The first instrument amplifier to use JBL speakers

[Bigsbyguy]

I thought I would share these photos of the first instrument amplifier to offer JBL's as the stock speaker. Mostly 15" but there were also 12" and 8" amps offered. I know of a steel guitarist that added them, 2 - D131's, to his 1953 Fender Twin~Amp but Fender wouldn't offer them until the Vibrasonic~Amp was introduced in late 1959. The earliest sporting D-130's before the development of the D-130F
Bob Crooks took orders for his custom Standel amps and made less than 70 of them in his garage before moving to a larger facility. Most were ordered by professional musicians and many were ordered by players that also owned Paul Bigsby built electric guitars. I'm not a tech but I've been told this amp was designed using the Williamson Hi-Fi circuit. The amps were unique in they only had 1 input. There was a special hidden input, complete with separate vol control, under the chassis designed by guitarist Joe Maphis as a way of deterring unwanted players from "sitting in".
The amp used 807 power tubes. The Power chassis was mounted on shock absorbing mounts and it was probably the first amp to offer a lighted panel. There is a Standel History page found easily with a google search.
This particular model is a 25L15 , it was built in 1954 for Portland OR steel guitarist Lee Buck and features the period D-130. I have no reason to doubt this is not the original speaker to this amp as I got it from the second owner and the remainder of the amp was stock. It was ordered to accompany Lee's Bigsby steel guitar as many were. The last owner played fiddle thru it. The amp became a favorite of Chet Atkins who owned one.
I've been asked how it sounded. I found the best way to describe it is like this; Creamy, if the head on a Guinness Stout had a sound, it would be this amp. Easily the rarest piece of gear I've ever owned. The small piece mounted to the speaker baffle is a mic mount. The amp was fitted with a small plaque on the front that had the original owners name. It is missing on this amp.
76278762797628076281

[Earl K]

Nice!!

Thanks for the overview on this amp .

:)

[toddalin]

Cool.

When I bought my Standell used ~'73, it had the aluminum dust covers on the speakers and the music store said they were JBLs...,

They weren't.

I had this one but somehow it got left at a gig playing at lunch hour at a high school, never to be seen again.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j228/CustomAmpCovers/008-1.jpg?t=1297467798

My friend had this one:
http://alembic.com/club/messages/449/120521.jpg

[srm51555]

Nice thread, I love reading about these speaker oddities

[Ed Kreamer]

Colleagues,

I remember Fender sold the Bassman with a JBL 15 in the late 60's I think, and the Vox Super Beatle could be special ordered with JBL 12 inch MI speakers in the mid to late 60's. The Sunn 200s Bass amp had 2 JBL D140f's installed in the box.
I did eventually got rid of my Vox bass amp and bought a Sunn. I thought then, and still do that it was the bass amp to have, especially with a long scale bass ( I had a Gibson Thunderbird ) It had low end power that the other bass amps at the time just didn't have.

As for the earliest I don't know but I'd bet it was Fender.

[toddalin]

When I worked at Thomas Organ Company ~'73, we also made VOX and Moog. We were on Hayvenhurst just a couple blocks from JBL.

The VOX Churchhill PA came with two columns. Each column had two D140s and a 375 driver mounted on the wavy plate horn in black.

The plates were easily damaged so there was a lot of carnage and there were people who would dumpster dive for them at night.

One of the guys walked out with a Moog Satellite, piece by piece, that I bought from him. A friend bought a Super Beatle that was all done in transparent lucite (head and speaker) and all the metal parts were chromed at the company "surplus sale."

[Steve Schell]

Congratulations on your amp, Bigsbyguy. That D130 looks right to me, as JBL supplied them in this version from about November 1952 (first cast pot) until sometime in 1956 when the oval foilcal appeared and the spoke decals disappeared.

BTW Jim Lansing's earlier company, Lansing Manufacturing Company, supplied field coil speakers in several sizes to the 1930s Los Angeles based guitar amp manufacturers. I have a Schireson Bros. amp with a Lansing 10" and have seen similar in National, Dobro and Rickenbacher products. For a short while in 1936 the National Dobro Company was located right next door to Lansing's factory on McKinley Avenue, before they moved to Chicago..

[Bigsbyguy]

Steve, do you know when the crinkle grey paint first appeared? I have 131's and have had 130's with a smooth grey finish.

[Steve Schell]

As best I can tell the crinkle paint appeared along with the cast pots at the end of 1952. Earlier pots had been expensively machined and welded from pipe and plate stock.