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Blue grills for the JBL L-36.

jlindsey86

jlindsey86

Well-Known Member
Were these pretty rare? My L-36's have the brown cloth and all the one's I have seen for sale have the brown cloth. I love the look of the blue and would like to find some for my speakers. I guess I could just replace the fabric on my brown grills but they are original and in perfect shape I hate to change them.
 
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Brown was the most common. I think they also were available in orange too..

They are easy to change and the speakers are pretty fair.
 
I have the original screaming '70s orange grills on mine. Wife has tolerated them since '78 -- barely.

If you check with Zilch here on AK or the Lansing Heritage website, he can set you up with blue grill cloth like the original. I don't think you'd devalue yours by changing the stock dull brown to new blue.

A very fine used speaker for the money.
 
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Wornears said:
A very fine used speaker for the money.
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That it is indeed.

I might see about changing the original brown, but I've never refinished speaker grills before and I'm not sure I could make it look as professional as it would have been from the factory.

BTW that orange grill cloth is wild man, I like it. Just jumps out a little too much for me. The 70's were great.
 
I am in exactly the same situation. I just got through putting drivers in and refinishing cabs on a pair of Decade 36. I got the blue cloth from zilch a loooooonnnngggg time ago and have yet to slap it on - I have been too scared, although right now I am using them without any grills at all. I also got orange grill badges to contrast with the blue grille cloth.

All I know is I need spray adhesive, after that, not so much.

Hope your project moves faster than mine has - good luck and don't forget to post pics!
 
Alright, I guess I will get shoot zilch a message and see what I can do. Thanks gonzomeep, I will keep that in mind if things dont go so well.
 
Alright, I received the blue cloth today. Thanks Zilch. Now does anyone have some good advice as to how to remove the JBL logo without breaking it?
 
I have 2 pairs 1 with brown and one with blue so I may look into finding some orange ones. The badge comes out pretty easy just get your fingernails under the edges pull softly and twist.
I am far from an expert on replacing cloth so I will shut up now and let an expert tell you how its done.
 
jlindsey86 said:
Alright, I received the blue cloth today. Thanks Zilch. Now does anyone have some good advice as to how to remove the JBL logo without breaking it?
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If you look at that little retaining clip that slides down the shaft, you'll notice that it has pieces (fingers) that grab onto the shaft to keep tension. What I do is to carefully stick the point of a pocket knife or steak knife in the slots on the sides of the raised "fingers" and try to gently bend them back away from the shaft. Once I get the point of the knife into the slot and start to bend it back, I use my other hand to gently pull on the other side of the emblem. If the clip is seated into a recess cut into the grilleframe to begin with, so you need to get the clip to slide up to the end of the shaft to have full access. So, insert the knife point into the slot on the side of the "finger" and release tension while pulling the emblem from the other side. That will make the clip slide to the end of the shaft and to get caught in that little groove in the end of the shaft. So now that you've got the emblem pulled out from the front side, push it back to it's original position, and you will see that that little clip is now in a position at the end of the shaft/out of the recess on the other side so you can get at it easier. You can now use the knife and maybe some needle nose to finish the removal. Tough little buggers. Before you put it back on, make sure you set the little clip flat on a solid surface and strike it with a hammer to flatten out the tension "fingers" so they will grab tightly again.
 
Thanks very much for the help. The logo's came out pretty easily as did the fabric. Was able to slowly pull it off with no problem at all. Tomorrow I will see if I can find some kind of adhesive at a hardware shop or walmart. Any other ideas as to where to look? I've seen spray adhesive online but that seems like it could get messy, is there an adhesive that can be brushed on?
 
Thanks for all the help. I had time to do one grill last night and it turned out great. Im actually kind of excited about it. Herbman, I too was afraid I would probably screw them up, but let me tell ya just take your time and you will be ok, the end result is very much worth it.

Basically what I did was cut out a rectangle piece of fabric with about 2 inches over hang on all sides. I then fold one side over and used thumb tacks to hold it in place. I then went around the grill frame stretching the cloth over the edges until I had it all tacked down, tight, and looking good. I then removed one tack and a time and used a hot glue gun and slowly went around leaving the corners for last. I dont know if this was the best method as I had some difficulty with the corners and there are a couple of places on the inside of the grill that arent perfect but I dont really care about that. Let me know what yall think.

SANY03791.jpg


We are going on vacation tomorrow so I probably wont have time to get the other one finished this week, but now I have something to look forward to when I get back home.
 
Damn jlindsey86, I too, use the hot glue gun. I've gotten a ration of sh*t about doing so. I had written a how-to post about it, but decided that I would just post a link to that LFHS thread to avoid the controversy.
That glue gun is nice huh? Right.
Here is a tip when you do the other one. Glue the cloth along most of the sides, while leaving the last 2-3 inches before the corner to be done. Once you are at that point, lay the grille on it's face, and do a "dry run", gathering and stretching the cloth in the corner to estimate the amount of waste that you need to cut away.
Lay the cloth back down and carefully cut a 90 degree wedge of cloth out, with the small tip/point of the wedge centered at the grille frame's 90 degree corner( it should be like the "shadow" of the grilleframe). You should have it oriented/cut to where 45 degrees of material waste has be cut away on either side (evenly) of the grille frame's 90 degree corner.
This will eliminate most of the bunched waste material you had in the corners.
A little more pull on the cloth in the corners is necessary.
I also use a small flat piece of wood molding to act as a "press", to make the cloth/glue squish/lay down.

You grille looks very nice BTW, good job!
 
Thanks for the extra tips gonzomeep. I'll keep them in mind when I do the next one. Good to know about the corners I'll see what happens...

I actually went out and bought some spray adhesive first, but after experimenting with it, I found it didnt dry as fast as I liked and I didnt feel too comfortable about using contact cement. The hot glue method worked great for me and seems to hold really well. I pulled that cloth pretty damn tight.
 
Finally got a couple of pics for you guys. Over all the project went very smoothly and its something I wouldnt hesitate to do again, the difference is worth it.

Before:
DVC00567.jpg


After:
SANY0598.jpg


The backing isnt JBL factory perfect but, to me, it dosent conern me. Still look a hell of alot better imo.
SANY0608.jpg


Thanks to all you guys for the help and advice, really came in handy, and to zilch for the cloth, thanks again.
 
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