Indeed. What we do to guitar speakers could hardly be called
"breaking in". The moment the amp is turned on, they start self-
destructing.
I've known guys that have played 4x12" cabinets, all
with ripped cones because the distortion sounds so good.
Here's a common setup: Marshall 50-watt RMS all-tube amp pushing 1 or
2 12" Celestion speakers rated at 50 watts RMS each. First, the input
stage of the amp is heavily overdriven so you can get the distortion
at low volume. That in itself doesn't destroy the speaker, but the
preamp is feeding the amplifier stage at just about max. Next, if
you're playing with a band, you'll have to hear yourself so you have
to crank the master volume up to at least 1/2 to 3/4, which puts the
amp well above 25% THD given the maxed out preamp signal. So, the net
effect to the speaker is a heavily distorted/clipped signal that's
pushing the speaker pretty much past its limits at higher volumes.
Sounds great to the ear, but it's hell on the speaker. Some of the
coolest sounds are when the voice coil gets extended to its limit.
Produces a sharp, grating edge along with the normal distortion.
Traditionally, some of the best guitar sounds are achieved with high
power amps and low power speakers. One of the coolest sounds is to
play a 100-watt Marshall through an old Fender Bandmaster 2-12"
cabinet. Simply awesome.
Regards,
Joe
"Mark Zarella" seesigfile wrote in
news
There's an important distinction though between wear and "breaking
in".
"Joe" wrote in message
...
Sanitarium wrote in
:
Guitar player here...
Me too. Over 35 years playing...
Speaking from experience, I have an 8 year old celestion
greenback
in my carvin tube amp. Its by no means vintage, but it has spent
some time in the studio and this amp was my main gigging amp in
college. So its gone through the break-in period and to my ears
there IS a significant difference. Mids/highds are a little less
pronounced and the bass tones are slightly enhanced and sound
more
resonant than my new carvin Vai 2x12 with new greenbacks. I sold
the 12s out of the Vai cab on E-bay and bought a used pair of
Mesa
Boogie Black Shadow 12s (made by Celestion, re-badged for MB,
Basically a 90 watt vintage 30). Ahh much better and being that
they are used, someone else already broke them in for me.
I am not sure if I could hear a difference in a car audio sub
though... Probably not.
Just my thoughts,
Garrett
I think that guitar speakers and stereo speakers are two entirely
different animals. It's desirable to overdrive/distort a guitar
speaker, but not so with stereo speakers, of course.
Having overdriven and blown out more guitar speakers than I can
count,
they certainly do "wear out", or at least change in tone/sound as
you
"destroy" them over time. I also think that the tone differences
are
greater in a guitar speaker line than in a stereo speaker line,
i.e.,
one 12" Celestion will sound a _lot_ different than another
supposedly
identical 12" Celestion. Not so true with stereo speakers.
2 more cents.
Regards,
Joe