ToneKing Falcon 10" Speaker Upgrade

[burton4snow]

I got a ToneKing Falcon and really dug it at first but the more I play through it the more I feel there could be better top end. The speaker (Eminence Rajin Cajun) seems real bassy to me. It has a great tweed sound and I want to stay with a speaker that is going to bring that out of it. Any Suggestions?

[burton4snow]

I think it is between the Jensen P10Q and the Weber Blue Pup. There about $8 difference. Help me break the tie!

[WRGKMC]

Your issue may not be the speaker. It could be anything from strings to pickups, pedals, or the amps tone stack which simply doesn't put out the tones you want. I mention this because the Cajun already has a huge treble peak as you can see by its frequency response curve. .

 

 

A common problem which puts a blanket over the treble response is using hot wound guitar pickups. If your guitar has hot wound Humbuckers over 8K for example, you can get a high frequency response increase using a guitar with vintage wound pickups. Of course if you're using a strat with single coils then maybe it is the speakers a poor match for the amp.

 

I'd check its frequency response chart to other speakers. For example a Read Coat is designed to give you a brighter British tone. The bass end drop off is a bit more drastic and the highs are extended.

 

 

 

Something like this isn't going to fix a problem caused by having hot wound pickups which sacrifice frequency response to get a louder output. Nor will it fix an amp that simply doesn't put out enough treble. You want to isolate the cause of the bass boost/treble deficiency. Throwing speakers at it can be expensive if you aren't 100% sure its going to fix the problem.

 

Before I went and swapped the speaker I'd try different tubes first. See what's in there and I might be able to give you some suggestions. For example, Replacing JJ 12XA7 tubes with Electro Harmonix can make a huge difference in an amps brightness and tightness. Its inexpensive to try and its not like the tubes will go to waste. Even if they don't make enough difference, combo's eat up tubes by vibrating them to death. You can simply put them aside and use them in 6 months to a year when the stock tubes are shot. Power tubes can make a difference too, especially on the low end. Some have better mida then others, some produce fatter bottoms. Chinese tubes are commonly thinner sounding.

 

 

If tubes don't do it then I'd take the amp down to a music store and try it out through some other cabs using your guitar, then try out the amp as is with other guitars. You may even find a particular cab sound great and find out what speakers it uses. Same for trying guitars. This way you get the fix in one shot instead of going from the frying pan to the fire or to just another frying pan with no improvement. In my example here both speakers should sound great with the right head. Of course both are high wattage speakers too.

 

 

[DeepEnd]

As WRGKMC mentioned, the Ragin Cajun has a fairly pronounced high end. If you have issues with it sounding "bassy," you'll need to go for something with less bass because there are few speakers with more highs. One thing to look at is the resonance frequency. Speakers generally roll off below that. The Ragin Cajun has a resonance frequency of 84Hz so you'd need something with a higher resonance. The Eminence Lil' Buddy, for example, has a resonance of 149Hz and a whole lot less bass than the Ragin Cajun. The P10Q has a resonance frequency of 88Hz so you're not losing a whole lot of bass and Weber doesn't publish specs so they're a crap shoot IMHO. OTOH, the P10R has a resonance frequency of 130Hz and its 25 Watt RMS power rating would handle your 12 Watt amp with no problems. Unfortunately, you'd also lose 5dB of sensitivity, which will effectively turn your Falcon into a 4 Watt amp so it's not a simple proposition. It would help if your Falcon had more than a single tone control. Have you tried the "voicing" switch to see if it helps?