Dating a JBL Speaker

[GreenManalishi]

Hi,

How do you tell the date of a JBL D130F speaker? Serial number?
If someone could direct me to a chart or something, I would appreciate it.

TIA!

[Teleologist]

AFAIK, serial numbers don't really help and there are no date codes stamped on the speaker like other manufacturers do. Try the site below for lots of JBL information, history, models, etc. There also used to be some specs for vintage JBLs on the Jblpro.com site.

http://www.audioheritage.org/

[GreenManalishi]

Originally posted by Teleologist
AFAIK, serial numbers don't really help and there are no date codes stamped on the speaker like other manufacturers do. Try the site below for lots of JBL information, history, models, etc. There also used to be some specs for vintage JBLs on the Jblpro.com site.

http://www.audioheritage.org/

Thanks, Tele. So, there's no definitive way to tell whether a JBL speaker in an amp is original or not?

[Teleologist]

I'm not aware of any serial number to date tables on the net. I have seen the dating question come up before. Harvey Gerst was one of the engineers at JBL who worked on the Fs. He used to hang out on the pro audio usenet newsgroup and if I remember right he said the numbers were assigned more or less sequentially. But the grey frame JBL-branded ones had lifetime warranties so there was little need to keep track! Fender was responsible for the OEM orange frame version.

This was all from a few years ago and things may be different now. There's a lot of interest in vintage JBL stuff these days. Harvey runs an Indy recording studio in Texas and loves to talk JBLs. You can find his EMail addresss at:

http://www.itrstudio.com/studio_index.html

A long shot might be to call or email JBLpro customer service(not the consumer division). You can also try asking on the rec.audio.pro usenet newsgroup.

AFAIK, the F-version was developed ~'61 when the Dual Showman was being developed. It lasted until ~'71 when Nixon imposed wage/price controls and JBL brought out the K-series to get around the price freeze.

[GuitarsfromMars]

Check out the Plexi Palace BB-there's a really good thread on JBL speakers there...