L5 restoration project

[jmitchnh]

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a pair of JBL L5s at a local Boy Scout yard sale. Not knowing much about the model itself, I used my generic audio knowledge and saw that they used binding posts instead of cheap spring clips and they felt very heavy and solidly built so I bought them for a measly $10.00 and brought them home. Now, the last thing I needed was yet another pair of speakers gathering dust in my basement, but these guys piqued my interest. They were in pretty rough shape, missing 3 of the 4 grills, filthy and looking a bit abused but for the money, how could I say no?
When I got home I hurriedly hooked them up to my system and had a listen. Not bad, a bit bright and very little low-mids and deep bass. I wasn’t all that impressed. Upon closer inspection and research I discovered that these were some pretty nice speakers. They received many favorable reviews from their owners and JBL fans; the cast aluminum baskets were a nice surprise as was MSRP on these babies. That being said, they weren’t much to look at and wreaked of 90’s BPC but still, they had a certain something.
One night over the winter I read that these speakers had a genuine wood veneer under that ugly black paint (I always thought it was vinyl) and decided to see if it was true. Sure enough it was and few days later, all that black paint was gone and my restoration project was underway. I found that both woofers were in need of new surrounds and one of them read 0 ohms across the terminals. So my goals are as follows:

1. Get replacement woofers (Ebay) or get them reconed
2. Have the crossovers gone through by a local tech to make sure nothing is burned out or shorted
3. Refinish the cabinets
   So I tackled the last item first. I used some dark oak Howard’s Restore-a-Finish (which I had left over from restoring some ADS L1290s I rescued from a local thrift store) and Howard’s Feed and Wax. I’m quite happy with the way they came out. I like the contrast of the oak with the black bezel, which I hand, polished to look like a piano black finish. I think that some brass floor spikes will look nice and give the speaker a nice “high-end” look. I am very impressed by the build quality of these cabinets and the crossovers and can see why these get the love that they do.

Next up, the crossovers are going into the shop this week. I’ll let you guys know how it goes…

[hjames]

These things have turned up around here a couple times for well under $500 complete ...
I know Phil and some other folks have found real deals on the L5s and the L7s.

Looks like you've cleaned up some cabinets real nice -
suggest you keep an eye out and wait for a cheap pair with drivers to fill your cabs with.

Or - you can pay a LOT more to buy the woofers directly ...

But don't get too deep into them ... don't think I've ever seen them sell for big money, even if they do sound quite nice.

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a pair of JBL L5s at a local Boy Scout yard sale. Not knowing much about the model itself, I used my generic audio knowledge and saw that they used binding posts instead of cheap spring clips and they felt very heavy and solidly built so I bought them for a measly $10.00 and brought them home. Now, the last thing I needed was yet another pair of speakers gathering dust in my basement, but these guys piqued my interest. They were in pretty rough shape, missing 3 of the 4 grills, filthy and looking a bit abused but for the money, how could I say no?
When I got home I hurriedly hooked them up to my system and had a listen. Not bad, a bit bright and very little low-mids and deep bass. I wasn’t all that impressed. Upon closer inspection and research I discovered that these were some pretty nice speakers. They received many favorable reviews from their owners and JBL fans; the cast aluminum baskets were a nice surprise as was MSRP on these babies. That being said, they weren’t much to look at and wreaked of 90’s BPC but still, they had a certain something.
One night over the winter I read that these speakers had a genuine wood veneer under that ugly black paint (I always thought it was vinyl) and decided to see if it was true. Sure enough it was and few days later, all that black paint was gone and my restoration project was underway. I found that both woofers were in need of new surrounds and one of them read 0 ohms across the terminals. So my goals are as follows:

1. Get replacement woofers (Ebay) or get them reconed
2. Have the crossovers gone through by a local tech to make sure nothing is burned out or shorted
3. Refinish the cabinets
   So I tackled the last item first. I used some dark oak Howard’s Restore-a-Finish (which I had left over from restoring some ADS L1290s I rescued from a local thrift store) and Howard’s Feed and Wax. I’m quite happy with the way they came out. I like the contrast of the oak with the black bezel, which I hand, polished to look like a piano black finish. I think that some brass floor spikes will look nice and give the speaker a nice “high-end” look. I am very impressed by the build quality of these cabinets and the crossovers and can see why these get the love that they do.

Next up, the crossovers are going into the shop this week. I’ll let you guys know how it goes…

[jmitchnh]

You're exactly right. I have read that the resale value on these are not too high, so I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum. All the drivers test OK except for the woofers, trying to decide if used or rebuilt is the best way to go. Hoping that the X-overs are OK as well. These won't get a lot of use, but I just can't bring myself to part them out and send the cabs to the junk pile. Looking forward to hearing a properly functioning pair of L5's!

[hjames]

If I didn't say it before, your cabinets look great!

I've been round and round with some of the other members here, but I think a great pair of cabinets
in real wood finish beats a pair of black ash or wotever painted cabinets any day ...

Good luck on your project - it looks quite cool!

You're exactly right. I have read that the resale value on these are not too high, so I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum. All the drivers test OK except for the woofers, trying to decide if used or rebuilt is the best way to go. Hoping that the X-overs are OK as well. These won't get a lot of use, but I just can't bring myself to part them out and send the cabs to the junk pile. Looking forward to hearing a properly functioning pair of L5's!

[BMWCCA]

Very cool! How'd you get the black off the wood?

[jmitchnh]

Sanded it off with my orbital sander. Had to tread lightly as I did not want to go through the veneer, but it held up very well. Could not get all of the black out of the grain but it gives the oak a bit of an exotic wood look. I think it completely changes the look of the speaker. Too bad JBL never offered a natural finish. Why go through the expense of putting a real wood veneer on a speaker only to paint it black?