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Using a PA speaker with a guitar head


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I have a Peavey guitar head that I also use for bass. I have a small bass cabinet that sounds pretty good with this head for bass, but seems like it's not the best for guitar.

 

I have a chance to pick up two Melhart 12" 2way PA speakers. Is there any problem with using one or both of the PA speakers as a guitar cabinet. I play almost exclusively "clean" sounds with some reverb. I have several guitar combo amps and am thinking of culling the herd some.

 

Any thoughts on my intended use for the PA speakers.

 

Thanks, John

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You're probably not going to get a sound you like out of any PA speaker. Even the worst ones are just too accurate for electric guitar, not to mention the extra highs you'll get from the horns, which aren't reproduced by a normal electric guitar amplifier. Electric guitar speakers are voiced specifically to reproduce guitar sounds with a pleasing tone, PA speakers are voiced to reproduce a wide frequency range accurately, without adding their own voice to the overall sound. Granted, that's a lofty goal for PA speaker manufacturers, and it's pretty impossible, but that's what they go for. Guitar speakers just try to make a guitar sound good, which they do. Acoustic guitar amplifiers, on the other hand, are much more like PA speakers, which has to do with the wider harmonic frequency range of acoustic guitars, and these amplifiers are intended to amplify the acoustic guitar as accurately as possible. Same with a bass amp. Acoustic guitars sound pretty good through most bass amps, and direct to the PA, but not through an electric guitar amp. An electric guitar will not sound good through anything but an electric guitar amplifier, unless you have some sort of weird DI for it or something, but stuff like that's just silly. Half of the sound of an electric guitar comes from the guitar, and the other half comes from the amp and speakers (figuratively speaking).

 

What's so wrong with your combo amps that you're considering throwing something like this together?

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I doubt that you'd damage the subs, but I also doubt that subs would sound at all good with a guitar. There's a reason guitar cabs don't have 18" inch speakers in them. You may get a good result with a bass, but most bass players like the punch of 10's, and only use larger woofers when combined with 10's or something of similar size. But in general, you'd have better luck with a bass than an electric guitar through any PA speaker. But I wouldn't recommend horn loaded subs for this application, only front loaded, if you were going to do that (for whatever reason).

 

As far as underpowering, damage only occurs with underpowering when you crank the amp into clipping, which fries the speakers. I doubt that you'd be turning a bass or guitar amp up that high, but that's what would happen if you did push it that far.

 

And if you've got subs, why not use them as subs? It seems silly to use a speaker that is made for a specific purpose for something it's not at all intended for.

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The subs I have I'll use for subs. I just always wanted to hook one up to my amp to see what would happen in the name of science. Havent done it yet -'cause I thought it might be bad for 'em -I don't plan on actually using them for anything other than subs. I'm not that sillee:p They are dual 15" subs. And earlier on I tested them through my bass amp -but direct through my mixer and the RMX1450HD. My bass amp is basically a 35 watt practice amp -there was no definition, but there sure was ALOT -I mean A HELL OF ALOT of bass:cool: ! I needed to see if they worked and for now I only have one amp -I thought it was a good way to see.

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...And another thing now that you mention clipping and underpowering. When I am singing through my PA -mains only- I have to turn the amp up very near all the way to get a clear projection over the drums and bass... the amp doent show clipping -and it doesnt sound like it is clipping when I push my voice (but I also sing rough -kinda like James Hetfield -so that could be hiding it some). I hear it is best to have your amp up about 3/4 to max or a little more -I am pushing it like 9/10ths with the mixer volumes up pretty high (not max) and the gain up just a bit but not enough to distort. I have an RMX1450... does it sound like I could be having a problem here or am I okay:confused:

 

Now that I think about it -I have only used them for practice so far -and I place them in the back behind and to the sides of the drummer so everyone can hear what I'm doing. In a show theyd be in front of the band... so I may have alot more room than I thought. However, I still want to know if I may have been doing a no no.

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Originally posted by One_Dude

I have a Peavey guitar head that I also use for bass. I have a small bass cabinet that sounds pretty good with this head for bass, but seems like it's not the best for guitar.


I have a chance to pick up two Melhart 12" 2way PA speakers. Is there any problem with using one or both of the PA speakers as a guitar cabinet. I play almost exclusively "clean" sounds with some reverb. I have several guitar combo amps and am thinking of culling the herd some.


Any thoughts on my intended use for the PA speakers.


Thanks, John

There is a local jazz band in my area where the guitarist and bassist both use a Mackie 1530 powered speaker for their rigs. The guitarist uses a line-6 pod straight into the Mackie and the bassist uses an Aguilar DB-659 straight into the Mackie. I don't know how practical that is, but they always have a really good sound.

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The reason I'm trying to get away from my combo guitar amps is the weight factor. I have large and small combo amps (both bass and guitar) and my experience has been that the small ones are easy to take to and from the job, but are meant to be practice amps and don't have the sound I want when performing. The large combo amps have the sound I want but they weigh a ton and are more difficult to move. That's probably not a problem when you're in your twenty's, but I am well past that age and I have no help moving my equipment. If there is more than a couple of days between jobs my equipment has to go to my music room in the basement.

 

The bottom line is; it seems that by using a separate amp head and speaker cabinet I can break the weight into smaller increments. I should also mention that affordability is a concern. I suspect there are dynamite combo amps out there that fit my requirements but I can't justify their cost.

 

Thanks for your input,

 

John

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Originally posted by One_Dude

The reason I'm trying to get away from my combo guitar amps is the weight factor. I have large and small combo amps (both bass and guitar) and my experience has been that the small ones are easy to take to and from the job, but are meant to be practice amps and don't have the sound I want when performing. The large combo amps have the sound I want but they weigh a ton and are more difficult to move. That's probably not a problem when you're in your twenty's, but I am well past that age and I have no help moving my equipment. If there is more than a couple of days between jobs my equipment has to go to my music room in the basement.


The bottom line is; it seems that by using a separate amp head and speaker cabinet I can break the weight into smaller increments. I should also mention that affordability is a concern. I suspect there are dynamite combo amps out there that fit my requirements but I can't justify their cost.


Thanks for your input,


John

If you already have a head, look at the Genz Benz G-Flex 212. My rock band guitarist has two of them and they ROCK!!!!!!!!

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I decided to pass on the Melhart PA speakers; upon close inspection it appeared that the speakers were not the originals to the cabinet. I found some old Traynor PA speakers that looked like they had not been altered. The Traynor speaker sounds pretty good with my Peavey guitar head. I also have a Fender Bassman head (Silverface, with bass and normal inputs) and when playing a guitar through the "normal" input the Traynor speaker doesn't sound nearly as good. Perhaps the Fender head sends frequencies to the speaker that the Peavey does not. Also, the Peavey has more tonal control. The Fender head sounds great when used with a bass cabinet.

 

John

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