[JonnyBoy]

• Peavey 1203 (Black Widow) -- 350 watts, 16 pounds, 4" voice coil, $130. Apparently older ones sound better (pre-1983? can't remember exact year)

Yhea the Peavy speakers you want are the model# 1204 or 1201 with the metal dust cap from the late 70's to mid 80's. The widdows today are like using the JBL's today, they are for PA's. I don't think you would be happy with a modern widdow.

[aiq]

I have Weber neo 110's in my Vibrolux (CVR) and they are very JBLish. Back in the day I had a JBL equipted Twin, this rig sounds like a half version of that.

I haven't played the others.

What is the group's definition of the "JBL sound"?

To me it's glassy clarity while retaining warmth. Classic dualism .

[zambiland]

I blew up my K120 and by a stroke of luck found a cancelled special order Commonwealth at a music store in La Crosse WI. I bought it for $80 to get me through the rest of the tour, but I ended up keeping it in that cabinet. I find it to be a very nice speaker indeed, a lot heavier than the K120, but definitely in the same ballpark as the JBL sound. Bear in mind that I do play bass through these things. It gets my thumbs up for the price.

Edwin

[mijknahs]

So Edwin, you play bass through the JBL 120 series? What kind of speaker setup?

[zambiland]

So Edwin, you play bass through the JBL 120 series? What kind of speaker setup?

One or two Joe's Thiele cabs with JBL K-120s (or at this point, a K-120 and Commonwealth) and McCauley 15" in a Thiele cab made by one of my old student.

Here's a pic, but it's been updated now with a Classic pre and a Crest CA9. The JBL is in the top cabinet.

[modz]

^ In the early days of the Schwag Jimmy T (bassist) used 2 Thiele 12" cabs and 2 15" Thiele cabs in stereo. I had 2 Thiele cabs with JBL's and later EV 12 l's. I loved those gigs and sounds. Nice bass rig TC.

[Marlow]

Here's a link to an MP3 file that A/B's a JBL D120 against a bunch of different Webers. It's from a guy over at the Weber forum. It's really useful as a sampling of different speakers and as a benchmark for the JBL sound:

http://www.seanet.com/~pauls/Jbl_ish_sp ... edited.mp3

Again, to my ear the Cali (paper dome here, though) sounds most JBL-like, but I'll listen again.

[JonnyBoy]

That was cool marlow, I wonder how much the age of the speaker cone has to do with the tone? The JBL is much different to my ears, but the others sound nice too... I found out with my Emmi's that copycats can't get you there exactly, but close. I was thinking i am also comparing 30 year old paper to 6 month old paper in my mind. There has to be something to that. I would like to hear a newly coned JBL against a vintage cone and see the difference. Has anyone A/B'd that?

[Marlow]

I've never heard a comparison between a JBL D120 in a new cone and a vintage, but a new cone would have to be a re-cone to be new, and then we're into a whole other set of variables.

You're right, though: the JBL in that sound file sure has a distinctive voice. It's the only one in the series where I hear a little shimmer of '72.

[erock]

a slight high jack, slight,

anyone know how to date the black widows? I just picked up a twin (for a song) that had them in, and in addition to the serial number had "patent Applied For" on the back of em. I'm thinking these were early in their production