Stupid-sounding amp/speaker question

[notCardio]

Is there any reason that I couldn't hook up a guitar amp head (in this case a Valve Jr., but the concept should be the same for other heads) to a home stereo type of speaker, as long as the impedances are correct, and the speaker can handle the power?

For instance, the VJ is rated at 5 W, with jacks for 4, 8, or 16 ohms.

If I hook it up to an 8 ohm stereo speaker (just one cab) that can handle, say, 60 W RMS, any rpoblem with that? I'm not saying it'll give me the best tone, but it's do-able without frying something?

I don't see why I couldn't, but it just sounds too weird to work.

 

[Lt. Bob]

yes you can do that with no problem except ...... stereo tweeters tend to be fairly fragile and the picking transients and also distortion can concievably eat the tweeter. Not saying it absolutely will, but it might.

 

[travelin travis]

I don't think you're going to like the sound of a tweeter with a guitar amp but a home stereo speaker will work.

 

[notCardio]

Thanks

I'm just trying to find something to play it through to see what it's like until I can come up with a 'real' cab. The only other things I have at the moment are antiques that I don't want to blow up, even if it is real good.


Actually, I've got a 15" around in a box somewhere (I think it's a Jensen out of a mid-60's Bandmaster), but it would take forever to find it, and even then, I got nothin' to put it in until I build something. Considering it's in the single digits today, with a below zero wind chill, that ain't happening anytime soon.

When you open the door to my basement, the theme song from 'Sanford and Son' should automatically start playing.

 

[Anfontan]

It'll work alright, I did it in high school when I needed something-anything-to play through just to learn on. But I only did it because I didn't have anything else, and it did sound crappy then, but I'm sure so did I then too!

 

[Zaphod B]

No reason whatsoever that you can't do it.

That more accurate stereo speaker will tell you what your guitar and amp head really sound like.

Just make sure the speaker is rated for whatever wattage you're pumping into it.

 

[NRS]

For possibly a better guitar tone try disconnecting just the tweeter or if your speaker has a crossover try bypassing it strait to the woofer.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

Well man, as everyone said it's not gonna sound any good. You'd do almost as well plugging headphones into a Metal Zone pedal or something!

Basically, home stereo speakers are made to reproduce a much, MUCH more detailed sound than a guitar speaker. For fun, try running your home stereo into a guitar cab. It'll sound like bassey, woofy low-detail low-midrangey shit. Thus, plug your head into your home theater speakers and you'll get trebley fuzzy high-midrangey shit. If you have literally nothing else to plug it into, it should work although I'd keep it at really low volumes. Honestly though, even playing through a crappy $20 practice amp is gonna sound better than that.

 

[Zaphod B]

If nothing else, it will get you thinking about how speakers "optimized" for guitar amplification are considered to be better-sounding than an accurate high-fidelity speaker.

My opinion: it was an accident of convenience that has, over the last 60 years, become incontrovertable, dogmatic truth.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, y'all.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

Umm, well... it might have been out of convenience at first, yes, but personally I don't think anybody on earth would argue that guitars, specifically overdriven/distorted guitars, sound better through hifi speakers. Unless you're a fan of "fuzzy treble instant death syndrome", I would imagine it is more than convenience that kept manufacturers from putting hifi speakers into guitar cabinets.

Sorry buddy, not the best "revelation" there

 

[Zaphod B]

The first speakers used in guitar amps were beefed up radio speakers, which themselves were not particularly accurate at the time. Hi-fi speakers have evolved over time to be more accurate but less efficient (generally). Guitar speakers' sound characteristics haven't really changed all that much. They all have a limited bandwidth and a rising upper midrange response, and high-spl efficiency seems to remain a primary design consideration. Most of them seem to be pretty much immune to what kind of box they're put into although some have a reputation for sounding better in open-back designs.

I just find it interesting that the evolution of electric guitar sound technology has not been towards accuracy, but is instead contained within a "domain" of acceptable sound.

I guess my epiphany occurred many years back when as an experiment I jacked my guitar directly into a P.A. sound board and for the first time I heard what a guitar sounded like full-range. What I heard wasn't necessarily a sound I would have liked for all applications, but it wasn't unpleasant, either.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

See now that I can agree with It is quite interesting that, whereas most constantly evolving endeavors strive for perfection in an accuracy-sense, music and art in general strive for something else entirely. It makes sense, really, as "the perfect tone" tone is completely objective.

 

[Zaphod B]

Yep! Agreed.