Jbl D130

Alan Rudd · From: Ardmore, Oklahoma

Is this speaker good for steel amps? Does it handle enough wattage?

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

IMHO, no. They'll only handle about 25-50 watts, and it's easy to exceed that with pedal steel using a big amp if you're using a moderate amount of bass. They have a good sound for practice, small gigs, or studio work, but they fall on their face fast when the volume goes up.

Straight guitar players can take better advantage of their breakup because they use, as a rule, very little bass, and lower-powered amps.

Alan Rudd · From: Ardmore, Oklahoma

Thanks, Donny. So, I guess, it's the E 130 that you need for a steel, right?

Ron Randall · From: Dallas, Texas, USA

(edited for correct bass speaker name)
Just another opinion...

The JBL D130 is my favorite all time speaker.

The original (50 years or more) D130 was 16ohm impedance. (Could not handle lots of power and bass frequencies by todays standards) There are many JBL D130's re-coned to 4 ohm impedance in use today. Great for guitar or steel. E 140's were designed to be a bass speaker. It sounds good on steel also.

Have a look at Walker's Stereo Steel amp. Or, Standel's new tube amps. They use JBL D130's.

Cartwright Thompson · Posted 7 Dec 2008 3:28 pm

Actually, it's the E-140 that was made for bass.
I punished an 8 ohm D-130 for three very loud sets just last night (Pedal steel into a Twin Reverb running two 6550's) and it performed flawlessly.
I do know that I'm pushing my luck. I think 50 watts continuous is a good rule of thumb for the D series jbl's so yes, the E-130 is a much better choice for a 200 watt solid state steel amp.

Alan Rudd · From: Ardmore, Oklahoma

How much is a D130 worth?

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Alan,

you'll find some real good prices on used D130's right here on the forum. They can be found for as low as $150 on up to well over $200.

Donny is right that they are officially rated for pretty low power, but in reality, a lot of guys have played the heck out of them in a 80 watt Fender Twin and not blown them. Many D130's have been reconed over the years and often times they get the K130 cone kit. That makes it a K130 and they can handle a good deal more power. Many 200 watt Peaveys came with that speaker and as long as there wasn't too much abuse, especially with excessive low bass energy, they hold up ok. But they really shouldn't be hit too hard and loud if it's a real D130. Keep in mind that the K130 is nearly identical. Same basket and magnet, but the cone and voice coil are a bit beefed up to handle more power. In conversation, I consider them to be nearly the same speaker.

I don't love the E130 though. That's a boat-anchor with the giant ceramic magnet. Somewhat of a different animal. Doesn't sound as sweet as the D or K, but does have that similar voice. And for high power with a JBL, the E130 is the one you gotta have.

John Hughey used a pair of D130's for years and years and continued to right up until he left us. Lloyd Green too has used and still is a user of the D130 I believe. Tom Brumley, Jimmmy Day, the list of steel guitar tone-gods goes on and on. Historically, the D130 (or K130) is pretty much the holy grail, #1 steel guitar speaker. Over the past 50 years or so, it still reigns as a truly legendary speaker for steel guitar tone.

Brad

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Brad speakethed the truth! Cool

Dan Murphy · From: Missouri, USA

I have a JBL M131-4 ohm that came out of a peavey amp . the badge says built for peavey by JBL. I bought it on Ebay and it lasted one song. It was a faulty coil.The seller told me sowhat,so it sits in a JBL box waiting to be reconed.The cones offered now are e130 cones and able to handle at least 200 watts. Sound speaker repair has them.Im not shure if thats RMS or continueous . Rolling Eyes

Lee Jeffriess · From: Vallejo California

Its weird, I have this love hate thing with the D130.
I could never get on with what I call the ugly zone.
I used D130s(K kits) in three different tube amps over the years all of them about 25 watts.
I would never make the speaker clip.
Every now and then someone would get up and play my rig, and I would think wow is that my amp.
That ugly zone to me was about 5 feet in front of the speaker, and it never sounded as sweet as 15-20 feet away.
Also the guitar player I worked with for years used a 65 AC50 with a D130, he still does.
Out in the audience it sounds great, but when I had that thing behind my head on stage it was like a root canal.
I totally agree Brad it probably is the holy grail steel guitar speaker.
What I don't understand, is what I hear in that ugly zone I DONT hear on those classic recordings.
Is it edge mikeing, or coming direct off the speaker terminals??.
Its like the sound I hear in the room
Lee

Robbie Daniels · From: Casper, Wyoming, USA

I have a JBL E-130 that I will sell for $175.00, plus shipping of about $25.00, if anyone is interested.
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Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

Actually, I believe the original D130s are 12 ohm, curiously. But on most amps brands you see them used for 8 or 16. The output transformers for the 25L15 Standel match the 12 ohm D130 speakers.

