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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Showman the Holy Grail of Surf Amps?

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Is the Showman considered to be the best amp for surf? If so what are some good alternatives to the showman?

the simple answer is : "Yes, the Showman is best!"

of course, everyone here has opinions about amps...i tend to think that there are a variety of tube-driven amp/ speaker setups that will do the job...

for me it's the Fender Bassman 50, 2x 12" Weber Californian speakers and a re-issue Fender Reverb Unit...

but, there are many, many choices and setups out there...

happy new year,

-dp

Short answer: yes, the Showman is the best.

Long answer: Generally speaking, most any vintage Fender tube amp will do the job for you, and the main differences are the sound you're looking for. The Showman is preferred because it punches like a prize fighter through that 15" speaker (or 2 15" speakers...) and will essentially never break up until you get to "blown eardrum" levels.
For that reason, some people prefer something like a Bassman or Bandmaster - you'll get a wee bit more tube overdrive at a much more workable volume.

The Twin Reverb, Twin Amp, Vibrolux, Vibroverb, etc are all smaller combo amps that achieve a relatively similar sound.

Nowadays, as has been discussed at length here (and much to the chagrin of Jake D and Bill Aqua) the Crate Powerblock makes for one hell of a passable vintage tone, all in a teeny five-pound package that you can pick up for $99.99 at Musician's Friend. Find a good speaker cab and you'll be set.

Basically, you have to decide on what sound you're going for. The big boochy drippy sound is best achieved (IMHO) with a Showman or Dual Showman paired with a cab with D-130s and a nice reverb tank. I have always liked the sound of a Deluxe Reverb with the onboard 'verb. That's what Los Straitjackets use, and I've heard a number of guitarists get a nice, albeit somewhat gritty, surf tone with that rig.

Long story short: Showmans are the tits, but you gotta decide what sound you want.

~B~

Agree

the Crate PowerBlock is a groovy solid-state amp!
at US$99 or so it's a hard one to pass up...

Everything Bill said, except the Twin is hardly a smaller amp, I wouldn't waste much time trying to get any overdrive on one of those either. Add to the list the Pro Reverb, which has everything you'd want in a slightly smaller combo amp. (It's still incredibly loud)

If you want the street cred of a vintage amp then get one of those listed, otherwise I'd buy the Crate and hide it behind my reverb unit Wink and put the money towards another guitar.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Showman amps are the great - to look at, and they really sound great live. and to gain some street cred, like Danny said. There are indead other amps that get it done almost as well. I've heard all sorts of Fender tube amps playing surf, and they all sound good. I think it has more to do with the reverb unit, than the amp - any fairly clean sounding amp can sound pretty good with a tube reverb behind it. I used to have a Fender Blues Jr. that sounded pretty cool with a reverb tank.

At the A-Sonics last show, I blew up my Showman - Smoke started pooring out of the back - on the first song. I borrowed a solid state Fender head from the next band, and....it didn't sound bad at all! So, I've been thinking that a $99 Power Block might be a wise investment for back up.

Ugh - I just found out there are no more Power Blocks at Musicians Friend - Crate Power Blocks Suck! Wink

Chris

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

The Holy Grail of surf amps...1961 Dual Showman w/Presence control.

This one is set up for bass with a pair of EV 15BX 400w speakers instead of the usual D-130F's.

image

Jack
aka WoodyJ

The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005)
The Hula Hounds (1996-current)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money
(1978-1990)

Sonichris
.

Ugh - I just found out there are no more Power Blocks at Musicians Friend - Crate Power Blocks Suck! Wink

Chris

Check your local Guitar Center, ours had em for $99 too.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

I will be playing through a 1966 showman /15" weber calirfornia speaker (in a Fender cab with Tonering baffle) + Powerblock through a single Celestion 12 next Feb in the next Flowmasters gig in early feb. I have been fine-tuning a dual amp rig; The showman gets signal only from my RI tank, and the powerblock gets the Fuzzrite and a fulltone Phat Boost for extra lead punch.

Wet on the Showman and clean pn the Powerblock with an occasional trebble boost.

I've found that for distortion/attack all I need is to switch to the bridge PU on my VM-110 (mosrite semi-clone). No crap on my signal chain Smile

g

Doesn't anyone use a Bandmaster? I LOVE mine.....use it with a RI-tank and a repro Mosrite with US made NOS pickups.....If the Bandmaster isn't loud enough it can easily be miked, but I've used mine at several outside shows and never had a problem with it not being loud enough. It's just a stock '64 blackface with 2 12" JBL's in the smaller cabinet.

surfinreverb
Doesn't anyone use a Bandmaster?

Paging Bill Aqua...

