Gale 401

[Fran]

To be honest, its probably your cheapest way out. The shipping adds up really quickly when you're ordering from a few different places. Maybe check out madisound just to compare for the craic...

Fran

[JAW]

Ordered the bits and pieces today and will start to strip the speakers down at the weekend. I read that PFM piece by Mr. Tibbs, if I can get anywhere near that quality of rebuild I'll be more than happy.

Why wouldn't you? Best of luck, take your time and just try and enjoy the 'project'... BTW why Gales?

A local guy was a big jazz fan, (he used to own Disc Finder on Baggot Street back in the day) and I kept his stereo going for him for years. Anyway, I always admired the Gales and when the foam deteriorated he had a second pair of chrome ended ones which he hadn't used and which worked fine, so he was going to put the original ones in a skip if I didn't take them. That's about eighteen months ago and I'm only getting around to working on them now.

[Ivor]

A local guy was a big jazz fan, (he used to own Disc Finder on Baggot Street back in the day)

That was one of the old shops I was thinking about in a previous Old Boys thread. I couldn't remember the name of the shop but I do remember the owner well. I must have looked at a Graham Parker & The Rumour LP there 20 times over 20 days before I actually bought it! Circa 1979 or '80. For a small shop it always seemed to have an awful lot of the LPs I wanted at the time.

ok... get back on topic!

[cybot]

A local guy was a big jazz fan, (he used to own Disc Finder on Baggot Street back in the day) and I kept his stereo going for him for years. Anyway, I always admired the Gales and when the foam deteriorated he had a second pair of chrome ended ones which he hadn't used and which worked fine, so he was going to put the original ones in a skip if I didn't take them. That's about eighteen months ago and I'm only getting around to working on them now.[/quote]

Thanks for the story behind the Gales John; there's always one behind everything we do......and I (we) love to hear them...:-)

[cybot]

A local guy was a big jazz fan, (he used to own Disc Finder on Baggot Street back in the day)

That was one of the old shops I was thinking about in a previous Old Boys thread. I couldn't remember the name of the shop but I do remember the owner well. I must have looked at a Graham Parker & The Rumour LP there 20 times over 20 days before I actually bought it! Circa 1979 or '80. For a small shop it always seemed to have an awful lot of the LPs I wanted at the time.

ok... get back on topic!

Another story worth telling :-) That was the year I started in Dublin and Freebird was upstairs in Grafton St......

[JAW]

With the bad weather over the weekend I took the opportunity to start replacing the foam surrounds on the bass cones. Getting the remnants of the rotten surrounds off was far more time consuming than I thought it would be, but persistence paid off eventually and now I have the surrounds fitted to the cones, drying overnight and over the next few evenings comes the awkward job of fitting the surrounds to the speaker frames. The big potential pitfall here is that cone mightn't be centred. To prevent this I may need to cut the dust cap and fit shims in the voice coil until the glue is dry and then glue the dust cap back. Sounds like a heck of a job! Anyway, I've taken photos and if anybody is interested I'll post a few.

[Ivor]

Anyway, I've taken photos and if anybody is interested I'll post a few.

Get postin'

[cybot]

With the bad weather over the weekend I took the opportunity to start replacing the foam surrounds on the bass cones. Getting the remnants of the rotten surrounds off was far more time consuming than I thought it would be, but persistence paid off eventually and now I have the surrounds fitted to the cones, drying overnight and over the next few evenings comes the awkward job of fitting the surrounds to the speaker frames. The big potential pitfall here is that cone mightn't be centred. To prevent this I may need to cut the dust cap and fit shims in the voice coil until the glue is dry and then glue the dust cap back. Sounds like a heck of a job! Anyway, I've taken photos and if anybody is interested I'll post a few.

Please do John,please do! Remember you have nothing to fear only fear itself :-) Enjoy.....

[Dowser]

I wouldn't try without using shims between voice coil and magnet - which does mean you do also need to remove the dust cap.

Good luck, and photos are always good!
Richard

[JAW]

The story so far.........



It all started here.



What lies beneath





Too many parties!



No turning back now



Cabinets sanded and ready for varnishing



Two units cleaned and ready, two still needing attention. This part is a PITA.



All ready, new surrounds waiting for their moment,



Surrounds in place, glued to the cones. Yoda using The Force to keep the cat away until the glue dries.

Next jobs for the weekend, remove the dust caps, shim the voice coils, glue the surrounds to the frames, varnish the cabinets, phone Wilmslow to chase up the mid units and capacitors. Taking longer than I thought, but enjoying the ride.