Hey Biggles, wish I would have known you were a fellow AK'er when I saw you at santa's place today. Looks like a great score.:thmbsp: I made a pretty good score as well.:yes: It was actually a win, win deal. Good luck with the Wharfedale project.
Awww, yes it would have been nice to hang out and chew the fat. And, from what I saw through your back window, you got FAR FAR more of a "good" score. All 3 of us walked away with a load of new toys, tunnel vision.
Nice goin' there... Gonna' have to change your AK username to Dr. Briggles.
With the sand-filled backs, a lot of transporting/moving them around can cause a bit of sand-leakage (I noticed this when moving some of my Wharfie pairs), so if you notice a significant amount of room left inside one of both of the panels, you can always remove the wood plug and add more, I guess, although I've never tried before. Whatever the case, those panels really work.
And those Super 3's had either the early foam surrounds or a woolen material (In my W90's, the mids and tweets have the wool ones... Could that have disintegrated somehow in his? I've never seen W70's that didn't have the wool ones, but if they're early ones, I suppose anything is possible. I seem to remember the Briggs/Wharfedale book saying that the original W60 used a W12/FS woofer, which I thought was maybe a clerical/editing mistake, but I suppose it could be true for the ones made during 1960p ppl 0p(By the way, the W70 was ALSO introduced in 1960, just a matter of months after the debut of the W60... I've seen W70 ads from as early as November, 1960, plus I believe Gilbert Briggs hosted the last of his live vs recorded events that year as well).
I think you'll really like those. They should be delightful when they're running in that sweet spot range, and knowing how my W90's are, it shouldn't take much volume for those W70's to reach it. If you're able to salvage one or both of those original alnico Super 3's, do so. There is something magical about those things. Plus, I love how versatile it is. It can be used in direct/front-firing applications as well as upfiring, and can even be free-air-mounted.
Dr. Briggles, I like that! The 1 tweeter that was pulled is most certainly a foam surround tweeter. I haven't pulled the other one yet, am only guessing it's the same. I will, of course, keep them and try to find some way of repairing them. I really really want to find another pair of Super 3's. It makes me nervous not having a pair in reserves. You know, just in case.
Wouldn't the cabs benefit from some bracing?
I don't know specifically, but I'm going to say, Naw. W70 threads here are ubiquitous, nobody's mentioned it. Keep in mind, these little rigs were meant to be used with tube powered amps at moderate levels. My little Scott amp is maybe 17 watts a channel, not enough to rattle the walls.
Nice pickup, my 1969 w70Ds have the same cabinet. I got lucky, mine are in decent shape and don't need to be refinished. When I first got mine I was looking at them saying to myself, if I ever want to refinish these things the baffles will have to come out and that doesn't look like it will be too much fun. Mine had the the purple tweets and one of them was bad. I threw in a pair of Polk SL2000 domes as a temporary measure till I can get a hold of a pair of Super 3s. Even without the right tweets they sound great on my EL84 SEP amp.
As it turns out, the baffle is only held in by a load of little triangle pieces of wood, 1 wood screw each. Once those are removed, the baffle falls right out. This is going to be absolutely key in getting the trim sanded properly and the grill cloth cleaned with ease.
I like how you think, thank you for the SL2000 idea. The Super 3's are tough to find, unfortunately. Finding a decent replacement may be in all our futures at some point.
I suspect something good will follow you home in the next year or two.
Probably huh. I have to be more thoughtful this time though. That Scott cost me way way way too much. From purchase price, restoration costs and lastly the shipping costs. I need to find one locally for a good price and find someone to restore it locally. I can do it myself, I think. But that's not where I'm going at the moment. I like playing with wood, ya know?
I see you're well into another project!
Per you;
"Lucky for me, I recently purchased a pair of stunning ceramic Super 3's in their original boxes and black cloth bags. I had slated them for my Super 12 project, but this has now changed. I'll put the Super 3's in this pair instead. I'll finish up my Super 12 project and run them full range. Hopefully, I can find another pair of Super 3's for them at some point in my future."
Per me;
I've got one dead (alnico) Super 3, and another very likely. I picked them up in a very sweet deal with some other drivers. Was told they had been re-foamed "in Florida". (Didn't know anyone was doing that.) Little gray surrounds look like new.
Anyway, I think I cooked at least one voice coil in my first attempt at bi-amping with active cross-over. :tears: (More about that in a future post.) So, anyway, beautiful surrounds, but dead VC. Maybe you could graft my cones into your drivers? Dunno. Pretty sure mine have spiders. I'll check that.
But......., I'm packing to move household this week, and the dust won't settle til mid-February. PM me maybe.....:scratch2:
Awww! Really? I've heard the Super 3's are tender little dears and to be careful about over driving them, if even a tiny bit. Yeah, I wonder if the foam could be removed without ruining it? Probably. At this point, it's worth a try. Check for spider and see what the deal is, mine to not have them.
I'll be right behind you on the household move. Looking for just the right place. Looking at more of them this week.
I'm listening to my W90's as I type this. Willie Hutch. Soundtrack of the movie "The Mack". There's something about the way the big Wharfies handle that late '60's and early '70's movie music. "Bullitt", "Shaft", "The Taking Of Pelham 123", "Truck Turner", etc. They just do it right. The horns, guitars, strings, and funky beats, etc. I live for that stuff.
I haven't heard any Wharfedale, yet. I have the Super 12 project and these, neither of which have been hooked up. And now I'm dreaming about dragging home some early W90's. I've tried the smaller speaker path and so far, no love. I like the big, large effortless sound of efficiency. That's the path for me.
I got up really late today, time to get into the garage and get to gettin'.
xo, Biggles
