I am almost finished with the modded cab and I still have two speakers left to replace. Right now she is loaded with two ****ty eminence crate speakers. (Sorry ... I think that may be the only time you can say ****ty and eminence in the same sentence.) The crate speakers are eminence made but sound like crap! The other two speakers in her are 2 Celestion G12T-75s. The cab will be 16ohm for what little that is worth.

Okay I am thinking about a few different pairs and even some mismatched pairs.
The G12t-75s are in it for good right now.
The other two I am thinking the follow:
The Wizard
The Tonker
Texas Heat
Legend ?
Classic Lead
Modern Lead
Vintage 30
One of the greenbacks


Okay I am also have thought about mixing them up a bit like this
1. The Wizard
2. The Tonker
3. G12T-75
4. G12T-75

The combinations like that are almost endless but that is an example.

So my first question is ... would it really be worth trying this? Will I notice a difference? Do I run the risk of blowing the lower wattage speaker?
I would like to try something in the ballpark of the 2 75's, 1 Vintage 30, and 1 low wattage greenback.
Maybe I am just hearing things in head a little funny.
I know greenback break up really early and I am affraid that I might lose the potential of the 75's. I have heard the lower wattage Vintage 30's over power (sound wise) the 75s because the 75's require more wattage than the V30s to become driven.
I am not a huge fan of two V30s and two 75's. But I like some of what I hear in them so I figure one might work if teamed with another speaker and then the 75's.

Let me know what you think.

The main questions would be:
Will this work?
Do you have any suggestions for speakers?


This will be a metal style cabinet for a little lead and rhythm.
The heads used will be VTM120, 5150, Ampeg SS 140C, Peavey XXX for now.
Multiple guitars.

I'd generally not recommend mixing speakers of wildly different specs in a cab. Also, you cannot mix speakers of different impedance without modifying the wiring, and even then, they'd be running at unequal volumes.

Basically, if you had four 16 ohm speakers, each one rated for around 35 watts RMS, you'd be ok. Four 16 ohm speakers rated for 25, 25, 75, and 50 will sound acceptable, but always lacking something. Four speakers of uneven impedance is never a good idea.

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Autistic Savant

Yeah, watch out for wildly varying wattages, and be careful about impedance.

That said, though...mixing and matching speakers sounds ****ing awesome. I have a 2x12 that has an Eminence Swamp Thang and an Eminence V12, and it definitely sounds much better/bigger/thicker/clearer/other buzz words as a result. I play metal; the Swamp Thang has a fantastic, prominent, cutting midrange and a very articulate sound, while the Legend has a sort of dry, almost sterile "modern" sound with a decent bit of low end, very smooth highs, and a kind of spongey response. Put them together, and you get all those qualities in one cab.

Do some research and experimenting; Eminence has a tone chart on its website that gives you a pretty good idea of what their different speakers sounds like. Just don't pay any attention to the "good for ____ genre" parts of the description. And don't worry too much about matching watts; you probably won't want to have, say, a 60-watt speaker paired with a 120-watt speaker, but I'd guess that a 75-watter together with a 100-watter would be fine.

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Very old stage rig

Mourn not the dead
that in the cool earth lie...
But rather mourn the apathetic throng
the cowed and the meek
Who see the world's great anguish
and its wrong and dare not speak.
- Ralph Chaplin

"All good people are asleep and dreaming..."

I'm doing the same with a Eminence Black Powder (articulate/cutting) and a V30 (spongey mid range).

My other cab is 2xGreenbacks and 2xTone Tubby ceramic 40/40. Actually the Greenbacks might be Eminence Private Jacks (I forget).
http://www.tonetubby.com/

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Home Thread

Fat Strat into a Soldano, always.

I am not planning on anything too drastic really. But I do have 2 G12T-75's and I need two more speakers for replacing factory crate speakers. I like the wizard mixed with the 75's and I like some of the sounds of the Vintage 30's mixed with them.

I always keep my eye on impedence ... it's the quickest way to kill an amp or speaker.

I was more worried about speakers over powering each other in a half back cab (half sealed-half open back). As soon as I get some replacements I will post my findings.

If you have any more info please post away.

A lot of people laugh when I try new things but I always come out happy with my result. A lot of what people consider normal was thought of as rediculous at some point in time.

