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Look what i found.

trainbuftony said:
There's one more critical detail I left out of the discussion of this set, because it's pure speculation. As many of you know I dabble in automotive witchcraft as well. The owner of these amplifiers gave them to Jerry because Jerry rebuilt 4 or 5 radios into one functional radio for the gentleman's 1933 pierce arrow. (A gentlemens car if there ever was one)

Hit rewind.

At my last job, my previous boss asked me if I wanted some speakers which he
Wasn't using. He loaded them with the front loader of his John deere back hoe, due to their tremendous weight. I got them home and found Altec 808 horns and 18" field coil western electric drivers in them. Their owner, according to John, also was the owner of a 1930s pierce arrow.

I think there's a strong possibility that these speakers and these amplifiers at one point previously belonged to the same gentlemen.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

Do you have any photos of the 18" field coil WE drivers? I mean, that's holy grail stuff for a vintage audio enthusiast
 
trainbuftony said:
There's one more critical detail I left out of the discussion of this set, because it's pure speculation. As many of you know I dabble in automotive witchcraft as well. The owner of these amplifiers gave them to Jerry because Jerry rebuilt 4 or 5 radios into one functional radio for the gentleman's 1933 pierce arrow. (A gentlemens car if there ever was one)

Hit rewind.

At my last job, my previous boss asked me if I wanted some speakers which he
Wasn't using. He loaded them with the front loader of his John deere back hoe, due to their tremendous weight. I got them home and found Altec 808 horns and 18" field coil western electric drivers in them. Their owner, according to John, also was the owner of a 1930s pierce arrow.

I think there's a strong possibility that these speakers and these amplifiers at one point previously belonged to the same gentlemen.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

How many PIerce-Arrows could there possibly be around, in that specific area?

Probably pretty darn unlikely, that there would have been a second stereo-enthusiast, with a second Pierce-Arrow...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
GordonW said:
How many PIerce-Arrows could there possibly be around, in that specific area?

Probably pretty darn unlikely, that there would have been a second stereo-enthusiast, with a second Pierce-Arrow...

Regards,
Gordon.
Click to expand...
We had a guy up near Ogden, Utah that accumulated several, a retired aircraft mechanic that over-restored them with aircraft grade hardware. I have a hubcap from his stash, and drove one of the 1925 PA roadsters for a day. An acquaintance had a PA 12 cyl sport coupe stashed in a shed I coveted, a straight 8 sedan sat next to a nondescript house not far from my grandmother's property. Still remember the guys name, he wasn't interested in selling. It was the early/ mid-1960s.
 
Pio1980 said:
he wasn't interested in selling.
Click to expand...

the classic "I'm gonna fix that up" story? Have gotten that from plenty of people when I knocked on doors asking about stuff that had obviously been sitting for years. With rare exception they continued to return to the earth until the person in the house passed or moved and then the whatever got towed away after it was beyond salvation.
 
gadget73 said:
the classic "I'm gonna fix that up" story? Have gotten that from plenty of people when I knocked on doors asking about stuff that had obviously been sitting for years. With rare exception they continued to return to the earth until the person in the house passed or moved and then the whatever got towed away after it was beyond salvation.
Click to expand...
The guy that had the V-12 PA coupe (not the PA collector) rightly said my buying it would put me beyond my resources as a school teen to actually deal with it as a rather uncommon lux class car, sold me a 1928 Dodge Victory 6 sedan, a very Elliot Ness era looking car.
Fwiw, He was another aircraft mech @ Hill AFB with a yard full of interesting cars, mostly Ford model As and Ts and anything else he found interesting that the city could complain about, and was John Held Jr's gearhead bro, the then-famous 1920s commercial illustrator/artist that created the era defining iconic "Joe College" and his flapper girlfriend.
john-held-jr-cartoon-granger.jpg
 
Last edited:
gadget73 said:
the classic "I'm gonna fix that up" story? Have gotten that from plenty of people when I knocked on doors asking about stuff that had obviously been sitting for years. With rare exception they continued to return to the earth until the person in the house passed or moved and then the whatever got towed away after it was beyond salvation.
Click to expand...
I'm glad ol, Jerry isn't one of those guys because his family would probably just fill 40 yard boxes and haul his stuff to the dump. Seen it too many times but alas I'm not made of money so I can only bite off so much at once... This was a major score, probably the biggest this year. I'm feeling under the weather today but perhaps I'll get out to the garage to photograph the speakers. They really are nice. The cabinets are 1-1/2" thick because the outer layer and inner layer are 1/2" plywood and in the center is "sound deadening board" like a sandwich. The boxes are obscenely heavy and so are the drivers. Like I said, you load them with a back hoe...
 
maxhifi said:
Do you have any photos of the 18" field coil WE drivers? I mean, that's holy grail stuff for a vintage audio enthusiast
Click to expand...
Here are a few photos of that set. Fwiw I was not able to get a 100% confirmation that these are indeed Western Electric. Perhaps someone can shed light on their origin.
Clearly the builder had a "go big or go home mentality" Altec 802d's and 18" field coils aren't the type of thing you generally end up with by accident.
Unless of course your name is Tony the Wrench...

20231017_101159.jpg20231017_101156.jpg20231017_101136.jpg20231017_101125.jpg20231017_101120.jpg20231017_101114.jpg
 
Wow!
trainbuftony said:
Here are a few photos of that set. Fwiw I was not able to get a 100% confirmation that these are indeed Western Electric. Perhaps someone can shed light on their origin.
Clearly the builder had a "go big or go home mentality" Altec 802d's and 18" field coils aren't the type of thing you generally end up with by accident.
Unless of course your name is Tony the Wrench...

