Post your speaker break-in methods here!

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Variable

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Other than just playing loudly, of course, since I'm sure some wise-ass will post that :gethim:

I'm currently running a 40hz sine-wave through my 2x12 with Guytron Bigtone 55 speakers. I've already put some hours in playing, but nothing at high, or even moderate volume. The sine-wave is nice since I can hardly hear it, and it doesn't seem to be pissing anyone off at this late hour ;)

Think I might switch to some pink-noise when I leave for work tomorrow. Anyone else use a tone-generator to break in speakers faster? I've never tried before, so I thought I'd give it a shot and see what happens.

-Russ
 
Variable":33wmeju7 said:
Other than just playing loudly, of course, since I'm sure some wise-ass will post that :gethim:
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I was coming in here to say just that. :lol: :LOL:
 
You know the term "drive it like you stole it"?

I've always broke mine in that way. Plug in and play. :thumbsup:
 
Death by Uberschall":3vhqhiik said:
You know the term "drive it like you stole it"?

I've always broke mine in that way. Plug in and play. :thumbsup:
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crank it and then crank it some more
 
I let Avatar do it for me... ;)

I just bought a pair of their Hellatone 60L speakers, and they sounded freaking awesome from the first chord! :rock:
 
clean channel as loud as possible....treble/mid all the way down....bass all the way up!

There ya go! :thumbsup:
 
Get gigs & gig with it..........................a lot actually......................for years & years......night after night................spill beer on it.......have drunk chicks that you're trying to bang fall into it & knock it over..............have drunk dudes/chicks/etc. come up on stage to talk to you & mid-sentence puke all over it........................................

...............& there's the final "break-in" period................during a drunken pass-out sleep-walking incident..........you piss all over the front of it & pass-out in your jam room..............

just my .02 :D
 
Crunch Master":158rsdej said:
I let Avatar do it for me... ;)

I just bought a pair of their Hellatone 60L speakers, and they sounded freaking awesome from the first chord! :rock:
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Be very careful with the bass on those speakers...

I just simply look at one and it'll blow :scared:
 
2 matress's folded over on the floor.

then run a CD player into a SS PA system the band used to have - i laid the cabinet face down onto the matresse's and turn up to volume a good bit - but not stupid loud though.

i go to bed.

the next morning i played the cabinet through my 5150 for about 3 hours and they sounded much better/fuller/fully broke in :thumbsup:

on a side note, i actually broke in a new marshall cabinet at sam ash once - i was playing through it for a few hours and noticed the cabinet sounded better afterwards than before :lol: :LOL:
 
I hooked a variac up to my G12H30's and ran them in an ISO cab for a few hours when I got them a few years ago. Didn't help - they still sounded like ass! :lol: :LOL:

There's a calculator out there somewhere for figuring out the voltage - Weber maybe?
 
Simple, I don't do anything to "break them in"...

I used to do a few things to help it along, but, really, it didn't amount to much. The last two cabs I've bought had new G12H30's in them, and I didn't do anything to them, and most of the time they sit in my music-room.
 
Crunch Master":c3cdm1ox said:
I let Avatar do it for me... ;)

I just bought a pair of their Hellatone 60L speakers, and they sounded freaking awesome from the first chord! :rock:
Click to expand...

:rock:
Me too.

I love hellatones.

Also I buy my cabs used, so if I'm not swapping speakers around I'm usually read to rock right out of the box. :rock:
 
Ive talked about this with Rick from celestion many moons ago an he told me that there is a lot of misinformation about speaker break in. I wont quote him word for word but believe it or not, your speakers will break in rather quickly after using them at gig volumes. WAY QUICKER then anyone would believe. Speakers will change in sound as the years go by which I think people account for them being well broken in but there is more to it.

I hate say this but I tend to believe Rick being that he knows speakers and works for Celestion.

I think that he does read this forum from time to time and hopefully he will chime in although I haven't seen him here for a LONG LONG time.
 
I have thought about hooking my speakers up to a PA system and running music through them, but I have always felt it was too much trouble and risky. So I just play through them, if you can use them with a band at good volume for practice or a gig, that is the way to go. I am in between bands now and so that is not an option. I have 3 sets of speakers I am still breaking in too.
 
Also I've heard of folks running their ipod into the FX return on the amp and just letting it go for a few hours.

I'd rather run it off a PA though like blackba said simply to save tube life.
 
I used to hook them up to to a cassette player/power amp and run AC/DC through them for days on end (nothing compressed and smooth sounding like most of the 80's metal that I was into). It seemed to work ok...definitely helped a bit.

That said, I haven't done this in nearly 20 years (notice I used a cassette deck ;) ) as just rehearsing and gigging a few times seems to work just fine. They settle in pretty damn quick at live volumes.
 
liquid fabric softener, via ted weber. :thumbsup: just wipe some on the cone and they are instantly broken in. i've done it with probably 10 speakers, all with success.

also, the best way to do it playing, imho, is clean on the neck pup, volume, bass, mids, treble way up. play lots of tight, percussive palm mutes and alternate with ringing full chords. this will get that cone moving.
 
I put my iPod through my band PA and into the cab(s). Put the cab(s) face-down on the floor with some blankets to deaden the sound a bit, put the iPod on random shuffle and repeat and come back in 40 hours. No crazy volume. Just normal listening-to-music volume. Works like a charm.
 
There's no need to over think this stuff. I would say that 90% of a speaker's break-in happens very quickly, probably in less than two hours. Loud clean warm guitar tone works the best. You'll know when it gets there if your playing your guitar through them. The other 10% happens over a long period of time, which could be months or years.
 
I play 10,000 lovers in one.............about 10,000 times.
 
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