joshnich Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 FS Chris Kings Decorators!!! Yes Chris is selling a pair of Decorator Cornwalls in fact we are is selling two pairs of Decorator Cornwalls. No they are probably not the ones you are thinking of but they are pretty darn close! Same vintage and one pair have a very similar finish. A little background: Chris Kings Cornwalls that most have seen pictures of, lusted over, and more, were originally purchased 30 years ago. Chris and I were roommates living in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We brought them home from the store oiled them up with linseed oil, finished them off with about 10 coats of paste wax, hooked them up to my old MC 30s rolled a fat one and listened to Fleetwood Mac and Marshall Tucker (Chris choice) Years passed and the speakers ended up in the crawl space of my house until they were rescued by Chris. He proceeded to morph them into the wonderful specimens they are today. We got to thinking (a dangerous occurrence No doubt!) that if the speakers that were in my basement covered with overspray and yellowed with rancid linseed oil could be thought of in such high esteem that maybe we could recreate that magic. We searched high and low to find the two worst pairs of mid 70s Decorators we could locate. Both pairs were purchased off EBay from people who to our benefit couldnt spell Cornwall. Suffice it to say both pairs had seen better days. Our intent was to recreate the famous Chris King Cornwalls. I believe we were pretty successful. We didnt recreate the original Chris Kings but we Came pretty close. Pair one is finished in polyurethane like Chris but not as red. Beautiful non the less. The other pair is close to a classic piano black. They have been finished with multiple coats of semi-gloss lacquer. Pictures can be seen on the following link. (That is of course if I set this up properly). Please note that the badges have not been put back on. There is one photo of the natural ones where the badge is sitting on top its not glued there! We thought that we would leave the option whether to have em on up to whoever ends up with them. In my opinion the black ones would look good with a chromed badge. But again well leave that up to the eventual owner. http://www.photoworks.com/share/shareLanding.jsp?shareCode=AB759E2BE91&cb=PW In the case of both pairs the woofer dust covers have been replaced. Everything else is stock inside. High quality Cardas binding posts have also been added. The natural pair is in the LA area and the Piano Black ones are in the San Francisco Bay area. We have about a grand into each pair and are just looking to recoup our investments. The truth be known, we really dont want or really need to sell them and would actually like to kind a way to use them. But the reality is we both have too much stuff as it is so we would love to have a forum member enjoy them rather than have them sit in our respective garages! Josh PS Contact either Chris or myself with questions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Both pairs are extremely beautiful, especially the wood grain Chris King "clones"! If only I had mad money lying around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Damm, and they are about 1,800 miles.....too far away! Beautiful Pictures! Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Beautiful restoration work there! If they were east of the Mississippi you know they would be mine by now. Hope they go to a good home. Please someone take these beauties in and take care of them. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I have to give Chris a call. I bet I know what these are being replaced with..... Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 A couple of further points regarding these speakers. 1. The woofers on the pair in SoCal have been completely reconed by Orange County Speaker ( a very cool place to visit, lots of studios, musicians and the like send speakers there for repair). In fact when I brought the woofers in, the guy at the desk brought out one of the techs to take a look at the "very cool vintage speakers". The tech remarked that "speakers aren't made like this anymore, too bad...". I think Josh's pair of woofers were redone at a shop of some fame also. 2. Both pairs have new "Klipsch" logos that can be attached at the new owners discretion. The badges are the rectangular coppper type, not the "pie slice" type. I like the look of this type, however if anyone would like the other style, I'm sure they can be found. 3. I REALLY do not want to sell the pair down in SoCal. Restoring them has been a complete labor of love. But, my wife thinks I'm insane to have two pairs of "those things" and I need to keep peace on the home front. In fact I have these speakers on a soft beach blanket, covered on their own side of the garage with an eight foot "no fly zone" perimeter around them. I also have 2 pairs of Dynaco A-25's in my garage (not to mention a HK 430, HK 630, (2) Sony 5000FW tuners, a Sansuit TU-717 tuner, Scott 299B, Accuphase T-101 tuner, (2) Marantz HT receivers) and a pair of Wharfdales up at Josh's house that are coming down to SoCal soon. So, one pair of Cornwall's have to go. Thanks, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Is any of that other 'garage gear' for sale? I know a Forum member interested in one of those HK receivers. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted October 7, 2005 Author Share Posted October 7, 2005 Chris is right. the SF woofers were redone by abrounsoun (http://www.abrownsoun.com) speaker repair guy to the stars - or at least the norcal stars. When I was picking the woofers up, a couple boxes of speakers to be repaired arrived from Neil Young. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 The serial numbers for the nor cal piano black ones are 13R913 and 13R914 And yes this is a somehwhat shamless bump! Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieHeartKlipsch Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Chris is right. the SF woofers were redone by abrounsoun (http://www.abrownsoun.com) speaker repair guy to the stars - or at least the norcal stars. When I was picking the woofers up, a couple boxes of speakers to be repaired arrived from Neil Young. No wonder they broke!!!!!!!!! Niel Young plays everything TOO LOUD!!!!!!!! [<)][st] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 Now Julie, i will admit that he plays a lot a little loud ( I can get my kids to listen to him because he is the king of punk) but you have to admit that every now and then he does kickit pretty good in acoustic mode. I have seen him live solo a couple of times - playing guitar with harmonica and piano and he was superb. Very emotional. The first time was in 1970 at the Berkeley Community Theater ( the auditorium for Berkeley High - I have seen everyone from Dylan to JT and the who there). Ill never forget the effect that he had on my date!!! josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted October 25, 2005 Author Share Posted October 25, 2005 bump before they go to craigs list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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