Is it speaker break up?

R

Roybot

New member
Does anyone know if the raspiness on the wha-wha lead guitar parts in Eric Clapton's "White Room" can be attributed to speaker break up? If so, is there a pedal that emulates that kind of speaker break up?

I remember having a Fender Super Reverb many years ago that exhibited a similar tone when pushed but after a speaker change I don't think it had that raspiness anymore. Man, it was soooo long ago I could be remembering incorrectly.

Thanks for any help on this,

Roybot
 
I'm just going from audio memory here, but I'm pretty sure there's more going on there than the speaker. I always thought it sounded like the oh-so-state-of-the-art fuzz box of the day (y'know, the ones we'd call lo-fi now!).

I could be wrong though. It's been know to happen.
 
Thanks man! That's entirely possible. Now I'm even more curious as to how speaker break up sounds. If the example I offered is not speaker break up, then can anyone offer an example that demonstrates what speaker break up does sounds like?

Many thanks.
 
One way to at least get an idea of it would be to use a power attenuator. That way you still get the same signal all the way through your amp's power section. Then attenuate the sound and in certain situations you can hear the difference. But you'd have to be able to sort out what's speaker breakup (or lack thereof) and what's attenuation.

Personally,I hear it the most on an open A string on my LP with a little bit of preamp gain plus some overdrive from my TS-9. I can't quite put it into words but there's just more "bite" to it when the speakers are really being pushed that just isn't there at higher attenuation levels.
 
That might work but I don't have an attenuator. Can anyone think of any recorded examples that demonstrate speaker break up? I've always thought it was a raspiness like that in the example I used when I posted this.
Thanks.
 
Roybot said:
Thanks man! That's entirely possible. Now I'm even more curious as to how speaker break up sounds. If the example I offered is not speaker break up, then can anyone offer an example that demonstrates what speaker break up does sounds like?

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

here is a segment from one of my demos with a good illustration of speaker distortion/cone cry. the "front" guitar (which also plays the lead) was through a vintage 30 that was crying its eyes out in an open backed cab. you can hear it clearly in the phrase starting at about 45 seconds in, particularly the "closed" note at 0:48. it is sort of a "ghost" note like you read about---- a resonance that may or may not construct with the played note. almost like something is vibrating (rattling) on or in the cab, but more.... i dunno.... musical, rather than the brashness of a real rattle.

definitely RWI (recording while intoxicated), and at about 6am after mostly partying in the basement all night. it will be re-recorded once the kinks are worked out. now that *that* is out there, the link:
333 - .mp3 - 2.42MB
 
Thanks, man! Nice tone! If I'm listening correctly it sounds almost like a mechanically coupled effect like you can actually hear the speaker working harder than it should. I was testing a Jensen NEO speaker not too long ago and cranked it up without mounting it to a baffle. That think had cone cry louder than the true note in some cases.

I appreciate the response.
 
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