In 2019, a group of guitar players at Sweetwater was chatting, and someone mentioned comparing dozens of guitar speakers side by side. I remember we all looked at each other like, “Yeah, right! You know how much work that would take?” Over the years, we kept coming back to the idea because (1) it was really cool, and (2) we were all curious to hear how much difference there really was.
What about you? Have you compared speakers in your guitar cab? Can you tell the difference between a Vintage 30 and an EVM12L? Have you compared a Creamback to a Greenback, Redback, Hempback, or Copperback? Or alnico to neo? Sure, some guitarists (like our own Don Carr) have heard lots of speakers, but others have never had that chance. We decided the time was right. Somebody needed to do this. And that somebody was Sweetwater!
- What’s in Your Guitar Cabinet?
- Wait — You Really Did This?
- Listen Up
- Now for the Nitty-gritty: How We Did It
- Speaker Break-in
- Did You Discover a Favorite?
What’s in Your Guitar Cab?
Many guitarists buy a cabinet and use the speakers that came in it without knowing what they are. But what if a different speaker would make your sound better? Guitar players are notoriously picky about guitars, pickups, amps, tubes, strings, pedals, picks, batteries, cables, etc. How much time have you spent auditioning speakers? Maybe there is a speaker(s) you’d like lots more than what you have.
That’s what drove me to do this — that question of “Which one would I prefer?” There truly was only one way to find out. Get ALL the speakers in a room and listen to them side by side in a controlled environment, like Sweetwater Studios‘ Studio A. So, that’s what we did. It was quite an adventure. Come along and listen with us. I say “us” because no one here had ever done this either, so it was an ear-opener for everyone.
Wait — You Really Did This?
Deciding to do something and actually pulling it off are two different things. What seems like “a good idea at the time” can quickly become overwhelming. Well, that’s true in this case. Let me walk you through what it took from beginning to end.
First, I got a bunch of smart guys in a room and narrowed down what guitar amp replacement speakers we’d use (out of the 107 that Sweetwater carried when we started). We tossed around ideas and decided to limit our options to 12-inch speakers (that narrowed it down to 77). Then, we decided on 8-ohm speakers (which pared it down to 51). We chose speakers from Celestion, Eminence, Jensen, and Electro-Voice, with a variety of power ratings and magnet types (ceramic, neodymium, alnico, and ferrite), and came up with the following list of contestants — 26 speakers in all. (That’s a good number since there are only 26 letters in the alphabet!)
Getting 26 speakers unboxed and installed in the same cabinet, huh? Sounds easy. But wait, there’s more (decisions to be made). What cabinet? A 1×12-inch, 2×12-inch, 4×12-inch? What power amp? What playing style? How loud? What mics? And then the one thing we hadn’t considered: How do you break in 26 guitar speakers? How long does THAT take? Well, that’s an entirely different article (which you can read below). Wow, what a rabbit trail.
I’ll cover all the painstaking details later, but first, let’s do the fun part, which is why you’re here: listening. Below are three playing samples — dirty, clean, and heavy. Take a listen and see if you can tell a difference between the speakers. Do you have a favorite?
Listen Up
Dirty
Clean
Heavy
Now for the Nitty-gritty: How We Did It
After deciding on the 26 speakers, we had to pick a cabinet to put them in. We discussed using 2×12-inch or 4×12-inch cabinets because they sound different than a 1×12-inch, right? But 26 speakers multiplied by four?! That’s 104 speakers to unbox and install. Really? Whoa.
That was hard to wrap my head around, even for a “comparison king” like me. Honestly, we decided we could hear the differences if they were in a 1×12-inch cab, and 26 speaker swaps were much more manageable. We perused all the 1×12-inch guitar cabinets that Sweetwater carries (more than 100) and picked the Mesa/Boogie Mini Rectifier 1×12-inch 60-watt angled extension cabinet as our test bed.
The cab was set up in front of our recording rig: a Shure 545SD cardioid dynamic instrument microphone and a Royer R-121 studio ribbon microphone mounted on a Royer AxeMount SM-21 57/R-121 dual microphone clip, which was positioned on the speaker with the grille cloth removed. The mics ran into Rupert Neve Designs Shelford 5052 microphone preamps in Sweetwater’s Rupert Neve Designs 5088 32-channel analog mixing console, were recorded into Avid Pro Tools through Avid MTRX converters, and were monitored through Ocean Way Audio HR3.5FL powered studio monitors.
Don played these three guitars in the control room to record the samples you heard. The guitars were chosen from Sweetwater Studios’ stable of instruments, similar to these:
Dirty: Gibson Les Paul
Clean: Fender Stratocaster
Heavy: Strandberg NX 7
Our amplifier of choice was the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII 90-/45-/25-watt tube amp head, which not only sounds great but has also three channels, so we could dial in three different sounds with the same amp. After dialing in the tones, we recorded Don’s playing samples into Pro Tools and then re-amped those, playing back from Pro Tools through a 1-in 2-out Radial X-Amp active re-amping device into the Mesa/Boogie.
Once we had the levels dialed in, it was a simple matter of playing back the three music performances — each through the appropriate channel — and recording those. After one speaker was recorded, we pulled the back off, swapped the speaker, reattached the speaker leads, reattached the back, lined it up with lasers, and did it all again — 25 more times!
Speaker Break-in
Be sure to check out the sister article, “How to Break In a Guitar Speaker,” to hear how we got all these speakers ready for these recordings. You won’t believe it.
Did You Discover a Favorite?
We had a blast doing this project, and we all learned a lot. What did you learn? No matter what speaker you preferred, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700, and they can get a new speaker to you right away.
Sweetwater is happy to announce that we now carry Mojotone speakers and cabinets.
Credits
Recording duties were handled by Shawn Dealey and Jason Peets with assistance from studio intern, Tyler Bulone. Don Carr performed the guitar parts. Matt Owen provided the studio photography.
