Horns

Gary Dunn · Post by **Gary Dunn** » 5 Apr 2004 7:50 am

How many of you are using horns with your 15 inch speakers? If so, why did you add them? [This message was edited by Gary Dunn on 05 April 2004 at 09:27 AM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 5 Apr 2004 10:00 am

Yeah, I use a Conn tenor sax with a Berg mouthpiece. Oh wait..., you mean a tweeter horn. But seriously, the reason so many of us like 15" speakers for pedal steel is because they automatically filter out the highs, deemphasize the high-mids, and emphasize the low-mids and lows. Why would we want to screw that up with a horn?

Gary Dunn · Post by **Gary Dunn** » 5 Apr 2004 10:27 am

Well, here is my issue. I use a Denon rack mount cd player and send the signal to my Peavey valvex mixer, which sends it to my DPC 1000, then out to BW 1501-4s. The speakers are mounted in two wedge style stage monitor cabs with the horns removed from each. Even though the steel sound is great, the cd player sounds like crap. What I am really trying to do here is simulate a stage setting and have quality sound from both inputs.

So what do I do to improve the sound from the cd player?

Ben Slaughter · Post by **Ben Slaughter** » 5 Apr 2004 10:55 am

I have a bass cabinet were the horn is on a seperate volume pot. Not sure how it's wired, but that would give you some control.

------------------
Ben
Zum D10, NV400, POD, G&L Guitars, etc, etc.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 5 Apr 2004 12:22 pm

Horns on steel, yuck. That's why guitar amps aren't hi-fi and don't use tweeters. Those overtones that a horn gives you are the ones that we want removed from the steel sound so that it sounds good to our ear. The full range speakers that we usually use for steel like JBL's and Black Widows have been designed for this purpose of sounding right all by themselves.

Brad Sarno

Gary Dunn · Post by **Gary Dunn** » 5 Apr 2004 12:37 pm

Brad,

The issue is not the steel tone out of the speakers, it is the cd sound out the bw 1501s. Sounds to me that an eq in the chain between the cd player and the mixer might be the answer, or would a set of 112e's work better as a universal speaker for want I am trying to do?

mtulbert · Post by **mtulbert** » 5 Apr 2004 8:26 pm

Hi Brad,

I have to have a gentleman's disagreement with you on this issue. Perhaps a horn is too harsh for the high end of a steel, but it is my belief that there is not a 15 inch speaker made that will reproduce the high end frequencies that a steel guitar is capable of doing.

I love the sound of my steel through my recording gear and was never happy with the sound through my twin reverb and believe me, I have spend alot of hours trying to tweak it.

The other day I took one of my near field monitors and hooked it up to the TR and viola!!!, there was the sound that I was trying to find. Adding one of twelves gave a nice rounded bottom to the steel. My next move is to try to integrate this all into one cabinet. I even mentioned the idea to the resdient guru of steels ie Carl Dixon, and he felt that the idea was worth pursuing.

Now in your defense it could be that when one is in a live conert situation that the amount of power needed could possibly make the sound too shrill, but I won't know until I try it.

Finally, you could not like the type of tone that I am striving for; different strokes for different folks, but right now, I am finding that adding a high frequency response speaker is helping the tone of the steel.

Respectfully,

Mark Tulbert

Robert Thomas · Post by **Robert Thomas** » 6 Apr 2004 5:15 pm

I have used 2 speaker cabinets I built over 30 years ago. Each cabinet has two 12" 16 0hm speakers and one 8 Ohm horn. I have never found another Amp that could come near to the quality of sound that I have with my set-up. I know it is not the sound that so many steel players seem to desire. but it is pleasant and full. I use a Peavey MP 5 plus to drive the speakers. Plus I run all my effects and my mike through the Peavey also. I believe it all comes down to an inidviduals choice as to what sound they want. I have never had a complaint from anyone, other then, boy that sounds great. I have tried my set-up without the horns and the sound is totally unacceptable, sound just like a Peavey 400.

Keith Murrow · Post by **Keith Murrow** » 6 Apr 2004 8:07 pm

..[This message was edited by Keith Murrow on 26 October 2004 at 04:21 PM.]