Anyone recognize this fender cab?

[AndyM]

I've looked all over, and can't really find any real info on this cabinet. From what I've seen, it looks like a '60s showman, but I'm not at all sure about that.

Just pulled this old fender cab out of my basement. It has one 15 inch speaker in it, any stickers or other identifying marks have been removed. The speaker has two numbers on it: 80B363 and 137 8043. The covering is black tolex. It's oversized; I think it's a bass cabinet.

It's got what looks like fiberglass insulation lining the inside.

I'm looking to find out the speaker impedance, power output, and possibly what it's worth.

Photos of it here, tell me if this doesn't work:

Photos from Andrew Meyer (Andrew Meyer) on Myspace

[olddawg]

Looks like a late 60s Bassman cab with a CTS to me. They had the square magnets. I would say $200-300. Maybe more, maybe less. It's worth what someone will pay for it.

[jrfrond]

I never recall a 1- 15" cab in the old Fender catalogs. The CTS speakers' EIA code shows that the driver was produced in late 1980 (137 = CTS, 8043 = 1980, 43rd week). It also looks like the speaker is mounted on a conversion board which is THEN mounted to the baffle, or at least it does in the pic.

As a single speaker, it's likely to be 8 ohms, but who knows? If you have a DVM, check the DC resistance, which usually reads around 75% or so of the rated impedance. It is also likely to be a 100W-150W speaker. Peek inside the frame and see where the cone meets the spider. That will tell you your voice coil size. It's likely to be 1.5"-2.0", possibly even 2.5". It's just a ROUGH guide to the power handling capabilities of the speaker. It will be on the higher size if it has a 2.5" voice coil, but these were NEVER high-powered speakers, and really not anything special either.

[Kazooman]

Fender did make a single 15" version of the Showman in the '60's. (I was there )


Note added later: The speaker mounting is very reminiscent of what I have in my '61 Bandmaster that has a single 12" speaker with the tone ring. I guess I need to go downstairs and pull the back of the cabinet off for a comparison picture.

[Kazooman]

OK, here's how they mounted the speakers in the early '60's. The first is a view of the mounting board with the tone ring and speaker. It is a bit hard to see, but the speaker mounting board is about 1" shorter on each side of the cabinet and is mounted to the front baffle with screws and spacers. The fiberglass looks similar to that in the OP's pics.The other shot shows the reinforcing ribs on the back and more of the fiberglass. This is a 6G7-A chassis. Serial number is 04735 (1961). The 12M6 on the speaker identifies it as an Oxford.

[AndyM]

Looks like what I've got. The back's got the ribs like that as well.

[AndyM]

Damn! Why didn't I think of that? Getting out the multimeter...

[Fee]

measure the distance between the mounting bolts (that would hold the head in place). Each model had a slightly different length head box, Showman would have been the longest. These holes are wider apart than the head box is long so that it will fit between them. A Bassman would be much shorter than a Showman. I think most of the cabinet dimensions are listed in the Fender Field Amp guide. Best wishes........

[deci belle]

My '66 Showman's single 8Ω 15" speaker cab is 2' x 3' and the piggy-back screws holes on top are 25" apart. It has the vented baffle-board and metal tone-ring like Kazooman's. It has a D130F speaker. There was a D140F for bass guitarists too, Andy.

[Tom Phillips]

A Guess

Andy,
I can't make out the detail of the existing speaker mounting from the photo but my guess is that you have a Showman 12 cab that has been hacked up. I suggest that someone removed the 12" tone ring and original speaker and fitted the 15" speaker shown in your posted photo.
The Showman 12 was made up until the summer of 1966 in production numbers similar to the Showman with the single 15" speaker.
Unless I missed it, you did not post the dimensions of the cabinet. That would be useful info for identification.
Regards,
Tom

[soundguruman]

It's a bandmaster cabinet that's been modified. Not worth much really.