SG101 logo
SG101 Banner

Photo of the Day

The Treblemakers Reunite!
The Treblemakers Reunite!

IRC Status
  • racc
Current Polls
  • No polls at this time. Check out our past polls.
Current Contests
Donations

Help us meet our monthly goal:

29%

Donate Now

February Birthdays

Yahoo Group Archives » Page 28 »

Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas

Brian Neal (xarxas) - 29 Jul 2003 19:45:50

Both Dick Messick and I watched and drooled as The Nebulas pushed in their
Showmans at the Indy Show. We both noticed that their single 15" cabinets
had huge speaker areas, much larger than our Dual Showman cabs (2x15"). It
looked like they had 19" speakers in there through the grill cloth. Was this
because of the tone ring?
And Dano, what did you say Eric had for his bass rig? A Dual Showman head in
a custom cabinet? What is his speaker compliment?
Thanks,
BN

Top

Dick (flatwound01) - 29 Jul 2003 20:03:38

Ahh, the memories . . . I still have drool on my shoes from watching
that arsenal of Showman power . . .
Those 15" speakers looked HUGE - much like our googly-eyed
expressions, I'm sure. If you figure the outside band of a tone
ring is about an inch and half or two inches wide, then you might
approximate something that looks like a 19" speaker. I'd be
interested to know the answer to that one, too.
-Dick
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@i...>
wrote:
> Both Dick Messick and I watched and drooled as The Nebulas pushed
in their
> Showmans at the Indy Show. We both noticed that their single 15"
cabinets
> had huge speaker areas, much larger than our Dual Showman cabs
(2x15"). It
> looked like they had 19" speakers in there through the grill
cloth. Was this
> because of the tone ring?
>
> And Dano, what did you say Eric had for his bass rig? A Dual
Showman head in
> a custom cabinet? What is his speaker compliment?
>
> Thanks,
> BN

Top

-=Dan Ware=- (reverbtank2002) - 30 Jul 2003 17:33:33

>From: "Brian Neal" <>
>Both Dick Messick and I watched and drooled as The Nebulas pushed in their
>Showmans at the Indy Show. We both noticed that their single 15" cabinets
>had huge speaker areas, much larger than our Dual Showman cabs (2x15"). It
>looked like they had 19" speakers in there through the grill cloth. Was
>this
>because of the tone ring?
Yeah, the speakers look to be about 19" wide at a glance, but once you get
your face in the grillcloth, you'll see the speakers are mounted by screws
onto metal tone rings. Alone, they cost about 60 bucks to buy.
>
>And Dano, what did you say Eric had for his bass rig? A Dual Showman head
>in
>a custom cabinet? What is his speaker compliment?
The story behind Eric's rig goes like this: Rudy, our lead guitarist, wanted
a rig that he could take on the road to Cali but without having to lug his
full Showman rig around. A Showman is just not practical when you have to
ship your gear 3000 miles. So, he custom designed a cab that was basically a
Showman chassis on top of four 10's. We enlisted the help of a local guy who
owns one of the original Fender factory dovetailing machines, and he made
the cab and Tolexed it. We brought it back to the Nebula Command Center and
put the electronics and speakers in it, and we fired it up, and lo and
behold...
...it sounded like shit. So then we were like "now what?" and then as an
experiment, Eric plugged into it and surprise! It worked GREAT for his bass
rig! So he instantly inherited it, Rudy and Eric swapped out their
electronics chassis', and an amp was born! It's a Dual Showman chassis above
4 10" speakers and the speaker section of the cab is sealed.
-Dano
-=The Nebulas=-
_________________________________________________________________
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.

Top

Brian Neal (xarxas) - 30 Jul 2003 19:06:38

Thats a great story Dano...I'm glad it worked out for Eric. Does this guy
you know re-tolex for a living? Does he have a business or anything?
So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe". If a
speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to move because
of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on there, it
lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so the speaker
can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier time, it
sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They are
completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
Thanks,
BN

Top

wedontsing - 30 Jul 2003 19:25:34

The tone ring does the same job as hole with a tube behind it in your
subwoofer. It makes a ported cabinet rather than a sealed one. This
boosts low frequencies. Common in Hi-Fi speakers, but unusual in
guitar amps.
best
Dano Clam (www.geocities.com/wedontsing)
--- In , "Brian Neal" <bneal@i...> wrote:
> Thats a great story Dano...I'm glad it worked out for Eric. Does
this guy
> you know re-tolex for a living? Does he have a business or anything?
>
> So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe".
If a
> speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to move
because
> of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on
there, it
> lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so the
speaker
> can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier
time, it
> sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
>
> So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They
are
> completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
>
> Thanks,
> BN

