Help meeeeeee.... Early Lancer 33's. New guy

[MMudge]

Hi. Mike Mudge here in Calif. A few days ago I bought an old pair of JBL Lancer 33 speakers. I was able to remove the grills, very carefully, to find the 8" full range drivers. From what I can tell these were never opened before or tampered with. The serial numbers on the cabinet backs are very low. When I removed the drivers I found that there are no fancy JBL covers on the maganet assembly. However, on the paper of the cones, stamped in white are the ID's, LE-8-101. The decal looking labels on the cabinet backs are
003348 and 003362.

One drivers thick foam surround is split 360 degrees. The other drivers foam is intact but very dry. The voice coils appear to be okay so hopefully refoaming is all they will require.

The cones are black and the dust covers are black paper. This looks a bit strange to me since most of what I've seen of these drivers have been white. The speaker frame is cast aluminum.

TIA for the help. SInce I'm new, if I'm on the wrong Forum please point me in the right direction.

Mike

[grumpy]

something like this?:

http://www.lansingheritage.org/images/jbl/catalogs/1962/page22-23.jpg
or
http://www.lansingheritage.org/images/jbl/catalogs/1964/page33.jpg

"special" 8" driver (not an LE8T)... sounds about right. A refoam is a reasonable next step.

[MMudge]

Ed-zachary! Thanks for the great pix. Do you have any guess as to the vintage/year of mfgr?

BTW....you look like Jeff Bridges. :)

Mike

[grumpy]

You might register and poke in the serial numbers here:

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?24908-JBL-Registry

(although I just checked, and yours would be the earliest registered... other
L33 Lancer entries don't have useful dates)

Others, more familiar with the registry might be able to help you nail down a year.

Early 60's is my WAG.

[MMudge]

I was wondering about the description "special" with regards to these drivers. Any idea if it was "special good" or "special but not quite as good as the le8T".

Someone else wrote that these were designed to self destruct. I'm not quite sure what that means.

[grumpy]

I can only guess. Someone who has, or has had one in their hands should respond.

-sounds- like a stripped down LE8... probably same frame, -possibly- no Aquaplas (although
it could have been painted black), no aluminum dome, and a less costly magnet assembly...
although this is all speculation.

[57BELAIRE]

Double check the centerdomes...if they are original they're aluminum, painted black with the rest of the cone. The magnets are not painted and have no label or a small square
foilcal. Thc cones are rough like sandpaper...these are among the sweetest sounding LE8's...... just my opinion.

[badman]

Double check the centerdomes...if they are original they're aluminum, painted black with the rest of the cone. The magnets are not painted and have no label or a small square
foilcal. Thc cones are rough like sandpaper...these are among the sweetest sounding LE8's...... just my opinion.

That sheds some light on my own drivers, which are reconed with LE8T cone kits but have a different magnet cover. Seems like an early "HPL" version, on of the drivers where the cosmetics were left at functional rather than prettied up.

They do indeed sound superb.

[MMudge]

I can only guess. Someone who has, or has had one in their hands should respond.

-sounds- like a stripped down LE8... probably same frame, -possibly- no Aquaplas (although
it could have been painted black), no aluminum dome, and a less costly magnet assembly...
although this is all speculation.

Hey, I was able to refoam and restore the cabinets on the Lancer 33's. They look terrific and sound better than they look.

I was able to find out more about them from Nelson Pass. These were dressed down drivers that JBL supplied to the US Navy for use onboard. I don't remember who lost the account to JBL but these were PA drivers nicely adapted to home use.

[grumpy]

Cool addition to the collective set of info here. Thanks! :)

[badman]

Hey, I was able to refoam and restore the cabinets on the Lancer 33's. They look terrific and sound better than they look.

I was able to find out more about them from Nelson Pass. These were dressed down drivers that JBL supplied to the US Navy for use onboard. I don't remember who lost the account to JBL but these were PA drivers nicely adapted to home use.

Cool thanks for the update! Mine sound terrific too but right now are unused... will have to correct that :)