Laney LC15R

[Shakey 1047]

Hi, I have just got this amp from a mate of mine, it seems like a great little amp except it is very toppy even with the bass full on and the treble off, the speaker in it is a Celestion Tube 10 and I am wondering if I change the speaker for a bass speaker will it make any difference. I know this probably sounds like a stupid question but I know nothing about speakers and I have heard of people changing speakers to alter the sound of their amps. Any advice please?? Dave.

[J M Fahey]

Celestion Tube 10 is already bassy.
Big problem there is that amp is equalized very trebly/brittle to begin with and that´s the nature of the beast.
And then smallopen back cabinet means NO LOWS.

Plug same amp into a 2 x 12" or 4 x 12" and you´ll be surprised.

Or if not moving around, make a larger, closed back cabinet, say, 50 or 60 cm x 40/50 cm wide x 25/30 cm deep, the larger the better, out of some old plywood, MDF or chipboard, and mount exact same speaker there.

No need to round edges, Tolex or even paint it, just stretch some cloth in front of speaker to avoid little prying fingers pushing your dustcap in, and you are done.

Watch this video, where these crazy b ut funny guys test similar (but hybrid) Orange Microterror first with original cabinet 8which is already closed back and then with a 4 x 12"

[Mick Bailey]

The free WinISD utility allows you to plot the frequency response of a speaker/enclosure combination and I've used this to get an idea if a particular speaker replacement would achieve what I or the customer wants. In some cases its saved the expense of buying a speaker. It also shows the drastic changes that a cabinet makes to the low-end.

The problem with the Laney is it's a small box, but with no 'tricks' to improve the low-end response. A small enclosure can give excellent results even with a tiny speakers, but to do this they often use sealed enclosures, wadding, porting, folded or labyrinth acoustics and specially designed drivers with large travel (X-max).

You could try a bass speaker if you already have one to hand, but many small bass speakers will reproduce the top-end of a guitar amp just fine and the extended low frequency response sometimes doesn't make much difference at guitar frequencies. An important point is if you look at the manufacturer's frequency response of a particular speaker the enclosure is often idealised and much larger than you may expect. Plug the same parameters in WinISD with your cabinet size and you'll see a different picture.