guitar speaker horn/wave guide?

[pzung]

hello,

i'm wondering if a midrange horn or wave guide would help with the directional beaming problem that guitar cabinets have.

these are cabinets mostly made with 12" speakers, i think modern versions of cheap the cheapest woofers made in the sixties and early 70's.
basically there is a high frequency cone of death about 5 degrees wide that shoots straight out from the driver, a little to either side sounds okay and then a little farther off axis all the midrange goes away and it sounds muddy and drops greatly in volume. perhaps all inside of 35-40 degrees total.
i have made several billfitzmaurice cross firing cabinets and they are by far better... but you still still here the good stuff fall away around 20-25 degrees off center and then a big content drop maybe 45 degrees off center. the design also needs two drivers and it'd be nice to get down to one.

guitar speakers usually work from around 120hz-5khz. it's important to loose the top end because there are some horrible harmonics happening up there that nobody wants to hear. i plugged my amp into a full range pa speaker and had a listen... ouch.

i'm not sure at what frequency the directivity begins and i suppose figuring this out is step one. perhaps an amp/speaker with a test tone, walking back and forth changing the tone and more walking around until you find a noticeable difference in on and off axis with different tones?

i definitely want to avoid a high boost. i imagine that the throat of the horn or wave guide would determine this not sure.

i would however like to get a little more low end for myself, maybe to 80hz or 60hz not sure.

i believe that for this application you want a good horizontal spread but a controlled vertical spread to avoid confusing secondary reflections from the floor and ceiling.

flat response is not important as it's part of a synergetic music system.

any pointers or an order of milestones to achieve would be super duper. i've been reading as much as possible about horns for 3 months now but i think i need to build something to understand any further.

-pat

[walters]

sounds like you are describing beaming. try 10 in. speakers.