hull rust Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Hi: New here, have some pictures of early KLH model 6s I'd like to share for reference for folks down the road. The serial numbers are 21592 and 21593. I haven't found much picture-wise on the model 6 oil caps, so I thought I'd post what I have. I apologize if this has been covered here before. I think these are oil caps, please correct me if I am mistaken. The previous owner sold them to me as-is, meaning he had cut the grille cloth off one speaker, pried off the back plates on both, broke the epoxy and disassembled what he could. Gave me a couple of baggies of parts, and some Dayton caps to do the recap. Very nice guy, just didn't have the time to go further. These have the small tweeter, not the larger tweeter. I have another pair of 6s that that the more common larger tweeter. Both tweeters have been tested on my DMM, one at 5.3, the other at 5.5. I'm going to give it a go without recapping. I don't know if there was a problem that caused the previous owner to want to recap, guess I'll find out. I know about the sealant Roy C. has developed, I have some on hand. I'm going to be tied up with other commitments for a week or so, but I'll come back to the thread and update with progress and more pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samberger0357 Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 They look like oil caps to me. And consecutive serial numbers! Pretty cool . I have a pair unopened with similar period serials(one of them is in the 19xxx range, the other 20xxx) and I fully expect that they have oil caps and they sound incredible. Good luck getting those back into shape . Worth it both as historic artifacts and damn fine speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hull rust Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 Put everything back together after a trip to the hardware store for some missing parts and they both work fine, all tweeters and woofers. The High Frequency Switch in both also works. The one that has the exposed front I checked the surround and it's dry. I'll take the other grille off and treat both surrounds. I saw a couple of weeks ago 123stich is out of the 18-count at the moment, but I'll order when they get more in and make new grilles. The cabinets have some issues, but nothing too severe. I'll work on those. Here are some pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Very nice Six's to restore. I'd leave those oil caps. Later removable Six grills show up on fleabay occasionally if you want to maintain the original look. Mine are vintage 1963, one has the glued tweeter, one screw mount. Being that the grills were not removable, you would not know by the sound. This is the transition year to the screw mounted tweeters, I got mine from the original owner who was bringing them to the curb, and got their history. Grills were already removed. Mine were in far worse shape than yours needing a complete re-veneer. I found near perfect grills on fleabay, with the early cloth. The cloth varied over the production duration. You should be able to flatten out the back plate with a block of wood and hammer to get it flat again. Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hull rust Posted March 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Hey Glenn: The caps will stay, no doubt. One of the cabinets has deep scratches on the top so I'm thinking of block sanding both and then using Watco. I bought a pair of grilles off eBay for my other 6s, they're the darker cloth version. If I can find a lighter version I'll try to get those. Using my vise with paper towel padding made the plates look a lot better. Both were pretty well bent like the one in the second picture. I'll put foam between the plates and cabinet. I'm also going to seal between the baffle and the cabinet with elastometric caulk. These 6s really sound nice, I'm going to compare with my other 6s which are also the epoxy models but have the screw mount tweeters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted May 13, 2016 Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 The early Six's with epoxied woofers go a bit deeper than the later, basket screw mounted woofers. With my 1963 Six's, I managed to keep the aluminum plates reasonably flat, and I used a small wood block & hammer to flatten them out. Worked great. Wish mine had the oil caps, but didn't, and ended up having to replace an open tweeter anyway along with a re-cap. One of them has the epoxied tweeter, the other, screw mounted. 1963 was the transition year to the screw mounted tweeter. I believe 1965 the switch to screw mounted woofers was fazed in. There is no detectable difference in sound with the different tweeters, and with the permanent grills, you would never know. They sound so good with my Scott LK-72 tube amp. Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKent Posted May 14, 2016 Report Share Posted May 14, 2016 Quote I checked the surround and it's dry. Welcome Rusty You might want to contact RoyC for some of his authentic sealer. -Kent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samberger0357 Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 On 5/13/2016 at 1:53 PM, GD70 said: The early Six's with epoxied woofers go a bit deeper than the later, basket screw mounted woofers. With my 1963 Six's, I managed to keep the aluminum plates reasonably flat, and I used a small wood block & hammer to flatten them out. Worked great. Wish mine had the oil caps, but didn't, and ended up having to replace an open tweeter anyway along with a re-cap. One of them has the epoxied tweeter, the other, screw mounted. 1963 was the transition year to the screw mounted tweeter. I believe 1965 the switch to screw mounted woofers was fazed in. There is no detectable difference in sound with the different tweeters, and with the permanent grills, you would never know. They sound so good with my Scott LK-72 tube amp. Glenn Know what you mean. I have mine teamed up with a similar vintage pair of Heathkit W-5M mono blocks and and it's scary good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted May 26, 2016 Report Share Posted May 26, 2016 On 5/23/2016 at 9:16 PM, samberger0357 said: Know what you mean. I have mine teamed up with a similar vintage pair of Heathkit W-5M mono blocks and and it's scary good. That sounds like a great system. I have mine hooked up to my Scott LK-72, also a great combination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samberger0357 Posted May 26, 2016 Report Share Posted May 26, 2016 And yet, for the last few days I've been listening to them with higher power solid state, most recently a Yamaha M-4, and a whole new life comes over them. These guys do not have problem with significantly more power, used judicially, of course. The bass slam that is much more subtle with low power really blossoms with a big amp. So much so that they start to really remind me of their big AR cousins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted May 28, 2016 Report Share Posted May 28, 2016 Yes, they do quite well with SS power, but be careful! My first Six's were vintage 1972 vinyl clad cabs. I recapped them and resealed the woofer surrounds, and one day, I was cranking them when I heard this very loud POP! Scared the crap out of me. Bottomed out the VC, but didn't seem to do any damage as they still sounded great. Just be careful with the volume and bass knobs! Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samberger0357 Posted May 28, 2016 Report Share Posted May 28, 2016 Of course. Thing about the Six's that they are surprisingly efficient in real world use, particularly in a small room . So keeping the gain at a conservative level while still getting sufficient volume is not very difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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