Another general speaker question

N

notCardio

I walk the line
OK, I've asked about the percentage of tone that you guys think is contributed by speaker choice.

How much of a difference do you think speaker choice makes if you're not driving them anywhere near breakup?

Let's say you're playing at a really low volume, just enough to get a little clean tube 'warmth', with a pedal doing the heavy lifting as far as overdrive sound goes. Assuming that all of your choices are of the same size, how much of a difference are you going to hear between them? Minimal? Night and day?

What say ye?
 
IMO... you need to first find the sweet spot of an amp at good volume level, and that IMO, is usually where the amp is using about 3/4 of it's intended power...then try out some speakers to see which one really brings out that sweet spot the most.
If you get that sorted out...then you can dial it down some or up some, and it will still be pretty good.

I mean...if you're going to use a ballsy amp, but then turn it way down low, and then add a pedal to simulate the breakup...and you want to know what speaker would be best for that...?
Fuck me...I couldn't begin to make any suggestions. :D

It's like you're trying to find an unnatural combination...that will sound best. :)
Most speakers are not even going to break a sweat at any low volume if they are meant for the full power of an amp.
I think you just need to experiment then and see what works for you....but I think at low volume, the speakers will make some tonal difference by their design...but it's going to be similar to the tonal differences at more normal levels.

I guess what I'm saying is...at very low levels, I would depend mostly on my pedals to find the tone I want, since neither the amp or the speakers will be working very much...or just get an amp & speaker that's low wattage that will sound full-tilt without the loudness.
 
What I'm asking is, if the speakers aren't going to break a sweat, then how much does it matter what speakers you use?

Greg says yes, so I'm wanting to hear what his (or anyone else's) ideas are.
 
Greg_L said:
Try it for yourself.
Click to expand...


Right there's your answer. Talking about it on the forum is useless.

Cab design, materials, head used, guitar used, and ultimately the player putting the strings in motion all have an impact on what you will hear.

And yes, different speakers will sound different. Even when not pushed.

You got magnet designs and types, basket materials, designs and types, voice coil types, cone materials, types, and design, etc.

So, as OG says; Try it for yourself.
 
notCardio said:
What I'm asking is, if the speakers aren't going to break a sweat, then how much does it matter what speakers you use?

Greg says yes, so I'm wanting to hear what his (or anyone else's) ideas are.
Click to expand...
Leaving aside speaker-breakup ..... even at the lowest volumes different speakers have different freq-response curves, so changing a speaker is like changing some EQ settings.

Do you hear a difference when changing EQ settings?
Of course you do.
So you're also gonna hear a difference in the tone with different speakers.

As for which is best ....... that's the same as asking which EQ settings are best ..... you're the only one that can know.








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notCardio said:
What I'm asking is, if the speakers aren't going to break a sweat, then how much does it matter what speakers you use?
Click to expand...

I think you are looking for a specific answer...like "they will matter 40%" or something like that...but how much they matter depends on several other variables, and also what it is you are looking for tone-wise.

My point was that when you start playing at very low levels, amps/speakers that are meant to be more ballsy...the bigger tone differences are probably best gotten with a pedal, rather than doing speaker swaps.

Sure, some will be brighter/darker...but their tone is also dependent on how they are driven and what kind of work they were designed for.
So again...at low levels, if the speaker isn't hardly working at all...it may sound different than some other speaker that also isn't working hardly at all...but at that point you're not really judging their tone fairly. IOW...their best tone comes when they are played in their design sweet spot.

End of the day...whatever the combination of amps/cabs/speaker or whatever level you are looking to play them at...you're just going to have to experiment and find what YOU like. You just have to go through the buy/try thing a bunch of times until you find the combinations that give you what you want.
 
There are two types of "distortion" that a speaker gives you. One is what it does when you overload it and the other is what it does with the frequencies that it can't reproduce.

Some speakers get grainy in the high end, some smooth it out. Some are really tight in the low end, other fart out.

The cabinet design has a lot to do with this as well.
 
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