I don't think that I'll be able to get anything out the front. The fronts have what looks like a second baffle about an inch in front of the drivers, so that the sound is firing out from about 2 inches back. That can't be good, except it's original. These guys originall were covered from head to foot on the front and both sides with coarse speaker cloth about the color of tomato juice mixed 60-40 with orange juice, but the cloth was removed before I got them. It tucked under the top and bottom on three sides, and tucked under each side of the back panel. There is still a little residual of that in all those places. I've started dissmembering these guys surgically. When I get down to the deepest depths, am I looking for drivers that say 'Jensen' on them, or is there more likely a numerical code on the drivers that will identify the maker?
These guys are a puzzle about whether I should try to be a preservator or a renovator. It would be pretty easy to put a nice new piece of wood on the top and bottom of each (the original veneer is no longer viable as such) and wrap them up in cloth again. But I probably couldn't match the color, and wouldn't want to if I could. My alternative is to make grill frames for the fronts and add some color to them with an ambitious paint job. Maybe some kind of 1950's color scheme and or pattern on the cloth and paint. That would be good fun and better looking, but anyone who would buy a pair of 50 year old speakers would want something more original. But if I try to go original, what color cloth do I use, and what do I do with the backs? They've got those real cheap speaker terminals on the back, and one has the terminals in the middle, and the other has the terminals toward the side. And the wood is real beat up there, too.
The bottom line is that whoever built these things to start with had more technical merit than artistic impression, and I can certainly carry on in the same tradition.
