I prefer my dual cabs over the single tone ring cab everytime.....There is no substitue for a big sound. The tone ring cab sounds big and round in moderate sized rooms, but on a big stage and especially outside, make mine a dual......but then Woody and I have been known to play out of two amp/cabs at times.......makes me feel good just thinking about it.........ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

Hi, I have a chance of getting a JBL 130df ...15" in a homemade cab. I use a 22watt Fender Princeton II. I am hoping it will be a good fit. Are the JBL's really that good? I guess I will find out when I bring my amp over to try it out.

ps. I was just given a Fender echo reverb III. It powers up but no echo. I hope to get it up and running. Its probably out of oil. hears a link with some sound samples..

http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/

An update on my JBL and Weber and the whole damn speaker situation....

The last time I wrote I said that I came to the conclusion that my JBL is blown, and that I will buy a Weber NeoMag 15" to replace it. I got the Weber about ten days ago. A few impressions: it's about 5 lbs lighter than the JBL which made carrying the cab a fair amount easier (5 lbs actually makes a big difference when it's something that heavy!). More importantly, it sounds GREAT. I'm really impressed with the sound of that speaker. I think it sounds quite a bit better than the California series, even California alnico speakers (which I have in my Fender Dual Professional). To my ears the sound was indistinguishable from the JBL - though I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison, and we all know that ears do not have a good memory. Nevertheless, I dug the hell out of the tone of that speaker. Right up until it blew up. Only a week after I got it! I turned the Showman up to about 6.5-7, played for a few minutes, and started hearing some buzzing coming from the speaker. After checking it out closely, I came to the conclusion that the cone was ripped. I pulled it out (which with the tone ring is not as easy as you may think - it takes me about an hour to replace one speaker in a tone ring cab - 50 screws/nuts to unscrew and screw back!), and the cone wasn't ripped - instead, it started separating from the surround. I called Ted Weber today, and he was very surprised and offered to rebuild the entire speaker for me at no cost. I also asked him what he can do to make the speaker handle more power, and he had a few suggestions (though it was all over my head).

Here's the thing: I've now come to the conclusion that my JBL is not blown. I put it back in the cab, and it sounds fine (and I could never find any rips in the cone, anyway). Remember how I was complaing about the cone 'flapping'? Well, I had a friend come over last weekend with his '64 white-knobbed Bassman, plus some cabs loaded with 12" EVs. We swapped things around and tried different combination. The first conclusion I came to was regarding that harsh overtone I complained about that I thought was caused by the cone flapping - well, now I think it's caused by the amp slightly overdriving, when you have it around 6 or 7 and digging hard into the strings. The cone flapping was the effect rather than the cause of the harshness. I could see the 200W EV speakers doing the same thing when playing through that. The second conclusion I came to is that a flapping cone is a pretty normal thing when playing hard. I don't know if it's something I should try to avoid or if it even matters (Eddie?), but at least I know it's not a sign of a blown speaker.

So, after ALLLLL of this, I think the initial problems I complained about were not really problems, just normal Showman/JBL performance. And it turns out that the JBL D130F can actually handle quite a bit of what's thrown at it! I've had my Showman cranked to 9, even 10, for extended periods since I've had it and that speaker is still holding up fine as far as I can tell at this point. I have a renewed respect and confidence in the old faithful now. However, I would still feel more comfortable with a 2x15" cab behind me. Nevertheless, I'm really glad I tried out the Weber NeoMag, which I think I will probably use for gigging and leave the vintage JBL at home. Just as good of a sound with less weight - as long as it can handle the power! We'll see what the Weber people come up with.

Again, I hope all this is helpful to some of you.

Ivan

PS Jake, besides the guys from the Nebulas and the Meshugga Beach Party, I don't know of any other surf guitarists that use a single Showman. Everybody else seems to be using Duals (if they use a Showman, that is). Am I wrong? Do you know of others?

Ivan
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Ruhar
Ivan, thanks for the update. That's good stuff. Is the Dual Showman not as prone to this as the Showman because of the 4ohm vs. 8ohm load?

No, Ryan, it's all about the power handling of the speakers - with a Dual you have TWO D130Fs to take the full 85 watts of a Showman. With a single Showman, it's all down to one brave JBL. It's as simple as that.

Apparently, the actual power rating of D130Fs still remains unknown! Nobody seems to have this information. Ted Weber's claim that they're only about 40W doesn't seem right now. They must be pretty close to 80W, if not more, or I would have fried mine a long time ago.

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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The Madeira Channel on YouTube

JR's Showman has the finest tremolo of any amp that I've ever heard.

Ivan, maybe your problem is your strats? You should definitely go for one of those servicemen rip off Jags.

I was never too terribly happy with my Showman. It rocked at first, but then I found the sound not what I wanted 100%.

I haven't played my 15" tone ring cab with a reverb unit yet.

A D-140 would solve the D-130 problem of not enough power.

This brings up a question I have yet to come across the answer to.
What is the actual difference between a JBL d-130f & JBL d-140f?

Bob Bitchin

I heard they also have a ridge in the paper cone that is supposed to make the bass soundwaves be produced better. don't know if thats true though.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I can go ask Gary as OC speaker is about 6 miles from me.
Hes also the bass player in the Varatones.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I am looking for a Weber NeoMag 12" for my '65 Twin Reverb reissue. Are these speakers currently available? Will they work in a TR? Thanks for all your help.

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