View attachment 3012438View attachment 3012442View attachment 3012444View attachment 3012447View attachment 3012451View attachment 3012453
Click to expand...
Wow! I bet that was an impressive system when it was put together.
 
maxhifi said:
Wow!

Wow! I bet that was an impressive system when it was put together.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately they came to me with the cones kicked in. I have not figured out how I'm going to remedy that but if there's an expert in these drivers, I'd consider sending them in for an overhaul. I'm probably way out of my element, and should seek professional help...
 
You might ask the folks at Oswald's Mill as I think they have some experience with field coil drivers, cone and compression types. If they don't do recones then maybe they know where to send you. Is reconing these very much different than permanent magnet speakers? My ignorant question.

Oswalds Mill Audio | OMA

OMA can't change the world, but we do make the world's best audio equipment. Equipment without a peer, made for those who understand that the finest things in l
oswaldsmillaudio.com oswaldsmillaudio.com

John
 
trainbuftony said:
Unfortunately they came to me with the cones kicked in. I have not figured out how I'm going to remedy that but if there's an expert in these drivers, I'd consider sending them in for an overhaul. I'm probably way out of my element, and should seek professional help...
Click to expand...

It looks to me like there's enough left that a professional re-coner could probably take measurements, and then order the correct size voice coil, spider, cone, etc. I would definitely try to look to someone with a lot of experience in speaker repair - someone who works on guitar or PA speakers would be ideal. I don't know who made them either, but there were really not that many who made 18" drivers way back then, so it's got to be one of Magnavox, WE, Jensen, Utah, maybe RCA.
 
Caps are on order for the big Dynaco amps. In case anyone is needing them, hayseed will make plug in style (octal) electrolytic cans if you ask specifically for them.

So today I came into work, and Jerry says "how much room do you have, I'm going to bring you some more stuff, tubes and whatnot"
My response sure, how many pickup loads are we talking about.
He laughed "just one"
 
gadget73 said:
I just hope he's working because he wants to and not because he can't afford not to.
Click to expand...
I think Jerry likes to get out of the house and do things at least for a few hours each day. The alternative would be to stay home with the wife all day every day, or go out and try and find something else to do, which probably costs money rather than makes money... I think Jerry works because he doesn't know what else to do with himself. Or as my old man used to say "can't dance, too late to plow, the fish ain't biting and it's too dark to haul rocks."
 
trainbuftony said:
Preamplifier is not a dynaco, nor a Heathkit as I initially suspected. This too is home brew, component stew.
It's got transformers on one input and seems to use top quality parts.
I asked the old man Jerry before I saw them, "are they nicely laid out" he sort of shrugged. So I asked another way "are they as neatly laid out as the Preamplifier I showed you. He laughed out loud and shook his head "not even close"
He also mentioned that he was going to throw in a bunch of other crap because I made a respectful offer that he thought was high...
I'm very excited to see what sort of crap he comes up with... If this is your crap, I'll gladly relieve you of it.View attachment 3009623View attachment 3009625View attachment 3009626View attachment 3009628View attachment 3009629View attachment 3009630View attachment 3009631

@Yeeterkeeter.

This here is what you need to keep your eyes peeled for. Talk to every old man that you meet, eventually one will have a stack of gear he wants gone.
This particular old man owned a stereo store in the 70s and through the 80s and he was convinced that all the good stuff was already sold years ago and that nobody really wants that lousy old tube equipment. He lived through the power wars and never really knew the good from the trash when it comes to tube equipment. He was staying up to date on everything that came down the pipe because he had to service all of it, and naturally he as a business needed to move forward and nor look back.
In hindsight there's a lot of good equipment back there...

He's 82, and still works 5 days a week, and he's still as sharp as a tack, and a real hoot at work. Long live Jerry.
Click to expand...

EL34/6CA7s + 6GH8A + ECC83/12AX7s ... Superb !

Sweetest sounding amp with EL34 / 6CA7s + 6GH8A + ECC83 / 12AX7s and all selfmade transformers. Added a stereo bluetooth though, but its switchable. Demo video
audiokarma.org
 
So about a week ago my hayseed cans came in, and I thought to myself, that was fast, they said they wouldn't be ready until the beginning of November. Then I looked at a calendar and hey surprise it's the beginning of.... November.

So last night I was at a stopping point on my main project and decided to fire up one of these dynaco thingamajigs.
I completed the quickest recap in all history. The caps are all on octal sockets.
I pulled out the old, plugged in the new, and brought it up with the variac until the filaments were at 6.3v.
Output tubes show a faint bit of red color, but not what I'd call red plating. The amp made no sound whatsoever hooked to a giant 15" shop speaker, so I touched the input pin with the probe of my fluke. Boom! A thunderous hum came from the speaker.
"We've got a live one"
I pulled the plug and went to bed for the night. These have the makings of some really killer power amps, but I think I've already spotted at least one mistake...
Next step is to draw up a schematic as wired, or as I believe it is supposed to be wired. I'm excited to get the phase splitter and driver drawn out on paper so I can ascertain whats going on here...
Can't make heads or tails of it yet...
 
fun read, Tony :) thank you for documenting it. you've inspired me to (maybe) get on one of my backburner projects before the holidays!

-Steve
 
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