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Thread: When JBL was JBL...Your first Encounter

  1. #61
    Senior Member Woofer's Avatar
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    Well Rick, I find your input truly interesting, and I'm glad you found your way here.
    'Tis true, a harder core of total JBL fanatics (or ALTEC for that matter), and the most helpful info they collectively offer would be difficult to find anywhere else. Especially as extensive as what you'd find here.

    Welcome.
    I might be deaf, but I can still hear da bells! (Quasimodo)
    .... Oh, and the Kick Drum.

  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3dbdown View Post
    Thanks for listening,

    Rick
    We are all ears. We've long hoped for more and more folks from Altec and JBL to participate in this forum. It's been a rough eight years now and we've lost a few really great guys from JBL due to the noise level but hopefully you will be able to ignore that. Thank you very much for posting.
    Quote Originally Posted by 3dbdown View Post
    Some good folks left after that, tired of seeing their designs shelved.
    Yep. I remember it well. My perception of the time was pretty dark.

  3. #63
    Senior Member oznob's Avatar
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    Rick,

    You are a breath of fresh air and I thoroughly enjoy your insight and information. We have other former and current JBL employees who chime in from time to time including Greg Timbers and Harvey "Hi-Fi" Gerst to name just a couple. I am facinated to here from those who were actually there and know the real stories behind the designs and, for lack of a better term, politics of the company.

    Great to have you here!

    Mark
    Past practice indicates future behavior.

  4. #64
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    Hi, everyone, and thanks....

    4313b, roger the noise level.....It's what keeps me off other threads on the net. But I'll stay here, mainly because I see a lot of folks around here who actually DO know what they're talking about! And just because I worked there doesn't mean I know everything.....I will be taking plenty of opportunities to solicit all your opinions as the need arises!! For one thing, I'm fairly weak on the product lines between 1978 and the current stuff. I will be asking some questions on my newly acquired 4430"s, for instance.

    I was trying to think if I knew Harvey Gerst, but I honestly don't remember, and am curious about when he worked there, and in which department or projects he was involved. I suspect I'll find out soon, through the posts.

    Greg I know very well, and remember when he hired on. I have spoken to him on occasion through the years, since leaving JBL,and can tell you that after knowing him for 36 years, he is a wonderful human being as well as a terrific engineer. I have never known him not to drop whatever he was doing to answer a question for me, or to give his opinion when asked. And I mean honestly, with no frills or bull. Quality guidance all the way!! He was one of the ones I mentioned previously who really, today, is the Guru...IMHO

    I still kick myself in the butt for not mortgaging my 3 kids when his 250Ti came out!!, Well maybe someday I'll find one!

    I still get by JBL occasionally, as I am the Senior Electrical Inspector in Northridge. So, naturally, when JBL pulls permits for their work, I make sure to help them all I can. I always try to stop by and see the guys, their schedules permitting, and even though I haven't worked there for 30 years, It's still home to me, and they always make me feel welcome!! And, when I go there, I always wear my original ID badge from Casitas, and as far as I know, It's the oldest badge in the plant!! The security guards all get a kick out of it, and the looks on some of the employees faces when they see it is..................priceless!!

    I'm really glad to be here, guys, (and guyettes)!!

    Thanks so much,

    Rick

  5. #65
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    Great stuff. If anyone deserves a pair of 250Ti's, I think it's you

  6. #66
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    Thanks, Andyoz..........Got a pair lying around!?!?!?!

    Rick

  7. #67
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    I've got a mint pair of L250's sitting dormant (they're waiting for a bigger house). I'm in Ireland so you can't exactly drive over and 'borrow' them. My 250Ti's are used every day.

    p.s. any photo's from your JBL day's that you could scan and post here?

  8. #68
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    Well, doubly unfortunate, since I can't drive over there and hear your 250Ti's, nor do I have any photos of back in the day....

    I actually became a photographer while working at JBL, thanks in large part to Steve Lyle, who was one of our electronics engineers at the time.

    Steve was the guy who got the 6000 series Pro power amps off the ground, 4301 series powered monitors, and the 6233 amp. He was a great friend, and I'm hoping to re-contact him soon, thanks to Drew Daniels giving me his E-mail address.

    Rick

  9. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3dbdown View Post
    Hi, everyone, and thanks....

    I was trying to think if I knew Harvey Gerst, but I honestly don't remember, and am curious about when he worked there, and in which department or projects he was involved. I suspect I'll find out soon, through the posts.

    Rick
    Hi Rick,

    I left around 1967, maybe earlier - a few years before the L100's or the 4310's came out. My QC stamp was "8", I think. Were you in that little room near the loading dock? That was my domain till I went into customer service with George Augspurger. I started with JBL when they were still on Fletcher Drive. The JBL "bank plaque" on the front door at Casitas was my idea. After I designed the "F" series, I was in the little building to the left of the executive parking lot; that was customer service.

    Ed May came to work at JBL shortly after we moved into Casitas. Before Ed, we had Bill Burton as Chief Engineer. He started the Transducers Inc. division in La Canada for high powered speaker stuff, primarily for the military.

