Lockwood MAJORS

[adrian]

in that coach.
Regards

ADRIAN

[aquapiranha]

Lol Adrian. I am sure The Witchfinder General would adorn his mansion with nothing less than a pair of Westminsters.

[vencel]

Hello,

Yes, I've been tryingto get some plan for the Lockwood Majors but so far without any positive result. I am not giving up :-) I am trying to contact people who have or had them. Maybe someone can measure the inner and outer dimensions, the bracings and to provide some good quality photos, so based on these information we could create the plans.

I am just wondering who could have the plans if Lockwood does not have them? These cabinets are said to be the best cabinets for the Golds and I find it a little bit impossible that the plans have disappeared :-)

Althought one guy in one comment claims the following:

"I used to work with Tannoy 15" units placed in large Lockwood cabinets at Polygram. These units were used in many studios around the world during the sixties and seventies. The sound was not spectacular HiFi nor very detailed. That is not what a recording engineer is looking for in the first place when selecting a professional monitor system. These Tannoys deliver a reliable sound pattern that allows engineers and producers to balance the sound and use the large array of filters and outboard equipment to do a mixdown of a multitack recording. In studios the HF horn was most likely to die long before problems with the LF unit would arise.
After we moved to the newly built Wisseloord studios in 1977 the Tannoys were abandoned. At Wisseloord a completely different system with JBL units was used that gave a far more detailed sound and better defined spacing of the instruments. This system was part of the acoustically designed control rooms."

[adrian]

Hi Vencel

You always get that sort of thing on the net.Raves and put downs about the same product.

Thats the problem with the net.Hard to make a positive decision.It depends on what you are personally looking for.

I bet those Majors sound great! Musicality/natural CAN be better than cold clinical super accurate sound.

Ordinary folk don't want those giant speakers in the house. WAF is good ,as she knows it keeps me happy, god love her. She don't mind,actually likes it!!

I'm about to move (not tempting providence I hope)to a detatched property.The dream of a lifetime.



See y'all

ADRIAN

[a_cunningplan]

Hello all,

I’m new to this forum so please forgive me if I’m not entirely up to speed.

I have news regarding the Orange Formica Lockwood Majors formerly owned by Jack Bruce, as seen until recently at Lockwood Audio’s workshop. Like Macca I also fancied a bit of “striding the world like a colossus” so made some tentative enquiries about buying them.

They are no longer orange. They have been professionally refurbished with pale oak veneers and pale cloth grilles. They are still at Lockwood’s recently relocated workshop (see below) and look very handsome, certainly a lot more living room/wife friendly than the original orange Formica (which bizarrely, I rather liked). I understand there are plans to install a pair of HPD 385’s with hard surround cones and modern Theos crossovers before they are put up for sale.

What might also be of interest to other group members is that the orange pair have been used to reverse engineer the construction plans for the Lockwood Major cabinet and at least one additional pair have been made (also in pale oak, etc.). I believe there are plans to make more if there’s sufficient demand so it may be possible to buy them empty in future (maybe even in orange Formica !).

There are also changes afoot at Lockwood Audio. Roger has given up his old workshop and now shares a neighbouring unit in the same building. If you check his webpage you’ll find there’s a new phone number. If you call you will almost certainly be answered by a chap called Nick who is now running the day to day “front of shop” operations while Roger concentrates on driver repairs and works increasingly from home.

Finally, although I didn’t get my hands on Jack Bruce's Majors I have since acquired a pair finished in dark wood effect Formica, complete with 3828 drivers, which look a lot like Marco’s. Despite not having previously belonged to a Rock God (as far as I know) they still sound awesome. Now I’m looking for some replacement crossovers (to Phil Short’s design or similar) to improve the 3828’s HF performance or I may just rehouse my HS reconed HPD 385’s in them.

Cheers,

Andy

[Ammonite Audio]

What might also be of interest to other group members is that the orange pair have been used to reverse engineer the construction plans for the Lockwood Major cabinet and at least one additional pair have been made (also in pale oak, etc.). I believe there are plans to make more if there’s sufficient demand so it may be possible to buy them empty in future (maybe even in orange Formica !).

This is correct - Lockwoods kindly allowed me to measure up the said pair of Majors and, with their blessing, a modern reinterpretation is currently being drawn up in CAD by my brother, who is a cabinet maker as well as CAD/CAM expert. The original Lockwood Major cabinets are, to put it politely, rather crudely built: the new version will be functionally and stylistically identical, but made out of much better quality high density birch ply with better internal bracing. Changes to the original design include front-mounting of the 15" MG drive unit, a removable grille, and options for the rear panel to take account of whether a customer wishes to use the Tannoy switching plate, different binding posts etc. Finish can be whatever a customer is willing to pay for, including Formica.

I know there's a bit of latent demand for such cabinets - please bear with me since my brother is self-employed and must prioritise work that is better paid than this. The advantage of doing it properly in CAD is that the basic cost can be calculated very precisely, but I don't yet know what that will be. The cabinets certainly won't be cheap, but they should be good value.