Archive for the “Speakers” Category

First of all, I am not talking about this guy.

I have a question about amp headroom. Specifically, I want more of it. In a nutshell, headroom deals with how loud your amp will get before it starts to distort. In general, higher wattage amps have more headroom than lower wattage amps.

Many people buy low wattage (less than 15-20 watts) amps so that they can take advantage of power tube distortion at lower volume levels. I was one of those guys. One drawback to having a small amp is that you can’t turn it up very loud before it starts distorting. This is not necessarily a bad thing, unless you want a good clean tone.

I haven’t been able to dial in a pristine clean tone with my Stulce (~10 watts) and it’s driving me crazy. I would prefer to fix the problem rather than replace the amp. My first inclination is that the speakers are the culprit. I have a 2×12 cabinet loaded with a Celestion G12M “Greenback” and a Weber ceramic Blue Dog. I’m pretty sure that the Greenback is the problem.

According to the spec sheet, the Greenback is a 25 watt speaker with 96dB sensitivity. (The higher the sensitivity, the more efficient the speaker is. This is usually perceived as loudness.) The Greenback is known as a somewhat inefficient speaker, and is probably contributing to the lack of cleanness in my tone.

By contrast, the Weber is a 50 watt speaker with ~100dB sensitivity. On paper, the Weber should be much cleaner at similar volume levels than the Greenback. I think a little experiment is in order. I currently have the speakers in series. They’re both 8 ohms speakers and when you run them in series you add the impedance (16 ohms). I’m planning on disconnecting the speakers and running them at 8 ohms. I will switch between the speakers to see if one breaks up earlier than the other. If I remember to do it, I will try to record the results.

Before I do this, would anyone care to chime in with any tips or recommendations? What are some good high-efficiency speakers that will help me to retain a good clean tone at lower volumes? I know that the Celestion V30s have really high sensitivity, but they get a pretty bad rap from what I’ve read.

As I mentioned in my last post, we moved my amp around  when we were trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from. I don’t have the amp marked or anything, so I just put the mic back where I thought it was. Apparently, I was wrong.

At practice the following Thursday I got my stuff set up and started doing my sound check. I could tell immediately that something was wrong. My tone was really wooly and muffled. I went back to check on the amp and messed with the EQ settings, but things still sounded messed up. I thought about the mic situation and started making adjustments. I must have made 8 trips back to my amp to get the position and EQ set up properly. Small adjustments made a huge difference in the amount of treble in my tone.

For some reason, I had never really thought about how much mic placement actually affects your tone. I knew about it, but I had never experienced it first hand. I guess it depends on the speaker. I have always been a plug and play kind of guy – I’ve never really been one to endlessly tweak settings. Maybe I need to start tweaking my mic setup at home. Anyway, that’s it.

Here are a few clips of the new cab. I miked up both speakers and panned them slightly. The blue dog is on the left and the greenback is on the right. These recordings were done on my Les Paul, primarily on the neck pickup. I rolled the highs up more than I usually would to play up the sparkly chime of this amp.

Clip 1: both gains at 9:00

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Clip 2: gain 1 at 12:00, gain 2 at 9:00

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Clip 3: gain 1 at 9:00, gain 2 at 12:00

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Clip 4: both gains at 12:00

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The Weber Blue Dog hasn’t come in yet, so I still have the G12H30s in the cab. I decided to do a quick recording so that I’ll have something to reference to the new speakers. I don’t have a mic stand at the house, so I just hung an SM58 in front of one of the speakers. I’m sure that the positioning is terrible. I have the amp set pretty clean – both of the gains are around 9:00 and the master is up around 1:00. I kick on the boost (set pretty low) at about 1:05. I used my Les Paul and my DD-20.

Let me know what you think.

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My cab came in today, and it’s really big. I mean – I knew the dimensions, but I never really thought about how those numbers would translate in terms of sheer size. I took some pictures of my amp/cab, as well as my current pedalboard setup.

I haven’t had a chance to try the new cab yet, but I should get a chance to give it a little workout this weekend.

The board is pretty basic, but it handles pretty much everything that I need. I had another overdrive and a tremolo on there for a while, but they didn’t really fit with what I do. So the chain is wah/tuner/distortion/boost/delay. Nothing exciting, but it sounds pretty good to me.

I bought a cabinet today. It’s an Avatar vintage 2×12″ like I was looking for. It comes loaded with two Celestion G12H30 70th anniversary speakers. I don’t really need the speakers, so I should be able to turn around and sell them for ~$80 each. I only paid $275 for the whole thing (including shipping) so I think I got a pretty good deal, especially after I unload the old speakers. It shipped today from California, so I may get it by the end of the week. We’ll see…

The only downside is that it’s a closed-back cab. I wanted an open-back, but this one had such a good price on it that I didn’t want to pass it up. I think that Avatar sells replacement back covers for their cabs, so I’ll probably just pick one up from them.

I’ll probably go a little nuts with recording clips and stuff when it comes in, so be prepared for that.

I have made my speaker decision. I found a Weber Blue Dog (ceramic) for $50 on The Gear Page. The Blue Dog is Ted Weber’s take on the classic Celestion Blue – lots of chime with a big low end. I decided to go with a ceramic magnet since alnico magnets (supposedly) don’t really shine with low-wattage amps. I’m going to put the Blue Dog in a cabinet with a Greenback. It should sound really nice.

I need to decide on a cab. I’m pretty sure that it’ll be one of the Avatar Vintage 2×12 models (the one that looks like a Marshall Bluesbreaker). Any thoughts? I would take that Avatar logo off – it’s just unsightly.

For some reason, I had pretty much forgotten about Eminence speakers. I know that Maury is a fan (he has a couple of 10 inchers in his Goodsell cab). Does anyone have any input? They’re pretty well-liked over on The Gear Page.

I’m currently looking at a Celestion Greenback/Red Fang combo. The Red Fang is an Alnico speaker based on the Celestion Blue, a popular choice for Vox-style amps. The Greenback should help to balance out the bell-like highs of the Red Fang.

I have been severely neglecting this blog lately. Sorry about that – things have been kinda busy lately.

Anyway, I have been looking at speaker cabinets lately. I have an Avatar 1×12″ that I use at church. It’s one of the smaller cube (traditional) models that they have. I generally leave it at church because it’s too much of a hassle to bring it home every week. Unfortunately, this means that I can’t play my amp at home. I think I’m going to pick up a new speaker cabinet to use at home.

I’m probably going to get another cab from Avatar, but I don’t want to get the same G112 cube that I already have. For one thing, the cabinet itself is a little too small and boxy sounding. I either want a 2×12″ or an oversized 1×12″.

As far as speakers, I’m kind of in the dark. I’ve never experimented with speakers all that much, even though I know that they’re a huge part of the overall tone. I’m currently using a Hellatone 30 from Avatar, which is basically a broken-in Celestion G12H30. I’d like to try a Weber Blue Dog or maybe a Blue/Greenback combo in a 2×12″. I’m looking for a Vox-like sound and I know that the Blue-style speaker would take me in that direction, but I don’t want it to be too trebly.

What are you guys using? Any tips or suggestions? I’m on a budget, so price is a factor.