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Guitar Tone Poll

Poll Sponsored by The Tone Chamber at Loudspeakers Plus

Guitar Tone Challenges

When faced with the challenge of tweaking your tone, most of us choose a most expensive route in the unforgiving search for the ultimate tone. We spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on a new guitar or amp. Replacing your guitar speakers can be much more cost affective than buying a new guitar, amp or even pick ups in some cases.  Whether it's a 1x12, 2x12, 4x12, open back, closed back replacement speaker The Guitar Speaker Guide can help you find the right loudspeaker for your application!

Guitar Speakers FAQ

How can a speaker change impact overall guitar tone?

It’s the last link in the chain, cost effective versus tubes, pick-ups, etc… 

                                                                                                     

The speaker is the last link in the tone chain, and often overlooked.  The Eminence objective with the Patriot and Redcoat guitar speaker lines is to educate players on the merits of changing speakers to improve tone.  It's also one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to tweak “your sound”.  We are offering a wide array of guitar speakers, each one with it’s own flavor or unique tonal characteristics.  We are confident that there is a guitar speaker within our Legend, Patriot, or Redcoat series that will compliment your amp, guitar, speaker enclosure, and playing style, and that it will ultimately improve your tone.

 

Can I mix different guitar speakers?

Mixing guitar speakers is becoming a common practice among guitar players.  The one thing to remember is to keep the Sensitivity (spl) as close as possible so a louder speaker doesn’t drown out the less sensitive guitar speaker.  Some better combinations are the Wizard/Governor, GB128/1258 and Wizard/Red Fang.

 

How does the power rating effect a guitar speaker's break up?

 Early, late, medium break-up (Red Fang/Governor versus Swamp Thang/C-Rex versus Private Jack/Texas Heat) 

 

Generally speaking, the power rating of the speaker does not determine the break-up mode.  Break-up is most influenced by the cone.  It commonly occurs quicker in thinner, lighter weight cones.  However, higher power speakers often have heavier cones with slower break up, but not always.  This is why we have a column on our "Guitar Speaker Tonal Characteristics and Application Guide" for break-up modes.   With that guide, you can compare how the speakers break-up in relationship to one another (slow, medium, fast).

 

 

 What do we mean by Low end definition?  (aggressive vs. moderate vs. subdued and compare Swamp Thang vs. Governor vs. Black Powder) 

 

Eminence graded the speakers on how much low end definition was present and rated them either aggressive (having the most), moderate and subdued.  There's also low end shape (fat, chunky, tight), where fat is more lingering and slower and tight is faster and more responsive.  

 

What is the difference between American versus British tone? (compare Swamp Thang/Tonker and/orRW&B/Governor) 

 

The British tone is synonymous with the likes of the Beatles, Cream, and Marshall amplifiers. We can credit Fender, Peavey, and St. Louis Music for working with Eminence, Oxford, CTS, Electrovoice, and JBL for our American tone.  While you may find certain models in one series that have tonal relationships with models in another series, the difference is almost always apparent in a side-by-side comparison.  This distinctiveness can most commonly be heard in the mid-range detail and break-up characteristics of each series.  We’d all like to tell you that these differences are magical and were conscious design choices during the development of British and American tone.  In reality, the difference in parts vendors and speaker construction methods likely played just as significant a role in the resultant tonality of both.  

 

What are some of the common misconceptions regarding guitar speakers?

Power ratings, SPL, etc.....try a 150W speaker with a small/5W head!!!

Generally speaking, guitar speakers are much more efficient than bass or pro audio speakers.  What you should compare are their sensitivity (or SPL) ratings.  Guitar speakers typically achieve 98dB-103dB measured at 1 watt-1 meter (industry standard method of measuring SPL).  Potentially, 30 watts will achieve 117dB of output on a speaker that has a sensitivity of 98dB (3dB increase for every doubling of power)!  It doesn’t take full power to get really loud or to push the speaker effectively.  You’ll likely be surprised at what you can achieve.  A higher power rating typically means a larger voice coil diameter.  Speakers with larger voice coil diameters tend to provide a more pronounced low end with less top end extension.  If your desire is to beef up and/or smooth out the tone of a small combo amp, a higher wattage speaker may be exactly what you need to try.

How do certain speaker components affect a speaker’s tone?

-voice coil size (compare Texas Heat and Screamin Eagle) (see power ratings, SPL)

-various pulps (compare RW&B/C-Rex) 

Both speakers use the same cone tool, but different types of pulp formulations.  RW&B uses a more traditional type of pulp, where C-Rex uses a hemp formulation which is stiffer and lends a warmer overall tone and less cone break-up. 

 

What is the difference between Alnico versus ceramic versus neodymium? (Red Fang/Private Jack and Tonker/Tonkerlite) 

 

Each material, of course, has different magnetic properties and cost.  Neodymium seems to be the wave of the future, especially with reduced weight and overall costs coming down.  It produces the most magnetic flux per ounce, making it ideal for use in multiple speaker cabinets to maintain performance while reducing handling and shipping weight.  Alnico is a composite of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt.  It is the most rare and most expensive.  Alnico is commonly thought to produce the most "Vintage" tone and has a reputation for sounding compressed.  Ceramic is the cheapest and most common material.  If you are comparing speakers that have the same magnetic flux, but generated from different magnet compositions, you probably won't notice a difference in tonality.  Differences in tonality that are often attributed to the magnet material probably have more to do with the positioning of the magnet and resultant differences in magnetic flux within the motor structure.  There in lies the mojo!   

 

What does the dust cap do? (Tonespotter/Private Jack) 

 

Differences in size, shape, weight and the material of the dust cap significantly affect the top end.  A small, conical type cap may give you a little more sizzle on top.  A felt material may give you a smoother top end.  Eminence often uses a Zurette or porous material that minimizes coloration of the tone. 

 

How are efficiency and magnet related? (Private Jack/Wizard or Black Powder/Swamp Thang) 

 

Bigger magnets lend more efficiency, which translates to more output at a given power. 

 

What are voice coil formers? (differences between paper, Nomex, polyimide film/Kapton) 

 

Eminence uses 3 types of former material in our guitar speaker series; paper, Nomex and polyimide film.  Each material lends a subtle, but noticeable and effective difference in overall warmth. Paper formers are the warmest and polyimide formers are the brightest.  Each material will also result in a different level of power handling capability; polyimide handling the most, and paper handling the least. 

 

For questions:  Contact Loudspeakers Plus at 847-963-0733

 

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