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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink N.A.D. 1962 Fender Showman

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Ariel, thanks, your advice made the difference!

Wow!! Nice job!!
It's a labor of love...a 1/4" square inch at a time. The grill looks awesome too Yes I can also vouch for Tim..this is going to be a beautiful amp. Congrats!

Thanks, Ben! You know how it is. I truly did enjoy cleaning it.

Today i dropped off the head with Tim at Top Gear, I mentioned Ran and others had highly recommended him. He asked..."So you play surf music?" I laughed.. "How did you know?" Tim... "Well, I know what kind of circles Ran runs in." haha.

I've never seen so many amps in one place, that room was packed from wall to wall with cool pieces, with only a narrow walk way to the counter. I knew i was in the right place!

Hopefully i can procure a good cab and speaker before the head is ready for pick up.

What an amazing transformation! Great job! Looking forward to hearing it after the TLC session at Top Gear.
What direction are you thinking of, cab wise? Single 15 Tone-Ring? 12 Tone-Ring? Dual 15?

Ran

The Scimitars

Thanks Ran! I'm grateful that you guys pointed me in Tim's direction, I felt confident leaving the amp with him.

I'm still learning a lot, so far from what i gather I'm aiming for a single 15" Tone-Ring cabinet with a JBL D130F with aluminum dust cap. Of course they're rare, and not cheap, but that's what i'm setting out to find. I considered building one, but I've never built a speaker cab before, and while i believe that i could do it, i know that a Tone-Ring cab is a bit more complicated than a standard closed back, and i'd want to do it right. I'm currently scouring the web for diagrams, dimensions, and possible custom builds. Lots of superb info on this site! At this point i think i'll have to try to find the speaker on ebay or reverb.com, and get a period correct cab made by Mather cabs, or Beaver Bottoms. Money is the main thing impeding the process, of course. I wasn't even planning on buying the Showman, but when i saw a PSA i knew i had to try to snag it and figure out the rest after the fact.

Ran, i was curious and wanted to ask you; Would this head support 2X15s? Would i need to wire the speakers in series to make that work? Is there even such a thing as a 2X15 cab w/Tone-Rings? I'm totally open to suggestions. I want to do this right. I want a big, loud, bassy, focused sound.

I noticed each time I've seen you play in The Scimitars it appeared you sometimes were using a Tremolux and a Showman into 2 closed back 15s, and sometimes it was just a showman into two cabs each time it sounded amazing from where i was at.

Last edited: Dec 30, 2021 22:30:00

Always glad to help and give advice,based on actual experience.
First of all, I would not recommend building a cab. Of course, it can be done, but if you're going to tackle it, I suggest it as a learning project at a later stage, not something to provide you with your first cab.

Regarding what your amp supports. Your amp has an 8 ohm Output Transformer (OT). People all over the internet and here would warn you against running anything but a 100% matched speaker load. I, on the other hand, have experience running these 8 Ohm OTs into 4 Ohm loads for 8-12 hours straight, on multiple occasions. Remember, I provide the guitar-amp backline to the SG101 convention and Winter Surf Fest. So, you can choose who to listen to. I always put a small fan behind my amps if they run for several hours, just-in-case. Never had any problems and the amps sound great. At gig volumes I am always more concerned with someone blowing a single JBL, so I prefer to run two speakers.

My current "normal" gig setup is one Showman into two single 15 closed-back compact cabs, that together are slightly larger than an early 2x15, but are much easier to transport and fit into a small car. I also found that , while I love the big single 15 Tone-Ring cabs, they are very good at long range, but aren't as effective as the compact cabs for short range. So, not as easy to hear in the mix on stage, but great at the back rows of huge venues like The Alpine Village.
However, If you do get only one cab, and you don't plan to be touring, for the sake of getting the full authentic experience, get a 15 Tone-Ring cab.

