Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?

[Tinker]

I'm going over my "new" Gulbransen Rialto K cleaning, touching up and working the fixit list. All in all it's in pretty good shape but I have run into my first speaker cone issue with a Rotosonic speaker, a tear in the bottom edge of the speaker. It's on the Leslie 102 which I guess is better than having an issue with the two Rotosonics with their 2 speakers each in the Leslie 103. I've never had to pull one of these speakers out of the drum to replace, recone or otherwise repair. My assumption is that they mount the 6x9 speaker in the Rotosonic frame before the wrap the thin wood "skin" around the drum. It looks like it's glued and stapled so I wanted to see if anyone out there has either been there/done that or has some advice to offer before I try to start opening this thing up. I'd picked up a Leslie 700 to use for spare parts on my 710 so I had the thought of replacing the Rotosonic in the 102 with the one from the 700 but while it looks like there about the same height the 700 drum is several inches smaller in diameter than the one in the 102 and I'd also probably have to play around with getting the space generator pulley attached to it. All in all perhaps not the most attractive approach.
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So, anybody tackled this kind of repair? I'm figuring that my chance of finding a 102 size Rotosonic that somebody wants to sell is slim to none.</p>

Thanks,</p>

Gary
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[jimmywilliams]

Re: Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?



Gary,</P>


I've never replaced the speaker mounted inside the rotosonic drum. If there is just a tear in the paper, but the coil, etc. is still ok (i.e. you can stil hear music clearly through it) you can try the old "nail polish" trick (or maybe black silicone?) on the cracked paper as a stopgap measure. I would also be curious to know how to get at these speakers. I was lucky that the two 100GKs I worked on did not have problems there.</P>


By the way, if you get no sound out of the rotosonic drum then you may have to replace the mercury contact.</P>


You can find these parts on ebay occasionally as well. Right now there is a guy who has parted out a 101 cabinet (basically the same as the 102 cabinet). He only has the two 6x9s listed now but based on what he is asking for them he may have no takers. He said that he will be listing other parts soon. You may want to contact him about the rotosonic drum if he still has it. He seems to think these parts are worth more than they really are though...as you found out there are some compatibility issues with other Leslie models; I think the "standard" Leslie that comes closest to the 102 is the 610.</P>


http://cgi.ebay.com/Leslie-101-Jense...QQcmdZViewItem</P>


Let us know how you make out.</P>


- jim</P>
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[dstory]

Re: Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?

Gary - Finding and buying a 102 to take care of a torn speaker cone is kind of like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer cuz it feels so good when you stop![:)] The procedure for replacing speakers in the rotosonic drums is basically the same for all of them, the exception being the 101, and 103 rotors have more than one speaker per rotor so you have to deal with disconnecting Mercotac connectors on the top and bottom of each drum. Be very careful when disconnecting the mercotac connectors and pull straight up as gently as you can. Otherwise you can wind up breaking off the center pin in the shaft and then you got BIG repair problems. Disconnect the drive belt and other hardware needed to remove the drum from the cabinet. I don't remember if it is necessary to remove the drum from the cabinet to gain access to the speaker but I believe it is. The access hole in the drum may be on the underside. Once you have located the access hole most of the hard work is done. The speaker is mounted to the inside of the drum with hex nuts just like the rest of the 6x9 speakers in the cabinet and there are two leads running from the mercotac shaft base to the spade connectors on the speaker. Leslie did use a couple different 6x9s depending on the particular model leslie involved but as someone noted I believe they were all built by Jensen so if you locate a new or used one be sure its the same spec's as the old one. I think the main difference in the "special design" aspect of the leslie 6x9 is mainly it has a heavier magnet and better frequency response than most 6x9s. You may be able to find a shop in your area that can recone the old speaker, most likely a place that does a lot of repair work on old guitar amps and rock equipment. Or possibly some organ repair guy in your area has a spare setting on the shelf. Otherwise you can probably order a replacement from Leslie but if you try to buy some parts from Leslie on new models they may get snotty if you are not a recognized organ tech. Good luck. Don S.

[KleinErzahler]

Re: Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?

I think I have a Leslie 102 speaker that came with a H-series Hammond I bought, and it's certainly available; too bad I'm on the wrong end of the country!  I imagine shippinga leslie would be quite expensive!<div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>      Best,</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>              Nathan</div>

[Tinker]

Re: Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?



Hi Don - Oh No, I probably didn't make myself clear in my original post. At my first writing I wasn't sure if you could even get access to the speaker itself and I thought if the whole drum was was the item that needed to be replaced then perhaps somebody out there had a suitable Rotosonic drum that they may have pulled out of a Leslie.
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After all while I'm truly an organ nut I'm not completely nuts [8-|]
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With the help of some responses that I got off of the various forums I did get a chance to pull the drum and swap out the speaker. The bottom of the drum has a couple of nice access holes and there's plenty of room to work and get the speaker in and out. It took a bit of time to do the extraction, swap and replacement but it went OK. I pulled a speaker to use temporarily out of my unused 700. Size, balance, etc. seem to be fine but the one from the 700 was 8 ohm instead of 16 ohms. I was thinking about reconing the original speaker but a guy I've corresponded with in the past saw my post and offered a couple of 16 ohm speakers so I'm going to go that route. If I wouldn't have been in such a hurry I would have moved around some of the speakers in the 102 so I could have put the correct impedance in the drum and later swaped out an easier to get at speaker (like one of the upper stationary speakers). If I would have been really smart I would have read over my 102/103 manual which detailed the speaker swap procedure.
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Anyway I've made some good progress on fixing what ails the Rialto K so I'm just about down to trying to figure out the best way of balancing all 8 channels for the room. I'm finding it interesting to discover the ways that this "new" Rialto is somewhat the same and yet different from my earlier model. I had a nice conversation with George Reynertson at his home and he gave me some tips on cleaning those darn piano contacts as well as all kinds of other information, history and folklore about the instrument.</p>

I'm finally at a point where I've got no more space and time to consider adding any additional instruments to the household... That is until I find one of those old Rogers 333 Olympics that I can get my hands on...</p>

Gary</p>

[dstory]

Re: Any Advice on Removing/Fixing a Rotosonic Speaker Cone?

Gary - Glad to hear you got the problem resolved. With a minimal amount of hassle apparently. Its been ages since I worked on my old K Leslies but from what I recall, and I think it was on the 103 cabinet, the hardest part and nastiest job was putting the drum back in the bottom and hooking up the drive belt. Don