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Looking for Hens Teeth


JeffS

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I recently purchased a very nice pair of first generation Allison:Six speakers. Despite my request for the seller to carefully package the speakers, they arrived with two holes in each front grill where they pressed against the tweeter posts. Does anyone have a pair of front (square) grills they would be willing to sell?

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Those are very fragile and virtually unobtainium. You might try mixing up some Plas-T-Pair. It’s available online from Antique Electronic Supply (www.tubesandmore.com) or Radio Daze (http://www.radiodaze.com/spec-plas-t-pair.htm). Tint it with Evercoat black coloring agent. Evercoat is sold in auto body or marine supply stores.

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JKent,

My thought was that if I couldn't obtain replacement grills I would patch the bad one by get some allison grill material and cutting pieces to fill the holes, and then attach them to the existing grill with some sort of fabric glued on the backside. How does the Plas-T-Pair repair vary from this?

Genek,

I like the idea and I may contact them. I could send them a grill to copy.

Here's the thing that gets me: I've looked for an undamaged pair of 1st gen 6's for a long time. I had CD6's years a few years ago but I prefer the look of the original 6. I watch and win an auction of a pair in excellent condition and as soon as the auction is complete I email the seller and ask to please package these so that no pressure is applied to the front of the speakers. I'll pay any additional cost. They arrive packed face to face with a large plastic garbage bag between them! So, one grill has two holes in it and a pushed in tweeter underneath, the other grill only got dimpled. I asked the seller for a substantial refund and he obliged. I'm glad I didn't buy an AR-XA from him. Whining done.

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That's a good resource Gene found, but according to the manufacturer, AllisonSpeakerParts; "And we currently do not make rectangular front grills for the Four or Six either; hopefully this will change in the future."

Plas-T-Pair consists of a powder and a solvent that produces a kind of plastic slurry. Your patch, if you use this, would be solid. Put a piece of masking tape over the hole (from the front), lay the grille on a flat surface and pour a bit of the tinted slurry into the hole.

I did some Sixes and although the patches don't look great up close, once the grilles are installed they look OK. Couldn't hurt to try.

Those grilles were just poorly designed (IMHO). Perforated metal would have been better, especially for the top grilles.

Jeff--unfortunately, your ebay experience is not atypical. Many people--including some UPS stores--just don't know how to pack delicate electronics. Apparently the seller was honorable and compensated you for his mistake but when parts are as scarce as... well, you know.

Even when you do your best shippers can be careless. We've all seen the YouTubes of delivery guys tossing packages over a fence. I once shipped a pair of KLH Fives. Each was double-boxed, with extra cardboard over the grilles, bubble wrap and peanuts but one was dropped so hard a corner got bashed and the woofer was jarred loose! Felt very bad about that but collected some insurance money. OTOH I've sent several tube radios to Taiwan and never had a problem.

btw (and a bit off-topic) Home Despot sells good double-wall heavy duty cardboard cartons. Just FYI if you ever need to ship vintage gear.

Kent

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