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The Acoustic Club

Here's my grandfathers 450 head, not sure what the cab is…
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That was my first thought too, but I just went into the garage and verified, based on the cabinet input jack location on the angled section, it's probably a "model 406 Narrow" cabinet. It should be easy to tell from the front if there are 2 fifteens.
You are so good! I thought about that but never saw the back of a 406.
@Abbot Swain
 
That was my first thought too, but I just went into the garage and verified, based on the cabinet input jack location on the angled section, it's probably a "model 406 Narrow" cabinet. It should be easy to tell from the front if there are 2 fifteens.

Yeah I was thinking that too, given the head was a 450.

Back then generally people bought an amp and a matching cab and stuck with that for a while; I am sure there were exceptions of people who kept their old 301 when upgrading the head but it was not like these days where people mix and match all the time.

I've heard the terms "narrow" and "wide" describing old ACC gear, can you explain the difference; well it kind of explains itself but in terms of inches of width and when the different eras were?

One thing that kinda sucked about the old ACC Acoustic heads and Sunn as well was how wide they were. If later on you wanted to buy a modern cabinet to put under the head it hung over the sides of the common 24" width and looked super dorky (some people are not bothered by this but it makes me cringe).

I believe the Sunn amps and cabinets were even wider than the ACC stuff.

Analogeezer

p.s. I totally lucked out with my setup, my original homemade 15" cab was made to match a Kustom 100 combo I had at the time. In a desperate attempt to get more volume out of the Kustom (and being honest I also wanted a cool looking stack :) ). I loaded it with a Rat Shack 15" at the time.

So those cabs were rather wide (about 30 inches).

When I bought my 220, the width of the head never entered my mind; the plan was to build a second matching cabinet and load both with new JBL's (I foolishly selected K130's because they had a tad more high end, four years later I sold those and replaced them with E-140's).

Never occurred to me to MEASURE the head in the store to make sure it fit on the cab correctly side to side.

So it just wound up being a happy accident it fit with room to spare, in fact it was just a tad wider so it looked like I meant that to be....
 
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I've heard the terms "narrow" and "wide" describing old ACC gear, can you explain the difference; well it kind of explains itself but in terms of inches of width and when the different eras were?

The Narrow/Wide descriptor is just a convenient way to distinguish the 2nd generation 406 from the 3rd generation model. It wouldn't have been necessary if they had just given the 3rd generation cabinet a different model number.

The 2nd generation 301 and 406 cabinets were designed to match the 24-1/2" width of 1st and 2nd generation heads like the 150, 370, 450, etc. When they came out with 3rd generation products they debuted new cabinets that matched the 26-1/2" wide 3rd gen heads. Users started referring to the 2nd gen 406 cabinet as Narrow and 3rd gen 406 as Wide, I don't think Acoustic ever did.

The other obvious cosmetic difference was the 2nd generation 406 had the black Acoustic logo badge while generation-3 cabinets had the blue logo strip across the top.
 
Good evening everyone. I recently bought an almost mint condition 126 recently. Yep sounds great, but I feel like I'm getting a fraction of the volume that I should be and the bright and power boost switches aren't working.

I opened the head up to have a look and didn't find anything obviously wrong, But some of the soldering joints may need some work, and it appears as though some of the capacitors may have been replaced.

Anybody in this group have any experience with this? Obviously my next step will be a tech, but figured I would check in here first.

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Hard to say, but if those are crimped-on quick connect terminations on the power boost switch it would be easy to temporarily substitute a different switch. Before doing that you might want to try vigorously working the both switches in case the contacts are just oxidized and see if a little activity brings them back to life.

I'd doubt that either would cause you volume problems since both are boosts.
 
Just picked this up today. Gotta have it serviced, but very excited!

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A Northern Pike said I should say hi over here. I have been an Acoustic fan since high school...!(when they were new the first time). I just acquired this pair of 361's, I'm halfway through recovering and refreshing one of them..I also have a pair of 370's that are going through the tolex mill as well....gotta love this time off...I have also held onto an 880 mixer...a rocketship in it's time!View attachment 3837149View attachment 3837123 View attachment 3837131

I took a few photos while waiting for glue to set...

Its graduation day....the 371 head has some issues... but the 361's are done, up and running..The better looking cabinet had the worst condition bottom panels..had to dis-assemble it and reglue and screw it.

The only thing I really did to upgrade the looks of the 361's was to replace the 3/8" bolts sticking out of the sides with stainless steel flat head allens with finish washers...much cleaner I think.

Very nice job there! What tolex did you use/where did you source it, might want to do that to the one I just picked up. Also good idea on the allen head bolts! Might do the same as well.
 
The Narrow/Wide descriptor is just a convenient way to distinguish the 2nd generation 406 from the 3rd generation model. It wouldn't have been necessary if they had just given the 3rd generation cabinet a different model number.

The 2nd generation 301 and 406 cabinets were designed to match the 24-1/2" width of 1st and 2nd generation heads like the 150, 370, 450, etc. When they came out with 3rd generation products they debuted new cabinets that matched the 26-1/2" wide 3rd gen heads. Users started referring to the 2nd gen 406 cabinet as Narrow and 3rd gen 406 as Wide, I don't think Acoustic ever did.

The other obvious cosmetic difference was the 2nd generation 406 had the black Acoustic logo badge while generation-3 cabinets had the blue logo strip across the top.
Thank you, perfect description, my 301 has a, powered by certain Vega, emblem in the top center of the center blue stripe was this on all second gen 301 cabs?
 
Just picked this up today. Gotta have it serviced, but very excited!

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Very nice job, I am impressed with some of the craftsmanship in this club!! Keep it up so future generations will have the pleasure of playing these great amps!








Very nice job there! What tolex did you use/where did you source it, might want to do that to the one I just picked up. Also good idea on the allen head bolts! Might do the same as well.
 
Thank you, perfect description, my 301 has a, powered by certain Vega, emblem in the top center of the center blue stripe was this on all second gen 301 cabs?

I can't quite picture what you're describing. The 301 was a 2nd generation product, but there were two versions: the 1st version is what's shown in StereoPlayer's picture several posts back with a black logo strip outlined in blue the width of the cabinet. It had a removeable rear panel. The speaker in the second 2nd version was front-access and there was no metal logo strip, just a small logo badge black with white lettering and rounded corners.
 
Here is a pic.IMG_20211212_132508_burst_01.jpg
Mine is exactly like stereoplayer's including the input jack placement on the back of the cab and not on the angled portion. I don't remember ever seeing this Cerwin Vega aluminium sticker, which may just have been added by a PO? Thanks
 
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Yeah, somebody just peeled that CV sticker off the speaker and stuck it there. That's a 1st version 301, which is the same one I have.
Well that certainly explains it, I am old but still remember some things and I just could not remember that sticker on any Acoustic!
All I know is that I am extremely happy to own one again and it works perfectly and sounds great!
Thank you sir for sharing your knowledge of these wonderful amps!