Choosing the right speaker.

[Shakey 1047]

Can someone tell me what to look for when choosing a speaker. I want to buy a 15" speaker for my amp to use with my steel guitar. I have seen several comments about different speakers like, one person likes the Blue Marvel another person likes the Eminence, someone else likes the JBL but no one says why. So do I look for frequency range or sensitivity or what?? If for instance I have a speaker with a frequency range of 40Hz-5KHz, how will that differ from a speaker with a frequency range of say, 30Hz-2.5KHz. I would like a speaker that doesn't have that sort of tinny, squeely top. Any help would be very much appreciated before I go out and spend money on something that ain't right.
Cheers Dave.

[guitician]

I would say listen to other players you admire, and use what they use. A JBL D130F would be a very good start. Weber makes clones of great speakers if you cant find the old ones. Frequency range is not as important as the response curve. And JBL's are known to be flatter in that regard, also wider.

[Shakey 1047]

When you say response curve, d'you mean sensitivity??
Dave.

[guitician]

Yeah, it's how sensitive it is per cycle of AC input graphed across 20-20khz.

[Bill Moore]

I am a fan of the EV's, and have an old SRO-15 in my "Twin" clone. Also set up in my practice room I use a cabinet based on EV's 4-12 cab with 2 EVM-12S. The cab makes low frequency sufficient for pedal steel, and is very clean, (and loud).

[Mark Hammer]

One of the difficulties with speakers - and I am not maligning anyone here, it's simply a very real measurement/standards difficulty - is that they can often change their frequency characteristics depending on power and transient peaks. I learned this the hard way nearly 40 years ago when I bought a Peavey Classic amp that sounded one way at basement practice levels, and completely different at gigging levels.

That's not a major flaw in them - I think it is inherently difficult to design a mechanical piston whose properties do not change over a broad range of conditions. But it does mean that, in the absence of a means to quantitatively or graphically convey what that character-change-with-level is like, purchasers can find themselves with expensive and annoying surprises on their hands.

Certainly one of the regularly-occurring attributes of steel guitars is that they can generate BIG transients and massive output, so both amp and speaker need to have a certain amount of dynamic range and headroom to reproduce those peaks, the same way that reproducing an acoustic piano demands more of the speaker and amp. I wouldn't bet the farm on it, but I would imagine that one would need to consider the rated power handling of the speaker vis-a-vis the amp output in a slightly different way than with conventional guitars. I'd feel perfectly comfortable sticking a 50W speaker on a 40W guitar amp. If you behave yourself and don't feed it cascaded fuzzboxes with everythng dimed, you can expect years of acceptable performance. For a piano or steel guitar, I might likely want something with greater power handling capability, like a 100W speaker. Not that the power will ever go that high for extended periods, but you'd want it to be able to handle very brief transients without repercussions.

Personally, I have absolutely NO IDEA WHATSOEVER as to what sorts of resonances or peaks would be desirable in a speaker. It's not like picking a speaker to complement a Gretsch or Tele.

[Bill Moore]

Mark, do you find the change more noticable in tube vs SS amps? I think tube amps really behave differently at different levels, but was attributing that to the OT/speaker interaction.

[Shakey 1047]

Well! Thank you all for your replies, I think it seems to be a case of "trial and error," hopefully I won't make to many errors before I find the right one. Cheers Dave.

[JoeM]

Well! Thank you all for your replies, I think it seems to be a case of "trial and error," hopefully I won't make to many errors before I find the right one. Cheers Dave.

That's the problem. I think a lot of us have speakers laying around that didn't work out well. It would be nice if there was some way to audition a whole bunch of speakers and then select the one(s) we like.

[cminor9]

A JBL D130F would be a very good start. .

He said he didn't want a tinny, squeely top end. Your recommendation is for an awesome speaker, but is sort of the antipodal opposite of what he asked for. To me it sounds like he wants something darker.

[Shakey 1047]

Yes that is correct, something darker I guess is what I mean.

[guitician]

The speaker responds to what's put in. Maybe use a thick grill cloth to make it darker. Having a speaker with good high frequency response is important, even if you don't put high frequencies into it. The sound will be effected in other ways, like being less "lively" or "Crisp". If your trying to output distorted guitar sounds, well then, by all means look for something known to work well with that tone.

[Shakey 1047]

Thank you guitician, yes I guess your right. The thing is I am using (believe it or not) a Peavey Backstage Plus, which is only 35 watts and I have built a new cab for it so I can use a 15" speaker with the hope of getting the right sound. No, with the hope of getting a good sound. I only play at home and on the odd occasion do a small gig and this amp is really plenty loud enough but on the top 4 strings I get this very tinny sound from the original 10" speaker and also from a 12" scorpion speaker. With steel guitar my aim is obviously to get as clean a sound as possible. I am now wondering if my pickup is the problem, it is wound to 19.5K ohms. Could that be to much for the amp input?? Any more ideas are more than welcome.
Cheers Dave.

[guitician]

Can you lower the PU away from the strings? Higher output windings usually have reduced high frequency output and more mid-range. Does the guitar have a tone control on it? The tone control capacitor can effect the tone of the pickup even on 10. I replaced my stock caps with some NOS wax/paper cylinder types and the highs are very sweet now.

[Shakey 1047]

Guitician, thanks for the reply, I have lowered the pickup and the only difference it makes is less volume, it doesn't affect the tone at all. I don't have any tone controls on the guitar. Over this side of the pond speakers like JBL's Webbers, EV's etc are really expensive, well for me anyway, so I am looking at Eminence, Celestion or Fane, but even then which one. Do I go for a bass speaker or a mid range or a full range. Totally confused!
Cheers Dave.