Early JBL history
This directory contains USENET articles Mic
has saved about guitars, equipment, pickup, techniques, players,
and so on. Mic has graciously granted permission to post the
stuff on the JT30 page on the off chance that it might be useful
in the context of Blues Harmonica. Mic is not responsible for
the content, just the collection.
Speakers
Early JBL history
Early JBL historyFrom hargers--(at)--irmail.net Sat Sep 20 10:23:29 CDT 1997
From: hargers--(at)--irmail.net (Harvey Gerst)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.marketplace,alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: FS: JBL D130F Signature Series Speakers
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 01:57:23 GMT
X-Orig-Message-ID: <34242d7c.3351501--(at)--ews.airmail.net>
NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library.airnews.net
NNTP-Posting-Time: Fri Sep 19 21:00:17 1997
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.music.makers.marketplace:171308 alt.guitar.amps:64360
deafe--(at)--map2.asu.edu wrote:
>Harvey Gerst (hargers--(at)--irmail.net) wrote:
>
>[much snippage]
>
>: I can't comment on this accurately, but I believe the D kit restores the speaker
>: to a home version, while the E kit is the musical instrument cone assembly. I
>: feel I must tell you there is slightly more relief on the D130F top plate to
>: accomodate a wider variety of mounting techniques (i.e., idiots who use torque
>: wrenches to flatten these frames onto a warped baffle board).
>
>Harvey, you seem like the guy to ask about this. I'm curious for a
>description of what *all* the JBL speaker numbers mean. For example,
>what is the prefix letter? I've personally seen D, E, and K, and I'm
>sure there are more; what does this represent? I've seen numbers like
>120, 130, and 140; these must not be size-dependent, as both a K140 and
>D130 are 15" speakers. Finally, what is the suffix letter? I've seen D,
>E, and F.
Well Hal, let me take you back to the late 50s, early 60s. JBL was a small
company with their main offices above a candy store, and the manufacturing
scattered in a number of buildings up and down the street, near Glendale, on
Fletcher Drive.
They made the following speakers;
the D130 a full range 15",
the D131 a full range 12",
the 130A a 15" woofer,
the 130B (same as the 130A, but 16 ohms),
and the 150 - a 15" woofer with a heavier cone.
The D stood for a metal dome and the A and B were for woofers of different
impedances. I don't remember if we made a 131A. We also made a D123 (full range
pancake 12" speaker) and the D208 and D216 (both 8" speakers but with 8 and 16
ohm voice coils).
Fender was buying D130s for use in their Dual Showman systems, but they were
experiencing problems in surrounds drying out from outdoor use, and burnouts
>from improper mounting techniques. I wrote a memo to the president of JBL,
outlining a plan to let me design a series of speakers made specifically for
musical use and he agreed. My plan called for modifications to the D130 and
D131, plus an all new bass 15" speaker, and a new 10" speaker.
Since Fender was our largest purchaser, I did not want the headache of trying to
re-introduce a whole new series so I kept the D130 name for the 15" and simply
added an F (yes, the "F" is for Fender - don't know why to this day I did that,
but I did). Since I was making up new model numbers, I decided where possible to
keep it simple, so the 12" (originally the D131) became the D120F, and the new
10" became the D110F.
That left the new bass speaker. I didn't want to leave it in the 13x range
because it was different and the 150 was already being used by our theater
woofer. The 140 was not being used, so I named the new bass speaker the D140F.
After I left JBL, I understand they came out with the black crinkle finish and
renamed them E series. The first major modifications were made in the K series,
as I understand it.
>And one other question. Can a similarly-sized frame/magnet assembly be
>reconed with a different kit? Can I take a K140D frame and have it
>reconed with a D130 kit?
I really don't know what changes were made in the K series, so I can't answer
that, but I'll bet the owner of Orange County Speaker Repair can.
>If you could answer these questions, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's
>interested. Even if you can't, any information would be interesting. :)
Well, Hal, I hope it was interesting.
Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/
Index:
|
