D504 with D130 ?

I wonder if anyone can help me identify and date a speaker I purchased recently.
It is an old, blonde, iconic-looking cabinet with a single D130 installed.
The D130 is a flat-back model (welded steel pot) with a vent. It has soldier terminals, and Jim's decal on the side of the magnet.
My first idea about the cabinet was that it is an old, home-built model. The speaker is mounted with a bolt in every hole of the D130--something I didn't think the factory would do.
There is no crossover cut out in the rear panel. The insulation is encapsulated--looking to be 1950's vintage.
Yet there is a fairly professional looking mortise for the D-175H high frequency horn in the front baffle.

Hi Honist_Bob,

I have a D-1002 that I believe is slightly older than your cabinet.
Steve Schell was able to tell me quite a lot about it, and he would be your best bet for definitive answers.

In the meantime I will engage in wild speculation:
the similarities to my cabinet make me think this is probably a factory cab.

But I believe it is a D-1003 cabinet, not a 504

Quote:

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Originally Posted by honist_bob

There is no crossover cut out in the rear panel.

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My two-way D-1002 also had no cut out for a crossover. The old N1200 crossover had no adjusments so it was just a metal box screwed to the inside of the cabinet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by honist_bob

The insulation is encapsulated--looking to be 1950's vintage.

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Also like my D-1002, some kind of batting in a kind of cheese-cloth like material.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by honist_bob

Yet there is a fairly professional looking mortise for the D-175H high frequency horn in the front baffle.

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The square cut-out and stand-off was for the H-1000 horn that was JBL first used with the 175 before they switched to the koustical-lens 175DLH.
(Maybe they had this cabinet left over when they stopped making the H-1000's)

I doubt that a home builder would bother cutting the hole, building the stand-off, and blocking the hole, all for a driver he didn't have!

But just check this: The D-1003 was about six inches taller to accomodate the horn (37.5 inches versus the 504's 31 inches)

How tall is your cabinet?
Is the inside of the cabinet painted/varnished?

Honist bob, it is a wild coincidence that you should post your pictures and questions at this time. Glen and I spent several hours YESTERDAY disassembling, taking pictures of and measuring my circa 1947 or early 1948 JBL D-1002 system. Glen recently found a D-1002 cabinet that had lost its original inner driver mounting baffle board, and we documented mine so that he could make an accurate replacement for his. The cabinets we have are quite similar to yours in many ways.

First off, your D-130 was built between 1950 and 1953, before JBL introduced the cast pot structure. The Los Angeles "cut corners" decal identifies it as a Fletcher Drive piece, and the Jim Lansing decal with the big L appeared on these drivers in 1950 (we think), after JBL President hired noted designer Alvin Lustig to create this strong new graphic identity for the company. This postdates Jim Lansing's death in September 1949.

Your enclosure could be a factory unit, and is most likely so, but could also be a skilled home built unit. I have attached a scan of a sheet supplied by Jim Lansing in late 1948-early 1949 (Van Nuys era) of plans to build a cabinet, similar to his C-502, to house a D-130. The cabinet you have is taller, likely the same in dimensions as the D-1000 series cabinets that Glen and I have that were meant to house the two way system with the H-1000 horn and D-175 driver. One aspect that weighs in favor of your cabinet being a factory unit is that is has the added standoff strips and (no doubt) cut out in the inner baffle for the high frequency horn, though this has been covered by plywood in your cabinet. It seems unlikely that a home builder would have built such a cabinet just to house a D-130, or that he would have had access to plans to the cabinet for the two way system.

The cabinets built by Jim Lansing until he died in late 1949, both the D-1000 series for the two way system and the C-502 for the single 15" driver, had some dress up features that your cabinet does not have. These features include trim strips that line the large rectangular cutout in the front of the exterior cabinet, and the dadoes that create a square recess in all the exterior edges. His plans for the single 15" cabinet (scan) does not have these features. Weighing in favor of your cabinet being a factory unit is that at least some of the factory cabinets of the early 1950s also do not have these features. Check out the corner cabinet in this 1951 sales sheet:

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...1951/page1.jpg

If I had to guess, I would say that yours is a factory cabinet, and that by the time it was made they had stopped building the C-502 cabinet intended for single 15" drivers and were simply blocking the horn cutout of the D-1002 type cabinet when it was fitted with a single 15" driver instead of a two way system. JBL made a big deal all through the 1950s of selling cabinets and drivers separately and offering driver upgrades. Your cabinet, if sold with a single 15", offered the possibility of later upgrading to a two way system with the purchase of the H-100 horn/D-175 driver and N-1200 crossover.

The damping material applied to the interior walls of your cabinet is a legacy of Jim Lansing's approach to the subject, dating back to the Lansing Iconic cabinets of the late 1930s. He stapled cheesecloth containing rock wool insulation to the cabinet walls. In your cabinet this tradition is maintained, although not applied quite the way he would have done it. This also weighs in favor of it being an early 1950s factory cabinet.

Honist bob, would it be possible for you to post a couple more pictures of the cabinet? We would enjoy this, and it would permit a more educated guess as to its origins. In the meantime, I will tell you the same thing I told Glen- guard this speaker with your life! It is a rare and precious document of JBL's early days, and worthy of any efforts of careful preservation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve Schell

The cabinets built by Jim Lansing until he died in late 1949, both the D-1000 series for the two way system and the C-502 for the single 15" driver, had some dress up features that your cabinet does not have. These features include trim strips that line the large rectangular cutout in the front of the exterior cabinet, and the dadoes that create a square recess in all the exterior edges.

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Maybe you can see them a little more clearly in this picture of the D-1002.

But a drawing of the D-1000 style box for home-builders, like the one Steve posted, probably would not have included such details.

[QUOTE=Steve Schell]Honist bob, it is a wild coincidence that you should post your pictures and questions at this time. Glen and I spent several hours YESTERDAY disassembling, taking pictures of and measuring my circa 1947 or early 1948 JBL D-1002 system. Glen recently found a D-1002 cabinet that had lost its original inner driver mounting baffle board, and we documented mine so that he could make an accurate replacement for his. The cabinets we have are quite similar to yours in many ways.
QUOTE]

Here's a pic of the inside of Steve's D-1000, and a close up of the top back of the baffle showing the horn cutout and stand-off for the H-1000 horn

Thanks for your replies, Glen and Steve.

I've been sidetracked all week with the flu--will take some measurements and photos later.

Get plenty of rest, Bob. I came back from Las Vegas three weeks ago with some sort of awful crud, and it is no fun. Hope you get well soon.