Yeah, Bill Aqua uses a '65 Bandmaster w/ matching cab. Right now, he's got CTS 12"s in there, but he just bought 2 new AlNiCo Jensens from me and where gonna put them in there next week. I really like the new production Jensens, and there pretty inexpensive. We've also been toying with throwing a Bassman output transformer in his Bandy for better bass response, but we'll wait and see what the Jensens do. Bill's Bandy puts out a little over 50 W with a 1KHz @ 1mV RMS input signal. Treble for days...

I use a '66 Dual Showman w/ 2 D140Fs for bass. Need I say more?

Matt Aqua

DualShowman
Yeah, Bill Aqua uses a '65 Bandmaster w/ matching cab. Right now, he's got CTS 12"s in there, but he just bought 2 new AlNiCo Jensens from me and where gonna put them in there next week. I really like the new production Jensens, and there pretty inexpensive. We've also been toying with throwing a Bassman output transformer in his Bandy for better bass response, but we'll wait and see what the Jensens do. Bill's Bandy puts out a little over 50 W with a 1KHz @ 1mV RMS input signal. Treble for days...

I use a '66 Dual Showman w/ 2 D140Fs for bass. Need I say more?

Matt Aqua

Thank you Matt, and even I didn't know ALL those details about "Bandy".

I agree with surfinreverb the Bandmaster does fine for surf, but I would like a Showman one of these days mostly because all the orignal artists I like used one. In the Aquanauts the Bandmaster works alright, plus Matt is using pretty much either a stock Showman or Bassman with no modernized gimmicks so I don't feel underpowered at all with just the Bandmaster.

Matt's Showman is a thing of beauty with no beer can rings on the top of the head.

"as he stepped into the stealthy night air... little did he know the fire escape was not there"

https://www.facebook.com/reluctantaquanauts/
https://www.facebook.com/TheDragstripVipers/

Eric of my band, the 'Verb, uses a bandmaster as well. He does get overwhelmed in the live mix though. As I, and the other guitarist, use modern Fender amps that put out way too much volume. I play around 2 live, whereas on my Showman I played at 6.

Aquanauts do their gear right. Leave it to the young guys to keep surf an honest genre. An Aquanauts and 'Verb tour would be an amazing thing.

We'd take the world by storm with our Bandmasters and Showmans, Jaguars and Jazz Basses...well, maybe just Japan.

Gee Woody, that amp and cabinet sure look familar......

I have for years thought that a Twin Reverb chassis powering a Dual Showman cab was the ultimate, but of late, I am really getting off on a '65 Bandmaster with 2-12 small cab/D-120s configuration. It sounds really musical and is pretty damn loud. The best part is that it is MUCH lighter than the Showman and at my age, that's really a plus. The secret to the Bandmaster is to play out of the Normal Channel as is has more gain due to the fact that part of it's signal isn't shunted by the vibrato circuit.

Reverbs, eddie k

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

JakeDobner
Eric of my band, the 'Verb, uses a bandmaster as well. He does get overwhelmed in the live mix though. As I, and the other guitarist, use modern Fender amps that put out way too much volume. I play around 2 live, whereas on my Showman I played at 6.

Aquanauts do their gear right. Leave it to the young guys to keep surf an honest genre. An Aquanauts and 'Verb tour would be an amazing thing.

the last service that was done on that amp (64 bandmaster) helped a bit in clearing up the sound. part of the problem is the speakers in my cab (68 bassman 2x15") i think though. the original cts on top is great, but i really need to replace the pos speaker in the bottom. it's a lot like playing a 1x15" i was looking at the weber california 15's. i don't know if i can afford the alnico, i was considering the ceramic and using that to replace my bottom speaker. i also play a 64 tremoilus which is actually louder than my bandmaster. it's a loud and clean 43 watts. i'll probably use that from now on at most of our shows with the 2x15. Part of why i WAS having problems being heard could be because we were playing sooo loud that you couldn't really hear much of anything. any thoughts on the weber californias? i really don't think i can afford the alnico one, as the ceramic is $100 cheaper. any recommendations for a good loud & clean 15" speaker besides the jbl's?

I personally don't like playing the showman for lead. i've played on jake's and it's too sterile for me. I prefer my bandmaster or tremolux, the tremolux more so for tone over the bandmaster.

here's the 64 tremolux in blonde w/ gold sparkle grill cloth with it's retolexed (to match, done before i acquired it) 61 tremolux 1x12". I use the 2x15 live, sometimes i use a 61 bassman 2x12 w/ jensons in it to save room (there's 5 of us, 5 amps, a farfisa, and a drumset). oh, and the non orignal knobs. yes, long story, but the knobs had been replaced on it when i bought the amp and i hadn't gotten around to replacing them yet. i had an array of knobs on it and it looked bad, but it needed to go to the shop for a long time and thus, it stayed home where these knob's functionality made up for the fact that it looked like something from nasa's mercury capsule. so it was fixed and i forgot all about the knobs and we took it down to portland to play with the The Kilaueas and The Verbtones and Kyle of the Verbtones gave those white fender knobs to put on it so it wouldn't be embarassing for both us, The 'Verb, and The Kilaueas who borrowed it that night and the following night.

