HawkeyeKane
2446 posts
Mar 30, 2014
4:36 PM
|
Last night I borrowed a friend's amp for my show. I've mentioned it here before... an Ampeg GVT15. It's a great amp for harp, and oddly enough, last night was the first time I've ever played an entire gig without micing or lining my rig to the PA. That's right. Amp only!
This amp has a Screaming Eagle by Eminence in it. Just for fun, I ran it with another 12" Eminence in an extension just to move some more air. It worked wonderfully!
When I brought the amp back to him today, he mentioned he was actually glad he let me use it. He said whenever he lets a harp player use one of his amps with a new speaker, it always breaks the speaker in very quickly...like hours faster than with guitar. I told him it was funny he should say that. Because I played a friend's Blues Jr not long ago after he'd put a C-Rex in it, and he said the same thing.
So what is it? What is it about harp that breaks in a speaker more efficiently? Is it the overdrive of the mic techniques? The harmonics of the harp itself?
Sidenote... I told him if he had any new speaks he wanted broken in, to just give me a call. ;-)
----------
Hawkeye Kane - Hipbone Sam
|
SuperBee
1860 posts
Mar 30, 2014
5:44 PM
|
Interesting. I've never heard this before. I wonder if it's the same reason certain speakers which I find are fine for guitar are unusable when I play harp, due to cone cry ?
And I wonder if it means they have shorter life expectancy.
I do believe in speaker break-in. I've seen some say it's not much of a factor.
|
Slimharp
288 posts
Mar 30, 2014
6:26 PM
|
Hawkeye, I really think it's just playing time on the speaker. I havent heard anything specificly about harp, unless maybe you were doing a lot chugging on an A or G and really flexing the paper. I have miced my FM station and also miced my stere and played Blues CD's to help loosen up the speaker.
|
Barley Nectar
340 posts
Mar 30, 2014
6:29 PM
|
If you look at the output sine wave of a scope connected to a cranked harp rig, you will see that the output is pure distortion. I feel that harp is predominantly in a lower frequency range than guitar. Plus we usually push the feedback envelope when playing live. This all gives a speaker a rigorous workout as far as excursion is concerned. I never gave this any thought but it seems to make sense.
Hmm, now I'm thinking about starting a speaker breakin service...LOL...BN
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Mar 30, 2014 6:31 PM
|
Slimharp
290 posts
Mar 30, 2014
6:49 PM
|
LOL Barly. I got some new 15's for ya -lol
|
