Size of Speakers

[Roger Haugejorden]

Wished Paul Franklin or Reese or other greats that have pineered the making and sound that the instument provides would chime in. Really they have played more venues and have had more studio time than probably most of us have ever dreamed of.
Roger

[Roger Haugejorden]

Please excuse my spelling. Some things do as well in small packages. Such as a iPad, however, typing on them is far from the best. The greats must be laughing at my previous post, but, to me they are the one's pushing the sound out, that most people enjoy. Paul likely has as many guitars as amps and most likely uses them to what ever flavour that is required for his gigs. Just some thoughts, please don't take what I have to say seriously as I am but a minnow in the pond.

Roger

[Roger Francis]

From what ive read Paul has been using 12in speakers for years, on stage and in the studio, he has killer tone, MPO

[Dave Grafe]

You're a good egg Georg, and it's a rare moment that I disagree with you. My apologies to our true OP, Fred, for the distraction which obsucured my initial point, which is that moving a large volume of air a small amount will penetrate a complex space better with higher fidelity to the listener than moving a small amount of air a great deal to achieve the same SPL.

Modern 15" speakers with usable frequency response - well-matched to the pedal steel guitar - from below 50Hz to above 6KHz (equal to any high-power 12" speakers or 12AX7 tube amps), ultra-low distortion and 103+dB (1w@1m) sensitivity will get the job done for most of us better than anything else available to the common man, thus the prevailing choice. I like 12" speakers too if there's more than one...

[b0b]

I use two 12" speakers in open back cabinets. I can get all of frequencies I like to hear by adjusting the tone controls on my amp to suit the venue. A single 15" speaker is a little trickier to get sounding right, in my opinion, but it obviously can be done.

[Gary Meixner]

I ran a small cabinet shop for many years and was hired to build all kinds of speaker enclosures. I knew very little about the physics associated with the designs and built each according to my customers specifications. One point that always stuck with me was the "speaker" is realy the combination of the driver and its enclosure. Most of the speaker arrangments I see used by steel guitarist tend to be front loaded, 15" drivers housed in an open back cabinet. Is this realy the best way to get the clarity and fidelity that steel guitarists seek? Couldn't a more advanced cabinet design, with the right speaker produce equal if not better results, and allow the use of smaller, more light weight components. This is an honest question and I am not advocating any one particular approach.

Gary Meixner

[tom anderson]

I have three I use, all are tube amps. Listed in order with favorite first, but I love all three. Fender bassman :4-10" speakers (brumley like sound), Risson with a single jbl 12" (al Perkins rig), fox vintage with single 15". All are loud enough and project great.,but I like the smaller speakers.

[Dave Grafe]

Great sound at low volumes is a fine thing, but regardless of the sound you are after you still need to move enough air to get it out to the listeners.

If this means competing with a 22" bass drum, a 14" snare drum, several 11" - 18" cymbals, a 15" bass amp speaker and who knows what other noise sources on stage, smaller speakers are simply not going to get the job done unless you have a lot of them.

Bear in mind that four 10" speakers in the common square pattern move more air than a single 15" or two 12" speakers would do in the same size cabinet. The eight 10" speakers in an SVT bass cabinet are arranged so that there is actually MORE radiating surface than if there had been two 15" speakers in the same box, it's not the speaker size but the total radiating surface that delivers SPL at reasonably high fidelity.

[Peter Harris]

...exactly why I love my '59 Bassman!

[Gary Cosden]

I am a fan of the 4 x 10 configuration myself. Ken Fox mentioned in another thread that Jim Evans was using and loving a 4 x 8 cabinet which intrigues me.

[Kevin Hatton]

I'll take a Webb.