That's why most of the B-15N's you see from 1962-64 had the stock CTS speaker, because they were $355.00. A JBL combined with
a Double Baffle Reflex is a very articulate cabinet for Double Bass.
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JBL D140F (I found two NOS)
- Thread starter FSGrind
- Start date
That's why most of the B-15N's you see from 1962-64 had the stock CTS speaker, because they were $355.00. A JBL combined with
a Double Baffle Reflex is a very articulate cabinet for Double Bass.
The JBL D-140F 15" speaker was "the" desirable bass speaker back in the mid to late 60's. They were used in lots of amps such as Fender, Sunn, etc. Originally the D130 15" speaker was a full-range high-fi speaker that Fender bought and put into both their guitar and bass amps. The Fender Showman and Dual-Showman both used them. They were very identifiable because of their chrome dust covers, which would show through the grill cloth of the amps that used them when lights were shined on the amps.
Unfortunately they got a fair amount of blown speakers from Fender amps so JBL re-designed the D130 using a more compact frequency response, which gave them a more reliable and better musical instrument speaker. They called it the D130F and Fender loudly proclaimed that it was "F" for Fender. They also decided to make a speaker specifically for bass and called that the D140F. Again it was tweaking of frequency response and the materials used to make it. You can easily tell the difference between D130 speakers and D140 speakers by looking at the speaker cone. The D130 with the wider frequency range uses a smooth speaker cone whereas the D140 has a ribbed speaker cone.
That D140F was a workhorse bass speaker with great sound and was used in pairs in 85-watt (Dual Showman) to 100-watt (Sunn) tube amps of the time. They also were used in solid state amps that starting appearing in earnest around 1970 but don't even think about running them with one of today's high-powered amps. It will blow them right out and they will be nice paperweights.
And of course @agedhorse knows them inside and out pretty well, so pay attention to his comments!
here is a picture of a JBL D-130F speaker that I reconed last year with a D-140F 8 ohm cone kit. This was a generic, drop-in cone kit, and was my first attempt at speaker reconing. The end result sounded very nice, but I had no use for it and sold it on EBAY. It sold for $165, so that was the market value at that moment in time
They are VERY desireable. They used to come standard in the Sunn 2x15 cabs that came with the Sunn 2000S heads (also VERY desireable). The 2000S was an all tube 4x6550 output head that was conservatively rated at 120 watts RMS so you can probably use that as a guideline for how much power a pair of them can realistically take.
I have one in a homemade (not by me) cabinet that I rehabbed. Paired with an Ashdown LB30, it sounds great. I call it my 'Poor Man's B-15'.
Here's a pic:
Supposedly the guy who built the cabinet (the D140F came with it) modeled it after some existing cabinet. Anybody care to take a guess as to what it was modeled after? I'd be interested to know.
Thanks
Here's a pic:
Supposedly the guy who built the cabinet (the D140F came with it) modeled it after some existing cabinet. Anybody care to take a guess as to what it was modeled after? I'd be interested to know.
Thanks
Wow, I remember communicating (read: arguing) with Harvey Gerst way back when the internet was young! I had no idea he was still alive.
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Passinwind
I know nothing.
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While I like the tone quality of the JBL-D130F the Altec 421-8H (series II) I have will handle more power, and sounds wonderful.
in the 60's and early 70's these were great speakers used in the Sunn cabinets of the 200S which is a rgreat sounding cabinet and the some Fender Showmans. I have a 65 Showman with a D140 in it it sounds great.A cabinet with two of these in it will be quite loud. If you go on youtube and find a video of Mountain Live you will see Felix using D140's and believe me they were loud. If you are selling drop me a PM on a price for one it would be perfect in my 62 bassman.
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My advice is the same as Agedhorse. The OP should consider this carefully and here is why: The highest and best use of these drivers is very possibly not as bass guitar speakers but rather HiFi speakers. The tube HiFi weirdo community has a small sub-group who are even more rabid than the rest. You see....most tube HiFi amps are push/pull and generate 20-30-40 Watts per channel or so. There is another kind of topology called Single-Ended Triode (SET) and these amps are often flea-watt units. 2A3 tubes are popular, and the amps that use them generate a paltry 3.5 Watts per channel! SET amp fans adore these flea-watt amps but they obviously require VERY VERY efficient speakers. These speakers sell for silly money. A brand new set of Klipsch La Scalas is about $17K.
