edster00 Posted April 17, 2002 Share Posted April 17, 2002 Thanks for your explanation! Ya know, I don't even notice the mis-matched, 6 strip rosewood panels with the lights turned down low and the tubes all a'glow playing my favorite tunes! While it would have been nice to have a "honcho" pair of primo matched exotic wood Khorns I am perfectly happy with these. I am in the process of fininshing their home in my basement to make a proper home for them. BTW I did check my Heresy's...one has OD and the other has JC stamped in the upper L corner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 17, 2002 Share Posted April 17, 2002 Edster, those are the codes for the gals who sanded and prepared your heresys for the paint/oil department...OD=Ola Mae Davis, and I think JC was Jessie Cummings...Ola Mae sanded my heresys...she was the best one there at the time...if you look real close you may see some fainter marks stamped into the edges in those areas...or maybe the marks were filled with putty...some times the back edges were sanded down some at the corners because they were "proud"...the cabinet panels were flush at the front, but like i said, sometimes they were a bit proud at the back at the miter and the gals took a belt sander to em to even em up...so you might still be able to see the initials for the builder that were stamped in prior to sanding...the sander initials were stamped in AFTER sanding...so they will show up better to your eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCturboT Posted April 17, 2002 Share Posted April 17, 2002 HDBR, Thanks for the info on those wood types,I really appreciate it.I'll keep my eyes open for some mahogany speakers.Its nice having someone with "inside" info on the site. Jeff PS:forget to ask about cherry veneers-were a lot made? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 17, 2002 Share Posted April 17, 2002 JCTurbo, I cant remember very many of the heresys or cornwalls in cherry, but i did build a few cherry cornwalls and i remember some cherry Belles being built and a few K-horns...they werent very commonly made tho in those days....probably alot fewer cherry ones than the rosewood ones. I never can understand the reasoning behind making cherry furniture...people always want cherry, but want it dark....well...cherry isnt dark until it has been sittin around aging for quite some time...cherry, like sugar maple(hard maple) is naturally a very light wood, but it has a very high iron content in it and as it ages it takes on a darker color as the iron in it oxidizes...kinda like a rust red...with the cherry taking on more of the red in the color and the maple leaning more toward a dark orange-brown to dark red color....but the customer always wants it dark, dark red....may as well take birch and just stain it dark red because most customers could never tell the difference anyway...LOL! I say, if ya want cherry Klipsch speakers, get em and oil em, but dont stain em dark...and watch em gain their dark patina over the years while listening to the fine sound coming from inside em!!!!...LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edster00 Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 HDBR, The only other letters I can find stamped into the edges are USA on the long (vertical) side pieces...oh well I was hoping to find an "A" or an "AB" stamped on there! Thanks again for all the information you are providing here! ------------------ 2 Channel System: '78 Khorns w/ALK networks Welborne Labs Moondog 2A3 amps AES AE-3 Superpreamp DJH mods McIntosh MCD 7007 CD McIntosh MR-78 Tuner DIYCable Twisted Cross Connects DIYCable Superlatives (preamp/amp) DH Labs Silver Pulse interconnects (sources/preamp) f> s> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 I've got one of those "Urmilla S. Anderson" models, too. The other has an "N", who's that? fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornEd Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 Oh, gee, fini... you have a very rare one there... "N" is for Nottingham Bose, illegitimate son of Urmilla S. Anderson, who took a summer job to further his MIT research on the "Silver Dollar Pancake Horn" which comes with "Syrup d'Erable" in Canada. -HornED This message has been edited by HornEd on 04-18-2002 at 09:57 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 Edster, Well, like i said earlier, the initial of the builder MAY have gotten sanded off...I was tryin to remember exactly which year, but anyway....they called all of us builders together one morning and told us to start stamping our code deeper into the cabinet edge so that it wouldnt disappear when the sandin gals got thru with em....before that we didnt sink the die that deep into the back edge, but after that we did...well, i guess "them's the breaks"...LOL! Fini, Like I said earlier, I can't remember the codes for everybody who built speakers there...I wasnt the only one who built cornwalls or decorator heresys while I was there....if i was busy building HD's, and they needed some cornwalls, then somebody else would come over and knock em out for a day or so...and vice versa...but generally speaking, from about mid-1977 on I built probably at least 90% of all the HD's and cornwalls of both types. Normally I would have plenty of pallets(20 to a pallet) of HD boxes sittin waitin to get sanded whenever I went over to the table behind me to build cornwalls, but not always...when i first started building heresys my foreman told me that a good builder outta be able to build 150 or so boxes a day on average if all he did was HD's...but after a month or so doin it I was regularly exceeding that number...it got to a point where I never even counted em for a year or so, cause I was knockin out so many in a day...LOL!...then along came the number crunchers and daily quotas were initiated for builders...the foreman would wander around and ask about how many a person was building each day to figure out what the quota should be...they asked me about the HD's and I said 175...so he wrote down 200(as i knew he would...LOL!)