low sensitivity speakers for guitar applications

[mouldiwarp]

I have been looking for some time to try and tame an old Marshall Valve amp head rated at 50W so that I can use it more at home in the lounge (not sure to the wife's pleasure). I built a 1X12" speaker cab a long time ago using a Celestion Vintage 30 (to match an existing cab I had at the time) but didnt relly look into what I was doing much. The Vintage 30 has a sensitivity of 100db so it is really quite efficiant. I did look around to see if there are any low sensitivity suitably ranged loudspeakers that would fit the bill for guitar amplication that has a much lower response allowing me to run the amp hotter while keeping the plaster on the walls.

Any idea's?? Is there a gap in the market??

[VictoriaGuy]

Even with a lower sensitivity speaker, I don't think you will ever get the Marshall 50W sounding good inside the house.
My advice would be to sell the amp and buy something in the 10-12W or lower range, so you can crank it up.
Another possibility (which I don't much care for) is some sort of attenuator. If I were going with an attenuator, I'd probably get one from Ted Weber .
I bought speakers from him and had him re-cone speakers and got good service.

Cheers
John

[Peter M.]

10W on a vintage 30 can still be VERY loud.
I made a 5w amp, and it was more than loud enough. 1w or less would be better, for me at least.

A lower efficiency speaker could work I think, but I don`t know of any that are suitable for guitar.

[VictoriaGuy]

Originally posted by Peter M.
10W on a vintage 30 can still be VERY loud.
I made a 5w amp, and it was more than loud enough. 1w or less would be better, for me at least.

Peter- I agree. If you want to play the amp wide open, 10W is way too much for sensible playing in the house.

John

[Brett]

Build a small cheap <2W amp - plenty of designs out there. Or else get a power soak of some sort.
Every low efficiency speaker I've tried with guitars sounds wrong. Dunno why exactly as it was easier to build small amps, so we went that way.

[mouldiwarp]

Yeh, Kid of the conclusions I came to. 50W is small / medium venu volumes. I have just built a 5W valve amp which I am in the process of adding an additional gain stage to. I can push it to full volume (the neighbours seem quite happy which surprises me).

There must be some speaker end solutions out there somewhere as I understand a few db reduction can equate to a much lower SPL (I could be wrong though)

[phase_accurate]

The easiest solution would be an attenuator. And I wouldn't buy one - I would build it myself.

Regards

Charles

[Brett]

Originally posted by mouldiwarp
There must be some speaker end solutions out there somewhere as I understand a few db reduction can equate to a much lower SPL (I could be wrong though)

Subjectively, half as loud is 1/10 the power. My metal guitarist housemate used a 1/2W amp for a while through a 4x10 and it was still too loud in the bedroom if he cranked it.

[sreten]

Hi,

Try something like this :

http://www.qualitone.com/store/p/110...ansformer.html

Connect amplifier to 70V in and your speaker to the volume taps.

You could add a ~ 10 ohm parallel power resistor to the input side if
you want to current load your amplifier more than the above allows.

/sreten.

[mouldiwarp]

Hey thanks, thats a good idea.

I did have an attenuaror once over but it got sold along with another stuff when I went thorough a rough patch....

Making one is another project.... Must finish the one I am on first though.