The Steel Guitar Forum

This may be a dumb question, but I see alot of talk about the Black Widow speaker. Is it the tone it produces? I have a Fender Steel King with the stock speaker and am real curious if a BW would change the tone for the better, because the stock speaker to me is just ok. Input please?

Back in my metal days, Black Widows speakers were great for accommodating those deep lows without flubbing or farting out at high volume, at no sacrifice to the high end. 25 years later, and I am coming across them again, in the steel guitar community, and I would venture for the same reasons. For high volume, and I mean loud, those black widows were something else. Even though I was using high amounts of gain, fuzz and distortion on top of each other, I did not want the speaker itself to distort , the Black Widow handled all that noise really well.

I can not say "WHY" it is so good, but I have a 15" BW and a Sica 15 Neo (steel frame - the Standard Lite), and I prefer the BW - just a bit more mid and high, seems more balanced to me. The difference is slight, and the BW is a little bit heavier, but since it is in its own cab, it is no problem toting it.

I'd like to compare to the new Telonics some day....

Doug

In my experience with the Steel King ( I owned one and used another one on a long tour ) the speaker is fine. The amp itself is not good sounding to my ear. I don't think switching speakers will help much. If you really like how it sounds already you can fine tune the sound with a different speaker. The BW might be a bit more balanced and warm sounding than the stock speaker which is going for a JBL type sound.

The 1501-4 BW speaker that Peavey used in steel guitar amps was designed to be a high power version of a JBL. Peavey used JBL's in the original Session 400 steel guitar amps and the JBL couldn't handle the power.

Click the link below to see pics of my Black Widow install in a Steel King. You can also hear a recoding of how it sounds. I didn't care for the lack of highs wiht this setup so I swapped it back out a few weeks later.

Peavey Black Widow speaker in a Fender Steel King!

Greg

I don't own a Steel King but I've used the Steel King speaker in other amps. I like it more than a BW, it seems closer to a JBL to me. That being said, I much prefer alnico JBL's over anything else, you just have to be carefull what you hit 'em with. It's all just a matter of taste.

What Jack said. The BW speakers were developed from JBL's D(F) series speakers, the primary difference being a wider voice coil gap, allowing the speaker to be run hotter than the original JBL without damage due to voice coil distortion.

A major difference between JBL/BW and your OEM speaker is the honking big voice coil and large magnet structure, your OEM Fender/Eminence is a cheap toy in comparison...

I've had the luxury of having a Black Widow, a JBL and an EV to compare in a Session 400. I didn't want to believe it, but the Black Widow sounded the best of the three in that amp. That may not be the case in other amps, but I think that Peavey pays great attention to matching speakers to their amps, considering a reasonable cost factor.

i think rather the steel king is just ok. get a good tried and true nash400 or something that really works for steel by peavey....the first company to seriously address the steel community.. of course, it will be cheaper so you won't have that 'i spent a lot' thing to brag about.

Wow, thanks guys for all your input! I'm kinda thinking as a few of you have mentioned, it's probably the amp and not the speaker. I have fooled around with the tone controls for days and I can't find that tone I hear in my head, it's just not tickling my tone funny bone. I run a 2010 Fessy SD10 with a BL710 pickup, it sounds a bit more like a steel if I play it thru my 64 Super Reverb, but I don't get the low end tone with that. Ok, I'm gonna look around for a Peavey, or if I win the lottery, maybe a Walker SS setup!

Try twisting theknobs with a method:
The second post in this thread should help (this isn't my procedure, it was given to me):
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=223731

Lewis Goldsmith wrote:This may be a dumb question, but I see alot of talk about the Black Widow speaker. Is it the tone it produces? I have a Fender Steel King with the stock speaker and am real curious if a BW would change the tone for the better, because the stock speaker to me is just ok. Input please?

No, not IMHO. "Better" would be an EVM or SRO speaker, either of which easily bests a BW, tonewise.

Heavy, though.

(deleted duplicate post)

i've never heard of either of those being used for steel, donny.

the black widow was designed at some point to be effective and strong for steel application. tuff and road worthy like the amps. and affordable.

the nature of gigging is 'get yer stuff in, play with a suitable pleasurable tone, and get out and down the road'. finding a good compromise makes sense.
if your steel is 'too pretty to take out of the house', it's hard to do that.

Peavey did the right thing when they made the bw series
be they for PAs, guitars, steels or whatever
as Jack S wrote : " was designed to be a high power version of a JBL / JBL couldn't handle the power "
the bw has been a mainstay for a few decades so it's no wonder
i know there are other " better & lighter " speakers available now but hell, i like the one i have
w; the lighter neomag in my nashville 1000
perhaps i'm wrong but was'nt the bw for steel discontinued ?

chris ivey wrote:i've never heard of either of those being used for steel, donny.

Consider yourself now informed!
I used them for over 20 years, and actually gave away my JBL's after comparing them to the SRO's. I still have a 15" SRO in my original '66 B/F Twin Reverb, for when I want the classic sounds.

It may be worth mentioning that using the term 'Black Widow ' is probably generalising a bit much. The BW range of speakers do vary quite a bit in the intended usage however as Dave says they have a few things in common (large voice coil and coil gap, hard cones and fairly stiff surround mounts - the flexible ring mounting the outside of the cone) and will take a lot of punishment and are great to repair.
Some BW's are aimed at PA systems, some for Bass amps and a couple for Steel Guitar amps (principally the 150? which has a shallower cone and frame than the rest). My experience with them is they work great at high cone excursion (turned up loud) and are less impressive down quiet - which is exactly as they were designed. They do have good sensitivity specs. which is pretty important to get good speakers.
Re. the EVM - I have used the EVM12L (4 ohm model) for many years for steel and found them to be excellent for steel (Amazing sound and huge clean volume but weigh just under a ton !!!) but you can't buy that model - I had to pilfer them out of old Crate guitar amps - must have been a custom production run just for Crate (if you see an old Crate 160XL grab the speaker out of it).
You probably just have to try various speakers to get the sound you desire - they do vary the sound a lot.
(Edited: the Peavey speaker model - they seem to have slightly different codings now)

The Peavey BW-1501-4 is the best Steel speaker out there ... it can take an enormous amount of power, I have driven a pair of them with a DPC750 stereo power amp for years and played a lot of very loud gigs.

I also have used them in Nashville 400's and NV1000's as well so probably 30 years of use --- never once had a speaker failure or issue with them.
They go even better with a Neo magnet - especially when you have to move them

Jim Priebe wrote: Re. the EVM - I have used the EVM12L (4 ohm model) (...) but you can't buy that model (...)

Jim,

the EVM12L is still available. Do you mean the EV force? Those were the predecessors and are no longer available.

BTW the Eminence Delta Pro 12a is said to be a sound-a-like and a drop-in replacement. I have one and it sounds great for steel. This one too is not a lightweight

Re: JBL. A well known tube amp manufacturer once said that JBL stands for "junk but loud". Not my words.


-helmut

Helmut

the EVM12L is still available. Do you mean the EV force? Those were the predecessors and are no longer available.

I think you will have a very hard time obtaining the 4 ohm model of the EVM12L - the 8 ohm voice coil model is still available. The Eminence you mentioned (I seem to recall) is also only in 8 ohm too. So if you are fussy about correct (single) speaker load that may be an issue. The EV 'Force' model was a totally different speaker which was intended for lower power PA's. I had those in EV bins - much smaller voice coils and magnets.

(Paddy) amen to the neo's - they have allowed my age racked body to keep playing and lugging gear.