bsacco1 Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 OK, yes, I own a pair of 1980 LaScala's with rebuilt ALK x-overs by the Grinch who stole Christmas, I assume you all know about Al. Anyhow, these birch cabs are not in superior shape. The theme in my listening room would be closer to walnut modern-looking furniture. The blond-looking unfinished birch wood with its 7-ply showing sides seems out of place. I thought about finding a wood-wooker to apply walnut veneer but I am having problems finding anyone local who is qualified to do such a job. Plus, I have no idea what that would cost. I also thought about doing something less complicated and just building a tweeter and mid horn speaker grille like shown on the attached image plus covering the exposed 7-ply on the front-facing edges with a flat mould. Of course, I don't know where to buy the speaker fabric as shown in the picture. I was wondering if anyone else on this forum has been through this same exercise in trying to make these Cornwalls more appealing to their wives with the modifications mentioned above? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chassell Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 You could sand and stain with whatever finish you prefer. Paint the interior of the bass bin black as it would be murder to get in there and sand/stain. Edge banding will cover the edges of the plywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeader Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 My were 1987 bar room speakers and were a real mess. The photo above is with new veneer on, the process is slow and takes a skilled person to do it cleanly. It took 3, 4x8 sheets of veneer to get all the grain going in the right directions. The V shaped area of the dog house is the real problem getting enough weight on the veneer during the drying process is the issue. Also dealing with the front leading edges can be tricky with grain flow and direction. Also finding and applying the right stain takes some time and experimentation all part of the wood working expertise I hired. we used scrap pieces of veneer for testing. Would I do it again yes, but I would also seriously consider building a pair as time and cost would likely be similar. If you build I would have the squaker mounted from the front versus your current setup and I would do the same for the tweeter. Why better signal dispersion with possibly a wider sound stage. See current La Scalla design. At a minimum get a new washer for you Squaker as it will be dried out by now, also open up the dog house from the bottom and check your driver, one of mine had a tear in the paper part of the driver. Before sealing up run a bead of glue in all the inside edges to make sure the space is air tight. Good Luck going forward 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave MacKay Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 This thread presents what I did with mine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 I think black satin paint would look excellent with that fabric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Do a search here on the forum for member Matthews. He restored several sets of LS that were in need of some TLC. Two of those pairs can be seen in the photo above. He added grills for the top and the bass bin similar to a Belle. They always turned out nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Found another pair. @cincymat ended up with these for a while 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 1 hour ago, MookieStl said: Found another pair. @cincymat ended up with these for a while Sold the same day. I haven't talked with @Matthews for a while... maybe since the time I was there when I stole the plate from your place. 😜 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 2 hours ago, MookieStl said: Those are spectacular. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Bsacco1, You can click on my avatar for a better look at mine. They looked like yours. I had a cabinet maker repair the nicks and gouges, then condition and stain them with Minwax mahogany and finally coat them with satin water-based polyurethane. My kids were preteens. The edge plies are covered with 3/4” x 3/4" solid cherry and finished with the rest of the cabinets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacek Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 On 5/23/2024 at 9:26 PM, JMeader said: The photo above is with new veneer on, Do you have more pictures of your work? I realy like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeader Posted June 1 Share Posted June 1 This what they looked like the day I got them and was testing them. Actually they sounded great but had definitely had a tough life. Two different tweeters, one damaged woofer , woofer screws were loose, wiring was marginal and the exterior was rough, and squaker gasket was dried out and cracked. The key was both speaker boxes were solid so great for a update project. For test I used a Crown amp I ordered all new drivers from Crites as well as new A4500 cross overs, and the project began Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeader Posted June 1 Share Posted June 1 clean up process begins - I rounded the tweeter and squaker openings for theoretically better dispersion ( not fact based just my opinion ) front point part of dog house was a mess and required a lot of wood putty and sanding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeader Posted June 1 Share Posted June 1 veneering inside the dog house was tedious, time consuming and painfully slow, use heavy steel weights where we could not clamp. left glue to dry over night so many days to veneer both boxes 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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