I wonder if folks are blowing up fewer JBL transducers these days? In the last 10 years we've probably averaged less than 1 a year in a shop with a couple thousand transducers. Add that to the much closer pricing for direct OEM replacements vs reconing and there's not a lot that favors the recone.
My local JBL re-cone guy retired after his 2nd open heart surgery and our local non-factory re-cone guy retired after developing nerve damage from solvents and adhesives. I'm guessing the reason nobody stepped up to replace them is a lack of demand/income for this service, locally.
A friend of mine has seen a similar trend. The only JBL stuff they see come in is long discontinued cabinets, cabinets that don't have some type of "factory tuning" profile, or cabinets that have used custom profiles because they "sounded better". The most common things he sees these days are 12" two-way SOS cabs run too hard without a sub, usually EV ZLX or Eon DJ types who just plug in and keep turning it up when the output doesn't suit them.
