NAD - Fender Dual Showman - worth pairing with 15 inch speaker? Mixed custom cab?

FreddieVanHalen

I'm starting to get really into learning bebop and country styles recently, so thought I'd grab @robwright 's Dual Showman.

Given that players from those styles sometimes lean towards the Fender amps with a 15 inch speaker I thought I might get a custom cab with a 15 inch speaker in it.

Then I got to thinking, well if the cab is going to be wide enough to hold the head, then I might as well get a 2x something.

Would it be silly to mix the 15 alongside a 10 or 12 inch speaker? I am going to have the cab wired as stereo, so I could just use one or the other if there are no viable mixes....a cab that I could use for recording would also be of use to me

I have little experience with 15 inch speakers so was thinking of trying the WGS G15A as a starting point, but also open to other ideas.

Any thoughts? Cheers!

MattFGBI

You won't know until you try it but in theory it could give a very full tone.  I guess the difficulty is finding speakers that cover different parts of the spectrum but then also sound good on on their own if you want to run individually. 

ICBM

Not at all silly. You usually get the best of both worlds.

I would be careful about a 10 if you want the option of running it individually though - although you can get 10s which will handle the power of a Showman, they will almost all be bass or PA drivers and probably won't sound that good for guitar. Also bear in mind that you will have an impedance mismatch if you run just one of the speaker, although the Showman will handle 8 ohms safely, just with a bit of a loss of power.

A 15" and a 12" together can work very well too.

If you really want the classic Showman tone you want a JBL 15", but they are quite rare and very expensive - unless you want to take a chance on a cheap one that's been reconed you'd probably be better with a Weber, and there are a couple of Eminences which are supposed to be similar too.

FreddieVanHalen

Thanks @ICBM good to know on the impedance matching point.

I might be prepared to gamble on speakers that were rated a bit less than the amp as I will not be running the amp anywhere near 100W for the sounds I'm looking for, although I appreciate a 15w or 30w speaker would probably be pushing my luck too far....

parker_knoll

sorry to revive a necrothread, but I'm doing exactly this, using a JBL 15" and 10". If you use a basic crossover then you avoid spectrum clash between the speakers. Basically looking for full range output minus the highest highs, which sound awful on guitar.

I'm looking for someone to build the cab for me. any suggestions welcome

Jimbro66

I do like the sound of a 15" speaker in a guitar amp. A friend had a Dual Showman with TWO 15" JBLs and when he played his Jaguar through it the sound was immense and really moved some air. A pig to lift though

I had a Lab Series L9 with 15" speaker and I really regret parting with that. And of course the Standel 25L15 created some of the classic sounds of the fifties.

DarnWeight

I've got a Dual Showman ('71 or '72 maybe) in a Fender Twin combo cab, and for various reasons, I decided to cut a new baffle for it to take a single 15" speaker.  I tried it with a Peavey Black Widow for a while, which sounded good with a Bass VI, but a bit too muffled/congested with a regular six string.  I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a new Jensen C15K (4 Ohm), and it's proved to be a great all-rounder.  I know it's only rated for 100W, and a lot will insist on a higher-rated speaker, but my Dual Showman has had a Master volume added at some point, and I never really run it with this wound fully open.

ICBM

DarnWeight said:

I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a new Jensen C15K (4 Ohm), and it's proved to be a great all-rounder.  I know it's only rated for 100W, and a lot will insist on a higher-rated speaker, but my Dual Showman has had a Master volume added at some point, and I never really run it with this wound fully open.

You're only likely to get into trouble if you overdrive the power stage, even though Jensen ratings aren't exactly conservative.

parker_knoll

Look for a JBL E130 or K130. E130 sounds better with distortion IMO. Hard to find but when they crop up they're not too expensive. But beware, they are super efficient and will make your amp much louder.