watched veneer videos all day Sat. and ordered a veneer sampler for 45.00 and it looks like i may need at least a roller and just a few other things. I'm going to buy the Kenrick plastic lenses.
I'm going to try and make a small place in the garage to work on these but its supposed to freeze again so the plants will have to go back in there next to the car.
Hopefully have some more pics by Wed.
Thanks to everyone that's replied, and thank goodness for Google.

[BMWCCA]

I sent Kenrick sounds an email asking about the wooden lenses, cause I didn't know where they got them and I was pretty sure I couldn't afford them anyway but what the hell, it doesn't hurt to ask. To my amazement they replied, anyway he said it was their own design and they're no longer available..........whooooo, I don't have to take out a second mortgage on the house!

I thought Heather sourced some relatively inexpensive ones from one of the foam grille guys. Don't remember which one or if they're still available. Ahh, here it is: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...s-for-my-horns

SAEMAN said mine came from Japan but I didn't think they were Kenji's design.