Lowrey C-500 Celebration Restoration

[PaulStahl]

Beginning another restoration, this time another of my bucket list organs.. a C-500 Celebration... Quite impressive is the build quality to me on this one.. with very few connectors, everything pretty much hardwired, soldered, wrapped. IC's are mostly all socked.. fold down trays for easy access and the whole unit will slide back to get to the speaker panels and the whole leslie unit will slide out as well for servicing .. As i have read here previously and as you can see, the 12" speaker surrounds are toast and were basically non-existent in pieces lying about.. I am guessing the cross-over just sends the lower frequencies to these? So should i look for a suitable 12" woofer type speaker as a replacement as opposed to a more mid-range guitar cab type?
Here are a few pics...

[geoelectro]

Of course they should be woofers, not guitar speakers. In fact, acoustic suspension woofers. Look for the Butyl surround as that won't deteriorate.

I had one of these models back in the early 80's and it was an awesome organ. Repaired a bunch of them as well.

Geo

[PaulStahl]

Of course they should be woofers, not guitar speakers.

Geo

Thank you for the response, your knowledge is always much appreciated.. I was worried that it might be like a PA cabinet where the frequencies are cross-over divided between a full range speaker and the ultra high frequencies of the tweeter and if i got a woofer, voiced for lower frequencies that the bass notes would sound good but everything else would be muddy..

[Larrytow]

Depending on what you want to invest, money or time, refoaming those 12"ers in not all that hard to do. You can get kits several places, and while it is a bit of putzy work, it is usually considerably cheaper than buying new drivers.

I've got an old Lowrey here as well, and I agree that they are built nicely. Nicer than I expected even. Best wishes on the restoration job.

[pieanoman]

Refoam the speakers, definitely. About $10-15 per speaker for parts and glue, and an hour's work for each one. Results will sound as good as new speakers!

[PaulStahl]

Refoam the speakers, definitely. About $10-15 per speaker for parts and glue, and an hour's work for each one. Results will sound as good as new speakers!

Yeah I'm gonna give it a shot..ordered some butyl surrounds with the glue, spent a few hours on researching some how-to vids. cleaned and prepped them over the weekend .. i'll post some pic's when i get them finished...

[Organfella]

Re-foaming speakers is very easy and rewarding. I have done a few also and had success with all of them - not a single mess-up. At first I also considered replacing the drivers - until I saw what they would cost! Give it a go, you will not be sorry (get a good number of pinch-type clothesline pegs to hold down your work while you wait for the surrounds to arrive...)

Good luck!
Nico

[PaulStahl]

Re-foamed the speakers last weekend with the new butyl surrounds, things went fairly smooth and the results were excellent.. I hooked them up to a small amp and played some things through them before install and they sounded great and sound great as well in the organ..




Now on to the bugs, i'll need to re-cap and figure out why none of the presets are working.. the switches light up but no sound

[Larrytow]

Paul,

Those look very nicely done, particularly for a first crack at re-foaming ! Lots of careful fiddly stuff to clean them up and so on, but pretty easy to do all things considered. Now you have another item to add to the " oh, I can do that " list.

[Organfella]

Re-foamed the speakers last weekend with the new butyl surrounds, things went fairly smooth and the results were excellent.. I hooked them up to a small amp and played some things through them before install and they sounded great and sound great as well in the organ..

Well done! Those look great and I am sure will sound like when they were new.

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Keep going!

Nico

[PaulStahl]

Does anyone have some ideas about where to begin looking for the trouble with the presets? They light up when you push them but nothing happens..

[auronoxe]

Good luck for your project...
It‘s absolutely unbelievable how much boards and pieces are inside the C500. My Hammond Aurora looks like an empty piece of wood compared to that... Although it is almost the same age, maybe even 1, 2 years older?

[dressur4]

It is amazing how well built that organ is as well. I don't know why it has SO MANY boards Look inside a Thomas you will be amazed how little is really in them. They did spend a lot of money on each build. The other thing I like is the aluminum pans they mount the guts to. Also they wrapped each wire to posts instead of using connectors. A lot of hand work went into the C 500 I am so so glad I got mine

[dressur4]

I wonder how many of these C500s are left? I gave two away one that I really loved was one my best friend gave me. it was painted white (they look absolutely awesome in cream white) and it was hit with lightning. I gave it to a lowrey tech in NC and one I gave to a friend here in MO and he got rid of it He BEGGED and BEGGED me for it and I finally said what the heck I got a Royale why not. then he moved it out of his house onto the porch (covered) I said I will take it back he said he gave it to someone who wanted it. So this is my third one and I want a couple more. I will keep looking for them. They are my favorite Lowreys for many reasons. I got to fix my woofers too. I am thinking of replacing them with Eminence drivers that are in a couple of those Baldwin 5 channel sealed tone cabinets same size and the cabinets are water damaged and particle board. So I am thinking of trying them. But I never had a C500 with good woofers never got around to fixing them as it is a chore to say the least to get inside the sealed enclosures. Everything about the C500 is expensive the sealed enclosures the t6 anodized aluminum pans and the amp is even well made even though the swell shoe is mounted on it. they had no choice with all that stuff crammed into that console. I wonder how good would that organ sound with new or refoamed woofers? How much bass will it have? will it shake?

[geoelectro]

Does anyone have some ideas about where to begin looking for the trouble with the presets? They light up when you push them but nothing happens..

Have you any presets...set? There is a setter board where one sets which stops come on with each preset.

Geo