Cone Cry or Edge Yell

[Leo_Gnardo]

Some 30 years ago, Celestion made a big fuss (well, they WERE pioneers) about "Laser vTestin g" speakers.

Mind you, not Guitar ones but Hi Fi, and at all ranges: woofers, mids, tweeters.

Yes, those Celestion laser photos too! Some memory we got...

Just consider a screwed on cabinet back panel.

IF you slooooowly sweep the speaker, at some frequencies back WILL rattle.
.

And that too, how many hours & how much frustration I've had taming speaker cabs. I'm sure you've done much the same. Extra screws, jamming glue into crevices, adding braces to minimize panel rattles... and sometimes - it actually helps! But what a long fezzle.

Invitation to hell, phone call comes in: "My 40+ year old particle-board or dried up plywood bass cab(s) rattling, can you fix it?" Yes, with a pint of gas and a match.

[loudthud]

I've heard mentioned C# played on the 14th fret of the B string as the note that sets it off. That would be 554 Hz, so 1700 Hz is roughly the third harmonic. (Physics harmonic, not Musical Theory harmonic.) A 10 inch guitar speaker (Patriot Copperhead) I looked at on the Eminence website showed no big dip at all.

[Helmholtz]

I think something is missing in the explanation of "cone cry". It makes sense that a cone resonance causes a dip in frequency response, because it keeps sound energy to itself and dissipates it.
But a dip is a dip and not a "cry". That would need a secondary effect, maybe caused by the cone resonance.

[pdf64]

My take is that the nasty sounding cone behaviours such as cry and flub are not harmonically related to the input signal.
And that the benefit of the cone ribbing is that it promotes early (ie st low signal level) harmonically related good resonances, but inhibits the non harmonically related stuff.

[Helmholtz]

Sound samples anywhere?

[J M Fahey]

Google is your friend:

Cone cry is unmistakeable once you hear it.
Horrible buzzing completely unrelated to any harmonics of what you are playing.

[soundmasterg]

My 1993 Korg AC30 with Celestion Blue speakers had some cone cry from new, and I was new to playing guitar at the time and didn't know what it was, but describing it as an out of tune kazoo following all your notes is exactly right. I thought it was an oscillation for the longest time, but I was able to fix it on those speakers 10 years later with some very light doping. I've since heard it on some Matchless amps, a JTM 45, and a couple other amps, always with 12 inch speakers. I bet 15's would do it too though given the right conditions but maybe 10's are less noticeable if they do it at all.

Greg