Turtlerock Forum

So I bought this mahogany writing desk off Trade Me planing to use it as the cabinet for some guitar speakers, 'cuase it kinda looks like a slant top 4x12. And I realized I know very little about guitar speakers.

Firstly whats the deal with the wattage rating, whats good for a hundy watt amp?

I have a 100W mesa heartbreaker( 6l6's) Its not a particularly loud hundy, and have been using it with a 2x12 closed back cab with celestion g12m 70's in it .
I would say this speaker is a little raw sounding with a tad too much bottom end and not as much 'je ne sais quoi' to it as I would like, at least with this cab/amp combo.
Changing the volume of the cabinet should effect this right?

For the desk, which will only fit 2x12, I thought I would fit the speakers then adjust the back board in and out till it sound right. I this the best way?
Anyway i'll try it with these speakers first and see how it goes.

Cab design is something of a black art, and like everything to do with speakers involves compromise - the benefit of DIY is that you get to choose what compromises are made.

Start out with something like
http://www.ishtek.com/spkrs.htm

Of course, you can always just shove the thing in a box. It will still play. But magic happens by design.

I think i'll just go the 'shove the thing in a box route'. Ha. YOU try finding the thiel-smalls for those speakers!

Hey Scott

Hee hee. Sorry 'bout that. I couldn't resist.

[quote]Firstly whats the deal with the wattage rating, whats good for a hundy watt amp?
[/quote]

Your amp should have a higher wattage than your speakers, so that it doesn't overload and send your speakers a clipped square wave which will melt them in a spectacular fashion. But not too much more, so that you can actually use most of the gain in the amp for better signal to noise. But it does also depend on how your have the speakers wired, impedances and so forth.

[quote]For the desk, which will only fit 2x12, I thought I would fit the speakers then adjust the back board in and out till it sound right. I this the best way? [/quote]

Suck it and see is my view. If my mental picture of what you are attempting is correct, my only concern is that you won't get enough volume in the cab even with the back board as far as it will go, but it should look nice whatever.

Being a guitar player, I'll have a chime in..
I have a 50 Boogie power amp (I'm a rack guy!!) which I have a CAA 3+ preamp and a few rack FX, mixer, etc..
I use 2 1x12 cabs in stereo (or dual mono, depending what's called for)
Desirably, you should use the following..
e.g with a 100W head;
1x12 - 100W speaker (or greater)
2x12 - 2 x 50W speakers (or greater)
4x12 - 4 x25W (or greater)
Remembering that most valve amps will put out more then their rated power..

I used Celestion G12H100's in both my cabs - I don't like alot of speaker breakup, especially on clean stuff, so I prefer to use a higher rated speaker to prevent the breakup.
Some guys prefer the speaker to breakup as it adds to the tones generated by the amp and cab overall.
As to speaker breakup and melting, see Rick's comments in a recent thread in reference to a sessionguy who changed 11 (or so) speakers :)
Tim..

[quote="chris p"]Hey Scott

....Your amp should have a higher wattage than your speakers, so that it doesn't overload and send your speakers a clipped square wave which will melt them in a spectacular fashion. ....

[/qoute]


With transistor amps I totally agree with you, but we are talking about a 100w valve amp here. Valve amps have enormous headroom!

Stuart.

Cris I think your right, won't be enough volume for 2x12. My Hiwatt has a G12h100 in it may try that. I'm just playing around untill the lease gets signed on my news space. 14 x 6 x 3.6. And thanks Tim those rules of thumbs are exactly what I wanted!