Month: September 2023

A few weeks ago I asked if anyone knew a good wood worker. No response, so I went ahead and contacted the Instagram guy who had changed out his Kenny's faceplate end caps to see if he'd be willing to do the same for me.

Turns out they weren't solid wood; he had merely veneered the existing brushed aluminum end pieces. (I gotta tell you, I have tremendous respect for guys who can fix this stuff and do woodworking too.) I inquired if he'd do the same for mine, and his response was, "For a fellow Kenwood lover, of course." He quoted me $70 for time and materials and I removed them from my unit and sent them off.

Got them back yesterday. Was kind of surprised he hadn't wrapped all the sides. I can understand not doing the bottom of the caps, but the backs and the side that abuts the faceplate were left bare metal as well. If you ensure the fit is perfect upon reassembly, you'll never see the sides abutting the faceplate, but a certain amount of the backs are visible, kind of destroying the illusion that they're solid wood, but getting everything aligned that perfectly is difficult. Not worth making a scene over, but I did ask why. He said "you'll never see it," and that this was exactly what he'd done with his unit.

When I bought the receiver two and a half years ago, I noted that the plastic escutcheons surrounding the switches were broken in various places. A few weeks ago I also managed to get my hands on the original plastic escutcheons surrounding the switches, so after very carefully de-gluing them from the donor faceplace, I was able to replace them on my unit; something that was quite satisfying, and assuaged my anal retentive need for perfection. I must say that despite the issue of the backs of the end caps, I am quite happy with the way all this turned out—especially when I see how much better these receivers look with wooden end caps instead of the original aluminum.