UPDATED:Pigskin to Silk Purse: Finished Klipsch Heresy Project
 

I'll let the picture do the talking:

https://i.imgur.com/dCG4dnP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GVNmwBb.jpg

And Now:

https://i.imgur.com/ZwXI8So.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PRIsEbu.jpg

I'll load the drivers back in a couple of days.

Not bad for a $140 worth of veneer and a small bottle of Tru-Oil, eh?

Howard Emerson

Bravo!!!

Bob

Very impressive Howard!

Very nice!!! Always have been of the opinion that the Heresy speakers sounded REALLY, REALLY good for the $$$...

Enjoy!

I enjoyed the Heresy speakers a lot when I owned them. Congrats again on a nice job of restoration!

Some Heresy history: the Heresy was originally designed to be used as a center channel in a 3 speaker system. From the Klipsch website: "In 1957, Klipsch introduced the Heresy speaker, effectively the world’s first commercial center channel speaker. A year later, that center channel speaker was demonstrated at the World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium."

Wow - they look great.

I have some 4 ft tall speakers that also need some TLC - they have a vinyl sheet on them now, that's peeling off. But maybe I won't be veneering them if the veneer is that expensive (probably 3x the surface area of yours). Or maybe I'll wait for wood prices to come down. Care to share any tips on how to veneer?

Lar,
Have you ever done any plastic laminating with contact cement, a router & a mill file?

If you have then you are prepared for veneering, except you absolutely get only 1 chance to index the sheet correctly. With Formica/plastic laminate it's fairly easy to remove with lacquer thinner and try again.

With self-adhesive 3M PSA veneer you only get one chance. Go watch some videos, which I assume are out there.

Best of luck!

Howard

PS-The cost of veneer has not changed much from my experience, and I've done quite a bit of veneer work over the past 3-4 years.

HE

Thanks Howard, I'll check out some videos to see if I'm up to the task. I also have a few specialty wood stores near me and I'm sure they have different veneers. Good excuse for a short road trip.

Lar

Wow. Really well done. Congrats!

Hi Howard,

Man! What a wonderful job you did in restoring these great old speakers! The finished cabinets look terrific!

Good for you!

- Glenn

Thanks Glenn!

I was actually surprised that there were no issues with the drivers when I tested them in John’s shop attic! After that it was only a matter of taking everything out of the boxes and some tedious filling, sanding, and scraping.

I’m glad I made the effort.

H

Well done!

We're still listening to music with our Heresys that we bought in the late 70's.

D

Nice job! I used to build cabs using JBL raw frame speaker systems, and the veneering was not exactly an easy process using rolls of walnut veneer knowing there was no room for error using contact cement. Yours look great.

Well thank you so much for saying so!

Actually, it's far easier with contact cement. Each surface is coated separately, and allowed to dry, of course. Then you just get a bunch of long 1/4" dowels, lay them on the cabinet surface, and lay the veneer on the dowels.

As long as the 2 glued surfaces don't touch, you can move the dowels and the veneer as needed until you've got your starter seam ready for contact.

After that, of course, there's no recourse if things go astray, except for a lot of lacquer thinner, and a general mess.

The 3M adhesive on the veneer I use will cut you no quarter. I've been doing this sort of thing for too long, so I always oversize by 1"+, and just make sure I'm parallel to a side as I start. The runout is usually minimal.

So what JBL drivers were you using? I've got 4 D123 at the house. I have one of them in my Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue. I always loved the JBL 4311, 4312, etc.

Be well,
Howard