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Speaker Enclosure

Started by lapsteelman, March 24, 2012, 04:25:07 PM

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lapsteelman

I am wondering if anyone has use car style speaker enclosures with guitar speakers?

Such as these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1SL10-1-4-New-MDF-10-Single-Slot-Sealed-Sub-Woofer-Car-Enclosure-Speaker-Box-/120881267957?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2515c4f5

What effect does the closed back have on the sound?

Lap steel player, Electronic maker.

J M Fahey

It's a box, like any other box.
If price suits you ....
Kinda small, and you will need also a metal grid or something to protect your speaker.
It will sonud, well, .... boxy.
Maybe you can buy some cut to size MDF locally and build your own for very low cost ... and with the dimensions you want.
But it's your choice, of course.
What speaker do you want to fit there?

mexicanyella

#2
And you're a lap steel player, you say? I'd like to hear more about that, too. I love lap steel, and would like to hear what kind of stuff you play, what tunings you like, etc.

(I've got an old off-brand steel called a Roy Bert that I keep in Dobro G.)

I've never tried a guitar speaker in a automotive speaker enclosure, but I have played through a little Yamaha 1 x 10" wedge monitor once or twice with my old rack preamp/power amp setup I had for awhile. I liked the size and "angleability" of that shape, but the tone from the 10" PA speaker and little horn was pretty full-range and fizzy, as you might expect. For dedicated guitar use, I think it might have been pretty cool with a guitar-specific 10 in there and with the horn removed, leaving a reflex port instead. I'd have tried that but it belonged to a bandmate who was not receptive to ideas like that.

lapsteelman

I have a few lap steels. My favorites are Magnatones. I have a couple of Oahus too. I personally love to play in C6th tuning, but when I play out it's all Open E because it works better for the kind of stuff I'm ask to play. (mostly 80's and 90's radio rock). Not much call for Hawaiian music here in MI.
I  would probably go with a Jensen Mod "10 for a speaker because they are reasonably priced and I like the sound of the 8" one I have.
I love playing around with Audio amp IC's, and for C6th tuning you don't want much, if any distortion.  So it works out good. The ones I have played with ( TDA2002, LM1875, TDA7240) didn't even need a preamp, although some tone shaping other than just the tone pot on the steel may have changed that.
Heres a video clip of me playing steel. This is a Rickenbacker I used to have, I was demoing an overdrive I made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2mI88xyXSo&list

I am trying to avoid woodworking and I am also trying to be cheap. :)
Lap steel player, Electronic maker.

mexicanyella

#4
Cool! I used to have a low-end Morrell steel that looked like the same shape as what you have, but with only a volume knob and a strat-type pickup. Must have based it pretty closely on that design. Yours sounds better in that vid than the Morrell ever did with me playing it. Your technique sounds more precise than mine, too...

Yeah, I tried to learn C6th when I got my first steel, using the DeWitt Scott method book (I'm near St. Louis, home of Scotty's Music) and it sure sounds nice if you play clean and have your chops together. I haven't got my chops together enough to get beyond "drunk Hawaiian" sound when I use that tuning, but having the greater range of intervals under the bar will be nice if I ever get it together enough.

In Dobro G, you have to get kind of janky with the bar to do a lot of stuff, but for some reason I've found that easier to process and do than muting the many unwanted strings from sounding in C6th.

My first steel was a Fender, and it was Telecaster-bright. Of course I tried it distorted, and all that brightness and C6th and the distortion was really awful!

Have you ever tried steel through a full-range speaker arrangement? With a clean tone, that might be pretty cool. I can get a sound I like running mine through a Fender Acoustasonic Jr. amp (two 8" speakers and a single tweeter). But I never really go for distortion with the steel.

lapsteelman

I have played my C6th guitars through one of those Fender Acoustasonic amps and it had a real nice sound. Clear as a bell. I have played around with full range speakers on my own builds. It seems to be hit or miss. Some sound decent, others not so much.
I went through Scottys book and CD. It's a good place to start. I also got a Rob Haines C6th video.
I never could do much with Dobro G tuning. In the Arlen Roth video he does some stuff with that tuning. Lots of guys like it. ( For bluegrass it's almost mandatory  :))
Lap steel player, Electronic maker.

erokit

My friend plays a pedal steel through either a Peavey 400, or a Evans. Both have 15" speakers. He and his steel buddies have preferred 15" for a full range sound. Typically an EV?

With the 10" or 8" do you get more of a mid-range honk?

lapsteelman

Quote from: erokit on April 04, 2012, 10:22:50 PM
My friend plays a pedal steel through either a Peavey 400, or a Evans. Both have 15" speakers. He and his steel buddies have preferred 15" for a full range sound. Typically an EV?

With the 10" or 8" do you get more of a mid-range honk?

I think pedal steel players typically have more strings in the low registers and need the extra low end. I just play 6 string C6th. My lowest string in that tuning is only a .36 or .38 tuned to C.  I am going for more of an old school Hawaiian sound.  A lot of the old student lap steel and amp sets only came with an 8 inch speaker.
I generaly turn the mids all the way down if the option is available.


Lap steel player, Electronic maker.

mexicanyella

#8
Quote from: erokit on April 04, 2012, 10:22:50 PM
My friend plays a pedal steel through either a Peavey 400, or a Evans. Both have 15" speakers. He and his steel buddies have preferred 15" for a full range sound. Typically an EV?

With the 10" or 8" do you get more of a mid-range honk?

I think so; I tend to like to focus on the upper mids and some highs, since I play with my bare fingers instead of picks and like to accentuate the sliding steel glistening aspect of the sound (rather than the George Thorogood slide guitar beer commercial aspect). My lowest note is equivelent to a guitar's 3rd-fret G, plus the scale length is a lot shorter...not too many snappy lows to reproduce.

The biggest, best, full-range super-detailed lap steel sound I ever got was running my lap steel through my pedal compressor and chorus (just to split the signal, chorus switched off) into a SS red-knob Fender Princeton Chorus (2 x 8? 2 x 10? can't remember...think it was 65 watts stereo) and a Fender BX200 1 x 15 bass combo, together.

I ran through a pedal compressor into the Fender PC and cranked it as loud as I could without it breaking up or getting harsh...clean channel, waaaay up. Then I tried to do the same with the BX200, which required more EQ cuts to get rid of weird lows and lower mids from the 15 and closed cabinet. It wasn't as open/airy as the PC, so I ended up bringing it up until it made a noticeable volume increase without overpowering the PC sound and at that point my little off-brand 1940s lap steel was LOUD and BIG. It was like a lap steel superhero, for a few minutes there. They weren't my amps, but it was fun while it lasted.