What wood is under those black cabinets?

[Cohoangler]

As we all know, some of the cabinets on vintage Klipsch speakers were painted black.   I know PWK didn’t use cheap wood, so presumably the wood underneath the paint was reasonably high quality (although perhaps not mahogany or walnut or zebrawood).  So why didn’t they just leave them unfinished?  (I realized some were unfinished.  In fact, my Hersey II cabinets were unfinished birch when I bought them new in 1989).

 

The reason I ask is because I found a pair of kg 4’s a few months back for really cheap.  I didn’t  buy them because the cabinets were in poor shape.  They were black, but the finish was chipped, scratched, faded, and water-stained. It was only after seeing several speaker rehab projects on this website did I realize that by stripping off the black paint, the underlying wood might be quite good.  (Perhaps unfinished birch!)   So even if the finish is poor, an old pair of vintage Klipsch speakers might be rehabbed back to respectability.

 

So if I were to strip off the black paint from a pair of vintage Klipsch speakers, what type of wood am I most likely to find? 

[Hardway1969]

I would be eager to know as well as my Quartets were factory black but some moron painted them purple.

[WMcD]

I don't recall the source but it is generally believed that if a box or matched pair of hardwood veneer had a problem, including matching, they would be painted black and sold as such.  PWK and his workers were very persnickety about the quality of the veneer.. 

 

I see that the KG 4.2 came in walnut and variations of oak.  Therefore, you probably will find one of those under the black lacquer.

 

They did not come in birch and so it seem unlikely birch is underneath. 

 

WMcD

[oldred]

I have stripped and refinished several pair of black Klipsch speakers from Quartets to Chorus II's. Only once have I been able to strip and refinish with out re doing the veneer.

Generally if the cabinets match the risers DO NOT. What I have learned if they are consecutive serial numbers the upper cabinets will be the same type of veneer. The risers all bets are off.

 

 

G.E.M.

 

[jimjimbo]

23 minutes ago, oldred said:

I have stripped and refinished several pair of black Klipsch speakers from Quartets to Chorus II's. Only once have I been able to strip and refinish with out re doing the veneer.

Generally if the cabinets match the risers DO NOT. What I have learned if they are consecutive serial numbers the upper cabinets will be the same type of veneer. The risers all bets are off.

 

 

G.E.M.

 

I would agree.  For the most part, you're asking for trouble and a lot of work if you attempt to strip black paint from the cabinets.  Some folks have gotten lucky with it, but most have not.  If you find a pair in black that are rough and need some work, and  if you are ok with the black color, go with Duratex.    Done well, it can look quite nice.

 

 

[HDBRbuilder]

18 hours ago, Cohoangler said:

The reason I ask is because I found a pair of kg 4’s a few months back for really cheap.  I didn’t  buy them because the cabinets were in poor shape.  They were black, but the finish was chipped, scratched, faded, and water-stained. It was only after seeing several speaker rehab projects on this website did I realize that by stripping off the black paint, the underlying wood might be quite good.  (Perhaps unfinished birch!)   So even if the finish is poor, an old pair of vintage Klipsch speakers might be rehabbed back to respectability.

 

So if I were to strip off the black paint from a pair of vintage Klipsch speakers, what type of wood am I most likely to find? 

It depends on a number of things.  It depends on what model the speakers are, and (ESPECIALLY) for Heritage speaker models, when they were made, which will determine what KINDS of wood were used to build them during that time frame, and what you can expect to be UNDER that black paint.  If there was an unsightly seam in a fine veneer book-match panel, then they were painted black.  If they were birch they could have been painted black.  KG2 speakers were never offered in birch...and I don't believe ANY of the KG series were EVER offered in birch, so they could have oak veneer or walnut veneer under the paint....and maybe cherry if they were offered in that veneer.  The labels will tell you what they are in most cases, but if the labels are missing it is the luck of the draw.

[Cohoangler]

Thanks for the responses.  However, I'm rather surprised that some Klipsch speakers (kg's) could have oak, walnut or cherry under the black paint.  Any of those types of wood would still look terrific even with an imperfection (especially walnut!).  I would NEVER consider painting over walnut veneer.  Perhaps I'm just partial to wood grain, even if it's not perfect.  

 

Next time, I will take note of the labels to see if it indicates the type of wood under the black paint.  Thanks for the tip! 

 

 

[HDBRbuilder]

Sometimes the panels would arrive with imperfections, such as these below, which would get them painted black or a repair had to be made to the veneer, which would also get them painted black for sale:

 

Common reasons fine-veneered Klipsch speakers were painted black:

1. Walnut sapwood part of one of the veneer sheets on panels:  The sapwood of Black walnut is white to creamy white, and more "pithy" than the heartwood; it doesn't take stain well for an oiled finish, and a lacquered finish is out of the question for aesthetics reasons....so black is what it gets.

2. Any seam on a veneered panel is not a good seam, such as when the grains don't align properly on a book-match on a panel, or there is a slight gap in the seam...black is what it gets after seam is filled and sanded smooth.

3. Sometimes there were "crumbs" of veneer or whatever that made their way BETWEEN the faces of fine-veneered panels prior to the pallets being steel-strapped, prior to shipping to Klipsch, and those crumbs made major dents into the veneer faces that just could NOT be swelled up back to an even surface, so those dents were repaired and the cabinets were shot with black paint and sold as black.

4. Sometimes a chip was along a mitered edge of a fine-veneered speaker cabinet and could not be repaired with a piece of matching veneer, so the chip was filled-in and the speaker was shot with black paint.

5. Sometimes speakers were damaged in shipment and returned to the plant.  If the damage was bad and had to be repaired using fiberglass or something else (as in a damaged corner!), then the repair was made and the speaker was shot with black paint.  BUT, those particular speakers were NORMALLY donated to local churches, as a tax write-off, instead of making it to regular customer sales.  But, over time some of these were stolen from churches, or sold by them when new systems were bought and installed, so they MAY have made it into the used speaker market.  They also may have been shot with white paint at the plant, instead of with black paint.  The FUNCTION of these was fine, since they were re-tested after cabinet repairs were made, but efforts to refinish them will be thwarted by some of the repairs which had to be made.

6. ANY birch plywood speaker which left black may or may not have had an issue which caused it to be painted black...OR white.  The same goes for any Fir speaker (Marine-grade Fir plywood was used PRIOR to the adoption of custom-veneered birch plywood for the "decorator" series of speakers).

 

There is more, but the above list pretty much sums up the majority of reasons for speakers being painted prior to sale or donation.

[moray james]

usually ash or red oak