Maple Veneer on a Pioneer SX 550

I wanted to replace the old walnut vinyl on my Pioneer SX 550 stereo receiver. I felt like it would look really nice in a lighter wood finish so I opted for replacing the vinyl with real maple wood veneer. It was a tedious process to apply new veneer and bend it around the metal top cover but it was worth it. I think it looks awesome!
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My name is Matt. I live in Washington State and create content around vintage stereos and other audio equipment. I approach the hobby from the standpoint of appreciating the aesthetic as well as having a system that is enjoyable to listen to my favorite music on. I'm not generally spending time worrying about having the right cables or how good the speakers sound beyond a certain point. So long as the music sounds good enough to dance to, I'm happy. If you have a receiver that you would like serviced, drop a comment and we could talk about service costs.
IG and Tik Tok are @TheDealyDeal

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks for watching! I'm pretty stoked on how this turned out. If you want to see more restorations, Subscribe ❤ bit.ly/3GrqmVJ

[@johnbrewer2206]

Nice work!

[@scottgoff6136]

Great job!

[@tedpaskowski2463]

Hi Matt : The video was too fast to catch a particular aspect of applying the veneer . One was the bending of the veneer around a metal corner . I am yet to find a video that show that . Also , close-ups of having one surface of veneer match evenly with another . I have a lot of trouble there . Regards , Ted

[@Shuksanaudio]

Hey Ted, thanks for the clarification! For bending the veneer around the metal corners, I first cut the veneer in a rough shape that had 1/4" or so of extra veneer on all sides of the cover then centered it and used an iron on a wet rag to slowly bend the veneer around the corners. Then I applied the two coats of adhesive to it and the metal and used the iron by itself to adhere the glue. For the front curvature of the veneer that goes under the faceplate, I used the same process except I only used the nose of the iron to bend it down into the tight crevace, then I used a flat piece of wood and clamps to make sure that it stayed adhered. As far as having the surfaces match, are you referring to the edges on each of the side pieces? I didn't get them perfect in all places due to this being one of my first veneer projects but what I can say, is that using non paper backed veneer has been majorly helpful on projects that I have completed since this one. It allows you to really sand over the edges and not worry about exposed paper. My process is to cut each piece of veneer slightly larger than its spot, then use a flush trim bit on a router to trim it perfect with the edge. I put it together like a puzzle where the most viewed edges overlap the less viewed edges. Once its done you can use 220 grit sandpaper to round over each edge slightly to fill any gaps that may be present. Hope this helps! It's hard to capture all the nuance without making the video 40 minutes long but maybe I will make a 40 minute video at some point haha.

[@fhwolthuis]

I'm glad KZbin recommend your channel to me. You deserve more subscribers! Greetings from the Netherlands 👋

[@Shuksanaudio]

Amazing! I'm so glad to hear that. The Netherlands are amazing!

[@nelsondesilva3916]

Can't argue with the outcome. Brilliant!

[@Shuksanaudio]

I’m glad you like it! Thanks for watching :)

Love the result Matt, greetings from beautiful Costa Rica. Pura vida mae.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks for watching! Glad you like the way it turned out :)

[@superfitzy]

Whaaaat???!!! Wow, that looks badass! Great job!

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks so much! I appreciate it ❤️

[@lahiruheshan1193]

SUCH A GREAT RESTORE

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thank you! I appreciate you watching :)

[@NathanielKraft]

That was a lovely veneer demo :) the top turned out great!

[@Shuksanaudio]

Why thank you! Looking forward to more veneer projects to come.

[@bpalpha]

Handsome and modern! Great work.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thank so much for watching and for the nice comment, I really appreciate it ❤

[@tomkidder8863]

What a great job! Very impressed with your work and channel content

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words and am happy that you enjoyed the video ❤️

[@tedpaskowski2463]

I eagerly started your video since I have exactly the same project in mind and a Pioneer at that . The speed of the play back was so fast , that I was able to get very little instruction out of it . Slow down and get the camera closer

[@Shuksanaudio]

Hey Ted, thanks for watching! I appreciate the feedback. Was there any specific points that were missing. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you might have. It would help others watching the video for the same reason as you. Cheers.

[@g.fortin3228]

Pretty nice.. but for cooling you should do the other row of vents as well. Pioneer knew how much air it needed when they made it ;-) Great veneer color.. I like it.

[@Shuksanaudio]

I ended up doing both rows of vents haha. Thanks for watching :)

[@k.givens788]

Is that Sergei’s reciever? It would go well with his speakers!😂 Love it! It looks like my Marantz 2230 case.❤️

[@Shuksanaudio]

Haha it is not. But it would go great with the speakers! I still have it and will be doing some other updates to it.

