15" speaker recommendations?

[FastJunkie]

I'm looking to "expand" my rig I have now by adding and extension cab to my YCV50 Blue. I'm playing a lot of Stoner so I'm tuning down to C standard which it doesn't handle 100%. So I'm looking at getting 15" speaker and making a cab for it.

Recommendations?

[Inazone]

We played with a band whose guitarists use Vader 2x15 cabs, which are advertised as having Eminence speakers. I *think* they are Legends, although I didn't know that those were available in 15s. Regardless, that band was tuning down to B, and sounded very punchy, so a 15" Legend might be the way to go if you can find one.

[toejam]

I've got a Randall 2x12/1x15 cab that actually looks like a 4x12. Both the 12s and the 15 are Eminence Legends, and they sound great! According to Eminence's site, they make 3 different 15" guitar speakers. http://www.eminence.com/guitar.asp?speaker_size=15
If you have trouble finding 15" guitar speakers, then just go for a bass speaker and you'll be fine.

[Rsmacker]

Look for an old Fender Dual Showman cabinet. Fitted with 2 x JBL (Fuck, can't remember the model!!) 15" drivers, it WILL make your trousers flap, but there's enough mid/top for guitar. I never should have sold my old one, it was fucking mental.
The old Trace Elliot 15" bottoms were pretty good too, as I recall, but can't remember the model either. (Old age)

A lot of bass cabs are shit for guitar because they simply don't re-produce the higher frequencies, it just sounds muddy, so you end up humping a 4x12 with you as well. Great if you have crew to do it for you, not so great if you are carrying it all up the stairs yourself.

Just check the Thiele Small Parameters for the drivers and also the frequency response for the cabinet.

[toejam]

A lot of bass cabs are shit for guitar because they simply don't re-produce the higher frequencies, it just sounds muddy, so you end up humping a 4x12 with you as well. Great if you have crew to do it for you, not so great if you are carrying it all up the stairs yourself.

Just check the Thiele Small Parameters for the drivers and also the frequency response for the cabinet.

True. I always find you can just turn up the treble on your amp a little and the mids and bass down if it's too dark. I tend to like darker/warmer tones, though. Also, he said he's playing down-tuned stoner rock...

[FastJunkie]

I'll check out the Eminence speakers, the store I works for carries the brand so I'll see if I can order one. Also this will be the first cabinet I make so anything to take into consideration in the construction of it? The actualbuilding of it shouldn't be an obstacle as my father is skilled in carpentry so he can help me out. Is it just a box or does the construction need to be done in a certain way or size?

And yeah I'm playing mostly Kyuss, Sleep, Corrosion of Conformity type stuff so the bottom end is needed, unfortunately the Blue is an open-back 12" so while kicking out a surprising amount of bass it still gets boomy/muddy with C standard tuning.

[Rsmacker]

The construction of a bass cabinet is important, but in view of the fact you are using it for guitar (as opposed to wanting a sub-bass earthquake), you don't need to be too technical, a bass reflex design will be fine. Eminence used to do data sheets for home-build cabinets designed for their drivers. If they don't do them now, there are many forums full of designs online.

[FastJunkie]

So I can pretty much just make a box with a hole in it?

[Rsmacker]

Erm, yep, that's about the size of it. Make sure it's sealed well. The size of the box and any porting needed (ie. holes with the correct size bit of drain pipe in) are what you might want to pay a bit of attention to.

[jtr]

JBL D130. Thats what came in the Fender Daul Showmen.

[FastJunkie]

Okay I found a set of two Eminence 15" speakers (not sure what model) for $125, vintage and in like new condition. Question is, well my amp's speaker cab out is 8ohms so is there anyway i could use both speakers if they're both 8 ohms?

[Rsmacker]

JBL D130. Thats what came in the Fender Daul Showmen.

It wasn't keeping me awake at night, but cheers for that!

FastJunkie, to use both of these drivers, you should wire them in series in a cabinet, therefore giving you a cabinet with an impedance of 16 ohms.
If you wire them in parallel, you would end up with a cabinet of 4 ohms.

(FWIW, most single cabinets have an 8ohm load, ie. they use drivers which give 8ohms when they are wired together. Guitar 4x12s are about the only exception, having switchable configurations.)



Check your amplifier's output impedance, it may actually be lower. Not many amps I can think of only go down to 8ohms, most will handle 4ohms, and really decent stuff will handle 2ohms all day.

Anyway, let's assume the amp only goes to 8 ohms, you do your cab to 16 ohms, happy days.
However, you'll be only getting about 2/3 of the potential power output of the amplifier because of the higher impedance of the cabinet than the amplifier.

Because you will be driving the amp quite hard (you need some power to shift the air with those long wavelengths), I'd suggest you used just one of those drivers ie. you would have an 8ohm load on the 8ohm output of the amp, thus giving you plenty of headroom, the amp delivers optimum output.


You may want to go and buy a new amplifier! Maybe a stereo power amplifier, with 4ohms each channel, that way you could put 2 of your bass bins on one side, then stick a 4x12 on the other channel. You'd certainly have a full-range there!

[FastJunkie]

Haha I'd love to do that but there's an obstacle, money! I need money for college so I can't be spending too much on gear right now. I checked the Traynor website and found this on the specs:
Cabinet Impedance (Ohms)8
Power @ min. impedance (Watts)50
Minimum Impedance (Ohms)4
So it will go down to 4 ohms I'm guessing? So then wiring the two 15's in parallel should work? I think I'll probably just use one but it doesn't hurt to know my options.

[Rsmacker]

There you go, 4 ohms, use both drivers. That's assuming it isn't a combo, I'm not familiar with the Traynor range. If it is, then you'd have to dispense with the speaker in the combo and just use the bass cab you make. (Or just use one 8 ohm driver in a bin)

[Bengal65]

Weber NeoMag 15". I have several of them and use them to replace my JBL's. They are a high tech version of the JBL D130F's as mentioned above. They are at lot less expensive than a JBL too.