...we already knew this was coming, so we had all started counting up what we built in a day a few weeks BEFORE they came around asking...I varied between 240 and 400 depending on how much culling i had to do, how good i felt on a particular day, etc....but after the quotas were initiated i always told the foreman "200" each day he came around at quitting time and asked me...it drove him nuts because there were always a helluva lot more than that built and he couldnt make the numbers jive!!!! He would tell the sanding room foreman that the sanders obviously weren't sanding as many cabinets as the sanding room foreman said they were because the pallets of em werent disappearing fast enough...LOL! It was easy to track the numbers for K-horns...it took a builder about 1-1/2 to 2 days to build one....about 4-5 lascalas a day were possible...i cant remember how many cornwalls a day, tho...that depended on alot of factors...and whether they were the CD models or the veneered ones...and a day and a half to two days for a Belle...so the only builders who had the opportunity to play with the foreman's head were the heresy and cornwall builders...LOL!...and NO WAY was THIS CHILD gonna let an opportunity like that escape!!!!LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 HDBRbuilder- It would be very cool if you had any photos from those days, and were kind enough to post 'em here. I don't know if K&A would approve, though. Just a thought. Thanks for answering so many questions! with the length and details of your posts, you obviously don't suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from throwing boxes around! fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 18, 2002 Share Posted April 18, 2002 Fini, Yep...i get kinda on these tangents every now and then...LOL! And, yes I actually DO have some pictures that relate to the company...or at least to the employees of the time...I will look thru em and maybe scan some of em in so you can see what a fine mixture of "redneck" and "hippie-types" of that era built up these high quality speakers we so much admire...LOL! There actually ARE a few of the folks in these pics who still work there, so I will have to be careful not to post any "incriminating" pics of em from back then...LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Garrett Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Wes and HD, I've got a seemingly original pair of "M" (988/989)Cornwalls with vertically mounted K-77s/K-55Vs horns and my 'pie shaped' logos are in the upper left corners. Since I've had the backs off, I've noticed that it would be very difficult to refabric these speakers and they don't seem to have been fixed. My woofers are K-33Ps, btw. Chris ------------------ My Systems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubadj Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 HDBRbuilder, Have to say this is one of the more interesting posts here. I think you may have built my Cornwalls. I bought them in 1978 (17S353 and 17S354, C-WO). I never noticed the stamp on the side - A3KC. If this is your mark, I want you to know that they are still beautiful for their age and they still sound great. I've been very kind to them and they've forgiven me when I've pushed them - just wish the neighbors would (LOL) The internet has made the world a very small place. Like the others, I would love to see some old pictures from that era. Thanks again for the history! Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShapeShifter Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Hey Chris, How are you? Your 74's have a very nice fit and finish too, as I recall. The fabric can be replaced, but those Pie Slice Logos are pretty much irreplaceable, if damaged in the process. I used an old pair of clippers and basically shaved the fuzz of the fabric, then used a soft brush with upholstery cleaner to clean the fabric. My 71's have the same internals as yours. Those Vertical Cornwalls produce excellent clarity and one heck of a sound stage! Hope you're enjoying your too! Wes ------------------ "KLIPSCH IS MUSIC"f> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted April 25, 2002 Share Posted April 25, 2002 Scubadj, If you look a little closer to that "3", you may find out it is actually a "B" that sunk in slightly off level. Either way, the only person building in '78 with an "A" in their code was me, so I built them. Glad you are taking good care of em and enjoying them!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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