Beomaster 6000 (2702) restoration

Journey to a perfect Beomaster 6000 quad 

I was challenged by “Beolover" to do a full restoration of a vintage Beomaster 6000 quad. The aim is to get as close as possible to a mint looking, perfectly operational unit that looks like it just came out of the B&O headquarters in Struer in the mid seventies. 

The journey started with the search for a unit that is cosmetically very good and with all the parts included. Nothing missing, but not necessarily in working order. I have repaired (and to some extent restored) more than 20 Beomaster 6000 quads in the past years and therefore know the weak points, the challenges that are always there to fix some faults and the fun it brings when finally the unit comes to live again and stands bright and shiny on a nice (preferably B&O) cabinet ! Repairing a non working unit is not that big of a challenge. A full restoration is however a completely different thing !

courtesy of Beoworld.org

December 2017

Out of the spare working units that I have in my house, none of them was good enough to be used as a starting point for this restoration. They all have some major or minor defects cosmetically that are very hard to repair. So the search for a new unit started……

The obvious internet second hand sites, the online auctions or google searches did not result in any good looking unit. Since I do have some friends in Denmark, the country of birth of B&O, and since I also make 3-4 trips a year, I started to make some calls. After a few weeks I was offered 2 units. One of them had, according to the owner, a “bit of a bad smell” after being switched on for 5-10 minutes, but was otherwise OK. There is off course no exact definition to describe what “OK” means for a 40+ year old radio! But I kept it on my list.

A second unit turned up a bit later. A lady who inherited the unit from her father and decided to sell it in order to buy some more modern equipment. The unit came with a remote Commander and a set of Beovox P45’s. The pictures that she emailed me showed a  nice looking, teak color unit, with no apparent defaults, big marks, dents, etc. She claimed the unit was fully working apart from a few lights that were out. 

I decided to buy both units and make a trip to Denmark to see my friends and collect the Beomaster’s with the speakers and commander.

January 2018

On a windy Friday morning, I left my home at 4:30 am and after some 900 km and 10 hours driving through some melting snow, cold weather, miles of traffic jams due to road construction work in Germany, a unusual check by police and customs at the border with Denmark, I finally arrived at my hotel in Odense. The next day I went to collect the units. It is always interesting to meet the seller and listen to some stories about how they cared about the B&O equipment and how proud they are to have some famous Danish designers like Jacob Jensen.

The first “smelling” unit turned out to be in not so good shape. Cracked red plexi front plate, deep scratches in the key panel, broken speaker connectors, etc. But I could use it as a donor for parts if needed. And I paid little money for it..

The second unit was a lot better! Nice key panel without heavy scratches or bent keys, very lightly scratched plexi panel, nice teak wood plinth and no apparent corrosion anywhere. 

So, I was happy and paid a acceptable price for the unit. Moreover, I got a set of Beovox P45 speakers (not the best ones around..) and a nice Commander on top.

After spending some further great time in Denmark I left for home with my car filled with B&O equipment. I do repair work for an other customer in Denmark who gave me some more units to repair. So, my (small) car was packed to the roof !

Over the next weeks and months, I will post more blogs on the progress of this restoration.