image

sorry for rambling, but any thoughts on the weber california's (probably ceramic) or any other 15's besides the jbl's?

eric

-Eric

New music!
https://thedesolatecoast.bandcamp.com/releases
Spotify

Also:
https://theverb.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theverbseattle/

I have both a blonde '63 bandmaster with gold grill cloth (2x12, orginal reconed speakers), and a 66 BF Showman with a 15" California Weber + tonering cabinet.

The bandmaster has an amazing tone, but even with top notch JJ's, it still breaks up above just 5-6, which is barely gig-level volume. Forget outdoors unless miked. I used the Bandmaster for our Flowmasters show opening for the Surfaris last May in HB, for the first Surfing Sundays show of last season. It sounded fantastic because I had it set at 6, no more.

As it was miked, it sounded great. The Bandmaster has a thicker, phater tone the the Showman ( using AR Jazzmaster and a Wilsonbros VM-110 loaned to me by Marty). BTW: The VM-110 kills my Mosrite both in playability as in tone. Love that thing!

The Showman can hold the same volume as the BM but without any obvious breakup, which works better with the reverb trank that itself offers a bit of distortion with the dwell set above 5-6 (I have an NOS RCA 6K6 in it that helps with that bit it still distorts).

I agree that the bandmaster has a special tonality to it. I originally bought it to use with my '62 Gretsch 6120 in a rockabilly band I was in. Match made in heaven with an Echoplex EP-3 that I still use.

Re. The Weber Cali 15: GREAT speaker; I got the ceramic version A) because that's what a JBL D-130 would use and b) it breaks up less than an Alnico. More overhead clean = good if your using a lot of outboard reverb. Which of course you should!

FlowmasterG_
I have both a blonde '63 bandmaster with gold grill cloth (2x12, orginal reconed speakers), and a 66 BF Showman with a 15" California Weber + tonering cabinet.

The bandmaster has an amazing tone, but even with top notch JJ's, it still breaks up above just 5-6, which is barely gig-level volume. Forget outdoors unless miked. I used the Bandmaster for our Flowmasters show opening for the Surfaris last May in HB, for the first Surfing Sundays show of last season. It sounded fantastic because I had it set at 6, no more.

As it was miked, it sounded great. The Bandmaster has a thicker, phater tone the the Showman ( using AR Jazzmaster and a Wilsonbros VM-110 loaned to me by Marty). BTW: The VM-110 kills my Mosrite both in playability as in tone. Love that thing!

The Showman can hold the same volume as the BM but without any obvious breakup, which works better with the reverb trank that itself offers a bit of distortion with the dwell set above 5-6 (I have an NOS RCA 6K6 in it that helps with that bit it still distorts).

I agree that the bandmaster has a special tonality to it. I originally bought it to use with my '62 Gretsch 6120 in a rockabilly band I was in. Match made in heaven with an Echoplex EP-3 that I still use.

Re. The Weber Cali 15: GREAT speaker; I got the ceramic version A) because that's what a JBL D-130 would use and b) it breaks up less than an Alnico. More overhead clean = good if your using a lot of outboard reverb. Which of course you should!

Thanks. My bandmaster stays clean probably until 8-10, which , my tremolux also stays pretty clean until 8-10, but is a bit louder and crisper, plus i love it's tone. i use a 65 reverb unit and it does overdrive a little bit.

-Eric

New music!
https://thedesolatecoast.bandcamp.com/releases
Spotify

Also:
https://theverb.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theverbseattle/

My take on speakers is that the EV-15L's rule hands down. They sound bigger and meaner and much smoother than the D-130's. They are also practically indestructable. We played bass out of them in a Dual Showman cab for years. One of the problems with Bandmasters is that the large Fender cabinets with 2-12's seem to have too much volume and as a result tend to fart when turned up loud. Opting for say a good EV or Celestion will help but the stock set up is pretty wimpy. One quick and dirty fix is to remove the back and leave it open. This will improve its stage presence but will reduce it's projection. If you are on a big stage and mic'ed up that won't really matter. One thing that you absolutely want is to match the speakers so that they are really in phase. Mismatched speaker's "rise times" will absolutely drive you crazy. EV no longer makes the 15L but they are lurking everywhere and only cost about $75 to recone with factory parts. If you have to have that JBL look and sound, consider the Peavey 1504-4 SB, It is Peavey's copy of the JBL D/K-140. It has the chrome cap and shallow basket from the JBL design and sounds good in my tone ring single 15........ed

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

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