Top

Brian Neal (xarxas) - 30 Jul 2003 19:30:39

I sort of remember Mel explaining this once, so I searched the archive.
I still don't fully understand this though...
BN
> So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe". If a
> speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to
> move because
> of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on there, it
> lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so
> the speaker
> can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier time, it
> sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
>
> So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They are
> completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
>
> Thanks,
> BN
>

Top

Mel Waldorf (melwaldorf) - 30 Jul 2003 19:34:57

Hopefully, this is a better explanation:
Mel
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Neal [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 5:31 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
I sort of remember Mel explaining this once, so I searched the archive.
I still don't fully understand this though...
BN
> So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe". If a
> speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to
> move because
> of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on there, it
> lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so
> the speaker
> can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier time, it
> sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
>
> So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They are
> completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
>
> Thanks,
> BN
>
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:.
Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Top

rock verb (mono_tones_1) - 31 Jul 2003 03:13:24

thanks Mel,
do I understand correct that the tonering itself doesn't do anything, but is
just a contructional part of the cab-design, meant A) to move the speaker a
little forward in line with the front, and B) to 'bend' the bassreflex in a
forward direction?
wannes
>From: "Mel Waldorf" <>
>Reply-To:
>To: <>
>Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
>Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:34:57 -0700
>
>Hopefully, this is a better explanation:
>
>
>Mel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Neal [mailto:]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 5:31 PM
> To:
> Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
>
>
> I sort of remember Mel explaining this once, so I searched the archive.
>
>
>
> I still don't fully understand this though...
>
> BN
>
> > So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe". If
>a
> > speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to
> > move because
> > of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on there,
>it
> > lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so
> > the speaker
> > can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier time,
>it
> > sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
> >
> > So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They are
> > completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > BN
> >
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> .
> Visit for archived messages,
>bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
_________________________________________________________________
MSN Zoeken, voor duidelijke zoekresultaten!

Top

Mel Waldorf (melwaldorf) - 31 Jul 2003 22:14:21

The tone-ring is just a part of the porting system. As you say, it moves
the speaker flush (at least close to) the front baffle of the cabinet. It
probably also helps reflect the port sound waves in the forward direction.
There may be other more technical reasons for its design (I think it's
called a "heimholz resonator") but I don't know any more specifics.
What I can say is that having the speaker and the port in the same place in
the cabinet makes a different tone than a tube port elsewhere in the
cabinet, especially if the cabinet is going to be miked.
Mel
-----Original Message-----
From: rock verb [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 1:13 AM
To:
Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
thanks Mel,
do I understand correct that the tonering itself doesn't do anything, but
is
just a contructional part of the cab-design, meant A) to move the speaker
a
little forward in line with the front, and B) to 'bend' the bassreflex in
a
forward direction?
wannes
>From: "Mel Waldorf" <>
>Reply-To:
>To: <>
>Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
>Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 17:34:57 -0700
>
>Hopefully, this is a better explanation:
>
>
>Mel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Neal [mailto:]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 5:31 PM
> To:
> Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Speaking of Showmen: Tone Rings / Nebulas
>
>
> I sort of remember Mel explaining this once, so I searched the
archive.
>
>
>
> I still don't fully understand this though...
>
> BN
>
> > So its my understanding that tone rings let the speaker "breathe".
If
>a
> > speaker is in a sealed cabinet, it has to work a lot harder to
> > move because
> > of the air trapped in the cabinet. If you slap on tone ring on
there,
>it
> > lets air in so the speaker can push out, and lets the air out so
> > the speaker
> > can move in. Since the speaker in a tone-ring cab has an easier
time,
>it
> > sounds better (or thats how it was explained to me).
> >
> > So......how come Dual Showman cabinets don't have tone rings? They
are
> > completely sealed up with no porting. At least mine is.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > BN
> >
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> .
> Visit for archived
messages,
>bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
_________________________________________________________________
MSN Zoeken, voor duidelijke zoekresultaten!
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:.
Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Top