Are there ways to date JBL D130F speakers?

[horseshead]

How are you?

I am new here but was directed from the fender forum to ask my question in this forum.
I have a couple of JBL D130F guitar speakers that I would like to date but I would most like to know if these speakers are original or if they have been reconed. I bought them used in a Fender cabinet without the amp. It's a dual showman cabinet, 48 inches high. The decals on each speaker are numbered consecutively, 42119 and 42120 on the other speaker. In addition, there is a gray stamped number 21057 on the back of each speaker's cone, and there is a black ink stamp on the basket of both speakers in block letters that says Fender P/N 023101.

Thanks,
Rick

[Mr. Widget]

Isn't someone going to let Rick in on "The Secret"?

[johnaec]

Isn't someone going to let Rick in on "The Secret"?

As I recall, weren't all these older records lost in the Northridge earthquake a number of years back?

John

[Mr. Widget]

That's my understanding.

Welcome to Lansing Land!

If you post some photos of your D130Fs some of the sleuths here might be able to narrow them down for you...as for recone or original, there are some give aways, but typically you need to look at under side and look for glue residue or a wider than factory bead of glue around the dustcap.

Widget

[GordonW]

Yeah, the cone number is a pretty good indicator.

If it has a "130-020" stamp on the backside of the cone, chances are either it's original, or it was reconed VERY early in its life. Either way, it's the RIGHT cone....

Also, I have a pair of D130s here... serial numbers 48084 and 48085... that I know were bought between late 1959 and early 1961. So, that can be a relative time indicator. Given how close your numbers are to mine, they HAVE to be probably within a year of the same age...

Regards,
Gordon.

[horseshead]

That's my understanding.

Welcome to Lansing Land!

If you post some photos of your D130Fs some of the sleuths here might be able to narrow them down for you...as for recone or original, there are some give aways, but typically you need to look at under side and look for glue residue or a wider than factory bead of glue around the dustcap.

Widget

Hi Mr. Widget,
Thanks to you and to everyone for your resposes. My questions were some 30 years in comming. But when I tried to upload my photos of the JBL's I got the following error message:

File Too Large. Limit for this filetype is 195.3 KB. Your file is 1.03 MB.

The photos are jpg. Is there some kind of file compression I can use here to upload the pics?

Rick

[Zilch]

Resize them in your photo editor to 640 X 480 pixels.

[Mr. Widget]

File Too Large. Limit for this filetype is 195.3 KB. Your file is 1.03 MB.

The jpeg should be no wider than 800 pixels and if you use Photoshop, set the "Quality" to "High" and not "Maximum"... other software probably have similar designations... essentially if you have too much color info the file is too large for the system to support.

Widget

[horseshead]

That's my understanding.

Welcome to Lansing Land!

Thank you!

If you post some photos of your D130Fs some of the sleuths here might be able to narrow them down for you...as for recone or original, there are some give aways, but typically you need to look at under side and look for glue residue or a wider than factory bead of glue around the dustcap.

Widget

The bottm D130F appears to have a wider bead of glue around the dustcap than that of the top D130F. The back shows some auqua color that is typical of the oxidation you see from liquid damage just on the edge of the screen on the decal . Is this clearly a recone?
Rick

[57BELAIRE]

It sure looks like a recone to me...normally with a D130 this age the aluminum centerdome will have experienced some form of oxidation. This one is so shiny it looks new. Also, the bead of glue IS wider and doesn't look 100% factory.

rbh

[riker1384]

Buy it flowers and take it out for dinner and a movie......I'm here all night.

[horseshead]

I just played the D120's the second time and they sound great now. I guess they needed to be broken in. Warm is not the right term for a JBL, but on first try they didn't have much of that JBL character sound. They are a little light weight in the lows because of the absence of the separate surround piece which if included can lower the resonant frequency or as you put it, if absent, gives less, or gives less mechanical resistance. But anyway, the doped paper surround which I have has less low end, so they are in fact a little less warm sounding than the 100 watt model. A flat ribbon voice coil was used so that you couldn't tell the difference between the original '57 or '58 model and this rebuild. Still, I'm interested how the 100 watt model sounds by comparison to this one although I have nothing to complain about. I heard Weber does recones that you can't tell the difference between his and the origianl JBL's. Any body else have any experience with them?

Ah, horses!

[Don McRitchie]

With regards to dating the "F" series speakers, about the only thing that can be stated definitively are the dates of the series run. Harvey Gerst has stated that he developed the "F" series speakers around 1967 while working at JBL. He posts occaisionally on this forum and a search of his messages will provide significant, useful background. The "F" series was replaced by the "K" series in 1973. Therefore any D130F would have been made some time during that eight year period. Prior to the "F" series, the "D" series were supplied as OEM speakers to amplifier manufacturers from the very beginnings of JBL in the 1940's. Les Paul purchased speakers directly from Jim Lansing as early as 1948 (likely D130's and D131's).

[horseshead]

[QUOTE=Don McRitchie]
The "F" series was replaced by the "K" series in 1973.

Don,

Do you know when in '73 the "K" series was first introduced? And when was the "E" series introduced? How would you describe the sound of each of these three series speakers to eachother?


[QUOTE=Don McRitchie]
Therefore any D130F would have been made some time during that eight year period.

Thanks, I'll check when fender started using the later model cabinet for their d130f/dual showman combo as I have the earlier model cabinet with the silver metal strip between the edge of the grill and the black tolex covered wood. Also, the color of the grill cloth is more bluish versus the more greenish color used later, I think about 1970 as is the year of my head. My September 1970 dual shoman head has that more greenish color grill.
Rick

[basilhenriques]

New here so please excuse if this has been covered before. I dearly would like to know the age of a pair of D130's that I have.
One has 130 202 (Stencil on the cone) and serial No. 17759 16ohm and looks the same as this one (Sorry for stealing your image 57BELAIRE
The other is in the attic but similar numbers, I'll post them tomorrow.
Any help evaluating them would be most welcome.

Basil