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Acoustic Research Potentiometer Restoration Guide (VERY LONG, with photos)

After cleaning my ar2ax pots I have discovered that 2 of mine might be toast or I might need to visit a jeweler similar to what btmacduo has done.

 
Loop2kil... unless you are a stickler for vintage parts I would just by a pair or modern pots from Vintage AR on eBay. ..
 
btmacdou said:
Loop2kil... unless you are a stickler for vintage parts I would just by a pair or modern pots from Vintage AR on eBay. ..
Click to expand...

Yeah I was afraid of that but mine look really bad and most likely do need to be replaced. I'm not really a stickler about them being 100% authentic anyway, I just want them to sound their best.
 
I' rebuilding a set of these I just picked up and I've replaced the caps with Solen 20uf caps. What's the best way to secure these to the back of the cabinet? I was thinking hot glue, but I don't want to damage anything.
 
I saw someone who used a zip tie and nailed the end of it to the back of the cab. Is that what you're referring to?
 
Well I didn't have the right length screw, so I hot glued them to the backs of the cabs. Anyway, many thanks to the people posting all the info in this thread! I don't really have a good pre photo, but they were covered in paint splatter and tobacco-stained. Both tweeters not working. Here are some photos.

Updated/simplified wiring. Bypassed the pot and replaced the cap with Solen 20uf. Unfortunately I only had green wire in the right gauge, so I marked what color wire it was replacing.


This poor photo is of the grill fabric before cleaning. I took them off the frames and cleaned them in my tub with cold water and a bathroom cleaner with bleach in it.


During the cleaning process


Here's a shot of the one cabinet before refinishing.


All finished up and ready to go
 
Wow. I would not have expected the fabric to clean up that nice. And gorgeous finish on the cabs. First rate results!
 
DonQuixote99 said:
Wow. I would not have expected the fabric to clean up that nice. And gorgeous finish on the cabs. First rate results!
Click to expand...

Thank you!

I wasn't expecting such a drastic change either! When I was cleaning the fabric, the water instantly turned brown just from the first time i rinsed them.

Luckily the cabs were in very good shape to begin with. Just neglected. My co-worker had all the Howards products like the Restore-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax. Perfect!
 
Those look great. Congrats. It's nice when the cabinets don't have dings and deep gouges in them. Makes the refinishing easy and very rewarding for sure.

You didn't have issue with the grille fabric shrinking after you washed it?

Heres a photo of the zip-tie cap mounting I did.
 

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I did have shrinkage issues. One went together OK - the one in the pic above. The other one is being difficult. It still has a good amount of hot glue on the fabric that held the grills onto the cab. This glue was on the back side of the grill, but due to shrinkage is now on the side edges preventing the grill from fitting in the opening of the cab.

If I thought ahead, I could have brought the frames home with me when I washed the fabric and reinstalled the cloth while still wet to prevent such shrinkage.
 
Just an observation here - - - this pot restoration thread is extremely popular and oft-referenced for its singular and effective tutorial. The last dozen posts or so (including my responses, oops!) really don't belong in this thread. Let's keep this thread about the pots, and begin new threads for other AR-4x issues.
 
instead of using the twist ties, why not just solder and heat shrink those connections on the crossovers. I get that it's albeit more difficult to solder inside the cab but seems to me it would be worth the effort. I followed this for cleaning the pots on my ar-2ax with success. They have been recapped already but a re-wiring is in order. The previous owner of these used twist ties as well...
 
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