Progress with the player as it's going through restoration and modification. I can follow the process through the web-page that Frede has created for the project, and where he checks off benchmarks. That's a nice touch.

And then he sends me photographs from the various stages.

The player was completely stripped, and the chassis was sent of to a car painter he works together with, who gave it the original Napier Tone BRG from 1904. Judging by his e-mail, I believe Frede liked the result. The photograph doesn't do it justice, but it does give you an idea.

 

Here's the car that provided the inspiration. The Napier Samson from 1904, which was painted in the colour of an Irish shamrock, for luck before its first race. And that set the tradition of Racing Green for British cars. Here's Samson, perfectly restored - the world's first six-cylinder car. I doubt the horn was required to warn of its approach!

 

 

After having studied some photographs of the 1904 Samson, Frede and his painter consulted, and came up with a series of proposed final tones for the chassis. It's very difficult to ascertain correct color from photographs, but the consensus was that the "official" Napier tone we had maybe was a little too light green compared to the original. (The extant Napier tone cars from the period also vary quite a lot.)

So here's what Frede and his painter did. The painter evaluated a number of tones that matched photographs and created a palette, and eventually the tone that seemed to complement the palisander tonearm board best was selected.

Meanwhile, Frede has had the suspension rebuilt on the 12" tonearm which was found on the Philippines - the arm was unused, but after several decades of storage it couldn't hurt to have that critical part reconditioned (the goal being to avoid any kind of mechanical noise from movement being added to what the stylus picks up from the grooves.)

A word about Mr. Renato Rivo, who runs Hyperaudio in Makati City close to Manila. He is a dedicated restorer of vintage HiFi, and does wonderful work for the local market, which clearly contains a number of very discerning customers. I found the tonearm through the internet and got in touch with Mr. Rivo, who had posted the picture in a thread for vintage enthusiasts. It turned out he was still in possession of the arm, and we agreed on a price. Maybe you can remember that this part of the Philippines was hit by a Super Typhoon not that long ago - I agreed with Renato that we should wait with shipment until that had passed. Fortunately, his restoration workshop and store were not affected (I write, somewhat egotistically.)

For those wanting to enjoy photographs of Mr. Rivo's work, here are a couple of links to a site where he discusses a selection of his projects. Units enter his restoration studio in a variety of states, and leave as new .

He restores turntables. There are some vintage treasures in those pages: http://www.wiredstate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=14637

And amplifiers: http://www.wiredstate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=8384

 

Here's the color palette Frede and I chose from, and the final tone compared to the palisander tonearm:

 

There's been progress. The final tone layer has been sprayed on, and the paint is now hardening before final assembly.

 

Frede Kristensen has gone to town on the player.

 

Full disassembly:

 

 

42 years of sludge having turned into asphalt, under the engine bearing:

 

 

Ooops, taking liberties. In 1968, the leads from the tonearm were soldered to a distribution board, to which the DIN-plug cable leads were soldered.

We've cheated, and Frede has added RCA-contacts under the palisander tonearm boards for both the 9" and 12" tonearms. This makes switching tonearms much simpler - and we're running an RCA-cable from the tonearm to the RCA-IN contacts on the Beolab 5000.

 

 

 

The 12" tonearm was unused, but Frede still decided to rebuild the tonearm bearing, as he wanted to ensure that I will have a couple of decades of trouble-free use of this gem.

Things moving along swiftly now. Frede is putting any notions I have that I am efficient to rest with his own dedication and desire to achieve the best. He's even been very patient with me, as we've gone from my initial major modification plans to the decision to restore the player as best we could, though with the personal touch of a bespoke colour. Even that required some patience from Frede, as we went for a second application of paint to get the exact Napier Racing tone used on the world's first six cylinder car.

And I'll be honest and admit that I've been wondering how green would turn out, in the end. Well, no reason to wonder much longer. Frede has carried out a first assembly, in order to begin calibrating the moving parts.

 

The Strobe Light assembly:

 

The turntable mounted in its plinth.

There's a smudge on the photo where the tonearm board is, but you can see the RCA signal cable attached to the special RCA-connectors shown earlier. There's also a Ground going to that mount. Note the well thought out placement of the connectors - if the cable is given an inadvertent tug it won't be pulled free.

 

 

Top before the platters are added. Look at the absolute "Sådan!" of Frede's work. (A Danish expression, used when something is accomplished with nonpareil perfection.)

