KLH 17's

[Guest Jstas]

Howdy! I'm new here but a friend turned me on to this site. Said it was a very good resource for vintage audio equipment. So hi to all!

Now, on to my question!

I purchased the above mention KLH 17's from the friend who sent me here. They are painted with a nasty green paint and I would like to refinish them. However, the paint has covered the cabinets and whomever has done the paintwork should not quit thier day job! The paint is laid on so thick, I can't tell what it was painted over.

What I want to know is what material these cabinets are made of. It looks like a high density particle board covered with a veneer. I do not know what kind of veneer it is and that makes a difference on whether I try to restore the original veneer or pull it off and replace the wrecked veneer with new veneer. If I am not mistaken and it actually is a veneer.

The speakers are in excellent condition save for the green paint. The grille cloth is slightly soiled but I may be able to clean them with an upholstry cleaner. I will have to replace the fiber-board backing on one of them though.

So does anyone have any advice on how I can get a nice, natural wood look back to these speakers?

[Guest]

John, I've refinished veneered furniture before that had been painted. It takes a bit of labor but should work on your speakers. Try using some paint stripper, preferably the safer newer type. Do it in a ventilated area. Try a small section, maybe on a back edge, first. See the results. If it looks effective, strip away. Protect the speaker components by either covering them with plastic across the front, taped well, or by completely removing them from the cabinets. With some dedicated work you should be able to bring back the original veneer. After you finish stripping the paint off you can go over the veneer with either 0000 steel wool or some real fine sandpaper. I've then applied either tongue oil or restained the wood with walnut stain or just used good furniture oil. You'll just have to do some experimenting or read other's postings to your inquiry. Tell us how you make out. Hey, if all else fails, part it out and head for Ebay!

[ToastedAlmond]

It was a real pleasure to get John aboard this site. He's a super industrious, good man to have around. My woodworking skills would have been no match for those green 17's. John, glad to see you here!

George

[Guest Jstas]

>John, I've refinished veneered furniture before that had been

>painted. It takes a bit of labor but should work on your

>speakers. Try using some paint stripper, preferably the safer

>newer type. Do it in a ventilated area. Try a small section,

>maybe on a back edge, first. See the results. If it looks

>effective, strip away. Protect the speaker components by

>either covering them with plastic across the front, taped

>well, or by completely removing them from the cabinets. With

>some dedicated work you should be able to bring back the

>original veneer. After you finish stripping the paint off you

>can go over the veneer with either 0000 steel wool or some

>real fine sandpaper. I've then applied either tongue oil or

>restained the wood with walnut stain or just used good

>furniture oil. You'll just have to do some experimenting or

>read other's postings to your inquiry. Tell us how you make

>out. Hey, if all else fails, part it out and head for Ebay!

I was thinking about a stripper too but, after closer examination, it seems the the coners were banged up previously, pretty badly. The veneer is damaged on the edges and it looks as if the previous owner, before George, had tried to cover that up by layering on excessive amounts of this jungle green paint. If I use a stripper chemical, it may eat the glue for the veneer also and I will end up replacing it anyway. I think I will try a random orbit sander on the bottom panel to see if I can strip the paint off that way first. I'd see how far I can get doing it that way because it seems that no matter what I do, there is a strong possibility I will have to replace veneer.

One thing I am NOT going to do is part them out. They work perfectly otherwise and parting them out would be a crime. Quite a few people have listend to them being powered by my home made 8 watt per channel tube amp kit with a Sony DVD/CD player or George's JVC CD Changer as a signal source. Everyone has been amazed. A friend of mine just spent about 850 on a set of brand new Polk RT's which sound very nice and he thinks these KLH's sound better. When he found out how much George gave them to me for and that they were late 60's vintage speakers, well...if it wasn't for the chair behind him, he would have hit the floor. They are just ugly, thats all. Although, since I did vaccum and dust the grilles, they did get a bit brighter so they don't looks so bad anymore and they contrast better with the green paint. They do smell like wet dog though. I'll either have to get them dry cleaned or just replace the cloth.

If I have to strip old veneer off, I think I am going to replace it with a mahagony veneer and stain it with a dark cherry stain. I have to find new KLH emblems for the grilles and I'll polish the brass on them. If I can keep the white grille cloth, it should look pretty nice. The current veneer looks like an oak veneer. If I can get that restored, I'll stain it a medium walnut stain which would bring out the oak grain and also help to hide any imperfections in the surface of the veneer. Its hard to tell what it is with all the green paint though.

Oh and George, you are too kind!

[Guest zakezuke]

Hello Jstas... i'm new here, and what brought me here was hunting around for the cap values of the KLH 17.

I'm now the proud owner of 4 of these, two sound 100%, two could be 100% with the right part.

I'll have to get the digital camera out... while i'm an amature in wood restoration, let me tell you what i've done in the past to resolve minor issues with veneer.

First all all, near as I can tell the material is walnut. My gameplan for mine is to use elmers woodpuddy with small mix of "english oak" by minwax stain, with a touch of "red oak" by olympic stain. While I could get walnut stain... this was a far closer match then i've found out of the can in the Ampex case. I did this with a pair of Ampex which had a large chunk of walnut missing on the front edge... about 2 inches by 1/4 inch. While the repair is not wood... it's a perfect color match according to friends with color vision, I can't tell the diffrence under the scanner. I'm sure I should have re-enforced it with like a trimmed piece of wood, like those lovely free painting sticks at home depot, but hey I have the technique.

My gameplan on my KLH17's is pretty much the same. two i've looked at in verbose detail have minor corner bashing, one largish scratch, and a 3mm * 4cm piece missing on the outer edge. Phase one will be ready to photograph by tomorrow. But puddy has a small amount of stain in it, to atleast be close to the right hew, tomorrow I will sand and color match. I'm still debating whether or not to stain the whole shaban in the english oak + red coak combo, the wood is nice enough as it is. I have however decided to go with white shellac and poly urathain.

Thus far, with a finishing sander 150grit and 220grit.. i've not cut under the veneer.

Mahagony veneer and dark cherry stain is most handsome... I recently did up a pair of Sansui ss-300's for a friend in red oak and amber shalaque. I would reccomend playing with photoshop, I thought about red-ish stain for the KLH 17's and it wasn't my glass of tea. My personaly choice is to stay cloce to stock... english oak to walnut.

Sorry to hear about your Jungle Green. I have painted speakers in Hunter Green before, but they were Sony SS-u500's or some such, basicly an entry level speaker that was so thrashed they needed bondo. It was lame vinyl venneer anyway, with gashes and bits missing. I would never ever paint something in real wood veneer. Lots of luck too you, i'm a wood fan my self.

[soundminded]

Be extremely careful not to damage the drivers whatever you do. Remove the grillcloth since that offers no protection whatsoever. You might consider removing the drivers while you work. Otherwise, cover them with layers of heavy duty plastic sheeting and use duct tape to secure it along all edges to the baffleboard. The original finish was walnut and always quite attractive too. You might consider the alternative of refinishing it by applying something over the paint. Ever consider black lacquer?