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Brian,
Congrats, Now you know you'll never go back. unless practicing like
you said. Definetly get those/the speaker repaired. I talked to
Armond Frank Sax Player for Dick Dale, and He used a Showman with
D140's to play his Sax through. But I would say that the D130's
are the better choice for guitar. Just wouldn't want to play bass
through a D130. Actually I did, when I was in a band for a short
time. I don't know if I was in danger of blowing the speakers or
just not used to standing right in front of a cabnite.But they were
woofing(pun intended)pretty hard.
Don't put casters on the Cabnite. Use a hand cart or floor dolly.
Jeff(bigtikidude)
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@z...> wrote:
> I finally picked up my Showman head from the tech yesterday and got
to try
> it out. He worked on it quite a while and was stumped for a long
time. He
> finally found a short in a capacitor that was the main culprit. The
Showman
> was loaded up with new JJ tubes and rebiased, power supply filter
caps
> replaced, several misc caps and resistors replaced, and a new 3
prong power
> cord installed.
>
> I was very relieved when I fired it up. It was no longer the weak
sounding
> old man from 3 weeks ago. I had to crank it to see what it could do
and I
> may have made some enemies of my neighbors. I was thrilled.
>
> I put my 2x12" Hot Rod DeVille right next to it and I did some A/B
tests. I
> played both amps through my reissue reverb unit (6-6-6) and my AV
Jaguar.
> Please keep in mind I have limited experience with guitars and amps
in
> general (I'm just a basement player), but here is what I noticed.
>
> Here is a quick reminder...its a bit of apple to oranges
comparison, but
> here you go. The 1966 black face Dual Showman is 85 Watts, with a
closed
> back cabinet containing 2x15" speakers: one a JBL D130F (with 2
small rips)
> and a JBL D140F. The HRDV is a late 90's Fender model, 60 Watt tube
amp with
> 2x12" Fender labeled (but really Eminence?) speakers in an open
back combo
> amp.
>
> Tone-wise it was actually pretty close! The HRDV however was a bit
shriller,
> and slightly more harsh sounding on comparable tone settings. But
not a lot.
> The Showman sounded more rounder and fuller...it seemed to be more
> 3-dimensional. The bigger speakers?
>
> The tone dials on the Showman had a much more dramatic effect on
its tone
> than the HRDV. You can really hear the changes when twiddling the
knobs on
> the Showman. You can dial in more types of tone on the Showman.
>
> Conversely, the HRDV has a "Drive" and a "More Drive" channel which
dirty up
> the sound. The Showman of course, being a vintage amp does not.
These
> channels are really nothing to write home about, and the "More
Drive"
> channel is so obscene I would never use it unless I joined a Death
Metal
> band. A pedal in front of the Showman would probably work just as
well. So
> these 2 channels on the HRDV don't really have any weight with me
for the
> type of music I listen to.
>
> The Showman has a wonderful vibrato (actually tremolo) feature
however which
> is useful. It has a broad range from really slow to really fast and
the
> intensity knob allows you to blend it in to the primary signal
(although
> below 3 its doesn't do much). It beats the pants off of my Voodoo
Labs
> tremolo pedal. Cool.
>
> As far as pure knock down power and high volume craziness, the
Showman wins
> that one easily. It really is just like Dano said, it feels like
you are
> getting your chest cavity kicked in with those 2x15"s. The air is
sucked out
> of the room. This test was a bit unfair to my HRDV because it
currently has
> some tube rattle problems. So when I apply moderate volume to my
HRDV it
> creaks and rattles like a tank going down the street. The Showman
retains
> the clean, mean tone when loud, but the HRDV gets harsher as well
as louder.
> But I can't go too loud with the Showman now or the speaker rips
start to
> come into play.
>
> The Showman is physically very big though, and this is starting to
sink in.
> I will definitely have to keep a smaller amp around for practicing
(my
> brothers Blues Deluxe fits this bill nicely as long as he doesn't
want it
> back!) and buy a cart or dolly if I wanna take it anywhere. Has
anyone put
> wheels or casters on theirs? Better start working out.
>
> The Showman also puts out a lot of heat! I could heat a small room
with it.
> Its not hot to the touch, but still. Wow.
>
> I now need to get at least that one JBL repaired, and I may just
send them
> both into WeberVST for checkout/repair. I also hope to do some A/B
tests
> where I run the HRDV into the Showman cabinet and vice versa. If I
try this
> out I'll report back (while I was waiting for the Showman head I
was playing
> the HRDV into the Showman cabinet and it did sound pretty good).
>
> I'd love to hear any comments on the above treatise or any of your
own
> experiences with the Showman family.
>
> BN
>
> PS. The guitar store that the tech works in had one of those new
Vibroverb
> reissues with the Cesar Diaz mods. It was $2000 and some change.
The Diaz
> mods were all on the back panel and were enabled with 2 toggle
switches.
> They also had some new Vox amps: the AC-30 reissue and the new Vox
amps that
> have the digital modelling junk in them. Does every amp
manufacturer now
> have a digital modelling amp? They must be popular.
