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So, I decided that building a guitar isolation cabinet would cost too much money and I would probably end up sawing my arm off or something, so I decided to invest in a nice, low wattage speaker: http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Weber-Signature-Series-Ceramic-12S-25-Watt-12-Speaker-?sku=660020. Cheap as dirt. The thing that concerns me the most is that I don't know how pristine my cleans will be with my 100 watt 3 head on 10, but I'm sure using good playing technique will help. I'll post my review of how good $35 sounds once it arrives and I have a bit of time to try it out.

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RemyRAD Thu, 01/29/2009 - 01:00

Dan, I think you're making a big mistake? You don't want a big speaker that's rated that low in power handling capabilities. You're going to kill it, quickly. What you want is a 4 inch speaker capable of handling 100 Watts. Any of those original Bose speakers, torn out of that stupid Pentagon shaped box, will do. Or an old Auratone Speaker cube. Little Speaker = Little sound. Big Speaker = big sound. Power handling is a function of design, not size. I'm a girl so I should know.

Size matters
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Thu, 01/29/2009 - 13:44

Dan, I think you're making a big mistake? You don't want a big speaker that's rated that low in power handling capabilities. You're going to kill it, quickly.

Only if I run bass and subs through it, which I won't. I turn the bass off on my amp, and I run an active EQ in my effects loop with the subs all the way down and the lows attenuated (in addition to turning the lows all the way down on my amp). I don't need a high pass even when I put the mics 1" from the speaker. I'm sort of doubting the speaker is going to blow, but I suppose it could happen.

What you want is a 4 inch speaker capable of handling 100 Watts.

While I'm sure I could get a decent sound from a 4" speaker, I'm somewhat skeptical as to how "big" I could get a 4" speaker to sound. Don't small speakers sound like small speakers? I've been doing edrums long enough to realize that (at least with drums) speaker size does matter. 10" and 12" subs and speakers just are not going to deliver that big, slugging "oomph" very well at all. 15" subs and speakers do alright, but there's no replacement for an 18" speaker, and not just because of the natural frequency response, but the lag in response time. There's even a difference between 10" and 12" speakers when it comes to moving the air. And can a 4" speaker really move the air? I've played on a lot of guitar combos when I worked as a salesperson at a music store, and 8" speakers just sound wimpy compared to 12" speakers; I just don't know how 4" speakers would really sound if 8" speakers sounded wimpy. I guess maybe I'd like to hear some examples of good guitar tone recorded with 4" speakers?

moonbaby Thu, 01/29/2009 - 14:53

FWIW. I remember a while back reading an article on guitar amp mic'ing, probably in MIX. It had a part in it referencing the lead guitarist for Melissa Etheriodge, and how he used a 100-watt Marshall pumping into a little cab with a couple of 5" speakers. This let him crank the amp HARD without generating as much SPL as a 4x12" would have done, resulting in a more harmonically dense sound.
Personally, I like the sound of a small 1x10" or 1x12" cab bein' pounded..to each his own...

BTW: Keep in mind that if you end up using this Weber with a ceramic magnet, that as the speaker heats up, the tone may get "looser" and less "focused". Ceramics tend to do that.