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Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:30 pm
by invisible man
My family is going through my grandparents and great-grandparents stuff in preparation to sell their house, and sending me pics of stuff I could take if I want. I am being offered these vintage home audio components (40s, 50s?). I don’t have much time, space or resources to keep and restore these, which I would like to do if limitations weren’t what they are. I am leaning towards keeping the small phonograph and the cool speaker cabinet with swooping lines (Karlson according to eBay search, size and speaker unknown). The Motorola radio/shortwave/phonograph/speaker cab/maybe record storage is enormous. If I had room I would store it but I just can’t, though it would be a cool restoration or repurpose project. Any value here? What should I do?

https://imgur.com/gallery/UGKmLfP

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 4:09 pm
by invisible man
This eBay listing appears to be a rehousing of a similar radio/shortwave unit. The tube amp is shown in the pics, along with tube chart. Would this part be worth salvaging? I know some people make guitar amps from such things, but I’ve heard others say home stereo amp and guitar amp design principles are nearly opposite, and these are best left to the radio collectors. I visited the Bellingham Radio Museum and loved their collection of all this kind of old radio gear.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353229050280

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 7:11 am
by spacelordmother
Not sure how the enclosure would affect the sound, but wow those are cool as hell.

Image

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:56 am
by mgeek
Does the monarch amplifier work? Could be worth a go... not got any experience of that model in particular but tube hifi amps often sound amazing

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:45 pm
by Shadoweclipse13
I think it would be cool to get some old radio parts and try to convert them to guitar amplifier. Kinda like the way Racing does. Last weekend, I went with my girlfriend to a photoshoot at an old abandoned mental hospital (haunted, too) and in the basement where some pictures were being taken, I was walking around and found a huge pile of old intercom speakers (like school wall-mounted intercoms). They were in these really old-school looking cabinets with weird hole patterns for the baffles, and all still had the speakers. We were instructed in no uncertain terms not to mess with or take anything, but I should've asked if I could've bought one.

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 6:38 am
by invisible man
I have a small wooden wall mount speaker enclosure like that, bought at a swap meet. 6in speaker. Project never started, but could be cool for a champ clone.

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:32 am
by DeathJag
That cabinet is great. But it is, ah, very... um, suggestive of certain female parts! It’s not even subtle. It’s like the cabinet is giving birth to the sound.

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:52 am
by spacelordmother
DeathJag wrote:
Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:32 am
That cabinet is great. But it is, ah, very... um, suggestive of certain female parts! It’s not even subtle. It’s like the cabinet is giving birth to the sound.
Must be like a Rorschach test cos, uh... I didn't think of that at all. lol

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 1:07 pm
by invisible man
Settle down boys. I found this cool thread on an audio forum about the Karlson speakers. Apparently a ported design, some report the “tapers” as they are designed here produce a weird midrange, but great bass or mid-bass, and have even been used for bass guitar by some, or loaded with subwoofers by others. Very interesting, as I’ve been thinking of getting a bass amp to try to run dual bass and guitar amps for the Squier Bass VI. Maybe even try to rewire for Ric-O-Sound pickup split between the amps. However my limits in space, time, energy, resources, mental health remain.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.ph ... rs.733964/

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 1:15 pm
by invisible man
Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:45 pm
I think it would be cool to get some old radio parts and try to convert them to guitar amplifier. Kinda like the way Racing does. Last weekend, I went with my girlfriend to a photoshoot at an old abandoned mental hospital (haunted, too) and in the basement where some pictures were being taken, I was walking around and found a huge pile of old intercom speakers (like school wall-mounted intercoms). They were in these really old-school looking cabinets with weird hole patterns for the baffles, and all still had the speakers. We were instructed in no uncertain terms not to mess with or take anything, but I should've asked if I could've bought one.
Is Racing a company, OSG member, or other? I’d like to look into it.

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 5:11 pm
by Shadoweclipse13
invisible man wrote:
Tue Oct 13, 2020 1:15 pm
Is Racing a company, OSG member, or other? I’d like to look into it.
OSG member! He does some really great builds. Look for them here in the amp section (I'd post one, but I'm elbows deep into making dinner right now).

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:22 am
by invisible man
According to the reference materials I’ve seen online Karlson made enclosures for 8, 12, & 15 inch speakers. Using the 2x4s on the unfinished wall behind the speaker cabinet, this looks to be 12 or 15, which is awesome. Hard to tell which due to the angle it is leaning up against the wall, and the top of the cabinet not being visible. Looks like maybe another cabinet to the right of a different sort, maybe handmade?

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:27 pm
by invisible man
I found this thread on a bass forum about using these Karlson speaker cabs for bass. Seems like they do lows really well but need to be coupled with a separate cab or different arrangement of some kind for mids and highs.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/karlso ... 022/page-2

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:44 pm
by mackerelmint
Here's a purely emotional suggestion: any among them that have any particular smell, which you might find brings back good memories you might have, hang on to those.

Re: Vintage radio, shortwave, phonographs, speakers

Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:03 pm
by invisible man
mackerelmint wrote:
Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:44 pm
Here's a purely emotional suggestion: any among them that have any particular smell, which you might find brings back good memories you might have, hang on to those.
I am primarily into this stuff for the connection to family, and secondly trying to see what I could make of it for my current use.