JBL Lancer 33 / different versions?

[bookasan]

Last week I bought a pair of Lancer 33's for $14.00.
One was missing the driver, the other needs a new surround.
Yesterday I walked into a thrift and could not believe my eyes when I saw another pair of Lancer 33's sitting on the floor.
Took a good look and noticed the following.
1 had the LE8 with the tan colored surround. It was frozen solid. Could not push in the cone at all and the dust cap was pushed in.
The other had a different driver. It looked like a whizzer driver, but I couldn't tell what make it was. On the back of the cabs, one had the grey plastic emblem with the serial number, Logo, model etc...., The other had a white sticker with the model number, serial number and JBL logo.
The cabinets also looked slightly different in the back. The terminals were in 2 different locations.
Did JBL change to the Plastic emblems or to the stickers at some point?
These were cheap (10 bucks), but since they were in such bad shape, I just left em.

 

[GordonW]

JBL did make a version of the LE8 with a whizzer and a gray cone, instead of the white cone with the aluminum dustcap. However, even on the whizzer cone versions, they still had the same "stop-sign" shaped basket as the more familiar LE8...


Sounds like parts of two different pairs, for sure. My guess, is that the one with the whizzer is likely older.

If the one with the "frozen" woofer is suffering from anything BUT a shifted magnet (that's the kiss of death, having a magnet come unglued and shifting on one of these), it may be worth getting it. Some of us have actually managed to recone these drivers, reusing the factory cone, replacing the dustcap (they're still available, as the aluminum caps are still used on some PA drivers), using a new voice coil and surround. But, as I said, if the magnet is not attached right, don't touch it, it won't do you ANY good whatsoever...

Regards,
Gordon.