D class power requirement.

[J M Fahey]

15" speakers are fairly common in steel amps, are they not? Peavey made many models thus equipped.

Yes they did and you will break your back trying to lift one.
Which is why when I need the power the plan is to have a separate 10" in another box. Cheers.

The *standard* speaker for a pedal steel guitar is a very bright, punchy and efficient 15" speaker, heavy magnet, BIG aluminum wound voice coil; second option being a very bright, punchy and efficient 12" speaker, heavy magnet, BIG aluminum wound voice coil, driven by some 250W RMS very clean heavily limited SS amplifier, so it never ever clips.
Tough instrument to amplify properly.
Such a speaker is normally a JBL, or a JBL clone such as a Black Widow speaker, which copies it to a t ; an EV might be an acceptable substitute.

Yes, all of them result in back breaking amps, but if that the standard for Pedal Steel, there must be a reason for it.

Your tiny light Kustom amp is fine for home practice, but woefully indequate when it has to fill "big boy" pants, as you already found.

A 10" Bass speaker will not have the needed mid/high punch needed, by far, and not much Bass anyway in that tiny enclosure.

If anything, Iīd sacrifice Bass response (which you will lose anyway) and not mid/high punch, thatīs why I suggested the Faital 10".

If the problem is weight, Iīd save weight but meeting Acoustic needs as much as possible.

1) You can save weight in iron: go for a Class D transformerless supply (SMPS) so you can save 4 to 6 kg , and choose a Neo magnet speaker instead of a conventional Ferrite one, another 4 to 6 kg, thatīs a huge saving.

2) you can save weight in wood: forget that MDF cabinet Kustom and build a new enclosure out of 12 mm Plywood.
You can build a larger one holding a Pro 12" speaker with about same weight of current Kustom.

You will end up with a punchy and efficient system, much louder with the current one and for about same weight.

Plan B: get an IcePower 125+125W amp or some Oriental copy and mount it in current Kustom amp.
Remove original power amp and supply (youīll save a couple kg and wonīt use it anyway), you can feed preamp from IcePower module which offers +/-25 V outputs to power preamps and such, use one 125W channel to power a NEO Faital 10" or similar (not your "bass" speaker or anything like it), send second 125W channel to an external speaker jack in the back panel.
Build a second , same size, extension cabinet, out of light plywood if possible, and with another Neo Faital or close equivalent, use extension in larger spaces.


Using anything less will be frustrating, "you canīt beat Physics" ..... not even cheat it.

FWIW this is the standard Pedal Steel amplifier, there must be a reason for that:







notice these open back cabinets do not go "that" low by any means, definitely not Bass Guitar cabinets at all, so concentrating on "Bass Guitar" specs and sacrificing proper Steel Guitar sound to that is not the best way.

You might also consider one of these speakers: http://www.usspeaker.com/delta%20lite2510II-1.htm

[Jazz P Bass]

I worked on a Pedal Steel amp that had a monster JBL heavy weight speaker in it.

Went with a neodymium speaker.

[loudthud]

There is a new 15 inch neodymium speaker marketed specifically for pedal steel.

Link: https://www.eminence.com/eminence-an...steel-speaker/

[J M Fahey]

Notice he again emphasizes

the punch and cut

of the speaker.

You simply canīt leave such an important parameter aside.