The Electra Forums

Well between working on the cars and taking care of the kids while the wife was out I made some progress. Pics and comments are below as promised.

When I bought the old radio, the gentleman I bought it from told me it worked but just crackled. He said it probably just needed a new speaker. I was skeptical and thought the radio was bad, but it looks like he was right. I almost feel bad for taking this thing apart but I'll see if I can't find some old radio guy to take the radio off my hands.



Below is the radio with the baffle removed and the new baffle with the speaker mounted. As you can see, I was barely able to fit this 12" speaker. The pic of the front of the baffle doesn't look as bright in person, that is just the flash off of my camera. I had to primer and paint the front of the baffle to keep the wood from showing through the grille cloth.




Below are some pics of the radio I removed. I also found the original tube and parts layout diagram stuck inside the radio. It is amazing it is in this good of condition since 1936. What kind of paper did they use?




I still have some issues to work out. I don't know how I am going to be able to remove the old dial and use it again. I am thinking of scanning it and printing a decal onto thin plexiglass and just gluing that inside the radio. It won't turn but the way it is mounted to the radio I would never be able to do with my amp chassis.

Well I know I haven't had an update in a bit. I made good progress last week before taking off for the holidays. I was about to do my voltage checks and then I turn it on and.... NOTHING. The power transformer was bad and I had to send it back. I just got the new one yesterday and I will be checking it tonight before installing it.

Bummer about the transformer man, I bet those aren't cheap to ship back and forth! Is the original speaker a 'Field Coil'? I guess in the 30's that would have been standard fare. As I understand it, the output transformer is right on the speaker, how quaint! I see what you mean about the gold thread on the grill cloth now... that's different. Would love to hear a sound clip or movie once you get it fired up man, thats a looker! Cheers, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

The transformer wasn't that expensive to ship back. This is only an 18 watt so it's not too huge. This is a field coil speaker. To be honest, before your comment I didn't know much about them and went to look them up. I think once I get this up and running I'm going to take it to my luthier's shop. I think I can get the speaker broken in a little faster that way. He has a new shop with a stage setup for people to play and it is pretty neat.

So I've finished the amp build and it sounds great. The speaker still needs to break in but it sounds nice already. I originally installed the VVR circuit due to the fact that I wanted the "loud" sound at low volumes. It doesn't sound exactly the same at low volumes due to the lack of speaker break up at those volumes. At the same time, it allows me to get some other tones I can't get at high volumes. VVR was a worthwhile addition.

Now I need to turn my attention to finish retrofitting the amp into the old radio. I was able to get some of this done today but I think it will need a little bracing. I still have to determine what do do about the dial. Additionally, I've noticed the small glass piece, or dial window, rattles slightly when playing certain notes so I'm going to have to sort that out. The hardest thing looks like it is going to be securing the chassis to the bracing in the radio. Hopefully I can finish all of this in the next few days. I have another project I'm working on and spending time with the kids so we'll see what I can get done.