HDBRbuilder

Those initials are more likely the sander of the cabinets, but if you gently scrape off the paint below those initials, you will likely find the builder code initial(s)...sanders tended to slather the rear edges of the panels with thinned down wood filler...let it harden, then belt sand those edges. Doing this often resulted in the builder code either getting completely sanded off or at least getting filled with putty and then it got painted over.! So if it is there it is under the paint. The sander code was put on after the sanding was completed...so it tends to always remain prominent, even after being painted-over. The builder code should be right below the sander code....underneath the paint.

I use very light application of Johnson's paste wax on my laquered speakers...and buff it to a high gloss by hand. works great! If old oiled finish, then wipe them down with wood soap first, to clean any surface grunge from them, wait until next day and then use whatever the original oil finish was...if not sure...use Watco's rejuvenating oil. .

Just a badge job folks...just a badge job! The box panels may have been special-ordered for them, though!

OK...so here is the whole crap-show AGAIN of how many employees in the 1970's (and even earlier than that!)...thru the Early 1980's woiuld do their own personal "upgrading" routine for their speakers. Back in those days Klipsch employees were allowed to purchase one pair of speakers per year at approximately 40% of MSRP. The employee was required to keep those speakers for at least one year before re-selling them. So...best case scenario for upgrading would be to start out with dropping around 250 bucks (@ 40% in 1978) for a pair of birch Heresys...or for a bit more, get walnut ones instead. Keep them for a year...then sell them to somebody at MSRP, which tended to be pretty easy to do...more on WHY later. So now you have about 635+ bucks to put towards either a pair of Cornwalls in walnut, OR a par of Lascalas...you decide which ones. Which whenyou buy them, srtill leaves you with enough money remaining for a few cases of beer. So you keep them for a year...then sell them, again at MSRP of even more...again...easy to do, and Why is coming up at the end. So you take the money you got for the Cornwalls OR the LaScalas...which would be more than enough to pick up either a pair of Belles, OR a pair of K-horns at 40% of MSRP...so after three purchases over a period of just TWO years, your original 250 bucks out of pocket expense investment has bought you a pair of K-horns or Belles. So...Just WHY was it so easy to sell them at OR ABOVE MSRP when you decided to do so? The answer is pretty simple: You got preferential treatment of what you purchased as an employee all the way thru the plant!...unless everybody hated you! For example: 1. You got to specially slect the panels used for the box bodies or in the case of the K-horn its finely veneered panels sets. SO, the employee generally chose some very unique panels. 2. If you did not build them yourself, then you got to CHOOSE who did! 3. If you did not sand them yourself, then you got to choose who did. 4. You were taken care of very well by the folks in the finishing department...who ensured your speaker appearance was a masterpiece of their abilities. 5. Even in final assembly for all internal components they were PERFECTLY matched! If you wanted serial numbers ending in "00" and "01" then you got them. If you wanted your name stamped into the rear of the speakers, you got that too! So that is WHY it was so easy to sell them at or above actual MSRP! They were as customized of a job as possible! Today we see the Museum editions and other special editions...but back in THOSE days the "oooos and aaaahs" available were MOSTLY for the "employee specials"! Does it all make sense now??

PWK was commissioned in the Army as an Ordnance officer. Ordnance is the projectiles/ammunition and their delivery systems, from individual firearms, all the way up to missiles, their delivery systems and their warheads. PWK was also a competition rifle shooter for a number of years, and most likely also competed in hand-gun competition. His assignment to the Southwest Proving Grounds for the duration of WWII led him to decide to start-up his speaker business there after the war ended. He liked the work ethic of the locals and his wife was already teaching at the school In Hope. The former proving grounds are a few miles North of Hope, Arkansas. Those proving grounds during WWII, were primarily devoted to improvement of ammunition for mortars and artillery during the war. Although PWK was an avid shooter he did no hunting. of wild game. He WAS a re-loader, though. He worked-up some nice loads to try out in my .300 Win Mag. I supplied the once-expended brass and his recommendations for various weight/type bullets in .308 diameter for use in different hunting scenarios, and he worked up the loads...they were extremely accurate loads, too! He was really surprised when I repaid him with two boxes of Sierra .308 match-king BTHP 168 gr. bullets...I figured he had an M1903A1 NM w/star-gauged barrel stashed somewhere at home...and he displayed his not often seen BIG grin when I handed them to him. 🤣 .

