Modify 2-15 Fender Showman cabinet to 1-15

Dennis Waltman · From: Wisconsin, USA

Ok, I recently bought a nice 65 Showman head (8 ohm) and Iâ€™m looking for speaker cabinet options. I found a rough 2-15 1968 Fender cabinet with JBLs. I donâ€™t want to lug that big boy around but Iâ€™m considering buying it and modifying it to a 1-15 cab.

Is this blasphemy or an ok idea?

I may consider building a 1-12 cab too out of the materials as I have a 12 inch 8ohm Weber California and maybe sell the extra 15 JBL.

Thanks, Dennis

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Having owned one, I can attest that a loaded 2x15 Dual Showman cabinet is a hernia machine. If your woodworking skills are good you might try to split the cabinet up into two 1x15 cabinets. I don't think it's blasphemy for a cabinet in rough condition. There's not much collectible value there. The only people that might object are devout surf guitarists. In any case the 2x15 4 ohm cabinet is a mismatch for your 8 ohm head.

Steve Sycamore · From: Sweden

I don't play surf guitar and I'd object, unless the project is done right.

Showman 2 - 15 stacks were the basis of super-virtuoso guitarist Steve Howe's sound. Arguably no electric guitar sound ever matched the full-bodied intensity of his when the band was touring with those.

How the project should be done: Take the cabinet apart completely. Take careful measurements of each part and record what type of wood or material each part consists of. Then use a drawing tool to develop a proper sketch of all components. Post that information on the internet.

The alternative is of course just to build your own cabinet. Doing so you can choose a lighter grade of wood or smaller dimensions to lighten the load.

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Is this blasphemy or an ok idea ?

It's not blasphemy .

Why not just acquire another 1 x 15 cab ? Seems like a lot of additional work to tear down the cab and re-build it. Unless of course you enjoy the woodworking aspect .

Fender OT's have a great reputation of being able to go the wrong direction with zero issues. I've done it myself for years . That Showman head , my opinion, may be the best amp that ever came out of Fender manufacturing.

Not long ago I sold a 67 Showman head, big mistake. That was the one I should have kept for life !

Very Happy

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Kenny Howard · From: Salem, OR

I concur with Tim. Unless you're a body builder, ditch the 2 X 15, and match up your ohms correctly with a single speaker.

Suggestion - If you've got the time and the extra dough:

Build yourself a tone ring cabinet for the single 15 or even 12 with the dual baffle system.
I found the parts, even the rough cabinet in kit form, on-line.

Occasionally, you'll see a old vintage Fender tone ring cabinet from the 60s up for sale. But they're very pricey

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

If the dual fifteen baffle unscrews from the cab, take that off and replace it with a baffle made for a single fifteen. Save the original baffle. Careful taking off the grill cloth so you can return it to the new baffle.

Or buy new cloth and put the old baffle aside intact with its original grill cloth. You can reuse the original Fender badge.

Use some fresh screws/finish washers on the baffle (if that's how the baffle is attached to the cabinet) if the orig ones are worn out and rusty.

I would venture to leave options to reverse any modification to the original cabinet.

If weight is your issue, get a smaller cab.

Or you can pull out one JBL, make a block-off plank out of some sturdy 1/4 inch ply or good MDF, sized to the left over speaker hole and screw that on in the screw holes from the X'd JBL, save yourself some steps.

Cover the block-off plank with black felt to quash vibrations and to be hidden through the grill cloth.

If looks are important then do the single fifteen replacement baffle so the speaker is centered in the cabinet.
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Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

YIPES....That 2 x 15 cab is NOT for the weary. I say remove the speakers, store it, sell it, whatever. Those cabs won't fit in a Ford Pinto.

Use 1x15 in any one of the new unloaded available 15" cabs on the market, build one or have one custom built for you.
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CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I am a surf guitar player, and I still say it's fair game to split up a rough example of one of those huge silverface 2x15" cabs into two 1x15" cabs, or a single 1x15 and a 1x12. One of my friends converted one I had 20 years ago to a pair of 1x15" cabs - he kept one of them, and I still have the other.

Those huge cabs aren't really worth much, I've seen them sell for $50-75 unloaded. It's definitely some work and materials to split into two, but they make really nice, more-or-less white Tremolux-sized cabs when completed. The white Tremolux is probably my favorite piggyback amp, and the cab has a lot to do with it. If you have time and skill to do it, I'd say go for it.