I cannot find sensitivity specs on these JBLs but I have reason to suspect they could be in the neighborhood of 100db or better. If so, then someone would want them as badly as I wanted Cheryl Tiegs in the 1970s.
Yep I got like $450 I think I said for my pair and that was 12 years ago; also they were not NOS, they were reconed with factory JBL kits which were still available the era (early 90's) I had them reconed.
They were in pristine shape and I had no problem at all selling them on Ebay back then, lots of bids.
Analogeezer
The JBL D-140F 15" speaker was "the" desirable bass speaker back in the mid to late 60's. They were used in lots of amps such as Fender, Sunn, etc. Originally the D130 15" speaker was a full-range high-fi speaker that Fender bought and put into both their guitar and bass amps. The Fender Showman and Dual-Showman both used them. They were very identifiable because of their chrome dust covers, which would show through the grill cloth of the amps that used them when lights were shined on the amps.
Unfortunately they got a fair amount of blown speakers from Fender amps so JBL re-designed the D130 using a more compact frequency response, which gave them a more reliable and better musical instrument speaker. They called it the D130F and Fender loudly proclaimed that it was "F" for Fender. They also decided to make a speaker specifically for bass and called that the D140F. Again it was tweaking of frequency response and the materials used to make it. You can easily tell the difference between D130 speakers and D140 speakers by looking at the speaker cone. The D130 with the wider frequency range uses a smooth speaker cone whereas the D140 has a ribbed speaker cone.
That D140F was a workhorse bass speaker with great sound and was used in pairs in 85-watt (Dual Showman) to 100-watt (Sunn) tube amps of the time. They also were used in solid state amps that starting appearing in earnest around 1970 but don't even think about running them with one of today's high-powered amps. It will blow them right out and they will be nice paperweights.
And of course @agedhorse knows them inside and out pretty well, so pay attention to his comments!
JBL was kinda weird with their nomenclature, in 1978 I bought a pair of K-130's to put into some homemade cabinets; I went with the 130's because the spec sheet said they had slightly more high end. They worked ok but I figured I really should have gotten the K-140's after the fact.
So circa 1982 I sold the K-130's to another bass player (who wanted to replicate my rig only he bought an Acoustic 120 head which was a big mistake, just not enough power) and bought some 140's, which by this time were the E-140.
So JBL went from D to K (skipping E,F, G,H and I), but then went BACK to E for the replacement series for the K models.
Analogeezer
My old Fender Dual Showman had 2 D140F's. They did sound outstanding judging by anything else which was around back then.
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IIRC, the sensitivity of the D/K-140 was about 98dB/1W/1M which at the time was very efficient compared with the more crude products. Part of the reason for the legendary claims of sensitivity is because they were used in very large cabinets, which were more forgiving of the tuning parameters (yes, even back then engineers did understand the basics of tuned spring-mass systems) and favored low frequency extension, which was great until you had to move them. There were also horn loaded applications, which sacrificed the low frequency extension for mid bass sensitivity (in the 70-200Hz range) but at the time this was not seen as a problem because recordings and cinema optical film track playback (variable area at the time, but in some cases they were still using variable density sound tracks well into the 1950's) had significant LF roll off starting around 100Hz.
By focusing on what was important to reproduce at the time those drivers (specifically the 2200 series, which shares the same designs as the D/K series) trading off low frequency extension for mid bass sensitivity made a lot of sense given that most of the amplifiers were in the 100-120 Watt range and it was common for each (mono) amp to drive 2 speakers.
Today, there are many driver options that provide even higher sensitivity provided you are willing to make the same trade offs of reduced low frequency extension.
By focusing on what was important to reproduce at the time those drivers (specifically the 2200 series, which shares the same designs as the D/K series) trading off low frequency extension for mid bass sensitivity made a lot of sense given that most of the amplifiers were in the 100-120 Watt range and it was common for each (mono) amp to drive 2 speakers.
Today, there are many driver options that provide even higher sensitivity provided you are willing to make the same trade offs of reduced low frequency extension.
