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What wood and finish for a pair of Pioneer CS-88s?

S

Sternwheeler

New Member
My excellent bargain-finding sister found me the speakers, along with a PL-A25 turntable and CT–F850 cassette deck for $20 total. However, the speakers look like butt. They are very flat and dry-looking, and deeply discolored in spots.

Does anyone know what kind of wood was used on these? And does anyone have any ideas on what would make a really sharp-looking finish?

Thanks everyone!

Tracy
 
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First-- :needpics:

By "flat", do you mean "dull"? If discoloration is due to water marks, oxalic acid-based cleaners can do wonders (Barkeepers Friend, Soft Scrub--just no chlorine bleach formulas).

I'd wipe them down with a soft rag dampened with a fast-drying paint thinner like lacquer thinner or denatured alcohol to remove contaminants. Try to work out the dark spots with the cleaners mentioned above, and apply something like Watco Danish Oil--probably will take a couple applications. Apply until they look "wet" and let them sit for the oil to soak in--repeat until they stay looking wet and buff off the excess.

If there are small dings or scratches, you can use a damp towel and warm (not smokin' hot) iron to "lift" the grain.

NEVER, EVER, EVER use steel wool on a speaker cabinet with the drivers in the cabinet. The magnets attract the metal "fines" and can do serious damage to the drivers. There are non-magnetic (3M ScotchBrite pads) alternatives in the paint dept.
 
I'm not familiar with them, but Google images look like a standard walnut veneer. Have they got any deep scratches or gouges? And how much time and elbow grease are you willing to put into them?
I'm lucky, because my idea of a "sharp looking finish" is just a very light sanding (I wouldn't even try to remove any deep stains), followed by wiping down with mineral spirits dampened rag, then a rag application of linseed oil or the Watco Danish @savatage1973 suggests, and call it a day.
I wouldn't get too carried away with looking for a Super High Gloss Liberace Dazzle finish, because those grilles would drive you nuts.
 
Greetings

I have CS-77A and CS-A 50; both have walnut cabinets. Cabinets can be restored, as pointed out above. The only thing that is a death nail is physical damage to the cabinet (wide spread water damage, impacting substrate). Being dull can be reversed, via several approaches. The veneer on Pioneer speaker cabinets is actually rather thick, unlike what is available today.

post some pictures and you will attract more comments
 
dark stains would probably need some oxalic acid wood bleach to get close to right. Then a light sand with some 220 or 330 and then clean em good with a tack rag and finish with your choice of 15 different products folks on AK swear by, to each his own is true here just like what gear folks prefer. It's all good.

Light scratches can be lifted by ironing the area through a damp washcloth to steam the wood to expand. do this before you sand and some of the scratches will disappear.
 
Sternwheeler said:
My excellent bargain-finding sister found me the speakers, along with a PL-A25 turntable and CT–F850 cassette deck for $20 total. However, the speakers look like butt. They are very flat and dry-looking, and deeply discolored in spots.

Does anyone know what kind of wood was used on these? And does anyone have any ideas on what would make a really sharp-looking finish?

Thanks everyone!

Tracy
Click to expand...
Those old CS-88's had crappy veneering from the factory to begin with. Not near as good as anyone thought. you might want to take your time and do the right thing and make a simple project out of them:
-They need to be gutted. Take everything out and sand down the old veener. As stated dont use steel wool. Might not have any luck removing your stains.. but if you do put a couple coats of polyurethane on them. Go slow.
-Rebuild the crossovers. Replace everything but the original inductors, and dont use electrolytic capacitors or carbon resistors for your mere parts replacement. -Lots of inexpensive audio grade resistors and poly audio grade capacitors avalible.
-If your ambitious you can get rid of the horrible looking wood lattice in front of the grill cloth.
-Take a close good look at the drivers (speakers) themselves. Make sure none of the old foam supports are cracked or rotted, and the spider wires havent detached from the cone or other areas.

Lots of other things you can do to replace or make better just about everything in or on them. One things for sure, you need to rebuild the corssovers and not solely worry about the old stained veneer.
 
To give them a complete functional rework is the plan. I have just never had to redo cabinets. Every surround is intact, but the top-center drivers (super tweeters?) have had a piece of cloth glued over, but not ONTO them. Perhaps they were too bright? Negative on the grills, though. Got to keep them.

I wonder, if I cannot get the stain off the top of the cabinet, if I couldn’t just invert the front panel and turn the top into the bottom.
 
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