Car speakers used in guitar cab?

[stanfield]

My grandpa gave me a pair of Alpine 3-way speakers that he used to have in one of his cars. 30w, 4ohm each. I'm thinking about building a small cab with them - any reason why I wouldn't want to try this out?

 

Anyone have experience in using car speakers for guitar use? I read that Derek Trucks uses a car speaker his Dad & tech bought when they were in a jam.

[dmk]

that sounds pretty ghetto to me.

[Ron Burgandy]

Prepare for the sizzle

[tommythelurker]

I did a little googling and it sounds like Trucks is using a subwoofer which will roll off the highs and probably isn't a whole heck of a lot different than a guitar speaker. Alpine 3-way is going to be full range, will likely sound like ass and possibly even blow fairly easily (unless you're talking about a modeling amp).

[Mistersuperfly]

Try it I always wondered...

[duncan]

 

if Volkswagen can do it, why can't you?

 

do it, and report back with how terrible it sounds.

[trailsofsin]

I'm pretty sure that the tweeters in a 3-way will not create any desireable sounds - guitar speakers don't put our frequencies that high for a reason.

Having said that, I used some car speakers that were just straight up woofers in a cab once to play my V-amp through (they were the closest thing to full-range speakers I had lying around) and I was surprised that they sounded pretty cool. Not "good" per se, but for teh br00talz they definitely added a strange grating character that produced a failry evil sound. As I recall they were 8W speakers.

[bob sakamano]

i dont see why they would sound bad at all. afterall, they reproduce recorded guitar just fine, in addition to the drums, bass, etc. in a mix. the only concern would be how you are driving them, ie, their wattage handling and what your amp is hitting them with. lots of car speakers can handle fairly high rms wattage, so i would necessarily worry about blowing them at low to medium volumes. go for it, man.

[butterknucket]

Dereck Trucks uses cheap car speakers in his Super Reverb

[TheAmazingBlob]

Assuming they're full-range, I would definitely not recommend it. I tried my amp through a full-range PA cab once and it sounded like SHIT. All harsh sizzle, no body at all.

 

i dont see why they would sound bad at all. afterall, they reproduce recorded guitar just fine, in addition to the drums, bass, etc. in a mix. the only concern would be how you are driving them, ie, their wattage handling and what your amp is hitting them with. lots of car speakers can handle fairly high rms wattage, so i would necessarily worry about blowing them at low to medium volumes. go for it, man.

Yes, they REPRODUCE good tone just fine, but they don't create it initially

 

 

In any case, you might as well give it a spin

[Kowalski]

 

Dereck Trucks uses cheap car speakers in his Super Reverb

 

 

I think they're called "pile drivers" or something of taht nature:o

[butterknucket]

 

I think they're called "pile drivers" or something of taht nature:o

 

 

 

That's what they're called!

 

Apparently he blew a speaker before a gig on a Sunday afternoon and that's all he could get.

 

He turned to like them and ended up changing all the speakers in his amp to them.

[TomCTC]

No and no

[Cap'n Ahole]

 

My grandpa gave me a pair of Alpine 3-way speakers that he used to have in one of his cars. Anyone have experience in using car speakers for guitar use? I read that Derek Trucks uses a car speaker his Dad & tech bought when they were in a jam.

 

anything full range is gonna sound like {censored}.

 

If u had some crappy ones with NO tweeters that sound strange with music, they MIGHT have a better chance.

[mc5nrg]

Another vote for they will sound bad and then they will blow.

 

Regarding the DT speakers:

Its Pyle and they also sold replacement speakers intended for musical instrument use.

[stanfield]

Well, for anyone wondering, they did sound like ass.

I wired them up, sat them in a cardboard box and gave it a go. Really horrible sound, far worse than I suspected. But, now I know first hand.

 

Trucks uses a sub does he? That's pretty interesting, something worth looking into. He's got a great sound going on.

[Cap'n Ahole]

a sub aint gonna get ya any nice sounds either.

 

Try this:

Take a guitar speaker, run CD audio thru it. (not thru a guitar amp but full range audio amp) Thats what youd be looking for in a car audio speaker. Sounds like crap full range. And a sub is too much about low frequency.