Hi Vaughn, Hi guys, hope you all could enjoy summertime and have fun with your
speakers?
Today one question is what drives me round: Is it perhaps necessary to use a beamblocker
if I have Retro 30 and ET 65 in a closed cab ( I mean for the Retros little bright side of tone)?
Or is it normally a fact of the frontgrille if it will be very tight (like bluesbreaker style front) there
is no need for a beamblocker.
By the way for me the ET 65 strucks all competition, for me one of the best alrounder!!!
Therefore I will get a second ET 65, so I could mix either 2 ET 65 or a Retro with the ET 65.
Thanks a lot for all helping answer and reply from Vaughn.
Have good tiimes Holly
Hi Holly, hope you are having a good summer over on your side of the Atlantic, too!
The short answer on "is it necessary?" is certainly NO. Probably less than one one hundredth of one percent (.00001) of the worlds speaker cabs have these things!
Now, are they a good thing? I just don't know. I've never tried one. Seems like maybe they would be a good thing on a particularly bright rig, I just don't know. Maybe I'll try one out so I WILL know. If you decide to try one, please post your replies here, so we can all learn something. I tend to think they are mostly "snake oil", but could be wrong :-)
As for the ET65, yeah ... I agree, they are one of my favorite speakers ... not just from WGS, but from all manufacturers and all time periods!
Hi Vaughn, so nice to hear from you!
Yes after a long time of rain and too cold for the season we now have a little summer period here.
But that gives me time to try some tests with beamblockers and different speakers, maybe first I will do it with a Reaper, a Retro and a ET 65. But I think the Et65 doesn't need any beamblocker, he is of course a sound machine best. Never before I had such a good alrounder.
I will report after a short time so maybe it helps each other with beam questions.
Greetings and have a good time
Holly
Hi - thought I would pass on my experience with beamblockers. For a number of years, my main amp was a 1969 Fender Dual Showman Reverb head and a 2 x 12 Mojo Bassman style open back cab with 2 Weber 12" ceramic California speakers. I used Weber beamblockers with both speakers. Not sure what the beamblockers added to the mix but the amp & cab sounded fantastic (playing rock, blues, folk rock) - probably the best sounding rig I've ever owned. I've since moved down to 1 x 12 combos (mostly due to my age and the fact the amp and cab weighed a ton - my back isn't what it used to be!). I tried a beamblocker in an Alessandro Working Dog Boxer amp (kind of a Deluxe Reverb clone but no vibrato) with an assortment of speakers (Weber 12F150, Tone Tubby Ceramic, Scumback H75) - did not like the results - the speakers and amp sounded better without the beamblockers. I now have Deluxe Reverb RI (but completely reworked and handwired to blackface specs) and tried the same speakers and for fun the beamblocker - same result as the Working Dog - the amp and speakers sound better without it. In both amps, it sounded as though the beamblocker was muffling (dampning) the speaker. I now run the amp with a WGS G12C/S and am very happpy with the results. One of buddies, however, plays a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a Celestion Vintage 30 and a beamblocker and it really sounds pretty good. I guess it just depends on the speaker and amp configuration. Hope this helped a bit.
I recently purchased an invader and a reaper (reg) to throw in my Bogner Alchemist cab that has beam blockers and for the longest time something just hasn't been sounding right. No airy top end and with those pair of speakers I should be getting a lot of it. So, when I get some time I'll be cutting them out! And, will reply back with the results.
Oh yeah ... get them outta there ... the Invader doesn't want or need them ... and the Reaper even MORE so!
BTW, I have an Alchemest that I've been running with an Avatar 2x12 with a Reaper & Retro 30 ... and I REALLY dig that combo ... the Retro 30 adds the nice airy chime while the Reaper holds down the honest bottom & lower mids.
After taking a whole day practically to take the alchemist cab apart, I cut those beam blockers out and finally heard my invader and reaper (reg) work together for the first time. I'm still debating whether or not to replace the reaper for another invader, but will I be missing out on low end?
What exactly are you trying to get that you are not getting with the Reaper/Invader combo?
I want more growl. I have a Vintage Club 30 combo that has an invader and I love the way that sounds, but I wanted a bigger version of that to use with my VC50 head and 2X12 Cab. I played just the invader by itself through the head and it sounded like a lot was missing. That reaper just fills in alot of freqs! Anyway, after all the experimenting I'm very satified with my very lush sound. The reason why I chose the regular reaper was because I wanted more sparkle that the HP didn't have. And, Vaughn thanks for responding so quickly.
I also installed a Beam-Blocker into one of my cabs, and took it out after a few gigs. My rig was missing that "Airyness" that was mentioned earlier.
And Vaughn, I am also running a Reaper/Retro 30 combo in my Supersonic 22 and extension cab. It's a great combination -- I have the Reaper in the SS22 and the Retro in the extension cab and but now I'm thinking I should probably switch those around.
Played out with my (totally stock) SS22 ... just amp-cable-guitar ... for the first time last Saturday ... other guitar player was using an AC30 and ... IMHO ... the SS ate the AC30's tone for lunch. The Vox was so harsh & ...well ... painful compared to the SS22.
I'm seeing several of my other 1x12 combos going away soon ...
Will be doing speaker shootouts with the SS in the next month or so.
I have only had good luck using beam blockers with 15" speakers. For some reason, 15's seem to be more directional and harder to hear when standing off to the side, and beam blockers can help with this. Some blockers can make the highs sound a little "phasey" on certain notes, which might bug you or not. Again, I have never found I needed one with 10's or 12's.