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ADS L1290 Grill parts

webnick

webnick

AK Member
Subscriber
Folks -

Anyone know who has the parts shown in the attached photo? Just need a few of them (1 stand off pin, 1 grill guard, a few rubber inserts, a couple of screws). If you suggest McMaster-Carr, please tell me what the part number is as I find their 3000+ page catalog rather daunting.

As always, thanks for the help.
 

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These are ADS designed parts that were only used for a few models over a period of 5 or so years during the '80s. They weren't off the shelf items and numbers of them sold were low enough that no one has reproduced them to my knowledge. jdurbin will most likely chime in on these parts availability.

Your best bet may be to watch the used market for someone parting out the L series towers.
 
Richard So <ads_speakers@yahoo.com> Richard is the go to man if there are new old stock for these he would have it, otherwise you have to wait out to find someone who has (gasp) parted one of these out (tears)

I myself i have been contemplating ordering some perforated metal and building new Grills ... i have a friend with a metal break for the bending but i have no time for it...
 
Dennis Gardner said:
These are ADS designed parts that were only used for a few models over a period of 5 or so years during the '80s. They weren't off the shelf items and numbers of them sold were low enough that no one has reproduced them to my knowledge. jdurbin will most likely chime in on these parts availability.

Your best bet may be to watch the used market for someone parting out the L series towers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Dennis.

Thought that might be the case.

Ugh.
 
michigannick said:
Richard So <ads_speakers@yahoo.com> Richard is the go to man if there are new old stock for these he would have it, otherwise you have to wait out to find someone who has (gasp) parted one of these out (tears)

I myself i have been contemplating ordering some perforated metal and building new Grills ... i have a friend with a metal break for the bending but i have no time for it...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Nick.

Just emailed Richard this a.m. He's only got screws left at this point.

Ugh.

Lot of work to make those grills - you're a better man than I.
 
The screws are the only off the shelf item. This grill system was the worst design the ADS ever had. Even the most careful users have scarred the front finishes on the towers with the sharp pins. I think a magnetic solution using strong neo magnets would be a possibility. Even other pin/socket systems don't retrofit very well as the amount of standoff used is higher than most grills used. I have seen some covered wood frames that look good, but they would surely affect how the speaker was designed to radiate sound.

Please post your solution if you run into something unique that works.
 
No way to say whether you'll find any of that any time soon. I've been watching eBay for years and have spotted pins a few times (same guy had them in two different lengths and listed them two or three times maybe a year or so ago, and one other guy listed the 1290 pins further back) and NOS rubber inserts once (also about a year or so ago). Never seen the rubber block, or the fuse cover.

I have seen the whole gill assembly listed more frequently than that, though - would be watching for that as the likeliest place to find what you need. Same for complete crossover assemblies. Unfortunately I don't know if that same cover was used on other models; my guess would be yes but wouldn't assume that unless the dimensions are exactly the same.

If you replaced the pins with steel standoffs, screwed to the grills, and embedded neo magnets where the rubber sockets go, it would probably work. Takes good glue though, otherwise those little buggers will pop out and stay stuck to the standoffs.

John
 
I bought a set of 1290s that had beaten up grills and were missing most of the attachment hardware. I did some serious body work on the grills and they came out looking pretty good. (The bad news is that those grills are aluminum and they bend easily. The good news? They're aluminum and can be bent back fairly easily...)

After trying a couple of approaches to replicating the unobtainable grill pins, I finally hit on using the smaller size of the grill attaching pins and sockets sold by Parts Express and others.

I had to pull the original rubber inserts from the cabinets using a pair of small needle nose piers and then redrill the holes a bit bigger for the new sockets which press in.

On the grills, I used a spacer between the grill and the ball part of the new fastener to get the grill-to-speaker distance right. I drilled pilot holes in the back of the ball piece and used black sheet metal screws to attach them.

When done, they worked well and looked very similar to stock. John's idea of using magnets might work better but I thought I'd toss this out as a potential solution.
 
jdurbin1 said:
No way to say whether you'll find any of that any time soon. I've been watching eBay for years and have spotted pins a few times (same guy had them in two different lengths and listed them two or three times maybe a year or so ago, and one other guy listed the 1290 pins further back) and NOS rubber inserts once (also about a year or so ago). Never seen the rubber block, or the fuse cover.

I have seen the whole gill assembly listed more frequently than that, though - would be watching for that as the likeliest place to find what you need. Same for complete crossover assemblies. Unfortunately I don't know if that same cover was used on other models; my guess would be yes but wouldn't assume that unless the dimensions are exactly the same.

If you replaced the pins with steel standoffs, screwed to the grills, and embedded neo magnets where the rubber sockets go, it would probably work. Takes good glue though, otherwise those little buggers will pop out and stay stuck to the standoffs.

John
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info John.

Haven't seen much for sale anywhere, which seems kind of odd - perhaps some dude is hording piles of these things waiting for them to sell for a fortune?

I'm gonna keep mine stock. Don't have the grills on anyway unless we have guests. By the way, does anyone else think the L1290s sound much better without the grills on?
 
LexDM3 said:
I bought a set of 1290s that had beaten up grills and were missing most of the attachment hardware. I did some serious body work on the grills and they came out looking pretty good. (The bad news is that those grills are aluminum and they bend easily. The good news? They're aluminum and can be bent back fairly easily...)

After trying a couple of approaches to replicating the unobtainable grill pins, I finally hit on using the smaller size of the grill attaching pins and sockets sold by Parts Express and others.

I had to pull the original rubber inserts from the cabinets using a pair of small needle nose piers and then redrill the holes a bit bigger for the new sockets which press in.

On the grills, I used a spacer between the grill and the ball part of the new fastener to get the grill-to-speaker distance right. I drilled pilot holes in the back of the ball piece and used black sheet metal screws to attach them.

When done, they worked well and looked very similar to stock. John's idea of using magnets might work better but I thought I'd toss this out as a potential solution.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Lex.

Interesting solution. Like I told John, above, though, I'll keep mine stock - can't accept modding them like that - and I keep the grills off for the most part anyway.
 
I had the same problem; my L1590/2 grills missing a) stand off pins, b) rubber inserts, c) screws.
And I never seen "grill guard" you pictured, neither L1290/2, nor L1590/2 have them.

Fortunately, only screws are visible parts and Richard So sent me them.

As for pins and rubber inserts, I made something similar from Lowe's hardware parts.
But what I never did - modify speaker in any way (like drill holes, etc.). No way.

eBay doesn't have these parts too often; read post #8, this is exactly how it is.
 
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webnick said:
Lot of work to make those grills - you're a better man than I.
Click to expand...


I havent made them yet ... LOL I have to say if someone was used to bending metal that they would not be to difficult at all, especially if you used a slightly heavier gauge metal to be more sturdy so you didnt need the little folded ends. Maybe an anodized aluminium would a) look very cool (black would be sharp but other colors possible) and b) be lighter and easier to hold in position
 
Both my pairs of 1290/2 have the grill guards, located at the bottom on either side IIRC.

John

ymarko said:
I had the same problem; my L1590/2 grills missing a) stand off pins, b) rubber inserts, c) screws.
And I never seen "grill guard" you pictured, neither L1290/2, nor L1590/2 have them.

Fortunately, only screws are visible parts and Richard So sent me them.

As for pins and rubber inserts, I made something similar from Lowe's hardware parts.
But what I never did - modify speaker in any way (like drill holes, etc.). No way.

eBay doesn't have these parts too often; read post #8, this is exactly how it is.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah... I think they fall off/get lost etc., not a production variance as much as an age/usage variance. Could be wrong though.


John
 
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