Cheap guitar loudspeakers

[akis]

I have built a guitar amp using a pair of 12" speakers I bought cheap on ebay (I think it was 25-40 pounds the pair). They have kevlar cones. A long story short, they have good bass response, but are quite "muted" on the treble, as if someone has placed a pillow over them.

Also, they are much quiter than the 10" ones in my Fender guitar amp, but this may be because they are bigger, and therefore need more energy to be driven? Not sure about this.

I have thought of replacing these speakers with a "brighter" pair, something made more specifically for guitars, but looking around the prices are extortionate, from 60 pounds onwards each!!!

Bearing in mind that there are perfectly good guitar amps from Marshall, Fender and Vox that retail for 75, 120 pounds and 150 pounds, it beats me why a single speaker would cost so much.

Is there a place where I can buy guitar-oriented 12" speakers and avoid paying all that much?

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by akis

A long story short, they have good bass response, but are quite "muted" on the treble, as if someone has placed a pillow over them.

Also, they are much quiter than the 10" ones in my Fender guitar amp, but this may be because they are bigger, and therefore need more energy to be driven? Not sure about this.

Its because kevlar is too heavy, and "dead"
Also because many guitar speakers have very light cones with lots of breakup
In hifi you would think of them as awfully screaming
With a guitar you would say they are crispy sounding

http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?...emode=category
Click on SpeakerComponents/GuitarSpeakers
Could be that Eminence Beta8 would do too, but may lack some "body", due to size and relatively low Qts
Many guitar speakers have high Qts, as they are used with open back
Tho, shipping may be a significant cost, when we talk low priced drivers
Also, the cheap guitar speakers may not take too much power

Maybe this one
http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?...img_name=10AGN

[Geek]

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/

Check out his signature series.

Cheers!

[akis]

Unfortunately I live in the UK :-)

I have a guitar amp that houses two speakers driven by two separate amplifiers. I was thinking I could combine two different speakers - they do not necessarily need to be the same - am I right?

[Geek]

Hi,

Originally Posted by akis

Unfortunately I live in the UK :-)

Weber ships worldwide. You'll still be cheaper than a Celestion.

If they've changed that policy, I ship worldwide and I'm a Weber dealer

I have a guitar amp that houses two speakers driven by two separate amplifiers. I was thinking I could combine two different speakers - they do not necessarily need to be the same - am I right?

Correct.

Quite often guitarists mix a ceramic and an AlNiCo, or even (riskier) one 12" (or 15") and one 8" (or 10").

Cheers!

[akis]

I recently bought 2 reverb tanks from the US - what mistake that was. Shipping was as much as the pair of reverb tanks, then when it arrived in the UK they added 15% tax on the whole amount - including shipping!!! And then the carrier charged me an extra 8 or 12 pounds fee for the hassle!

UK == rip off country - taxes gallore for no real benefit other than :
2/3 of the population not paying any taxes whatsoever
the army to invade foreign lands every two years or so
a hugely wasteful welfare system to cater for probably 50% of the population that do not pay any taxes

But I digress...


Anyway, I looked into Weber (briefly) and saw that at the wattage and size that I need we are over $110 per unit - I need over 80 Watts RMS since my amps deliver clean 77 Watts RMS (and if they clip that would br 154 Watts RMS!!!) and they need to be 12".

[nigelwright7557]

Originally Posted by akis

I have built a guitar amp using a pair of 12" speakers I bought cheap on ebay (I think it was 25-40 pounds the pair). They have kevlar cones. A long story short, they have good bass response, but are quite "muted" on the treble, as if someone has placed a pillow over them.

Also, they are much quiter than the 10" ones in my Fender guitar amp, but this may be because they are bigger, and therefore need more energy to be driven? Not sure about this.

I have thought of replacing these speakers with a "brighter" pair, something made more specifically for guitars, but looking around the prices are extortionate, from 60 pounds onwards each!!!

Bearing in mind that there are perfectly good guitar amps from Marshall, Fender and Vox that retail for 75, 120 pounds and 150 pounds, it beats me why a single speaker would cost so much.

Is there a place where I can buy guitar-oriented 12" speakers and avoid paying all that much?

I built a 4 by 10 inch cab for my guitar and it has loads of treble.
They were very cheap too, around £12 each.
Search for 10 inch drivers at www.bluearan.co.uk
They have a huge range of speakers at good prices.

[nigelwright7557]

Originally Posted by akis

Bearing in mind that there are perfectly good guitar amps from Marshall, Fender and Vox that retail for 75, 120 pounds and 150 pounds, it beats me why a single speaker would cost so much.

Its because these big companies buy in large volumes and can demand good prices.

[Geek]

Sorry to hear about your economics, Akis

Sometimes they let things slip by here, other times they nail me for it. Mostly from the US they nail me... even if they're worth <$20 and international, boxes worth $1K+ aren't taxed :shrug:

Cheers!

[akis]

Originally Posted by nigelwright7557

I built a 4 by 10 inch cab for my guitar and it has loads of treble.
They were very cheap too, around &#163;12 each.
Search for 10 inch drivers at www.bluearan.co.uk
They have a huge range of speakers at good prices.

I did another listening test last evening, this time I could flik between the junk speakers I bought on ebay (12" Skytronic) and the ones inside the Fender amplifier (two 10" units) with the aid of a switch, no rewiring required, so that the difference was instantly heard. The difference was tremendous - every time I switched to the Skytronics it was as if the volume knob was turned half-way down and then someone had placed a pillow over the speakers. There was no treble and no loudness coming out of them at all.

What beats me is that I had also bought a pair of 5 1/4" drivers (Skytronics again) to improve the high ends - when I switched those in it was again as if someone had turned the volume knob way down ...

So now I have a built amplifier and cabinet, with 2 * 12" cutouts and 2 * 51/4 " cutouts and 3 independent power amplifiers at 77 Watts RMS. I need to buy 2 12" units to replace the Skytronics and then do something about the 5/14" holes...