Anyone Know What These 'Fretwork' L100 Covers Are (history?) ?

[mikey777]

I have these JBL L100's (my 4th pair so far) and am wondering what exactly these type of covers are. I was told they are called Fretwork. They are a mesh of a material similar to wicker. They appear original to me mostly due to the perfect condition...not a DIY job. I did not know (not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination) L100's could be bought with this type of cover as all the others I've seen were foam. 2 jpg's are attached.

[BMWCCA]

I'm not an L100 expert, nor do I want to be, but I was alive and a JBL owner when they were introduced. I remember them originally only with the foam grilles. It was always my impression that the fabric was simply a replacement (under warranty?) for the deteriorating foam. And that's what you have; fabric, not fretwork.

Fabric on the left, fretwork on the right (yeah, I know they're not L100s):

[Mr. Widget]

They appear original to me mostly due to the perfect condition...not a DIY job.

There is DIY and then there is DIY... the yourself part is a huge variable. There are quite a few members of this forum who do DIY work that is indistinguishable from factory work.

All that aside, I don't think JBL still had that cane style grille cloth available when the foam rot became an issue... all of the factory replacement grilles I have seen were a polyester knit fabric.

FYI: We do have members who are making and selling reproduction "Quadrex" foam grilles that are exact replicas of the original... if you are interested, you can do some searches on this forum.


Widget

[BMWCCA]

The point is/was that the speakers were for sale on Washington, DC, Craig's List for a rather large sum claiming some significance because of the "early fretwork" grilles. The ad is down now. Maybe someone bit, or the OP decided to cut bait.