Guitar Cab vs. PA speaker

[guitargully]

Hey, was wondering what the main difference is between a guitar cab and a PA speaker, technically, of course. I know my guitar cab sounds much much nicer than a PA speaker, but why? Is the differene in the speaker itself or does it have to do with the tweeter in the PA? Thanks.. btw the way, I'm wondering because i'd like to/need to build a 2X12 guitar cab so i can move it easily. my big/heavy 4X12 with 3/4" (i think) MDF is heavy, especially since i have to carry it up 3 sets of stairs every week.. thanks, and any reccomendations of some decent but CHEAP speakers? this will only be used for church and i dont care how it sounds.. just better than a PA for sure! oh. i need maybe 60W and 4-8 ohms total.. thanks

[guitargully]

me.. again... lol

WOuld it be possible to make a speaker enclosure out of aluminum for really light weight? Maybe put some type of foam rubber of it to reduce like small vibrations... againt i'm lookimg for somthing light weight and easy to carry... not great sound quality.. oh.. ye ai was thinking more like sheet metal.. 1/16 or so lol.. i'll see what ya'll say

[HeatMiser]

Guitar speakers are not designed to have a flat, wide response - they don't need to go up very high or down very low, they often accentuate the midrange, and they are often made to distort and compress slightly on purpose. In short, they are more like musical instruments themselves than they are like accurate reproducers of full-range sound - they are supposed to sound a certain way that works for guitar. Try hooking up a CD player to one and you'll see what I mean. (But please attenuate the CD player's output first, it's MUCH hotter than a guitar signal.)

So, if you want your cabinet to sound like a guitar amp and not a PA, you really should use speakers designed for the purpose IMHO.

[454Casull]

Something interesting to try (and inexpensive) would be an large, foldable OB speaker with a full-range driver, although the feasibility of that depends on how loud you need to play.

[guitargully]

sorry, whats an OB speaker? a foldable one at that?

[Centauri]

HeatMiser's response is spot on, which is why us sound guys always mic the guitar amps to feed the PA - a direct line out from the guitar amp sounds dreadful.

Cheers

[dooper]

Originally posted by guitargully
sorry, whats an OB speaker? a foldable one at that?

In this case, open baffle. A keyword search here for "open", "baffle" and "fold*" should get you lots of examples.

Could be Ocean Beach too - that would be a very nice place to be on this cold February morning in Canada ;-)

dooper

[AGGEMAM]

Originally posted by HeatMiser
Guitar speakers are not designed to have a flat, wide response - they don't need to go up very high or down very low, they often accentuate the midrange, and they are often made to distort and compress slightly on purpose.

This off course is because of the history behind it, simply that the quality of driver and amps has evolved so much since the first guitar caps saw the light of day.

This means that guitar caps today are on purpose using basically crappy drivers and amps because it has to sound like it has always done.

If you really look at it, you'll find that you can diy guitar caps for almost no money today, and ones that are exactly as good as (or more often even better actually) than even the most expensive pro gear ones.

Btw, I you play something really noisy like punk rock or something then you'll notice than the sound quality is extremely bad this is because of the history behind it, the first punk rock bands started out using the equipment they could afford or find in dumpsters even, the quality was therefore scaringly low, but the sound to today remains the same because 'that's how punk rock sounds'.

[bigparsnip]

Originally posted by guitargully
me.. again... lol

WOuld it be possible to make a speaker enclosure out of aluminum for really light weight? Maybe put some type of foam rubber of it to reduce like small vibrations... againt i'm lookimg for somthing light weight and easy to carry... not great sound quality.. oh.. ye ai was thinking more like sheet metal.. 1/16 or so lol.. i'll see what ya'll say

YOu can get stuff which is basical a sandwich of a two thin aluminium skins on either side of a aluminuim of paper honney comb. That stuff is very light, pretty strong and because aluminium is quite good at damping out vibrations it should be more "dead" than most other metals for enclosure building.

[AGGEMAM]

Looks good that bigparsnip any idea where one could get more info on it, or buy it even?