What's your sad JBL story?

Morning, Friends,

I was thinking about something that happened to a friend of mine, many years ago, and thought I'd relate the story to you, as I'm sure you will all "understand" the sadness that this experience created.

"Back in the day", a fellow drummer and friend of mine, built a nice recording studio in his home. He did a very nice job of it, and even built all his own mixing consoles, as well as his amplifiers. Very ingenius Lad, he! He included in his studio a nice drum booth, where he kept his own drums setup, and ready to use. He also was teaching his five-year-old son how to play drums, and the little fellow was told it was OK to go into the booth and bang away on the drums, whenever he wanted to do so. It was normal for my friend and his wife to hear some sort of percussive cacaphony erupt from that part of the house, anytime their son got the urge to beat on that drumset! Though he couldn't reach the pedals, he could make one hell of a racket on the snare, tom toms and cymbals, after he got up onto the drum throne!!!

My friend used, as his major monitors, a lovely set of JBL 4350's, which he mounted on bricked stands (boxed walls). They were so very lovely, as he had them mounted, that he removed the grills, so that he could have that "complete" JBL experience, anytime he was mixing something down.

Well, as bad fortune would have it, one day when my friend was away from home, his wife heard some odd percussive sounds coming from the recording studio, and went into it to see just what their son was beating on. Her heart fell when she saw that he had taken his Dad's drumsticks and beaten the cones out of all four JBL 15" woofers!!!!!! :blink::banghead::eek::crying: The 15's were just at the level where he could reach up to them, and to him, they apparently looked like "drums".

After having received an urgent call from his wife, my friend came home early from work, and found out what had been done. He just stood there, looking at his beloved JBL's, and quietly told his wife, "Please take Mikey and leave.... just go out for a coke, or a walk in the park, but I need to be here alone... right now". In the end, all damage was repaired, but not without some cost and tribulation on his part. Mikey was "educated" that the ONLY things on which he could beat, were the drums in that recording booth, and nothing else, and life went on. But, everytime I think of my friend, my heart is a little sad, remembering how completely devastated he was that day, when he came home and saw his wonderful JBL's "destroyed".

What's your own sad JBL story? Thanks for reading mine, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

Back in the days when we had a R & R band touring coming back from a gig, the trailer we were towing with all our equipment (much JBL) broke loose doing about 55 and ended up in a backyard pool :biting:

Only good thing was three girls were sun bathing by the pool "ala natural" so things didn't turn out that bad :D

In about 1980 I convinced my Dad to get rid of his field coil Lansing Iconics (the industrial versions in custom "built in" enclosures) and replace them with Tannoy HPD-385 "Berkleys" in industrial enclosures.

He was thrilled with the sound of the Tannoys; but the Iconics could have been reconed for a fraction of the price.

He gave the Iconics to his gardener. No doubt they are 16 feet under in a landfill somewhere.

I have another story to tell about another piece of equipment, but I don't feel like discussing it right now..................................enough audio confessions for one evening!:(

Mine is far less complex.

I merely remained ignorant of the 43xx-series for too long, and stuck with the JBL consumer offerings. Then, in the late 1970's when I saw the 43xx-series in mail-order catalogues, I thought they were far beyond my needs.

Somewhere during the late 1980's I got a taste. Then, in earliest part of this millenium, quite awkwardly and late in life, I suddenly grew up... Then I met "all-ya'll", here, and Ken was a willing seller of his 4345's. Lucky me.

It's time for another reminder...

I waited a long time to get a foam grill replacement for my L-100's that I liked...I found some on E-bay I really liked...thin,dark blue foam,beveled at the edges,just what I wanted. Evidently my cat was waiting just for that particular texture. The next morning, there was a pile of foam chunks under each speaker. My cat doesn't have any front claws anymore. And no, he doesn't go outside....

Sad turns happy: When I was about ten-years-old my dad decided to go "stereo" and was going to give away his single 030, Elac-Miracord turntable, and Pilot amp to the goodwill after replacing them with a Fisher 400 receiver, some Garrard table, and nondescript speaker boxes that hung near the ceiling in the corners of the den. That big old speaker had been in the family nearly as I long as I had and I was crying for my Mom not to let them take it. So I moved the old stuff and hid it in my closet before the Goodwill came.


Sad turns happy again: Later I intended to order matching components to make a mate for the 030 but by that time the cabinets were very expensive and even the components were going to run about $250, so I opted to build a cabinet out of particle board using the C50SM (?) specs from the old JBL construction kit. About the time I had the cabinet built but not veneered, the speaker comonents had still not arrived. I was getting a bit frustrated by this time so I paid a visit to HiFi Showroom to see what was taking so long. At that time the part department was also the used equipment showroom and while I was waiting for them to find out about my component order, I noticed a single C37 with the 030 load in it. So I asked, "How much?" The answer came back $125?" "Can I cancel my component order?" "Sure," and the C37 was mine.


Sad: About that same time a friend's mom was giving away a single old 001 system in the folded-horn cabinet for some reason. I asked him if I could have it but he said it was spoken for. I asked him if I could take any of the parts out of it and he said only if no one could tell I'd done so. So I removed the LE175DLH. I've felt awful about it ever since, for nearly forty years . . .

. . . I should have taken the 130A and the N1200, too! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boputnam

Mine is far less complex.

I merely remained ignorant of the 43xx-series for too long, and stuck with the JBL consumer offerings. Then, in the late 1970's when I saw the 43xx-series in mail-order catalogues, I thought they were far beyond my needs.

Somewhere during the late 1980's I got a taste. Then, in earliest part of this millenium, quite awkwardly and late in life, I suddenly grew up... Then I met "all-ya'll", here, and Ken was a willing seller of his 4345's. Lucky me.

It's time for another reminder...

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Cool pic Bo! My question is, do you run both pairs together? :D

My saddest story (many of you will remember) was when my 4333's along with many other products was stolen in 2005.:crying:

To come home to our house to find that they was gone has made a mark in my heart.:(

If I just could get my hands (or gun) on these people they should felt it.:die:

Today we have a sophisticated alarm system with direct connection to the proper company.:)

I think one time or another we have all had a problem, been stiffed on a purchase or stabbed a new recone with a screw driver.

The worst experiences I know of involved very expensive and difficult to get drivers being dmaged in transit.

As they say get over it!

1971

college dorm

long night of illegal partying :cheers: :nutz:

fell asleep (or passed out) about 5:30 AM :snore:

6:30 AM track coach knocks on door: "The van for the Tri-Sate Relays leaves in 10 minutes!"

jump out of bed to run to the shower down the hall

something tangles in my feet :confused:

I PULL HARD

loud, awful bang ensues :shock:

L100 lying on the tile floor :spchless:

cabinet corner cracked :eek:

woofer completely frozen :crying:

someone (me?) had moved the speakers during the night and left the cables dangling on the floor :bash:

Ti, that's one of the funniest 'sad' stories I've ever heard (and seen! Great use of the smilies!). Next you're gonna be fessing up that you spilled the waterpipe on top of them L-100's and that it wasn't potted plants that caused those 'all too common' waterstains on top of the cabs:wasnt-me:!