I'm usually not in favor of modding vintage amps, but in this case, I just don't know anybody who will haul around one of those huge cabs. There are no doubt a few who will, but there's no shortage of them out there - most every guitar show I go to, I see a few selling for peanuts.

I have a '68 drip-panel Showman with its original 1x15" tone-ring cab. Even that cab is, for all intents and purposes, too bloody big to be of practical gigging value. The venues my surf band plays wouldn't even let me put that on a stage - we're pushing the volume limit even with much, much smaller amps.

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

meh, cut it in half neatly, put a new bottom in, and put a 15 JBL or Weber in there. its worth almost nothing as a 2x15-, no one wants them. Couple hours work with a circular and jig saw, and done... bob
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Mark McCornack · From: California, USA

Does that cabinet have a screw in speaker baffle, or is it glued in? If itâ€™s screwed in, you can do as I did on my 2x12 to 1x15 Twin Reverb conversion (see my Forum post of 3/2) and just build/aquire a replacement baffle and store away the original. That way, you could always go back to the original configuration if need be. This takes the â€œblasphemyâ€ issue off the table, if this is a real concern to you. Smile

If this is a screw in baffle, a replacement to your liking could probably be aquired from Mojotone for a real descent price. I made mine, due the fanageling that needed to be done, but in your case, maybe they could crank one out for you.

Good luck. Whatever you do, eschewing a hernia idps a good thing.
Mark Very Happy

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

There is a glut of musical instruments. Many instruments, not enough with the money to buy them.

To surf fans these custom Mike Thompson cabs are some surfers' ideal.

Note the Dick Dale copy Strat.

The original Showman cab even with 2x15's was 36x24x11.5" with a divider. This cab was designed for a single fifteen at 4.7cu feet. But the 2x15's didn't seem to affect the tone.

Will the JBL sound proper in half that space?

A 12" won't get that same deep tone if that's what you're after.

I read a thread on the Surf 101 forum and someone came to the conclusion, it was the speaker, not the cabinet that made the difference.

I took that to mean that downsizing a cabinet without considering if the speaker would like it in the smaller space was something to consider.

So although the footprint would be reduced, at what cost sonic wise, would be the results?

I started on surf guitar myself. Loved that deep bottom string tone out of a fifteen.

Dick Dale's '65 Showman with 2x15 JBL D130's. This amp started that low E surf tone!

I think Dale uses separate 15 cabs of late but I wonder if the tone is the same. They would have to be sitting next to each other to acoustically couple to do any good like a single 2x15 cab.

Yeah stages are small because the economy is down and large clubs are not viable like they used to be.

Commensurately, downsized stages means downsized gear.

And humans for some reason are getting weaker in the muscle dep't.

Even up to in my 30's I used to do this:

Loading up going to a gig, unloading at the gig, playing 4 hours, packing up after the gig, unloading the van at home. And then there's the Leslie speaker. Rolling Eyes

Some used a ramp...didn't have one and one would not fit the van with the rest of the gear.

I did have thick covers on both organ and speaker and of course the Roll-or-Kari dollies, a prerequisite to owning and gigging with a Hammond.

All added to the weight. Crying or Very sad

With apps like Mixhalo coming to the fore, less dependency on amps, PA systems, the audience will grab the concert sounds off of WIFI and listen through their smart phones with everyone patched into a mixer.

If you have the tools and the know how, you can make a proper cab. So even building one from scratch you would need to source the panels, either buy 4x8 foot sheets of ply or having them cut for you to just assemble, driving around town to go get the materials needing to spend for bulk quantities most of the time. And then Tolex it and put corners and a strap handle.

The better cabs are finger jointed.

You up to doing that after you cut that cab in half?

A $400 custom dual 15 cab finished for you similar to the above. All pine, finger jointed. Less $$$ for a single fifteen cab.

Henry Ford was the father of the vertical span of control business model. Then when Japan took over the auto industry, they used specialization and bought parts from companies who made the different parts rather than trying to make every part of the car themselves.

Today there are many cab makers out there who have their products down to a Tee.

Back in the 70's I used to make my own PA and bass cabinets, swapped baffles out of Fender amps. Made a folded 18" bass enclosure like the old Acoustic amps. Only because there was not the cottage industry of musical instrument speaker cab makers as there is today.

So many ways to go.

I empathize with Tony's lament.