As far As I can remember no raw birch Beles were ever bult unless it was some kind of weird special order or something.. Besides, if a person wanted Raw birch in a pair they wuold be better off getting a pair of LaScalas...at less than half the price of a pair of Belles.

The CDBR and HDBR were a particular build type for those speaker models, and they were both replaced by the HBR and the CBR which had identical motor-boards to the finely veneered versions of those speakers. Actually, the Decorator versions had a better chance of surviving a long drop onto a front corner of the speaker, simply due to the box construction itself. The Decorator versions had the top edge of the motor-board lapping over the front edge of the top panel, and the bottom edge of the motor-board lapped over the front edge of the bottom panel, then the front edge of the side panels lapped over both the motor-board and the top and bottom panels, which made the box stronger at all four front corners of the assembly for a drop test situation on any of those four front corners.

There is a guy just down the road from me who also served in the same Airborne unit I served in, but he was there about a decade before I was. He makes custom hunter/skinners, but only for auction to Airborne association reunions....so as to get more money into their association coffers. His work is more than respectable, and I have one of his blades...I think he actually starts out with leaf springs from very old trucks...which tend to make great-edge-holding blades, that will not get damaged from prying with them...high carbon spring steel! He re-forges them some, but they are still basically the same steel the springs started out as. They too, WILL RUST, if not taken care of, but they make GREAT practical user knives...which is what I personally prefer in a knife! I have another old Airborne buddy who specializes in holsters and sheathes...and his work is simply outstanding! When we had a retiring LTC from the ROTC program I worked at...I talked to the rest of the gang about getting him one of the holsters for his retirement/departure gift. Her is a pic of what he received...simply amazing work! I designed the lay-out of things, based upon the LTC's military experience...and when I presented it to him, his eyes teared up! Anybody interested in the holsters or knife sheaths...just google "Clever Action Holsters" You won't be disappointed in what you get for a very reasonable cost!

My father was a career Army food service warrant officer, retiring in Jan 1964, with over 27 years of service. I use what he used, and, if I use something different, he was the one who told me it was great stuff, otherwise I would never have bought it. So...what do I use? I am a hunter, and I have always "processed" my meat myself, so I have a standard kit for initial butchering and quartering and such for large game. The skinning knife is an old school Schrade sharp finger, made back when all of them were USA-made. I got mine in the early 1970's. For initial butchering and quartering and such, I use TWO knives...both of which are high-carbon and both of which are "Old Hickory" brand forged steel. One is a standard butcher knife, while the other is a medium length boning knife. These were also purchased new in the early 1970's. So, my kitchen knives are all of one brand and same series....with stainless high carbon steel blades, forged in the USA, and purchased over about a decade (late 1980's thru mid 1990's), initially in a large set, but I also added every single one of them in that series over the next few years. And, that is LOTS of cutting instruments, because the Walnut Traditions line of Chicago Cutlery was the largest collection out there!...from ANYBODY! I will never have a need for more knives than I already have for game and food preparation< TRUST ME on THAT! I use only Arkansas stones for sharpening stones, and have both a ceramic and steel chef's sharpening steel for them. What do I carry in the woods when hunting? Buck Folding hunter...from back in the day when I was a young paratrooper. What is my pocket knife? "Mauser" labelled Victorinox-made "Swiss Army Knife" with everything I NEED on it. If I had known how valuable this particular knife would become on the collector's market, when I bought it for 12 bucks in 1986, I would have bought every one there at Ranger Joe's! It was a promotional knife for a Mauser changeable barrel bolt action rifle, that didn't exactly sell as well as Mauser hoped it would when it first came out! Not very many of these knives were made to begin with! Ranger Joe's bought up the remaining inventory after the Mauser promotional time limit expired, and a couple of cases were on clearance when I bought mine! Do I have other knives??...yes, many of them, mostly just for investments for the future, though. My collectible passion is sailor knives...most only have sheep's foot blade with marlin spike! I have some really nice and rare ones in NIB condition! What do I think of Gerber knives? They hold an edge for a decent time, BUT the steel edge is too hard, and chips easily! I prefer an older Buck to them! Never had a USA-made Buck blade edge chip, yet!