Thanks
AFF

My rythym guitarist mixes em and his cabs sound ok,he uses same ohms in all 4. Personally I'm happy with just using my G12-75s since my Marshall 9200 power amp in my rack is rated at 100/100watts,or 200watts total ran in stereo.

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rig thread
gear pics

All speakers have a rating called sensitivity. This is measured in dB SPL, @ 1 watt, 1 meter, usually a 1 kHz sine wave or pink noise, I can't recall.

Either way, here's how to use that info:

Every ten decibels more is double the perceived loudness (phons).
Every ten decibels less is half the loudness.

So, if two speakers have sensitivity ratings of 96 and 99, they're going to sound very close. If they have ratings of 89 and 103, then one will sound more than twice as loud as the next.

Phons are ratings of perceived loudness. Because phons are not even, we must then measure them on a more complex scale, called the Fletcher-Munsen curve. They are equal to 1 dB @ 1 kHz. 100 phons, for example, is 120 dB @ 30 Hz, 100 dB @ 1 kHz, and 86 dB @ 4 kHz. 80 phons is 77 dB @ 500 Hz, 84 dB @ 10 kHz, etc.

You can estimate how loud a speaker will sound with some regularity using this scale and the frequency of the test wave, but don't worry about doing it, however, it's far too complex to worry about. This part of the post is really more for reference, as some may be interested.

__________________
Autistic Savant

Okay I think I may have found the cheap alternative for right now until I can get the exact speakers I want. The Rocket 50's look promising and they seem to have good reviews. They have a mid and high end that sound better and a bit smoother high sizzle. They do have lows which is fine because I have the 75's.
These will do until I get either a classic lead set, wizard set, or tonker set.


While this is on my mind and this post is open... Fender made a cab or cabs back in the day that had 2 speakers in it. The cab was about the size of a 4x12 but with two speakers. I thinking about build a 4x12 with two speakers in an ex patern and leaving the other two holes uncut. So it would be a 2x12 in a 4x12 box. I would look to place higher wattage speakers in the cab. Anybody know of a design like this being done before?

Thanks! I appreciate everyones input!
AFF

There's no reason that shouldn't work. I don't know about what those holes might do acoustically, but I doubt they'll affect things much. I know Randell makes a cab that looks like a 4x12 but has 2 12s and a 15, and I think the 12s in that cab are almost in the same kind of X you'd end up with.
Just make sure you communicate what's going on with your cab to club soundmen.

...but you typed "leave the other two holes uncut"; does that mean you're making your own cab? If you are, you can go with a different design of some kind; I made my 2x12 and physically modeled it after a sort of combination of the standard Marshall 4x12 and an oversize Sunn 2x12 (leaning more towards the Sunn design).

And finally: higher-wattage speakers aren't necessarily that much louder than lower-wattage speakers, but four speakers aren't necessarily that much louder than two either. Wattage mainly affects the speaker's headroom: that is, how much volume you have to put through it before the speaker starts to distort. Personally, I hate speaker distortion and only use (relatively) high-wattage speakers to avoid speaker distortion. I don't find that they sound terribly much louder, but they definitely sound way better (clearer, truer, more consistent, take effects better) to my ears.

__________________
Very old stage rig

Mourn not the dead
that in the cool earth lie...
But rather mourn the apathetic throng
the cowed and the meek
Who see the world's great anguish
and its wrong and dare not speak.
- Ralph Chaplin

"All good people are asleep and dreaming..."

Thank You all!

I purchased a set of Classic Lead 80's today for $100 and that includes the shipping!

I think that has my new "orange" cab handled.

Yeah I have a good friend who is trying to get away from car audio and move into the Pro Audio field. I think he is going to start out making guitar cabs and then PA cabs focusing main on subwoofer cabs.

He will probably have Eminence punch out some speakers but if things go well he will probably invest the money and start building the speakers at his facility.

Anyhow ... the 2x12 in a 4x12 box was one idea. Use 2 speakers sealed, then 2 with ports, and then 2 with passive radiators.
A lot of people get upset when you say you are going to do something different so I figured I would ask kind of lightly. Seriously they are pumping out the same!!! Yes the same!!! cabinets they were making decades ago for 1200-3000 dollars. I get pissed at the name I have to pay for.

Back to the point. Thank you all for good input. As things move along I will let you know. As far as mixing speakers more than 2 pair per cab ... that now might be a long time in the future. If it works or fails I will post that info. Who knows it might sound amazing and the big companies might follow the trend.

Thanks
AFF