 

 

And here it is as I found it, a couple of months ago.

And with a similar but better 9" tonearm, though without the SP 8/9, which is getting a new cantilever and being retipped.

 

We'll save the 12" tonearm assembly with shoulder for a presentation in the New Year.

Greetings from me to BeoWorlders, who have made 2010 an interesting year, as we have discussed the good fortunes and vicissitudes of our favourite brand. We're lucky to have capable people helping us enjoy our enchantment with B&O's products to the fullest - even when the products in question are more than 40 years old! 

 

That looks splendid - the rosewood goes beautifully with the green. I am sure this will be a wonderful Beogram. Frede's dedication is quite superb. The RCA plug idea is a good one - are you going to get a bespoke lid?

Thanks Peter, and New Year's cheers to you. Yes, I'll get a lid with a cut-out for the wider shoulder of the 12" tonearm board.

It feels nice to know that another Beogram 3000 Thorens has been saved and will soon be singing in my listening room.

Here's an en face view:

Spectacular!

I don't usually like modifications to rare kit like this, even if it's just a paint work. But when it looks that much better than original, who could resist

On another note, of course we now have Beogram 3000s that really can be said to have been built in Denmark!

We just have the rest of the rainbow to do! We now have Red, Blue and Green! Anyone for Yellow?

Peter has Mercedes blue. There's a Ferrari red Beogram 3000 Thorens, and I've used the official UK racing color (BRG comes in lots of nuances, though). Nice as a theme, and there are lots of racing colors and brand racing colors to choose from.

@Mika - agreed. But there were several damaged areas in the paintwork, and it had to be repainted anyway. Which means that if one wishes to restore it to the original TD124 colour one can simply strip it again, sandblast it and repaint.

But I really wanted a bespoke version and am glad it's turned out this well.

Well, to keep with the historic national racing theme, I suppose I'll have to go with white and a pair of blue stripes!

Here's a full list. I seem to remember Peter writing he used Mercedes Blue, but his BG3000 also reminds me of a Bugatti in French racing colours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_auto_racing_colors

 

 

Regarding colors for the Beogram 3000.

 

I am working on a Beogram 3000 right now and the customer have requested a Thorens chassis in Black.

 

I am really shure this will be a very beautiful product. The chassis has allready been given to the painting company, so I hope to be able to show you photo's within a couple of weeks.

 

 

/Frede

Happy New Years, Frede!

I have an acquaintance here in Norway who is considering one in black, as well. I think you'll be hearing from him soon.

He is dreaming of something comparable to this:

 

Happy New Years, Stein !

He will be most welcome, I will be happy to restore one more of these fantastic Thorens for him

/Frede

 

Happy New Year to everyone!  Thanks for this great thread documenting the restoration.

Frede's black Thorens that he is working on is for me!  I kept with the original 9" tonearm but did modify the paint color to black and changed the tonearm board to palisander as well.  This will be a great thread for Frede to post a pic on when ready.

 

Jon

Great news. Please do use this thread to tell us of how you found the Beogram 3000 and the work Frede is doing, if you wish. Great to know that another one has been saved from conversion...

Here's a picture of mine!  I had to delay shipment for a bit but it will come soon! 

I can hear the most wonderful Jazz music, just from the photo!!!

Congratulations. Frede the magician strikes again. 

A shipment arrived today. I opened it up and found everything as it should be. Here's a quick photo, in lighting that's not ideal, but just to share my general pleasure at what's joined my Beolab 5000 system.

 

 

I'll add better photos tomorrow, as well as a detailed description of what I'm hearing. So far, very good!

 

 

 

Here it is with the 9"-arm and the SP9 Gold pick-up.

A very distinct difference in soundstaging between the two pick-ups, but with very pleasant results with both. The SP1 delivers a very wide and high soundstage, where the SP9 is comparably more modest, staying inside the boundaries defined by the speakers. But both are playing music in ways that are pleasing my ear - the Beogram 3000 Thorens is a little more susceptible to movements in the house where I live than is the Beogram 4000, so I'll have to figure out how to isolate it from those. Probably fix it with a vinyl player shelf to the wall.

Frede at Classic Audio and his team have done a wonderful job with this record player, and I'm very satisfied.

 

I thought you might have issues when I saw it on the table - mine is wall mounted and this made a big difference to vibration sensitivity - the bass seemed better which I imagine was down to increased isolation.