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Topic: 18" Blackwidow Speaker |
Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2020 4:52 am |
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A while back I read a post and commented on it about trying the 18" Blackwidow speaker. I decided to trash the huge cabinet containing the two 10" and one 18" Blackwidow speakers with a crossover circuit board.
So yesterday, I left the 18" in and decided to try it once more. As there is a separate sealed chamber with ports for the 18" I hooked it to my steel guitar amps to try once more to be sure if I was right about it's sound.
Well, I was right. The 18' sounds brittle and has no bottom at all. My picking room is only 20' x 20' so I did not run the volume extremely high. Probably if it was pushed hard, I may have gotten it more mellow, but I value the hearing I have left.
The 12" speakers, as well as the 15" speakers in my amplifiers, have a much better sound. Absolutely!
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You can observe a lot just by looking |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2020 5:07 am
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| Bill, I have a Peavey 15/16 cabinet. That's a single 15 bottom and 2x8 in top. Wonderful bass cab, but not worth a hoot for pedal steel or 6 string. It has a crossover so you can use either separately. I tried the Mega Bass head it came with and many other amps including a session 400. Just not a good tone for me. I did find a used old Peavey PA cabinet with BW 15 and a horn that does a great job for steel. Got the pair for $40.00 at a music store junk room. Only rated at 150 watts but perfect for home. |
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Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2020 5:33 am
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The cabinet I have came with some other things I bought at auction as a one price for the lot deal.
The unit is rated 400 watts rms so I have a feeling it would take a lot of power input to get any usable steel guitar tones from it. I tried it with a Session 400, a Vegas 400 and a Special 130 with the same disappointing results.
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You can observe a lot just by looking |
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Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2020 6:10 am
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I plan to use the 18" speaker to replace a 12" speaker in our 350 watt powered sub bass cabinet in our tv sound system.
My wife will love that! Then I can watch The Expenables and really feel the action.
I will have to build a new cabinet first. So, I will surprise my wife.
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You can observe a lot just by looking |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 26 Mar 2020 6:44 am
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| That's probably a good use for it Bill. Your findings was much like mine for pedal steel. But it's fun and educational to experiment with these unused items. Sometimes we find a gem in the scrap pile. I am often surprised with products that are touted as a acoustic or bass specific end user item. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 27 Mar 2020 2:46 pm
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| Bill Duncan wrote: |
I plan to use the 18" speaker to replace a 12" speaker in our 350 watt powered sub bass cabinet in our tv sound system.
My wife will love that! Then I can watch The Expenables and really feel the action.
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And when you get to be my age, your favorite word will be..."What?"  |
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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Posted 27 Mar 2020 3:08 pm
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| Donny Hinson wrote: |
| And when you get to be my age, your favorite word will be..."What?" |
Yeah, I have an expensive pair of "in-ear monitors" I wear.
Too many years of loud firecrackers, loud guns, loud amplifiers, etc. |
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Jacek Jakubek
From:
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 3 Apr 2020 8:54 pm
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I was the one who asked about the 18" Black Widow speakers. Thanks for sharing your opinion, Bill, I ended up passing on these speakers based on your advice.
| Larry Dering wrote: |
| I did find a used old Peavey PA cabinet with BW 15 and a horn that does a great job for steel. Got the pair for $40.00 at a music store junk room. Only rated at 150 watts but perfect for home. |
I got a pair of these as well. I was surprised when I saw it was rated at 150 watts because it has a Black Widow speaker which I thought could handle more watts. I don't play very loud but does that mean I can't put my 160 watt tube head on full master, or my quilter 200 watt amp on full master volume when using these 150 watt speaker cabs? Or can I still do that but don't put
it too loud? how loud is too loud?
Here's a picture of the speaker cab with a tube head.
I messed a little bit with it on 6-string and it sounded OK. Haven't got around to trying it with steel yet.
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 4 Apr 2020 1:24 am
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Although I dimly remember them from my youth, I had no idea that 18" speakers were still around!
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Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 4 Apr 2020 7:24 am
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| Donny Hinson wrote: |
| Bill Duncan wrote: |
I plan to use the 18" speaker to replace a 12" speaker in our 350 watt powered sub bass cabinet in our tv sound system.
My wife will love that! Then I can watch The Expendables and really feel the action.
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And when you get to be my age, your favorite word will be..."What?" |
My hearing is exceptional, it's the constant whistling that gets in the way. Of course, if I could learn to control it and set it to 440hz I would be set. I asked my wife if she could hear my ear whistling. She just looked at me and moved on.
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You can observe a lot just by looking |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 4 Apr 2020 7:48 am
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| Jacek, I picked up a pair of those old Peavey cabinets and use them to play steel and audio tracks with a powered mixer. I don't know how accurate the 150 watt rated is but man, how loud can you stand? They blow me out of the room on 50 watts. |
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Godfrey Arthur
From:
3rd Rock
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Posted 14 Apr 2020 4:18 pm
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It would depend on how the 18 was crossed-over at what frequency and slope per octave. Or if it were bi-amped then the lows out of the 18 could be balanced with whatever other speaker you were using. But by itself, would then depend on the free air resonance (what frequency it is maximized at if the speaker was held up in the air without a cabinet) and for guitar what part of that resonance that is usable for the frequencies of the guitar. It would be a complex system to use an 18" for a mid-range frequency.
Looks like there's a horn on top of the 18." Not ideal for guitar. Maybe for bass guitar depending on the frequency response for the horn.
This cab would be a better use of an 18" for steel IMO.
Still a bi-amped situation with adjustable crossover and volume for each amp (one for the 18" one for the two 10's) would be easier to get the three speakers to work together.
Speakers have resonant frequencies and the more control one has electronically at the amp stage will make the speakers more tamable.
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ShoBud The Pro 1
YES it's my REAL NAME!
Ezekiel 33:7 |
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