    And of course, Bart Locanthi. During the early Casitas days, Bart was still at JPL, working primarily as a consultant for JBL.

    I don't know how many people from my day were still around when you were there. I would occasionally visit Bill Thomas and Margaret at their ranch near Santa Barbara, and I stayed in touch with Ed and Edna May, but that was about it.

  10. #70
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    Hey, Harvey!!!

    Pleased to meet you.....Yeah, you were gone before I got there....I responded to your PM, hope you got it!

    Boy, if these walls could talk!!!!

    We'll let the forum think about that one, eh??

    Rick (#12)

  11. #71
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    To the forum vintage owners........

    If you have a driver out there with my stamp on it, it has not been abused in any way, and it doesn't work.......you let me know!!

    Rick (#12)

  12. #72
    Senior Member Woofer's Avatar
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    Jeez, I love being a fly on the wall at this place!!!!
    You guys with your reminiscing is priceless.
    I'm an old sound guy from the early 70's 'till not too long ago, down on the underside of the planet, Australia. I've always been loyal to JBL.
    The fact that I learnt the hard way how to fix a busted 2220 or 2225, K120, or whatever, with nothing but a well sharpened Swiss Army knife and a bit of contact glue out the middle of the bush "Back o' Bourke", and getting my fixed one's to outlast the tours etc gave me so much respect for the brand. Nothing could take the punishment like the JBL's did. Hell I could even realign magnets with a hammer and a block of wood and a credit card, if the case ever arose when the travel was over some pretty bumpy bulldust covered roads that used to knock the magnets off centre. I'm no Rocket Scientist, and never claimed to be, but there was never a problem I couldn't fix. Even open circuits, unravelled voicecoils. You name, I could fix it. Anywhere, anytime. ... and all because of the superb design and construction AND sound of the speakers of that era.
    It just goes to show, that if you really respect your gear, you'll soon learn the mechanics of it, and the sooner you learn how to rely on no one but yourself to fix it. Afterall, who you gonna ask, when you're 500 miles away from anywhere surrounded by desert and you don't have a spare recone kit or four? (yes, we really did have gigs like that)
    I'm so grateful to you guys, for what you did for us, the end users. Really and most sincerely, and I certainly hope you don't stop chit chatting amongst yourselves on this forum. I still got lots to learn.
    My only regret is, that I really really wish I didn't spend so much time sniffing the glue.

    Cheers all.
    I might be deaf, but I can still hear da bells! (Quasimodo)
    .... Oh, and the Kick Drum.

  13. #73
    Senior Member oznob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3dbdown View Post
    To the forum vintage owners........

    If you have a driver out there with my stamp on it, it has not been abused in any way, and it doesn't work.......you let me know!!

    Rick (#12)
    I'll have to pull the drivers out of my L100's and check em' out! They were first sold in Dec. 1972 in Minneapolis MN.
    Past practice indicates future behavior.

  14. #74
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    Sounds like they're still giving great sevice!!

    That's what we all like to hear!

    Rick

  15. #75
    Senior Member jcrobso's Avatar
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    When Fender started using JBL speakers

    I think it was 1959 or 1960 when Fender started using JBL.

    I got the Hi-Fi bug from my dad, at the time we had a big console that had 15" coaxial speaker in it.

    1964 during Christmas holidays I went to An Allied Radio store in Oak Park, The sales person was busy so I just went into the Hi-Fi demo room and listened to ever speaker there. They had all the big brands of the day, after 3 hours of listening I was completely sold on JBL.

    I play bass, my first JBL was a D140F that I put in an Ampeg bass cabinet. After I stopped playing in bands at my wife's request I sold the Ampeg amp, but kept the D140F. I bought another D140F added LE175 drivers, horns and lens. I got the prints for the JBL Harkness rear loading bass horn and built a pair of them and put my D140F speakers in. Over the years I have acquired many other JBL speakers, but I still have my first ones that are now 41 years old and still sound great!

    I have done a lot of Pro Sound work over the years and installed a lot sound systems, I always use JBL when the client has the budget for them.
    At the radio station the remote dept wanted get a bigger PA system and the remote guy wanted to use Bo$e speakers! I said NO WAY IN HELL! I got some JBL SRX115 not the best of the JBL pro line but I had a budget.
    After the JBLs arrived I did shoot out Bo$e vs JBL. We have one pair of Bo$e 801s here so I used one of them and one JBL, I played the Bo$e first then the JBL. When I switch from the Bo$e to the JBL everyone's jaws dropped they were just blown away by the difference.
    In the Pro sound community we have a saying "No highs, no lows, must be Bo$e" OK I know, I have strong dislike for Bo$e but I was able to get 4 JBL speakers for the price of two Bo$e.
    Anyway the remote guy like the JBLs so much that we got two 18" JBL subs to complete the system. There is so much FUD out there about speakers over the years I have felt like a lone ranger fighting for the truth about JBL speakers
    I'm so glad I found this forum! John

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