And that, my friends is how the "First Annual Arkansas Jam" went belly-up, never to be heard about again. Some people never learn to WAIT, like they are told to do! 5,000 watts input...OMG!

It is about a 98% probability that I built these two Cornwalls. First off, there would be no outer veneer of FIR, on even the CBR or CDBR models at the time these were built. We had been using custom-laid birch cabinet plywood for a number of years already. Since these were miter-jointed cabinets, the actual box panels were shipped to us already veneered in fine veneer...with the substrate under that veneer being poplar-lumber-core plywood BTW..."CFB" stands for Cornwall, Flat-Black. Which was what these were shipped from the factory as. The labels were applied after the final assembly was completed, right before testing. So, when final assembly got the boxes, they were already painted flat black, so that is what they wrote on the labels: CFB If they had been CB ones...they would have easily seen that because they would have been built without mitered corner joints, because the birch ones had nailed together butt-joints instead of mitered joints. If they had been CB (birch) series, the label would have read "CBFB". As for the K43 woofers found in them, some customers wanted the "industrial" K-43 instead of the regular standard K-33...but there is ALSO the possibility that the K-33's had been replaced with K-43's at some point in time after they shipped.

I've been forced into a much shorter radius of travel from my domicile lately. Long story! But the radius will get much longer very soon...once the weather warms up some. As for posting on the fourm...I have also been busy chatting with many kin on FB the past year or so...seldom make it into the forum due to that..

MY BEST GUESS is that they have been refinished at some point....why? No Klipsch logo on the front, and no "klipsch" painted on in white...why? because the logo can't be applied in its normal position, nor can it be painted on in its normal position, due to the round-over of the tweeter and mid-horn lens openings...plus if you look very closely at the "peak of the roof" of the doghouse section...notice the slight discoloration either side of it?? The "peak" has obviously been repaired due to dents and such and a touch up in black has been applied there. During that same refurbishment the round-overs of all the edges likely occurred, or were slightly over-run with round-over bit in a router, and the entire cabinet, sans the interior of the doghouse portion of the bass bin, was re-shot afterwards in textured black. We did this quite often at the plant, also...on ones damaged in shipment and returned to us. The company would write them off as a loss on the books, then we would repair them and the company would donate them to local churches or public schools and write them off again as a donation to a non-profit for tax purposes! Happened all the time! But when we did it at the company we always found some way to get the word "Klipsch" onto them so that the listeners would know who made what they were listening to...free advertising!😉

OR...maybe cherry

Facing the rear of the speaker, look at the rear edge of the side panel to your left, about an inch from the top...if you see the letter "A" there, I built them. Builders and sanders had a letter code assigned to them...mine was the letter "A"....the letter was stamped into the rear edge side panel where I told you to look. The sanders tended to slather wood filler along the rear edge before sanding it, so they sometimes either completely sanded off the builder(s) initials or they became hard to discern since they got filled with wood putty, then sanded down somewhat. After the sander was finished sanding the speaker, they stamped their own letter code into the same general area either above or below the builder code. Cornwalls cabinets were NORMALLY built by two workers, one on each side of the work table in those days...so I was the lead builder for them and I would have a helper with me, and his/her initial would be right beside my "A". When these were built, if I was NOT the builder, then it was because I had taken a day off or was on vacation.

