Saturday, January 07, 2006
Crunchiness Without the Square Waves
An exchange on a music list serv, posters' names deleted:
####I've heard that is also how Dave Davies got his crunch sound on You ReallyGot Me.
####But stabbing speaker cones with a penknife is a great idea, indeed a careermaking move, if you're the late great Link Wray!On 1/5/06
####Well described. You can overdrive the preamp to get that"good sounding distortion" as long as you don't turn up the results and sendthat to the speakers. Any type of clipping can blow speakers, but you dohave some control over it. As long as you don't push big square waves to thespeakers, you're all set.It's easier to blow big speakers with small amps than it is to blow smallspeakers with big amps. Essentially it's good to keep the power ratings inmind, and not try to exceed the performance limits of either the amp or thespeaker.
####A 30 watt power amp can easily blow a 100 watt speaker if it is driven to> the point of clipping, creating square waves, and in turn sending DC power> to the speaker coil which is what fries speakers. Doesn't the goodsounding> distortion happen in the preamp? For example my 50 watt Marshall uses 25 watt speakers.
####I've heard that is also how Dave Davies got his crunch sound on You ReallyGot Me.
####But stabbing speaker cones with a penknife is a great idea, indeed a careermaking move, if you're the late great Link Wray!On 1/5/06
####Well described. You can overdrive the preamp to get that"good sounding distortion" as long as you don't turn up the results and sendthat to the speakers. Any type of clipping can blow speakers, but you dohave some control over it. As long as you don't push big square waves to thespeakers, you're all set.It's easier to blow big speakers with small amps than it is to blow smallspeakers with big amps. Essentially it's good to keep the power ratings inmind, and not try to exceed the performance limits of either the amp or thespeaker.
####A 30 watt power amp can easily blow a 100 watt speaker if it is driven to> the point of clipping, creating square waves, and in turn sending DC power> to the speaker coil which is what fries speakers. Doesn't the goodsounding> distortion happen in the preamp? For example my 50 watt Marshall uses 25 watt speakers.
