ESLs for Guitar amp ???

[WBB]

Hi
I have a new design idea for guitar amp cabinet and would like to use a light weight flat panel speaker........

Does anyone know how ESLs sound for guitar amp sound reproduction??? Are they able to be voiced like conventional drivers, perhaps with parametric EQ?

Any thoughts?

[bigwill]

It wouldn't be very efficient for guitar use, althought it would be very interesting to try. It would be a very clean sounding speaker

[el`Ol]

You could buy a Fane Micropro and maybe experiment with other materials for the panel. A German manufacturer (Goebel) uses a balsawood/ glass fiber compound.

[eeka chu]

I wouldn't go there personally unless you're after a super clean sound, and even then...

Most guitar speakers are purposefully designed to have a roll-off long before they get to 20kHz. As well as lots of none linear regions.

Whereas ESLs are special because of their high frequency ability. I get the feeling that if you were to just strap an ESL onto a guitar amp you'd probably end up bleeding from your eyes after a few minutes of playing.

Guitars only play low fundamentals, most of the stuff over, and even below, 10k is 'air' and presence. An ESL might help the amp sound more open and like it was breathing but I think you'd want to work on the treble.

Also remember that a lot of the best guitarists (Hendrix / Eddie Van Halen) used speaker distortion to get the sound they had; 100W into ~100W worth of speakers. It's unlikely that you'll want that happening to thin films or that they'll even break up in the same way.

The clean acoustic sounds probably won't be so bad, maybe a bit too bright, but the distortion will probably sound really grainy and tinny.

So yeah, an idea but unless you're going for something unique and custom just for yourself I'd probably have to think about it. Even if it was just for myself I'd have a think given the amount of effort you'll need to put in.

[DrFrankenstein]

Guitar speakers are never run with cross overs, they are meant to be run at their full bandwidth.

Now truth be told, you can use really any speaker with good frequency response and tranparency. Say 50 hz - 6 khz.
Cone material is important too. With musical instrument reproduction, it's always untreated paper with old school acordian edges. This doesn't mean a different material and surround won't yield quality results, it's just that different materials and denser materials will generally color the sound. I have an enclosure using a poly woofer and wide dispersion piezo that sounds great with the practice amp I fuzed it with but obviously it's also very sensitive to the EQ.

But like I said, if the bandwidth is broad enough, you might win the frankenstein lottery and get killer results. You mentioned light weight which is a good characteristic.
The important questions are:
What is it's bandwidth?
What is the cone material?
What is the wattage and magnet size?
What type of surround does it have?

Light weight, moddest wattage and broad frequency response will always yield at the very least, good results.

[bear]

ESLs = NG for guitar speakers

Guitar speakers are designed to:

- have breakup modes (tone)
- very high SPL output
- limited HF response
- LF response/excursion stiffness limited

also, ESLs require either HV direct drive, or heavy transformers, and are very large for equivalent max SPL output compared to cone drivers.

You might be able to DIY build some speakers with less (flatter) than usual depth profile and/or use some unusual materials for the diaphragm.

But, the latter is likely to be more trouble, expense and difficulty than the benefits, once you depart too much from standard sorts of driver designs... keep in mind that at high SPL you can't have the VC moving about in the gap!

_-_-bear

[Netlist]

Guys, I've split the thread, keep it cool.

/Hugo