All I have to say is this: H/K 430, 630, 730 or 930 twin-powered stereo receivers from the early to mid-1970's. If you haven't tried them in good condition, you are missing out! The old so-called heritage models of Klipsch love them! I do too!

Drive or fly out, rent a large u-haul box truck/moving van...load them up and drive them home. If you drive out, then tow your car behind the truck on the way home. You can also palletize them and have them shipped to you...I recommend using ABF freight for that. But either way...you will have to locally pick them up and have at least one person go with you because the MWM woofers are pretty heavy....even the split versions like these are.

About a 99% probability that I built those.

When idiot-sticks hunt on other people's privately-owned timberland, they have absolutely no respect for being allowed to do that...so all of mine is posted to keep them out. You would not believe how many careless hunters just shoot up the trees on the land of others! This drops the price received from sawmills for timber every time a bullet in the wood is hit by the saw! It really ticks me off, too! That is money lost on the entire sale just for ONE bullet!

Also a PWK tongue-in-cheek true statement...JIM, did you ever ask him which skirmish it was during that battle?😉

PWK used to say he had fought in he Battle of Southwest Proving Grounds during the war....which was tongue-in-cheek true!

All the prototypes of the Jube bass bin were built using a table saw...and routers and such. My best friend Mike was on that R&D team as a "worker-bee"...and he had to either tear things apart for a re-build, or completely build another one each time they were tested and changes were made. TRUST ME, I've heard all about the development from him over the years! I'm pretty sure that somewhere there is evidence in CAD of each prototype built tho...to include its final version. This was in order to save wasting time working up any CNC programs until the final prototype passed muster, I'm sure! Now, as for a scaled--down K-horn...Bois'd'arc (Robert Wyatt) built one over 40 years ago...it was 1/2 scale meaning one-fourth in size...and in his own words..."sure was lots of work to end up with something that didn't even sound as good as a KG2! But at least I can say I built one someday!" It was eventually stolen from him! He had been keeping it under his K-horn work table and one day it was just gone! No telling where it ended up, either! We searched high and low...because that theft was not supposed to happen in our factory...meant we had some thieves around! Everybody I knew was pretty pissed about it, too!...including myself! He and I were very good friends!...still are!

See this... and see this.... If you do the math...between the date on PWK's PREVIEW drawing of trhe "STYLE 7" and actual first use use of K-horn #175...then 175 is either the very first factory production of the Style 7....or very close to it, IMHO...once JRH steps in here...maybe he can narrow it down a bit more....but one to eight months is already a given...between the drawing and #175...which means it is pretty damned close if not the first factory "style 7" built, IMHO!

: MDF replaced Lumber-core plywood for finely-veneered panels for the Klipsch speakers over 2 decades ago. This is lumber-core plywood...which is what the finely-veneered panels on the K-horn were made-of when his K-horns were built...and the lumber in that core was POPLAR: This flyer gives views of the three different K-horn styles of builds, B, C, and D-styles of builds:

You are looking at two or more different cabinet builds, and thinking they are all the same...There was D-style, C-style, and yours which are B-style! All different specific buids and each priced differently....with B-style the most expensive of them all! B-style has a trap panel pon thope of the bass bin...then another one atop that but with a collar between the two...then the very top trap panel. C-style has one trap on the top pof the bass bin...NO CLLLAR AT ALL, and another trap above that one with sides connecting the two traps...one above the other...only the bottom trap is NOT removeable...the rest is! D-style is no trtaps at all...the bass bin front panel actually extends upwards to become the motor-board for the H/Fsection...no removeable wood above the bass bin body , itself! I'm leaving the rest of your questions for JRH to answer...over an hour of typing your answers already and that is enough FOR ME...good night! .