18-inch study worth it?

[Baltar]

worth a cab-experiment?

today i took my dusty kappa-18 from the cupboard and i was in
tune to try out some silly things. i bought it from a sale some time
ago and then recognized, that it would need too huge cabs for my
bass applications.
however, i layed the old eminenence into a box, connected it to my
valve junior and picked up my tele. the result was very interesting.
theoretically i knew, that the speaker lacks on treble. but it isn't
recognizeable on the high e-string at 7/9 fret or higher.

the speaker sounds incredible warm, round -deep sounding, interesting
for bluesy leads ond single notes. .. and also chimy when playing full
chords. it's not an efficieny killer with 97dB 1W/1m, but it does the
work. when i crank up the valve junior, i can really feel the chords,
like if you played a 212 cab in the bathroom :laugh2:

however, i think about building a nice 3/4back-118-cab with it -
it wouldn't be a versatile project but interesting for eg blues
and acoustics amplification i think.

your opinion? ever anyone played guitar on an 18inch spkr? :eek13:

cheers
Martin

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

This place that used to have open blues jams had a house amp that was an old silvertone tube amp with a 15in jensen in it. That amp had the best natural blues sound I have heard. The large speaker in combo with a low wattage tube amp rolled of the highs and it had a nice throaty sound.

 

[Baltar]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

sounds like what i want ...

any more opinions?

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

I say go for it.

 

[Baltar]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

cheers, that's what i wanted to hear
when this is done i think i also have to build me a gear page

 

[Kivitel]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

It is exactly these experiments that lead to interesting new tones. Put an eq before it to adjust to your taste. Think about it - the speaker has a huge affect on tone, and *everybody* seemingly plays and records with 12" medium efficiency guitar speakers. 18" is enormous, it's probably not going to reproduce upper harmonics too well, but the guitar is a low instrument - fundamental notes go from what, 82-600hz? That speaker should crank out some interesting notes.

 

[Baltar]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

cheers,
we will see. i'm gonna build that cab. my only worries were, that even
bass players say, that 15inches are to slow. so what about 18".
however, you guys encouraged me to build that baby.
2bcontinued

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

It's going to be extremely slow. My advice would be for guitar, not to put too much lows through it. The lows will cause it to flap back and forth with a lot of energy, thus slowing it down even more. You might like it a lot, I just see it sounding tubby and amateurish. And I play with 15's in my rig, so I'm not against the larger speakers. I think you'd need to play it almost like a crossover. You wouldn't USE a crossover, but you'd want a 2x10 with it IMO to supply the note clarity and attack. I wouldn't think an 18" by itself would be good for chording. I think a full range guitar chord would mush out. I could definitely see it in tandem with a 10 or 12 cab though. You could even not-so-close mic the smaller speaker with a condenser, and let the 18" growl bleed into that mic, not even micing the 18.

 

[StrangeSound]

Re: 18-inch study worth it?

Marty McFly tried that already :laugh2: