Hi Steve, I understand what your talking about. To me, the old showman was neither. LOL It is unlike any vibrato or tremelo I've ever used, and I've used most of them. From Leslies, to Magnatones, to Vox interpretations of Magnatones. The lable says vibrato. I say its not. It does have an almost pitch bend sound to it, but its not really.
Maybe because the speaker cone moved. I have a feeling though, that if you used it all the time you would be changing JBL's often! Ha. But I sure loved it. I've been looking for a GOOD one for over a year. Rare beasts. I had the first one in Sacramento. I think. Had the first dual showman too! Different amp. I didn't like it at all. To brittle. No tone to me. I tried at least 10 guitars through it, but no luck. Untill I got a Gibson 175. Liked that one. Then a Trini Lopez(who the hell was that!) that was ok, but then I found a small delux with a SRO in it and with a SG that did the trick for a while. I get bored easily. Best amp I ever used was a music man 212. Loved it. Only with strats though. That was during my country days. Ha! Still love to hear pedal steel. Oh boy if I only could play one.
Say Steve, did you read my reply to your suggestion

The only thing I could figure out, was because of my embarrassment to long posts(books)I tried to shorten them, but all I did was cut out the words that supported what I really wanted to say. I think you mistook something. I respect you guys, and would never intentionally step on your toes. I may not be as adept as you are at short intelligent statements, but I'm interested in what you have to say, so why would I be shitty with you? Anyway, my apology if I wrote something that offended you. Seems like I'm always saying I'm sorry to someone and don't even know what I did. Maybe your right

I'm irish, maybe thats it.

I don't think that causes verbosity though.
fitz
