12" and/or 15" speakers

MadAsAHatter

MadAsAHatter

Well-known member
Going to start building my speaker cab this week and making final decisions on speakers and they're configuration. Cab dimensions will stay the same regardless (copying Marshall 1960B) but I'm toying with the idea of different speaker configurations. Options I'm thinking are the standard 4x12 or atypical 2x15, or 2x12 plus 1x15. Small thought of 2x10 and 1x15, but that may be too far in left field. I'm always up for trying something different and unique, but not sure how far from the norm to try with this one. Don't want to stray too far and end up sounding like dog shit.

Tonally I don't have anything super specific in mind. Just going for something that will work for hard rock and heavy/thrash metal, but different enough from the typical V30 or G12T75 that you see everywhere else.

With all that in mind has anyone ever used 15 inch speakers or a combo of 12 & 15 inch (or 10 & 15)? If so what speakers were they and what was your experience?
 
8len8 said:
I’m thinking a 15” might enter bass territory if you play with a band.
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I don't think so. It's like bass will enter guitar territory if using 12". Fully depends on the cab design and a signal fed to the speaker. In ancient times my guitarist used combo with 15" speaker (Fane style) and there was no problem with frequency overlapping, or bass masking. Talking about thrash.
 
mcstinger said:
I don't think so. It's like bass will enter guitar territory if using 12". Fully depends on the cab design and a signal fed to the speaker. In ancient times my guitarist used combo with 15" speaker (Fane style) and there was no problem with frequency overlapping, or bass masking. Talking about thrash.
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Butterslax cab uses 15” for those Mastodon tones…Bruce Zinky loved 15” speakers too.

15’s are based.
 
I never used 15's but my understanding is the have some extended bass and treble frequencies. I'd be more concerned about those frequencies being too muddy/boomy or icepicky than invading bass guitar range. Of the few clips I've listened to I hear more of the extended highs than the lows. Don't know if that comes more from the design in general or specifically it's size though.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Going to start building my speaker cab this week and making final decisions on speakers and they're configuration. Cab dimensions will stay the same regardless (copying Marshall 1960B) but I'm toying with the idea of different speaker configurations. Options I'm thinking are the standard 4x12 or atypical 2x15, or 2x12 plus 1x15. Small thought of 2x10 and 1x15, but that may be too far in left field. I'm always up for trying something different and unique, but not sure how far from the norm to try with this one. Don't want to stray too far and end up sounding like dog shit.

Tonally I don't have anything super specific in mind. Just going for something that will work for hard rock and heavy/thrash metal, but different enough from the typical V30 or G12T75 that you see everywhere else.

With all that in mind has anyone ever used 15 inch speakers or a combo of 12 & 15 inch (or 10 & 15)? If so what speakers were they and what was your experience?
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yes-I had a scott ian sig slime green randall xl cab. it had 2 v30's up top and an emi legend 15 on the bottom. sounded awesome. I was running in stereo with a vh4 and a jvm. was also using a genz benz gflex 2x12. whole thing slew....
 
for example the dime stacks were a mixture of 4x12's and ported 2x15"s...some had crossovers built in and some did not. Martin has quite a few of them and could tell you more. I like 15's and 12's together. and I used to play a little bit of everything....and made it all sound like shit...
 
JackBootedThug said:
for example the dime stacks were a mixture of 4x12's and ported 2x15"s...some had crossovers built in and some did not. Martin has quite a few of them and could tell you more. I like 15's and 12's together. and I used to play a little bit of everything....and made it all sound like shit...
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Those 15" ISP subs are godlike. Not very practical but absolutely incredible.
 
Came across this video. It's mainly for the Emperor cab and the dudes style is way too fuzzy/doom metal for me. It has a Weber Grey Wolf and Werewolf in it. The 1x12/1x15 mix does have a pretty interesting tone thought. I already like the Grey Wolfs on their own and want to load one of my 412s with them eventually. Going this route may be worth a shot. And if it sucks, ultimately I wouldn't be out too much.

 
braintheory said:
Well old JBL’s like that are some of the all time best speakers so no fair lol
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I'd give anything to have that cab back. I had a Sunn 200 watt tube head with it AND a Sunn Scepter head at the same time. I was so young, we used it for guitar and bass...and everything. That was around the late 90's when I convinced myself I needed "NU SOUNDING AMPS" lmao. Now I hate them all and want all my old amps back I found for nothing.
 
japetus said:
I'd give anything to have that cab back. I had a Sunn 200 watt tube head with it AND a Sunn Scepter head at the same time. I was so young, we used it for guitar and bass...and everything. That was around the late 90's when I convinced myself I needed "NU SOUNDING AMPS" lmao. Now I hate them all and want all my old amps back I found for nothing.
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That’s how I feel too haha. My ‘64 Vibroverb combo has a single D130 in it (I believe stock)
 
japetus said:
I'd give anything to have that cab back. I had a Sunn 200 watt tube head with it AND a Sunn Scepter head at the same time. I was so young, we used it for guitar and bass...and everything. That was around the late 90's when I convinced myself I needed "NU SOUNDING AMPS" lmao. Now I hate them all and want all my old amps back I found for nothing.
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Yeah once you figure out power stage saturation, simpler circuits and proper gain the older stuff can make much more sense.
 
My 2 cents. Had a local seller that sold me a mint 2014 BE100 head and a mint Friedman 2/12 2/15 cabinet for a flat out steal. The cabinet was basically free and I thought I would just flip it and make $1k as it has 2 15" speakers and 2 12" Celestion Heritage 30W speakers in it from the factory. Sure this cabinet is slightly oversized but I never thought I would like it as I tend to hate the Heritage 30s and have never played 15" speakers in a guitar cabinet. Well let me tell you this cabinet is absolutely awesome and it pairs incredibly well with my Friedman cabinet with GB/Vintage 30s. For some reason the Heritage 30s and 15" speakers blend extremely well and this speaker combo fills in all the missing frequencies that the GBs/Vintage 30s don't cover.
 
mcstinger said:
I don't think so. It's like bass will enter guitar territory if using 12". Fully depends on the cab design and a signal fed to the speaker. In ancient times my guitarist used combo with 15" speaker (Fane style) and there was no problem with frequency overlapping, or bass masking. Talking about thrash.
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Now you caught my curiosity and make me want to build a 1x15 extension cabinet to pair up with my 2x12 cabinet! I think I understand what you mean if playing thrash because that's basically all I play! Also, I would think that it should help with a seven-string tuned to A. Maybe I'm nuts which I am LOL but this kind of makes sense to me.
 
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