Grateful Dead Music Forum

Here's a photo of a Peavey JBL speaker that Peavey was using in some of their higher power steel guitar amps in the '70s. Eventually, Peavey needed something that handled more power than these K-series JBL's and they developed the Black Widow speakers based on the JBL's cone and voice coil, but using their new idea of a replacement cone/basket component that separates from the magnet body with 3 bolts. It makes for DIY recones. That's one of the cooler things about the Black Widows. You simply buy the basket, which is the cone and frame, and then slide the magnet on and bolt it down.

But I mainly just wanted to show a photo of a real deal Peavey branded JBL K130.

Brad

I remember you mentioning that JBL made Peavey speakers for a while and I could never find any, I guess they all got Blown! Anyway,I always wanted to know what they looked like just in case I come across one down here in the land of the steel guitar and country music...

lol - I never knew what JBL stood for until now

Brad - I'm not sure if this is one of them, however, they sometimes used an M31-4. This was a 4-ohm D130F labeled as an M31-4. I recently picked up one that came from an old Peavey Session amp and used by a steel player. It's great. I use it for guitar. I read that the later speakers had a 'made by' label (like above) that didn't say M31 on it.

mk

Will the E-120 kits fit the BW? If mine ever blows, how do you get a cone like the vintage one, or do the modern cones respond similarly?

What old Peavey amps can you find these in?

Peace and Queues,
Samson

Samson wrote:What old Peavey amps can you find these in?

Peace and Queues,
Samson

Old Peavey Artists have them I think, 1x15's.

I think the actual JBL's came in the Peavey Session 400 and LTD 400 steel guitar amps, probably circa '74-'77. The good black widows have the spider web sticker on the flat magnet. Eventually Peavey thickened the paper and they never sounded quite as sweet as these early black widows. The good 12" black widows can be found in the Peavey Artist amps. Those were often 1-12", 80 watt tube amps that were sort of Peavey's attempt at a Boogie combo. I think there were 15" versions too. Pretty good sounding amps IF you get in there and put some real bias on the power tubes. Stock, Peavey ran the tubes way too cold and safe and power tubes just don't sing until they're biased right. Peavey did it as a low-maintenance factor, a fixed cold bias, never worry about it. But the tone suffered. You can find these Artist amps real cheap. Look for them, they're out there.

Also, I believe that the orange D120F and also the 15" counterpart, the D130F speakers were slightly different than the older, original D series. The "F" stands for Fender, and for Fender they slightly widened the voice coil gap so the speakers could handle a bit more heat and abuse in a guitar amp without rubbing. Then, I think, the K series was built on these "F" frames with that slightly bigger voice coil gap. There are some people who swear by a true original D120 or D130 because the tighter gap made the speaker a bit more efficient and tonally more nuanced. But they do blow quite easily, or if they dont' blow, heat can warp the voice coil just enough to begin rubbing in that tight slot.

I've been using a pair of orange D120F's for over 20 years. I always refer to them as K120's because the recone kit I had put in back in the '80s were "K" kits as I understand it. And since the K frame should be the same as a "F" frame, I just call them K's. They're still rockin' after 22 years on these same cones.

B

I just missed one of these for $60- apparently i missed them by an hour. somebody brought in a random cab with a blown 15" and they threw that thing in it and sent em off. please tell me they aren't what they're cracked up to be!