Thank you for the pictures and the advice in the post. I will also check the specs of the current woofers. Here are some pictures of them before doing anything to them, since I have not had time to do more than play them for a few minutes so far.
The picture with my thumb is the worst spot on the cabinets. They are in amazing shape considering that they were hauled around in the back of a pickup going to and from the previous owner's dj gigs. No grills, glass, or lenses. I have a sick family to care for, so it may be a while before I can get inside much. I took one woofer out, and the installer had just wrapped the wires on the terminal, no connector. just loose. He said that he had re-wired them, I doubt he did much.
The products you mentioned are familiar to me, I work in a hardware store, and we stock most of the items you mentioned. I also have some relatives that make cabinets, I can ask them for advice as well.
Beautiful piano too by the way.
Thanks! This use of consumer JBL's for DJ or sound reinforcement use is not uncommon. The fact that they can keep up with those needs speaks to the toughness and power handling. The Professional Monitor equivalent is the 4333 series and those saw regular high power use in studios.
The cabinets look in pretty good condition. The worst that you point out might be recoverable if veneer isn't gone, otherwise a small veneer transplant or some deft filler, stain, and grain painting should work.
The L300's had a 3 inch tall base that they sat on, originally made of particle board or plywood. Looks like they are gone, which is no big loss as they typically fall apart from a lot of use or moisture exposure. The holes for the screw mountings are still in the bottom of the cabinet so its easy to make new bases out of appropriate wood stock. You can search AK for that. Or you can get Zonker92 to point you to his thread about homemade bases for the JBL 4430 to get an idea of how to build some additional bases with casters that look great with walnut cabinets.
Given your hardware knowledge and cabinet resources, sounds like they will clean up nicely!
Regarding the woofers and rewiring, would be good to double check everything according to schematic. The JBL woofers work a little differently than typical polarity conventions (long story) so you can check that when you finally source a pair. In the meantime, you can check polarity issues with the woofers by just reversing one speaker's leads at the speaker relative to the other channel. Then listen to a mono music source and see if the bass gets better or worse. If better, the woofers or speakers were originally out of phase (one internally polarity reversed). Imaging should be dead center too. If worse bass or imaging diffuse and unfocused in the middle, then the speakers are the same polarity wise.
Dude hauled them around to DJ gigs?
Kinda sounds like my Altec Model 15s...guy I got them from did the exact same thing...hauled 'em around for years. Kinda rough on that infamous bent horn the 15s are "blessed" with...and needless to say the cabs are VERY rough. I'm with most of the others here...enjoy them as they are right now...invest a few bucks on cosmetics & lenses & meanwhile continue to search for the correct woofers. In the end, you'll be VERY happy you kept them.
The set I had were used as stage monitors for the seller's father's band...
He also told me that they were used as stage monitors for an establishment in Toledo before he got them when the business closed.
Yeah, pretty crazy what people will do with speakers. As stage monitors, they're pretty damn big to be pointing back at the performers. Course they would make wicked keyboard, bass or guitar speakers.
At this point, it is important to mention that if used in the above applications, there will be a future need to have the LE85 midrange compression driver and 077 slot tweeter driver diaphragms checked by a known JBL service center in your area or state, or by a known competent shop very familiar with JBL like Orange County Speaker Repair. Let us know where you are and we can supply references. For now, if they're playing, leave them be. They are not all that easy to remove, and even harder to take apart and put back together properly. Highly powerful magnets which attract screwdrivers faster than you can catch them.
That is the plan, and they will get some TLC too.
Good luck. As for the family medical problems, I hear you as I'm in the same situation with my daughter and her long term medical issues. She's in the hospital right now going on 3 weeks since getting sick on day 2 of a vacation. So we're 400 miles from home dealing with this. PM me if you would like someone to talk to about coping, or medical questions. I have a medical background.
