Speaker Cloth restoration (English)

      Hi all Saba fans! :winker:

      I am sorry to post in English :shame: , but I am a Saba fan from the other side of the Atlantic.

      I want to now get my small Saba collection into top condition. My radios are all in nice original condition aesthetically (but electrically restored), but having seen some members of the forum's total approach to restoration (nightbear's Freiburg W3 for just one example), I feel that I need to take steps towards getting near that level of perfection to bring out the beauty of my radios.

      To start with, can anyone give advice on the process of cleaning speaker cloths? Then perhaps I can ask about re-lacquering processes.

      I have been afraid to touch mine because I thought that they might become discolored. Here is my Saba Meersburg W II and Freiburg 6-3D on which the discolorations of the speaker cloths are clearly visible:

      Hi there,

      first of all congrats for acquiring this beautiful Meersburg WII. I own one myself and it´s is one of my all time favourites. There are not many radios around equipped with an EL34 output stage!
      Unfortunately I´m not a specialist in washing speaker-cloths but there is help available in this board anyway.
      When it comes to restoring the electrical part, be sure to replace ALL the black paper-capacitors and be careful with the tone control switch - it´s quite fragile.
      Achim

      meshplate postete

      I have been afraid to touch mine because I thought that they might become discolored. Here is my Saba Meersburg W II and Freiburg 6-3D on which the discolorations of the speaker cloths are clearly visible:
      hello meshplate!
      don´t worry, there are more english speaking members here.

      as the pics show, like most radios of that time, there are several factors to look at.

      1) most visible- the dust, shown along the cutouts on the baffle. this can be helped by taking off the cloth and putting it into the bathtub with soft detergent.

      2) discoloration by cigarette smoke - the pics dont show a real good color comparison - also a question of soap and tlc. dont use machine detergents, too harsh for the fabrics of that time

      3) discoloration by sunlight
      i for myself would not try to do more harm then good. fabrics discolor in the sunlight, most of them look bleached, wood turns darker. that vintage "patina" is part of the history of a radio, i would say the scars and wrinkles in a human face are alike to the aging factor of a radio.

      of course not everybody will agree totally on that one, but i keep my radios untouched, when in doubt. original beats pimped.

      are your radios imported models or later transported to US and then converted to be in working order there? (means the deemphasis for fm and with the freiburg additionally, the capacitors for the tuning motor)

      until next time
      radiomeister

      Thank you nightbear and radiomeister. And I am sorry for my big pics deltamike55.

      I was lucky that the Meersburg's tone control switch is intact, and still clicks. I know two others with W II radios and neither of theirs still click. The Meersburg is a special radio with a special sound, although the reception is not like the Freiburgs; I also have a W III.

      radiomeister, I would have agreed with you about the original condition approach until I saw the spectacular restorations some members have achieved on this forum. The question, to me, is whether a restoration is authentic, or whether it changes the radio. Like for car restorations, this could be judged in a "concour d'élégance" for radios like at Pebble Beach in California for rare autos. On the de-emphasis question, the radios have not been adapted, and to me sound find. Do you have advice on how to make those changes? The 6-3D's auto tuning capacitors are changed and the motor-tuning functions.

      Returning to the speaker cloths, do you recommend removing them from the speaker baffle board? Or leaving them in place? It seems that the cloths become loose with time, and so could benefit from being re-stretched. Lastly, I have seen for sale on ebay.de some replacement speaker material, but in most cases the patterns do not look authentic. I suppose no member has found a roll of NOS old SABA speaker cloth? Thanks again! :)

      On a different subject, I saw a website with nice pictures of the SABA factory production process as well as packing the radios for shipping in wooden crates--a practice that should be still followed today for safe shipping. However, I lost the link to that website. Does anyone have or know where those pictures can be found?

      This is the Freiburg W III. It's not black; it's just the photo. Although a black W III would look very nice I think. You can see an "elephant skin" effect from age in the lacquer on the right. So, one day it would be nice to re-finish the case. Same discolorations as the other radios in the speaker cloth.

      SABAs together: it seems like the action of the speakers over time actually draws dirt into the cloth.

      meshplate postete


      Returning to the speaker cloths, do you recommend removing them from the speaker baffle board? Or leaving them in place? It seems that the cloths become loose with time, and so could benefit from being re-stretched. Lastly, I have seen for sale on ebay.de some replacement speaker material, but in most cases the patterns do not look authentic. I suppose no member has found a roll of NOS old SABA speaker cloth? Thanks again! :)
      Hi Meshplate!
      I was talking generally about the original status.
      If its not 100% sure , that the "renovaton" will be as good as i want it, I leave it. when in doubt.
      Of course there are fantastic results shown here... on the other side, lets say for a big KÖNIGIN OF SABA i wont start touching the veneer.... in any case...(well chances that I will get one, one fine day are as big as winning the lottery jackpot)

      i will look for a report, where somebody took pics during the removing, washing and stapling back the cloth...that will do the job of restretching superbly.

      your cloth (sic) definitely is in no need to be exchanged.... they are authentic and original... as i said, just some tlc will do.

      until the next time
      radiomeister