mark fader

i see what you are getting at about adding the resistor to the pot . although i don't understand it totally i understand that it will be a little different . at this point i don't know if i really care . to be honest , i just set the pots a little lower than full . so if i can get in that range then i will be satisfied . i never set them below half . but now they have new caps so if that changes anything then i will have to adapt . i still don't see me going below half . the screw in the coil is the same screw i took out . it is stock . that being said , i don't know what it is my dad bought the speakers new about 1985 . im pretty sure he never did anything to them . that is why I'm 98% sure they were stock when i got them . you lost me on the measuring part . im not really skilled at that kinda stuff . all i did was compare #'s . ( i had one cabinet with the original pots and one with new L-pads ) i haven't heard back from honeywell yet . they may be able to make replacements for me .that would be perfect if they could !!!! at this point it looks like the pot with a resistor is my best choice given what's available . i wonder if i could even hear the difference between the original pots , the l-pads , or the new pots with resistor ? maybe ill just set aside a saturday afternoon and try all thee and see if there is any difference to my ears . will the L-pads hurt anything ?

I usually do overthink things. I can’t help it I’m a toolmakers by trade and we work in exact all the time and now it’s just a way of life. There is no “ good enough “ in our trade. It’s either right or wrong. I don’t have my notes in front of me but I remember only a 2 ohm difference between the pot and pad at the crossover( on the midrange out of the crossover ). Is that enough to make any difference? The terminals at the back of the cabinet ( amp in ) remained the same ( 7.5 ohms ) no matter if a pot or pad was installed. I never considered a resistor on a pot. The closest pot I can find is 25 ohms or 47 ohms.

Maybe. I’m not discarding any thoughts right now. And that is most likely what happened. Or maybe they were out of lpads and he used a pot because that’s all he could get at the moment. It would be nice to know the real answer so I would know that replacing the pots with pads is ok.

is there anyway to get ahold of todd crane ? he should be able to give some incite on the matter ?

that's kinda what I'm thinking . i wonder if this is why jack frazier chose a pot instead of a L-pad . maybe that is why he was able to get this kind of sound out of this kind of setup . hypothetically speaking , if this were the case then replacing the pot with a L-pad would be changing the sound . is that too much of a stretch to assume this is what he was doing ? then why do some models actually have L-pads , or at least appear to have L-pads ? has anybody ever taken a measurement / take one of those apart and actually seen what exactly it is ? or did he use pots just because ... and im looking waaaayyyyy to much into it ?

I just replaced the caps. The pics at the very top show what I did. I just mounted everything on a board and copied the circuit. The cabinets were completely stock when I opened them. The choke is original. So you are basically saying to go with the lpads because they try to keep the resistance as constant as possible ?

all three terminals are wired . the center ( wiper ) goes to the speaker positive . one of the outside is connected to the crossover positive and the other one of the outside is connected to negative . btw - dark brown is + and light brown is - attached are some pics . the pot wiring pic is the tweeter pot still in circuit . the pot top and pot bottom pics are the midrange pot cut out of the circuit . i cut the wires and left a little on the ends of the pot . that is the original solder job . apparently by Ed himself because the cabinet is signed " may " right by the tweeter .

good news . i just received some info on the pots . yes they are in fact potentiometers . they are a 30 ohm 2 watt linear pot . not L-pads or t-pads or rheostats or anything else . I stress this because I've been told all sorts of things . honeywell bought out clarostat many years ago . they have documentation of the original clarostat stock . the value listed above came directly from honeywell . now the problem is i can't find a 30 ohm 2 watt linear pot anywhere and honeywell doesn't have a direct replacement . however , they are able to make these pots from the parts they have on the shelf . i don't know what is involved in all that but I'm getting more info on that tomorrow ( hopefully ). anybody else need pots ? if there is enough need maybe i'll get an order put together . so i have to take a step back . above i was sure L-pads were the way to go but after this info i'm not so sure . i don't claim to be a guru with this kind of stuff , but as i continue to reason on all this , jack frazier did it this way for some reason . i don't know his reason , but it had to be based on something . if L-pads were the better way to go then wouldn't he have done that ? but he didn't . he used pots . so the search continues ... i haven't shut the door on using L-pads . but if i can get my hands on a direct replacement pot then that's what ill do.

I agree. That’s why I’m so confused as to why the originals were pots. I just don’t understand.

So I’ll answer my own question. After reading more forum pages the answer is yes lpads will make changes. However , since the speaker , crossover , amp , and lpads have so many variables anyway, it won’t make a noticeable difference. So in my mind I’ve come to the conclusion that lpads will be just fine. After all this very purpose is what they were made for. Thanks to the forum for all the great info !!

Katie Melua hands down ! Her music isn’t my style but her voice is amazing.

That’s a long way for you to drive and they are a bit heavy to carry around. but if you feel the need to come over than I guess it would be ok. Thanks for the replies but I still don’t have a real answer. Are the lpads going to change the circuit in any way ? I stuck my meter on the terminals and it’s reading 7.5 ohms. Close enough to 8 for me. Turning the lpads made no difference on the meter. I haven’t hooked them up too my receiver yet and I don’t think the lpads will harm anything but I’d like to hear from somebody who understands this more than me explain / tell me they will work or not and some expiation as to why. Just wondering because I want these cabinets to be put together the right way.

I will. I figured I would try them with and without. I’m even going to put the 2 original good pots in one cabinet and compare them to each other

The reason for the pot replacement was because 2 went bad. I have a total of 4 because I have 2 cabinets. All 4 were scratchy so I cleaned them.all 4 got better - 2 cleared up real good but 2 not so much. I took those apart and found the wire was broken on 1 and the other had a bad spot. So I just decided to change all of them. I just think it was age. Nothing last forever. That is my only concern because I’m installing something that wasn’t originally there.

so what you are saying is that the L-pads are fine ? there is no difference between the original pots and the new L-pads ?

long story short - my dad bought theses new when i was a kid and its what i grew up on . now i have them but after 30 years or so i just decided to give them a little tlc . about 2 years ago i refinished the outside . i stained them black and put on a satin gloss finish and replace the grills with a frame and grill cloth . now i decided to do the inside about a month ago . the goal was to make them sound the way they did new , or as close as possible . of course i don't remember what they sounded like new because i was just a kid and i hadn't developed an ear yet , but at least restore them with new components . the caps were pretty straight forward but the challenge was the pots . i searched and searched and emailed anybody and everybody just to find more confusion and dead ends . as of right now there is no known direct replacement for the pots . so i just kept searching the net to see what others have done and what there results were . sill , not a whole lot of info . so here is what i ended up doing - new caps . the ones i chose are dayton 12uf caps . i chose dayton because parts express is only about 12 miles from my house and the caps were well spoken of and they were reasonable cost . i am still concerned about the L-pads because some say that they will change the frequency and the impedance a little . others say it won't . i can't get a real answer from anybody and i don't know this stuff enough to argue the point either way . i want a direct replacement but since i can't find one this is what i decided to try . i installed a parts express L-pad in the original holes . the L-pad is 8 ohms 15 watts . i attached pics so let me know what you think .