In regards to our show at Roxanne's and the setup I used:
Due to extreme constraints on volume, I tried running a 61 Tremolux into a single compact 15, and a 62 Showman into a single compact 15, at the same time. I bridged the amps with a cables going from the Showman's second inputs into the Tremolux's first inputs. Whether this whole elaborate setup sounded better than just a Showman at real low volume or just the Tremolux, hard to tell. It did get us through the gig, but both amps were not at their sweet spot. A Showman at low volume has some deeper low end that the Tremolux just doesn't have, so I want to think it may have helped. I wouldn't worry about it, start with a Showman with a single Tone-Ring cab and then go from there.

BTW, there is no 2x15 with two Tone-Rings.
See my PM about cab options.

Ran

The Scimitars

Last edited: Dec 31, 2021 08:10:28

I play Jack's old Showman through a 215 cab, but it has a Triad 4 ohm OT. I know the old Fenders circuits are overbuilt, and can handle that much of a mismatch, but I always wonder about the sound. Is it identical? Does it distort earlier, or later, or at the same place? Is that overworked OT going to fail someday? I have 15" tone ring cabs but I'm scared to use one with that Showman. If the OT can handle it, is there any audible difference at all?

I like the idea of 2x 15" cabs. Certainly easier to lug around. I bet it would be easy to get two 15" cabs with an open backs too. I wonder what one 15" open-back and one 15" closed-back would sound like together? Probably awesome.

Try JD Newell or Beaver Bottoms for cabs, if you wanna save that build for later.

Daniel Deathtide

SandBug , congrats on the new amp . You are in good hands with Tim P as an amp tech ..I've been bringing all my amps to him for over 30 years and they always come back 'right' . Looking forward to a sound test video when it's all done .

Update:

After some time I finally was able to assemble my new rig based on the amp in this thread.

I'm extremely pleased with my Mather Tone Ring cab, it looks, sounds, and smells wonderful. I loaded it with a NOS JBL D130 F, and I absolutely love it.

I usually play through a Gomez G-Spring, but I ended up using a homemade Surfybear in this little demo clip.

I've since replaced the amp baffle to match the Oxblood cab.

Special thanks to Ran (kick_the_reverb) Showman guru for his guidance in helping me attain a rig that's better than I could've imagined.

Last edited: May 09, 2022 03:42:52

Sandbug, that sounds great! You've got a keeper there!

Patrick

Sounds great! How heavy is the tone ring cab? I actually took Ran's advice, and had a compact 1x15 cab made for me. I use a 175 watt (not 80) Weber California, and have finally achieved the tone I have been chasing for years. I would love to hear your amp cranked if possible, but I understand that could upset some neighbors / band members. Thanks for sharing the video!

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale.

Sounds great Dave, and happy to help! Really glad everything worked out well, and it also lead to you joining The Scimitars, where this gear will be put to good use!

Ran

The Scimitars

Sounds really good! Congrats on joining the The Scimitars as well. Cool Smile

El Twitter
El Ray
El Ray on Bandcamp
El Twang on YouTube

Thanks all! I'm super stoked about the rig and putting it to use in The Scimitars!

SixStringSurfer, I don't know the weight of the cab, but it's lighter than I expected.

I don't worry about the neighbors, I'm going to crank it. Ha. Actually my neighbors tolerate me, so far, I have double-paned windows that do a decent job at insulating the sound. The only reason I had it low for this demo was because it was overloading the mic on my camera. I'll have to just use a proper mic next time.

Last edited: May 09, 2022 21:13:34

The way it looks now...
image

Congrats, can’t wait to hear it.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Sounds great…good work!

Craig Skelly

Little Kahuna
www.littlekahunamusic.com
The Breakaways
The Curl Riders

SandBug wrote:

Thanks all! I'm super stoked about the rig and putting it to use in The Scimitars!

woahhhh!!! congrats!

I have wanted to build my own tone ring for a decade but have never found correct measurements. going to contact pete again next year for one.

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