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Topic: Old Hi Fi speakers for steel guitar? |
David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 19 Nov 2019 3:25 pm |
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Being a big fan of Standel amps, I've read that Mr. Crooks didn't care much for the "upgrade" of the JBL D130 to the higher powered D130F speaker and ended up working with Stephens TruSonic (another popular speaker for Hi Fi use) for later use in his amps. The earlier JBL was a common Hi Fi speaker, and sounded great with lower powered musical instrument amps too, but could only handle maybe 40 watts safely.
I have a couple of old corner horn cabinets loaded with Electrovoice Wolverine 12 inch full range speakers with whizzer cones that I dug out to try with steel just for the heck of it. These things really sound great! The Wolverines were sort of the Harry Homeowner line for Electrovoice in the late fifties/early sixties. Very nicely made speakers with cast baskets, alnico magnets and paper surrounds--similar to the JBL Hi Fi speakers of the day, but cheaper.
Anyway, I'm really liking what I'm hearing from these speakers--probably as good a sound from a 12" speaker as I've experienced for steel. I'm running a 40 watt or so amp into them, so I think it's safe. Plus I'm playing in my music room, so I'm probably not really putting more than a watt or two into them.
I've tried some of the Jensen whizzer cone speakers too (Hammond Organ used them in their reverb amp cabinets), and they sound good, but the Wolverines beat them to my ear.
Has anyone else messed around with any of these old Hi Fi speakers, and if so what did you think about them?
Dave |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 19 Nov 2019 3:37 pm
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If a loudspeaker sounds good, it is good!
A robust hi-fi speaker will deliver the clean sound we like.
In my small practice room I play through a pair of compact near-field studio monitors which are like beefed-up bookshelf speakers, the opposite to the horns you describe - I wish I had room for something like that!
_________________
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Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 19 Nov 2019 4:09 pm
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These horns are really small--No bigger than an average 1-12 speaker cabinet, but with the Klipsch-like corner horn design, they get better bass than a normal open back speaker cabinet would get (since they basically use the walls off the corner as a bass horn).
On the other hand, my hi fi rig really takes up the space--big bass horns with multi-cell high frequency horns on top driven by a whopping 1 1/2 watts of single ended 45 direct heated triode power! Old Altec theater stuff on the speakers (redone for my purposes) and homebrew amps....Love this stuff too.
Dave |
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Michael Butler
From:
California, USA
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Posted 19 Nov 2019 4:58 pm
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i would think that speaker would be great for steel, but, possibly not for guitar. seems steel players want really clean amps-twins and peaveys, and the speaker would only add to that. for guitar, it may not work due to the mids that guitar players generally like rather than the higher frequencies that a hi fi speaker usually generates.
if it sounds good. it is good!
play music!
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http://muscmp.wordpress.com/ |
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Glenn Demichele
From:
(20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA
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Posted 19 Nov 2019 10:07 pm
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Man, I've got tons of speakers, but my absolute favorite one is a Goldwood 8" full range with a whizzer cone I bought for $29 from parts express. I put it in a tiny 10"x10""6" box. It handles 130w and can keep up with my 4pc band in a small venue. I throw my BW1501 in my trunk just in case I toast it, but I've done about 20 gigs with no problem. Another thing is that since the speaker is so small, my steel sounds like its coming from one "place" - a point source - this psychoacoustic thing helps everyone in the room think "yeah, thats the steel THERE", so you dont have to compete with volume when you have that spatial focus. Amazing really. (Ps the GW8003)
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Franklin D10 8&5, Excel D10 8&5. Both amazing guitars! Homemade buffer/overdrive with adjustable 700Hz "Fender" scoop., Moyo pedal, GT-001 effects, 2x TDA7294 80W class AB amps, or 2x BAM200 for stereo. TT12 and BW1501 each in its own closed back wedge. Also NV400 etc. etc... |
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 20 Nov 2019 2:02 am
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Another interesting rig I have is an old Ampex "suitcase" tube amplifier with integrated 8" JBL full range speaker. Ampex designed their enclosure specifically for this speaker, and I've got to say it sounds great (a pair of them makes a really good stereo hi fi rig too). It is a low gain rig--it's really a just power amplifier and although it will amplify a guitar signal directly, it does much better with a preamp in front of it. I was surprised how well a good 8 inch speaker works with steel--even C6. These things used to be cheap, but alas they came above the radar in the tube hi fi community and they're no longer the great buy that they used to be when you can find them.
But as Michael said, these clean rigs wouldn't work well for most guitar work. Big jazz box--yeah, but Tele, nope...
Dave |
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Bill C. Buntin
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Posted 20 Nov 2019 5:34 am
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Dave
I have two experiences with this
The first was with old radio shack pa columns. Not bad.
The best I ever heard though was through adcom preamp, adcom amp, maudio interface, and two old klipsch heresy. 15†with original horns and crossovers. Fantastic sound.
Bill |
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