We live in interesting times.
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YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7

Eric Philippsen · From: Central Indiana, USA

You canâ€™t give an empty 2-15â€ Fender cabinet away. Nobody wants to haul them and they sit and take up a lot of space. Someone might buy one if itâ€™s got JBLs that can be pulled out but then THEY canâ€™t give away the empty cabinet.

I donâ€™t think theyâ€™re going to come back in popularity either.

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

I think the issue of whether the cut in half cab will sound good just because it is cut in half without regard to what speaker will be placed in that smaller cab is being overlooked.

Has less to do with the cab being desirable, and more to do with ending up with a cab that will produce a proper sound.

At 11.5 inches depth of the Fender cab (assuming this is the actual depth of the cabinet in question) by cutting the cab in half, the volume is also cut and the speaker will not function the same way as it did in the larger volume cab.

If smaller is desired, you can only go so far with the "small" until diminishing returns result in a cut in the low frequencies.

Not unless you install another speaker with different specs, peak responses, free air resonance will one retain or achieve a similar tone of the cab before it was cut in half.

This then leads one on the hunt for the proper speaker to place in that smaller volume.

That said, just cutting an existing cab because it's cheaply acquired, or is too big to haul around does not equate that the same sound is guaranteed without proper research and forethought as to what speaker will create a fuller sound in a smaller cabinet.

This being the case, it would be better to find a smaller cab designed with a specific speaker in mind to function as a full sounding smaller speaker cab, than to cut a cab and expect it retain its sound with the speakers that came with it or just anything one might have laying around.

This then makes the exercise of cutting the cab a waste of time, money and effort.

Note that a single 15 cab would be deeper in depth if a smaller footprint, to make up for the smaller volume for the speaker to create a fuller sound.

Just cutting the cabinet in half is only half the story.

Can't expect a trumpet to sound like a tuba.

Robert Randolph has dabbled in using car speakers in his cabinets. Perhaps because speakers made for small spaces like a car interior are made to produce a fuller sound out of a shallow cab and with a smaller diameter speaker.

When dealing with speakers, graphs are important.

Below is a graph for the same speaker in two different sized closed back enclosures.

The smaller enclosure produces reduced low frequencies.
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ShoBud The Pro 1
YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7

Larry Robbins · From: Fort Edward, New York

Dennis, this is my 69 Daul Showman Reverb in A Twin cab with two Travis Toy 12" speakers. They weigh in at 7 lbs a piece....works well for steel and guitar Smile

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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I can tell you that my late-60s 2x15" Dual Showman cab cut down into two 1x15" cab sounds great (to my tastes) with anything I've put in it. JBL D130, JBL K130, coffee-can EV SRO 15, Altec 15", or an older Jensen or Utah, depending on the guitar or steel application. That bad boy will surf it up with a JBL, EV, or Altec big-time, with lots of bottom end. Even cut down, it's generally too loud for guitar at most gigs we do.

Right now there's a heavy-duty bass speaker in it; we use it for bass with a 300-Watt Ashdown MAG 300 bass head that I picked up for a song on CL. It's been good for rehearsals and sometimes for gigs. It makes a useful, fairly lightweight bass rig with plenty of juice for a typical club date. Now, the guy who cut the cab down is a very knowledgeable bass player and bass builder. He sealed up the cab and it projects very well, although he replaced the original baffle and grill cloth with (I think) Baltic birch ply for more rigidity. I personally would have left the original baffling and grill cloth intact, it was in good shape.

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

keep in mind that Fender was't necessarily making BIG cabinets because they sounded better, there was a SIZE war going on. Bigger was obviously better , apparently.

When VOX AC100's then Super Beatles hit the scene with the Beatles the whole game changed. Then add the Marshall stacks to the fold, it wasn't necessarily about tone, but stage appearance now mattered . BIGGER WAS BETTER.

We have to ask ourselves, why did Fender go from the very popular small BF 2 x 12 Bassman / Bandmaster cab to that crazy big 2 x 12 cab in the transition to the SF period. They were still 40 and 50 watt amps.

LOOKS is the answer.
_________________
Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders
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jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years

CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Dennis Waltman · From: Wisconsin, USA

Thanks for the feedback all,
I opted to pass on the cabinet for now and will likely buy or build a 1-12 and 1-15 cabinet. Too many projects on the bench right now and I didn't want to have to stumble over the 2-15 cab while I get through the other work.

Thanks,
Dennis

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

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