David Doggett · Posted 1 Jan 2009 4:53 pm

The M131 was a D130F made by JBL at the request of certain manufacturers after they stopped selling D130Fs. I think the M stands for manufacturer, and maybe they had different numbers for different manufacturers. I have an M131 in one cab and a D130 (not the F) in another, that I use together as twin speakers with a 100 watt SF Dual Showman Reverb or a Super Twin Reverb head (180 watts). I can't hear any difference in the two. I just think the Twin family Fenders were made for twin speakers, so why not two JBL 15s. I have a D130F reconed to 4 ohms in a SF Pro Reverb combo (60 watts), which makes it like a SF Vibroverb. For pedal steel, if you don't dime the volume and stomp your volume pedal, a D130 is fine in a 100-135 watt Twin, or a 200 watt NV400. But if you ride your volume pedal near maximum, you are flirting with a blow out. Many guys did blow out the M131 in NV400s, and supposedly that's why Peavey came up with the shallow basket Black Widow.

Buck Grantham R.I.P. · From: Denham Springs, LA. USA

I used 2 D130F 15" speakers for 13 years and never blew either of them and I loved the sound of them . I had them in Fender Super reverb amps. I would not be afraid to use them for country music because now days they mike the amps in most cases.. Buck
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Nick Reed · From: Russellville, KY USA

Alan,
Thats what my Webb has in it

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

So if you use a D130F in a 100W Fender Vibrosonic, and pull two of the four power tubes (now 50W), you could, theoretically, run the amp wide open with V-ped floored an never harm the speaker (ie. exceed the speaker rating)?

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Don Brown, Sr. · From: New Jersey

Well, I sure don't want to even remotely incinuate that anyone's wrong. So, I can only tell you what I've played with for over well now probably 41 years.

A Fender Twin Reverb, that came through from the factory, with Dual 12" D-120 JBL speakers. I immediately removed them and installed a brand new 15" D-130 JBL.

I'm STILL using that same Fender Twin, as well as my Original D-130, and have never heard it break up at wide open (Oh BTW) my Fender Twin is 100 watts RMS, which would mean close to 200 watts music power., and, I've never blown it, never had it reconed and it's never given me any problems at all. Sweet, sweet tone to boot.. Maybe I'm just a lucky person, but I'd sure love to have a buck for every hour she's been worked hard.. My 15" is 8 ohm.

I've heard others say theirs wouldn't take it, but I'd most certainly say, mine sure has. But, it's possible it was just one of those things.

PS: I did break her in a little easy, after first installing her, and kept increasing the volume in steps at a time, as per the instructions. Maybe that's why it's lasted so long? Who really knows! I believe any good speaker should be given a break in period, so as not to distort the voice coil, when the cone is new and quite stiff.

But again, the above is only my experience and doesn't reflect what others may have experienced to be quite different.

PS: Let me add by saying, I've heard others saying to only use every other bolt pattern when mounting the speaker. I didn't know you weren't suppose to do that back then (as according to finding that on the forum some time back) so, when I installed it, I used every hole, and just possibly that's why it's lasted. I believe the instructions for mounting must have said to use all of the holes, (as I did) or I'd have mounted it differently. And yes! They are screwed in tight to the front panel.

Let me too, also clarify the Wide Open. When I say wide open, I too, have never turned my amp volume to wide open, nor would you want to, and be on the same stage with it. I most always used it up to (depending on the club size) anywhere from 10 O'clock, to 2 O'clock. That's running matched quad 6550's for the finals.

Hope that helps somewhat.... Don

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Pete, with out pulling 2 power tubes, if a twin or a Vibrosonic had a mismatch of 100%, it would not be optimum performance out of the amp, but it would be ok, and probably never hurt a thing. If you ran 8 ohms into a twin, you might lose a little volume, maybe a number on your volume knob. Same with a vibrosonic which wants 8 ohms, you could run 16 ohms.

If you pull 2 tubes you drop your power down, and can compensate by adjusting the ohms, in a twin, for instance, by disconnecting one of the 8 ohm speakers(two 8 ohm speakers in parallel= 4 ohms), then you would have the correct impedance with two power tubes out. Same with a vibro, optimum use would be to go to 16 ohms if you are pulling two power tubes.

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

Thanks, James.
I always get confused about that!

Can either of these amps run two 4 ohm speakers in parallel?.. 2ohm?

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Well the short answer is yes, but you'd be better off going the other way. You may not see immediate damage occur, but you maybe shortening the life of you amp, in general.

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Here ya go Pete, this has helped me out some in planning. Cool

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Here's some good reading on this subject, Pete.

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/007397.html

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