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Can 15w tube (guitar amp) drive 350w speaker?


roman_sub
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hi guys

I am contemplating modifying my old Laney LC15 watt tube combo with a new speaker. I don't fully understand amps / speakers so would appreciate some input from those who do! Sorry if I'm being a n00b :)

As the combo actually sounded very nice with fretless bass at low volumes, which got me thinking of its "studio" recording potential... so here goes.... would it be possible to replace existing "guitar" speaker with a higher rated, more "bass-appropriate" one? i.e.

The existing 10" speaker (HH Invader) is 8ohms (and probably rated somewhere up to 60 watts..... but I can't find exact specs)

potentially replaced with

Eminence Delta10a, or similar, also at 8ohm but rated at 350 watts


Would this work and sound OK? the 15w was actually very loud, when pushed, into the old speaker - would I get the same level of volume with the replacement speaker?

Would appreciate any pointers or suggestions for simple reading on the subject....

cheers
Roman

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I run a 15W bass valve amp into Barefaced Midget cabs with guitar and bass. Sounds fine both ways. You could get away with a much lower powered speaker and it should still sound good. The combo may not control the speaker excursion very well at lower than guitar frequencies though, but if it sounds good then it is good!

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There would be no problem plugging a 15 watt amp into a 350 watt rated speaker, but it would be better to run the Laney into a proper bass cab rather than installing a new driver in the combo. Open back cabs are a bad idea for bass; the power handling is reduced because they don't control the cone excursion and even if you're not running enough power for that to be an issue it'll still be thinner sounding than a sealed or ported cab. The Eminence is likely to be less efficient that the stock speaker, as dedicated guitar drivers tend to be designed for efficiency at the expense of low-end power handling.

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There are plenty of recommendations on forums on swapping the speaker on the LC15. The stock speaker is ok but many have swapped it out and far preferred it. A lot went for Celestions, Jensens or Eminence from memory (I used to have one of these but kept it stock as never got round to a change). A lot were on the Harmony Central reviews of the amp.

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The LC15 is a guitar amp though, so I'd probably take it easy on the volume when using it for bass, even if you do have a higher rated bass specific speaker.

The reason I say that is the transformers in a guitar amp are quite often under-rated compared to an equivalent power of bass amp, with output transformers this can work out OK as it adds a compression to the sound, not so much when power transformers run too hot as eventually they fail.

As others have said though, the amp/speaker combination should work :)

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thanks guys. lots of really good points - and the observation regarding just plugging into a proper bass cab is totally worth trying (why didn't I think of that?!?) . As per advice, I will probably re-direct focus onto a better 10" "guitar" speaker then, to likely more success...

cheers and happy new year all!
Roman

Edited by roman_sub
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If you wire it to an external cab, you could do what I do with my little valve amp: plug the speaker out into a passive DI box and record from the xlr so you get the power stage valve distortion without needing to mic the cab, so there's no spill into the bass sound when recording in a very small room. I actually plug the speaker in to the "through" on the di box, but you could just as easily add an 8 ohm 15W resistor on a heatsink for silent recording.

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