Built differences between Guitar Speakers and PA Speakers?

[agadis]

Hello,

Does anybody know built/manufacturing differences between Guitar Speakers and PA Speakers?

I am talking about the speaker itself not the cabinet and asking about material and design differences, the reason of that frequency range difference.

Thanks from now.
agadis

[MaVo]

my guess is: guitar speakers are build to distort, since the electric guitar sound is the sound of distortion. there are a lot of vst plugins out there which simulate different guitar speaker/amp combinations. every one of them sounds distortet in its own way. i think the speaker plays its role to achieve the special sound those things have. i think of guitar speakers as a part of the instrument rather than a neutral sound device.

Well, i could be completely wrong

[Cal Weldon]

I think a guitar speaker is a PA driver with a frequency response suited to it's application. Every driver is designed to cover a certain portion of the bandwidth via the motor structure and cone.

I think the distortion is introduced and has little or nothing to do with the driver.

[el`Ol]

I have always asked myself how a guitar would sound without the typical cone breakup between 2 and 5kHz. Who is going to try?
http://www.supravox.fr/haut_parleurs/285_GMF.htm

[agadis]

... designed to cover a certain portion of the bandwidth via the motor structure and cone.

Does anybody know how it is done. I mean if I am to build a guitar speaker how should I chose my cone and set a motor structure for it to be a guitar speaker not a PA speaker?

[Saturnus]

Basically all speaker drivers have the same origin, and that is a speaker that will play as loud as possible as cheap as possible. That's because way back when output power from amplifiers where the limiting factor, and basically why all guitar amp are run in the distortion range. It's just always been that way.

So to sum up:

Take the largest magnet you can get, take the cheapest frame you can get, take the thinnest paper cone that you can get, and the softest surround you can get. Then you have the perfect guitar speaker driver, which is one with very high sensitivity, breaks up into distortion easily, and has very little bass range.

[moray james]

guitar drivers are designed to generate distortion and PA drivers are not. If you take a look at guitar drivers they do not have a lot of linear throw compared to a PA driver. Guitar drivers most often have an over hung voice coil. The top plate of a guitar driver is not usually very thick. Guitar drivers can be designed to have a lot of throw so they don't bottom out as in bass guitar drivers. As mentioned the PA driver is supposed to be used to reproduce the sound of the voices and instruments without distortion. Musical instrument speakers become part of the sound of the instrument. Hope this is useful.

[uber_tuono]

I've inherited some 8ohm 20W (I think) speakers from my late grandfather. Can anyone give me some tips on determining whether they would be suitable as a electric guitar speakers? thx