[@brucetungsten5714]

Looking great!

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks so much! I'm excited to try my hand at more receiver veneers!

[@MasterArmedforces]

Did you ever think of just recreating the side panels with real wood? Ive never done anything like this but I have some beautiful cherry wood panels from a rescued 21' kitchen counter-top and Im contemplating re-siding my Kenwood KR7400's veneer covered sidepanels with this real wood.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Haha yes, there are at least 3 other comments asking the same thing. I wanted the practice veneering. Solid maple would've been a sweet option though! You should totally use that cherry on your Kenwood! I bet it would look amazing. Thanks for watching!

[@raybelcher]

Hello Matt, I ´m doing the same work with my BOSE 901 lautspeaker. I love them very much, because the sound is still very good. Raymond from Germany

[@Shuksanaudio]

That's amazing! Fresh veneer can really bring a worn piece of gear back to life and make it feel like your own. Glad you've found something you like! I really appreciate you watching and hope that all is well in Germany, happy listening 🎶

[@Robert-hs8yf]

Nice work… whats your thoughts on solid walnut enclosures on EQs and tape decks?

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thank you! I love wood enclosures on components and have plans to do some solid wood cases on a few projects in 2024. Just gotta account for the shrinking and expanding.

[@davidworsham4052]

Where did you buy the veneer? I want to do a Pioneer sx 450.

[@Shuksanaudio]

I bought it on amazon haha. Just get paper back veneer if you want to bend it over the metal top how I did. Non paper backed will fall apart with the bending. Thanks for watching!

[@davidworsham4052]

I wasn’t quite sure how to approach this process, but thank you. Have a great day.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Totally! It can be a bit overwhelming. I'll be putting out a more in depth video on veneering in the next few months. If you have any questions, shoot me an email: [e-mail]@@davidworsham4052

[@lilflip9611]

Hey man! Interested in having my Threhsold S150 recapped. Would you be interested in tackling this? Thank you!

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks for stopping by! I'd be happy to work on it but I wouldn't be able to get to it for another 2-3 months as I have other projects lined up. Depending on how many components you wanted replaced, the parts alone could be $150-200 with labor being another $100-150. The main filter caps are huge and expensive. It would also benefit the amp to have the power supply checked out and rebuilt as these amps run massive power (I'm sure you're aware). I've never owned one but Nelson Pass is an amazing amplifier designer and Threshold stuff comes highly recommended.

[@lilflip9611]

@MattDealy done deal! That pricing is very fair. Do you want me email or phone #?

[@lilflip9611]

@@Shuksanaudio idk how to share it with u privately haha

[@Shuksanaudio]

@@lilflip9611 ok sounds good! You can email me [e-mail]. Let me know what amp you’re emailing about and if it has any issues currently that you’re trying to have resolved.

[@alastairdallas]

You didn't finish the veneer with anything?

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks for watching! I finished it with Rubio Monocoat Pure, which is a clear wax/oil finish. I wanted to just seal and keep the natural maple color as this project was intended to brighten up the appearance of the receiver. I like the way it looks in its natural, slightly yellowed state but it definitely is harder to keep clean. Any smudge or mark becomes really obvious on the light wood.

[@michaelmixon2479]

Why not use real wood?

[@Shuksanaudio]

This is real wood! It's a very thin sheet of real wood. I could've cut solid maple cheeks for this receiver but still would've needed to reveneer the metal cover and I wanted the veneering practice.

[@royphair9676]

Why not just buy some solid wood maple and cut to size

[@Shuksanaudio]

That's a great idea! The main reason I went with veneer was because I wanted to practice for veneering other receivers. The top is a metal sheet so I would have had to veneer that regardless to keep the same form factor. Solid maple would have been sweet and I definitely want to use more solid woods on future projects. Thanks for watching!

[@benlowe8342]

Watching this, I think I will have a seizure before absorbing any worthwhile information as to how to do this to my Pioneer.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Thanks for the feedback! I am always trying to improve my videos and am learning to use less timelapses and keep them a bit slower. If you have any specific questions that weren't answered in the video, I'm more than happy to answer them. I appreciate you watching.

[@benlowe8342]

@@Shuksanaudiothank you, the information is certainly there, just slower maybe? And remember we don’t all have wood working backgrounds! Keep up the good work.

[@Shuksanaudio]

Noted! I am working on slowing things down and talking about them while I'm doing them so my future videos will be a bit longer. In the next couple of months I plan to put out a long video showing how to apply veneer to different surfaces and different stereo components that will be much longer ~40-60 minutes. Thank you! I appreciate you watching and giving me tips :)