The Steel Guitar Forum

Saw this in the Boston CL advertisement. Never heard of a Fender cab with this design.

Several of the original Fender piggyback cabs featured a single speaker in a sealed cab with Leo's tone ring and a ported baffleboard. They lasted for a year or so before the factory eliminated the tone ring in favor of double speakers on all but the 15" Showman cab. The Dual Showman (with two fifteens) appeared a few years later.

Not a bad price for a BF single Showman cab.Looks like the one I had back when the Earth's crust was being formed!

The seller has had that Showman cab for sale for quite some time. That's a huge cab to haul around. Nice piece of Fender history though.

That was the best sounding cabinet ever produced by fender in the opinion of many Fender amp lovers.. They sound wonderful.. Showman tone ring cab with JBL D130 is a gorgeous sounding amp with an all tube Fender head.. bob

Just know that the D140F was the bass speaker version.. and is not the vaunted D130F.. which is a beautiful sounding speaker in the right application. I forget the power handling capability of the 140 but the D130F was 25W in open back and 50W in closed.. too light duty for most amps which is why most are reconed.. they fried.

The K versions of these speakers reportedly sound 95% the same but with much higher power rating. If you are looking for a 1x15 for live performance and really wanted a JBL go with a K series.

Is the cab worth the ask? If it sounds better than anything you can imagine then yes. But not a cent more.

For $625 you can buy *any* 15" steel speaker you want and have a perfect custom cab made to any spec you desire. Owning a piece of vintage history is cool for 5 minutes... after that it's about whether you are satisfied with its functional purpose. A reconed D140F isn't high on my personal GAS list so I would pass but might try to see if the cab cuuld be sold separately from the speaker, although I bet he'd want 500 for it.

I have an original cone D130F in an old Traynor bass cab. Paid 350 for the loaded cab.. Also bought a D130F needing reconed for free with an allegedly functional $25 Peavey BW PA speaker.

I lucked out and came across an early Silverface Fender 2x12 with D120F's which I bought. T works good for certain things.. not others.. mainly use it with a 72 Bandmaster Reverb for acoustic guitar and vocal stage wash monitor and for a home studio PA. I have better options for PSG and electric. I find aluminum dust caps generally not to my taste. If I recone the JBL it will get a cloth dust cover.

I have that type of tone rig cabinet. I used it for bass but have played steel and standard guitar through it. For a club with no PA it can give a full room sound that other cabs just can't do. I feel like the sound isn't directional as some of the sound is going through the tone ring so it comes out all the way around the speaker. If you don't know, there are two baffles. The one facing the crowd has a larger opening. The speaker is mounted on a ring which holds the speaker back from the other baffle about 2 inches. So instead of a small port you have a port all the way around the speaker.

Play fast surf rock chords and this thing is crazy good. Bass in a small club is good. Low notes on c6th steel is good. I would take it for a bass gig but I don't think I could muster the effort needed for any other gig. It's good....it's just big and heavy.

I have one of these cabs too - blonde with the brown cloth and it piggybacks with my Blonde Bandmaster. Its a great sounding cabinet design, but the 1x12 is super rare. I would snag it if you have not already!

I thought it would be a great conversation piece of Fender history. But I am trying to downsize and I don’t think I could pick it up. 😂

I have used Showman’s exclusively since 1988, and I can say that this is a great cabinet design. I have had a dozen Showman head & cabs go through my mitts since then. Maybe it’s voodoo, or the power of suggestion, but I believe that the tone ring makes a difference. I have four, and these are staying: 1961 and 1962 1-12 combos, 1962 1-15, and a 1966 Dual Showman 2-15. All JBL D-130’s and all of them pack a wallop. The 1961 was owned by The Astronauts, and was used on all their LP’s. It was used on “Baja”! fer cryin’ out loud! Ok, super nerd geek out finished.

Have any cabinet builders used a tone ring design since, and if not, why the heck not?

I think everybody figured out that it was cheaper to use two speakers over all the labor and materials required for a tone ring!
Building one is on my list, but I don't expect it to be much lighter than a two speaker cab.

Anyone have a picture , or drawing of one - I'm getting fixed to build another cab , and might include the ring . . .Thx.

Frank, Mojo used to sell the ring, albeit a little pricey for what it is. I saw a pic once that a fellow fabricated one from wood, (layers of ply).
There are plans online for the cab, I seem to recall a seller named skriptko1300 used to sell kits and plans on the bay. I think the originals had a fixed grill, and the speaker loaded from the rear, but I've also seen some with the front grill cloth removed, like a 70's Twin, (velcro?).

Bottom of this page shows a Fender Tone ring:

https://music-electronics-forum.com/sho ... hp?t=46961

Thanks guys

I contacted Mojotone and sent them some info on the Fender Tone ring hoping they might find the design interesting enough to look into it. Would be nice if some cab mfg. added this to their line.

Looks like this cl seller has put it up on ebay for $750 pickup only in RI. It appears to have the proper JBL recone kit that are no longer available. I agree with Tim, if you're anywhere near that part of the eastern seaboard, pick it up off cl for $650.

BTW There's another 15" black tone ring cab on ebay for $400 + $100 shipping from new jersey. It incl a JBL D130f as well, but needing recone.

Here's my black 15" Fender tone ring I cloned last year.


Found a pine kit from an east coast co (no longer in business).
Tone ring, orig black Fender tolex, faded grill cloth acquired from a MN co.
Raw materials delivered, total approx $350

It currently houses a vintage Altec 418 speaker, and sounds incredible.

With the dual baffle design, the lower frequencies are rich & deep. Can't be duplicated IMO
Downside, of course, is its size & weight - used it only a few times.

I agree with everyone here on two points:

1) Fender's innovative Showman tone ring cabinet sounds awesome. Mine had a D-130. However...

2) It was a total beast -- very large and very heavy.

For a very short time (circa 1960-61), Fender made tone ring cabs for the Tremolux (single-10"), Bandmaster, and Bassman (both single-12"). With a modern neo-mag speaker, one of those cabinets would be a geezer's dream in comparison to the mammoth Showman.

Another sleeper for steel guitar is the old Ampeg Portaflex series, which used a simlar sealed and ported cab, but no tone ring. My '67 B12-XT is a nice steel amp, but way too big and heavy to schlep around nowadays.

Here is the inside of the Showman cab showing the speaker mounted to the Tone Ring and the assembly attached to the baffle board.