"It would be easy to dismiss him as a lovable, eccentric old hippie. But the man might just be a mad genius. He has rethought the most fundamental part of a speaker -– the cone –- and traded paper for hemp. The result is the Tone Tubby, and it makes guitar amps sing like Aretha Franklin. You’ll find them in rigs used by everyone from Billy Gibbons and Carlos Santana to Keith Richards and the guys in Metallica." - Kurt Starnes

you don't actually smoke hemp! way to perpetuate the disinformation, WIRED. #JournalismFAIL - Big Joe Silenced

Check the article out -- I thought you might dig the hemp derived cones. It sounds like they sound good. - Kurt Starnes

yah, the description certainly makes it sound worth investigating. but WIRED really needs to clean house with its editorial staff and maybe hire back some proofreaders. :P - Big Joe Silenced

EV speakers were intended for sound reinforcement use, not guitar amps. the practice of using them for that started in the 80s when 100 watt (RMS) 1x12" combos became so common thanks to the likes of Mesa/Boogie. 100 watt tube amps can hit a peak output approaching 300 watts, so you can imagine what that would do to a speaker with a 25 watt rating! - Big Joe Silenced

...torn cone at least, shorted coil winding and possible fire at worst. - Big Joe Silenced

What kind of speakers do guitar amps use? Horns? I naively thought EV was standard, but I'm not too up on the subject, obviously. - Kurt Starnes

that said, almost NO ONE needs a 100 watt guitar amp. and EV speakers do kinda suck for guitar applications. - Big Joe Silenced

EV is just another brand. their drivers are primarily meant for use in PA enclosures. i think the SRO was the last purpose-built guitar speaker they made. that was discontinued in the 1970s, IIRC. - Big Joe Silenced

Okay, I thought it was a reference to voice-coil/cone speakers. - Kurt Starnes

nah, just another maker like Celestion or Eminence or Fane. - Big Joe Silenced

all guitar amps use a fairly midrange-heavy speaker of basically the same design. the variations in coil size and construction and cone dimensions account for alot of the differences. the magnets count for very little in terms of tone, IMO...tho they DO have a huge impact on how much power the speaker can push out, assuming the cone can take the punishment. - Big Joe Silenced

then there's the matter of materials and construction of the frame/spider and how the cone and voice coil integrate into it. - Big Joe Silenced

disclaimer: i'm a musician, not a technician. but i have learned a bit about the tools i've been using all these years. - Big Joe Silenced

I always thought the heavy emphasis on mid-range made guitar amps sound relatively muddy compared to general purpose multi-driver speakers. - Jason Wehmhoener

okay, fact-checked myself on the whole EV-as-guitar-speaker thing. tuns out the EV SRO was an option in Fender Twin Reverb amps starting in the late 1960s. makes sense, cos that's a famously/notoriously high-power guitar amp with HUGE dynamic range capable of a giant peak output level. - Big Joe Silenced

@Jason: there's a reason why midrange emphasis is so desirable: add a tweeter to a guitar amp and you get fizz city. unutterably shrill! want more top? use the tone controls or change to single coils. or use a Vox amp! - Big Joe Silenced

And what about bass? Or just broader dynamic range? - Jason Wehmhoener

very much so. also different requirements for sound reproduction. - Big Joe Silenced

many people have used high-powered guitar amps for bass, tho. the whole bi-amping craze in bass amplification didn't start til the mid-70s and wasn't mainstream until the 1980s. - Big Joe Silenced

case in point: the immensely popular and widely-used Ampeg SVT bass amp (typically with a 8x10" sealed or "infinite baffle" enclosure) is very close to being a 300 watt Ampeg guitar amp with no tremolo or spring reverb and a different EQ circuit. - Big Joe Silenced

Hehe, it must be late for me, because I'm not asking questions very clearly. So, if you were a guitar player that plays with a wide variety of tones (think heavily computer-altered) and you're looking for dynamic range in order to maximize flexibility, what kind of speaker characteristics might you be interested in? - Jason Wehmhoener

first off, you want a very high power guitar amp, like a Fender Twin or Dual Showman (which is a head-only version of a Twin). secondly, you'd want a sealed 2x12" or 4x12" speaker cabinet loaded with guitar amp speaker rated for fairly high output. this only if you INSIST on using a conventional guitar amp. - Big Joe Silenced

for the application you cite, however, i would recommend using a small PA system and going direct instead. failing that, maybe a keyboard amp. - Big Joe Silenced

DI or keyboard amp do seem to be the rational choices for what I'm thinking about. Speakers are a lot of fun to play with though, but that's kind of a different train of thought than the one I started with. :-) - Jason Wehmhoener

if you're taking a guitar and altering it to sound like something else entirely, a full range system like that might make more sense. i'd have to get more details before i could attempt to offer something useful. - Big Joe Silenced

here's an album from a band i'm in that came out in 2005 doing music that i think might be a little similar to what you're describing. http://alonetone.com/ooc2009... - Big Joe Silenced

That's cool -- Music For Airports on acid. :-> - Kurt Starnes

:D - Big Joe Silenced