"Spiky" sounding new pine cab with Eminence 151

[Chevy]

Hi Guys,

A friend had a 40-year-old pile of 1x12 white pine ends, so I thought I'd try my luck at making a couple of small, light, and portable guitar cabs. 22W x 191/2H x 10 D. 1/2" quality plywood baffle. Baffle screwed directly to 3/4" cauls all the way round the cabinet. Back of cab is 1/3 open at the center; upper and lower panels are removable. Using it with a '68 Bandmaster Reverb head.

The cabs came out ok, and I was recommended the Eminence Legen 151 for a full, fat SRV-type tone. What I got was an overly bright, spiky tone that even a Weber Beam blocker can't seem to tame. I'm looking for a smooth, fat, rich blues and rock tone that is articulate and airy, but not harsh.

Seems to me like I got the totally wrong speaker here, but I see that others are using the 151 in commercial amps... and somehow getting it right?

Any suggestions? I've tried my Bandmaster amp head with my old 2x10 Vibrolux speakers, and it seems to sound much smoother.... but I'm not sure the amp might not have something to do with this, too. Don't have any other decent speakers to try it out with.

Thanks,
Chevy

[Resonator Guy]

The last new Eminence speaker I bought, a Tonker, sounded nasty and harsh in my Garnet for the first while. After a few very loud blues jams, it started to mellow out and now, a year or so later, it sounds fantastic. Maybe yours just needs breaking in.

[Chevy]

Thanks, Resonator Guy,

I don't know if that's the ticket, but just may be....
I found out that I can borrow a friend's studio to run the speaker pretty hard thru stereo or Ipod or something overnight or maybe longer, and hope that it gets it broken in. Otherwise, I have no way to do this, as I can't hack the spikiness right now, so how can I play it long enough and loud enough to break it in ? This thing moves a lot of air.