Very nice here, even Pink’s Mother would have appreciated the apparent phsycological safety, ignoring all the current realities “out there” beyond the Wall. But, maybe next time I escape, I should take along some of those little pills they feed me. Something to do with OCD they say, whatever that is.
This thread will deterioate into informed speaker choices in the relevant section, but the background can be handled here. It will be a pseudo-scientific, self-serving babble about frequencies, harmonics, speaker response curves and equalizer tests, all easily debunked by the reality that all of the best science never sounds lekker to our ears when plugged in. But I needed to know.
I have been playing exclusively in a small box of about 4 x 5 x 3.5 meters, filled with flat-fronted furniture to break most of the wall surfaces, with only the bed and narrow run of curtains as “soft” surfaces. I play with the amp close at hand, spaced less than a meter from the rear wall, facing towards where the thousands of enthusiastic fans would be screaming support. Alas, even in my imagination, they run screaming, with hands clasped over their ears, from the building. With the amp facing “away” I obviously cannot get the best sound effect, but that is the reality of my physical situation. Cabinet with long speaker leads coming up.
Many moons ago I decided to buy a 40 Watt valve amp, thinking that the current 15 Watt transistor amp is slightly not enough. Should have bought a 15 Watt valve amp. Which I did, recently, using the big amp’s 12 inch driver as a cabinet. Which does not allow me to “tame” all my guitars. I have either too sharp treble or muddled sounds or too much bass and midrange boost sustain (yeah, that is electric guitar for you), and cannot get away from shrill, ear-piercing trebles at volume, even with humbuckers. Traditional bedroom playing might be about “soft”, but really, some volume is required to make the right sounds, yes?
My old amp is a small, cheap, eight inch speaker combination, and after adding some more back panel to it, it does OK. Merely OK. I can get most of my not-the-same guitars to sound almost OK with it. Maybe need to open the back a bit more. Everybody says Valves is where it is at, and bigger speakers sing better. I went that way. But, I cannot get the sound. I have come to suspect that speaker size has a big influence on the perceived sound quality in my rather cramped room.
The internet is filled with “fit this pickup” “add that tone mod” “vary that cap on the cathode resistor” and “raise your pickup and lower the pole pieces”. It seems there is a small group out there that would recommend changing your amp/speaker before buying “better” (more, and yet more?) pickups.
To experiment with what I have, I connected the small valve amp to the small speaker of the small solid state, and, yes, it makes a huge difference. Who would have guessed? It lacks a bit of imagination with the pointy monster, but works a treat with the Strat-alike single coiled guitar. I already bought speakers for upgrading the small bedroom amp, cabinet-izing the new valve amp, and for to a new amp yet-to-be-built project, after going through the price/spec/sensitivity/size/frequency response options. Realizing that all the internet hype about bigger speakers might not have been aimed towards my situation, now what?
(No replies about auditioning all the options at the store, a) I cannot physically do so b) The store is not my normal playing box c) The store will not have all the options I would like to test.)
I also realise that speakers on their own does not do it, they have to be paired with the “right” amp, amplifying the “right” guitar with the “right” pickups set just so, with the “right” pots and caps, and strings, and practised fingers and playing style and string attack, and so forth. And they need to be in the (dramatic music here) right cabinet. Of which nobody can tell you what is correct. Open back, closed, ported, vented, stuffed, tilted, raised, tuned, 4 x X” and 2 x Y” and more opinions about dimensions that string choices. I will try a semi-closed open back system first, easy to vary open area. Easy to test the effect of damping material on the inside. I am not going to dig into exploring the tonal characteristics of various types of cheap wood. Or the effect of the cabinet finish/colour on the mid-trebles. I started cutting wood for the first cabinet today.
