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View Full Version : Question about recreating/restoring late 70's JBL Cab



dylan
05-25-2006, 01:29 PM
I am in the process of restoring a late 70's (between 77 and 79) RMI amp head and wish to build (or have built) a cabinet to match the original's specs.
RMI was the Rocky Mount Instruments Co., the company that made electra-pianos, Rock-si-chords and other relatively cheesy electric pianos and harpsichords of the time (Beatles, Ray Manazarek, Genesis, others used at times). RMI was a division of Allen Organs and i have obtained the original schematics for the amp which include a diagram of one of the accompanying cabs. The amp (part fo the 300 series) came with one of three cabs the G-180 (presum. for guitar, certainly the loudest), the K-180 and B-180. The diagram is for the G-180 which had a 15" JBL speaker. The only person i have ever contacted who can confirm having one works for an East Coast Sound Touring Equipment Co. and posted on his site that it was possibly the best built and specs of any Cabinet he's ever worked with (!). he is going to take pics and measurements which will greatly aid in the possible building/recon of said cab and confirmed that the speaker is a JBL D-130 (didnt say which letter series). the tweeters in the diagram (which i will try to attach) say 292-0028 and i am trying to find out if they too were JBL products, who might have made the cab itself (the guy from Allen wasn't sure but said he'd ask around) and if anyone had any advice for possible initial replacements for the D-130 if i cant afford it at first or a used cab on the market which might temporarily suit my needs (I know the Fender Dual Showman and a few Sunns of the period used JBL D-130's), taking into account that this will occasionally be used for guitar but primarily for Synths and Organs (for which i have a speakeasy tube preamp as well) and that huge power and volume are not necessarily the primary need for this system . As to why i wish to (expensively) try to recreate the original cab i have never heard..im not sure but thats my quest for now...thanks for your time.

GordonW
05-25-2006, 02:54 PM
Um, all I get are blank pages when I download the PDF... :(

Regards,
Gordon.

grumpy
05-25-2006, 03:08 PM
pdf worked for me. I did notice that the tweeters were claimed to be piezo's...
Also didn't see any real information about the cabinets (woodwork) themselves.
Might check this out:

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/obsolete/Cabaret_Series2.pdf

for a modern-ish keyboard cab. Would still need an amp... or search here for "Leslie"

-grumpy

dylan
05-27-2006, 08:13 AM
didn't even notice the DIY section. sorry about that. I have a Leslie and other Keyboard Amps, just trying to build a cab for this head. Didn't notice the Piezo mention either. Here is one additional page of RMI lit which mentions the different options for cabinets. On another page I noticed that the price for the single speaker G-180 cab was actually higher (500$ in 1978) than the head itself (475). Thanks for taking the time to read this, even if you don't have any specific advice, im hoping it will reach someone who has or had one of these cabs.