Grateful Dead Music Forum

ok guys, i have literally no knowledge about speakers, so bear with me here. I'm thinking about replacing my crappy eminence speakers that are currently in my twin with some nicer ones. I'm not necessarily looking for some speakers to make make me sound just like Jerry, but just some good all around speakers. I'm looking to make my tone a little bit warmer, and a little less icepick-y. whew. my ears are buzzing like crazy. Any suggestions?

Hey man,
You'll get a lot of very good suggestions here. My vote for the best speaker ever, IMHO, is the JBL K120. Just a pure sweet sounding all around speaker. Im actually running 2 Ks and 2 Es together now and am loving life!

Peace,

Gil

Which Jensen speakers are in there now? What year is the Twin?

I am a bit shocked you couldn't dial out the ice-pick.

I like to think of speakers in terms of Headroom (breakup point) and compatibility with my amp (wattage/ohms). With a twin you have a great choice of Speakers from 50 watt 8 ohm per speaker and up. You could go lower, but if you use distortion or boosting /preamping and crank the amp you could be pushing a little more than 80watts. The higher the wattage,the louder you can be without clipping or breaking up your speakers. Some like it the tone, some prefer the high wattage pristine sound.

I think the Tone Tubbys and some of the other Hemp coned speakers are sweet and warm sounding. The JBL's are going to be a bit on the higher end side with the tone, but you can kill a lot of those ice picks with some Eq and some compression. With the treble at 10 and the lows gone, ice picks are hard to avoid as we practice to be as dynamic as Jerry, he too would trow some ice picks at times at those settings. The Jensen's were actually an improvement compared to the stock eminence speakers they started out with on the Reissues.

JBL E120 or K120 Nothing else really does it for me! I know there are plenty to choose from but why not just get what has been proved time and time again! Good luck!

I cannot see JBLs taming ice-pick. In fact, quite the opposite.

strumminsix wrote:I cannot see JBLs taming ice-pick. In fact, quite the opposite.

Haha...turn the treble down!

The Tone Tubby Alnico 12 (That's the red original one)

http://www.tonetubby.com/speakers.htm

I forgot about those! TT and Webers too they make great speakers.

There seems to be a huge following with the TT's and their revolutionary Hemp cones, a few other manufacturers following suit... lots of pros using the Tubbys.

jdsmodulus wrote:

strumminsix wrote:I cannot see JBLs taming ice-pick. In fact, quite the opposite.

Haha...turn the treble down!

Tell it to the OP.

strumminsix wrote:Which Jensen speakers are in there now? What year is the Twin?

I am a bit shocked you couldn't dial out the ice-pick.

oh shit, did i say jensens? i meant the eminence designed ones. i guess i was a little out of it last night anyways, it's a 1971 twin w blackface mods. and yeah, i'm having difficulty dialing out the ice picky-ness, but in general, the whole sound is a little thinner then i would like it to be. i was looking at some Tone Tubbies and the Weber 12F150's, and wanted your guys' opinions.

I get that way when I post before coffee

I wouldn't swap speakers in an amp I couldn't get to 90% of what I want.

If you are 90% there with the amp I'd try Eminence C-Rex. Lots of clean headroom, nice top end, but the hemp softens it a smidge. Plus so many folks love them that they'd be super easy to sell.

If you have a store near you that has a decent selection of cab/speakers, simply take your amp there an plug in various cabs and see what you like. That's easier than trial and error, buying/reselling.

Ah sweet! I'm almost completely in love with my twin, so i would say i'm in the 90% range. I'm going to Guitar Center on Sunday, I'll see if i can try out some speakers there. the local places definitely don't do that though. The Cannabis Rex looks really nice, and also a little more in my price range. Any tips on breaking them in fast? i heard it takes a quite a while.