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JBL Decade 36. So much for a simple refoam!

HiFi in WYO

The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.
These were brought to me today for a refoam. Ah yeah, going to be a bit more than a refoam. So we'll see what happens once I get some prices together. At least they have the grills.

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Yeah, very rough.
The non original speakers are all rat shacks. The mid on the other has no markings. So looks like only two of six are JBLs.

They removed the brilliance pot on the rat shack speaker and put a 3.3 uF cap in the tweeter.

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Those look like a pair I picked up yesterday. The speaker on the right looks like none of the drivers are original. The speaker on the left looks like an L-36A with the original LE25-4 tweeter, LE5-6 mid and 125A woofer...both of my woofers were Realistic replacements. My veneer is pretty rough on the top of one of the cabinets so I'll probably end up parting these out. If these only had the original woofers.

Good luck with the refoam plus...
 
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Yes on your assessment of the speakers.

Thanks, I might be interested. I'll need to see what the owner wants to do. I'm pricing the xover, mid and tweeter and woofer. Good thing, parts are there, bad thing they're not overly cheap ... but they are JBLs so ...

I'm also planning on sanding the veneer and staining them and was going to offer to redo the grills. They're not bad, but very stained and have a couple small holes. I'll be sending him an update but may not hear back for a day or so.
 
Those are a long way from original performance. Who knows on the crossovers. Drivers all available still on the bay. Some serious paint and veneer work, maybe get by with sanding if the owner cares.They are beautiful speakers in original form.
I love my L36s in my office, great balance for classic rock and punchy bass out of the 10s. For some reason they sound really great about 2' from the ceiling instead of down lower or ear level. My L26s sound much better up high as well. Counter intuitive to speaker placement logic. The bass really opens up the highs fill the room. Any JBL harshness seems to be gone. Anyway, have fun with those. My favorite bookshelf speakers.
 
I guess the good thing is he bought them at a yard sale, grills on, so admitted he didn't really look closely. Paid $10 so not a huge loss.

I haven't run across any JBL stuff so I have no idea what they're supposed to sound like, but from what I've read these are well regarded. I hope he wants to at least get them going again, I'm stoked to do the work!
 
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Woah....I'd say the owner should cut his, winnings, I guess, and sell the three original drivers, provided they even work. Those cabs are gross.

If these were L100's that's a different story, but L36's - I could barely get three Franklins for a pair, twice. And they were minty.
 
I understand, but I guess it would depend on what you want to do with them. If redone, they're likely to go into his auto restoration shop so they're not being flipped and they don't have to look perfect, though they wouldn't be abused or get too filthy ... that shop is like an operating room.

I sanded the top of one of the speakers and it cleans up pretty well. I think the veneer can be made presentable, though obviously not perfect. Grill cloth is cheap, so I think they can look pretty good, at least from a short distance.

I look at it as a project, just like the old cars we work on. If a person drops $300 for parts and gets a pleasing (in a sound sense) pair of speakers, then why not? Heck $300 -$400 doesn't get you a lot around here, there's not much to choose from at any price.

I've brought worse back to life ... somewhere around here is my thread on a literal garbage dumpster AR 93Q pair, and they sound great, though still ugly without the sock.
 
They have very thick veneer. I used my orbital sander on mine and did not run into any thin spots. When I was done I added some light oak stain and finished with tung oil, They look great now.
 
So the rebuild begins. Thought they had butchered the crossover but it's not even the original. One entire speaker was reworked with all Radio Shack parts, including the crossover. Makes me wonder what went so bad they felt the need to gut one entire speaker.

All original parts are on their way including two correct crossovers.

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Woof, those are hacked up. That one RS mid looks like a variant of the Foster (Fostex) Fe103’s they used in this and that. I agree a $10 investment and another $400 or so to straighten them out is not a bad deal at all.
I like beat up JBL’s like that, doesn’t make me feel bad about painting the baffles cream or JBL blue and finishing off with orange or dark blue Huntley grill cloth.
 
Actually seeing the split seams on the cabs I probably would not spend the effort using those particular cabs. Keep us posted on your progress.
 
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