Cutting Speakers

[alterdcrash]

i heard people cut there amp's speakers to get some more distortion,i totaly want to do this,and if i break the amp's speakers it wont matter,i want to know where to cut the speaker,how many times to cut it,and the anatomy of the speaker

[metalmariachi]

In the words of Penn and Teller..
BULL SHIT it’s an old wives tale (meaning false like internet tales),

It will only fuck up your speaker, and not give you cool distortion etc.

Buy a crappy broken speaker off ebay for next to nothing or better yet.

if you insist on being stupid, I have an old speaker with a torn cone I haven’t got around to reconing yet, it has the special secret (insert rock star name here) tone,
I’ll sell it to you for $20,000

MM

[alterdcrash]

really? ive talked to some ppl that done it before...

[Nychthemeron]

Supposedly the first amp distortion was caused by a speaker that was banged around and they put newspaper in it to make it still work. I wouldn't cut a speaker though, it wouldn't be able to get those nice clean sounds ever again.

[alterdcrash]

Supposedly the first amp distortion was caused by a speaker that was banged around and they put newspaper in it to make it still work. I wouldn't cut a speaker though, it wouldn't be able to get those nice clean sounds ever again.

im not a fan of those 'nice clean sounds'

i have another amp i can use for clean sounds

[alterdcrash]

any more ansers?

[metalmariachi]

Supposedly the first amp distortion was caused by a speaker that was banged around and they put newspaper in it to make it still work. I wouldn't cut a speaker though, it wouldn't be able to get those nice clean sounds ever again.

Legend has it that Ike Turner, in 1948, dropped his amp, or put it in the trunk on top of the jack or a couple of other versions and recorded Rocket 88 getting that nice distortion.
But at the end of the recording his sound cleans up as he rolls the volume of his guitar back, which leads me to believe it’s just your run of the mill ’40s amp cranked all the way up.
Which is one of the most beautiful sounds around.

MM

[rbtr]

A buddy of mine uses and old keyboard cab with bad speakers. They are damaged in some way.

It sounds awful, like peeling Velcro apart while you eat rice krispies.

[Scruffie]

See the kinks.. it was common practice and does work (I remember an documentary where they did it) a few precision slices, causes the cone to distort but don't stab anything nice... just cheap cones, and you loose alot of fidelity,.. but it did happen.

[bigchiefbc]

I also seem to remember hearing that Geezer Butler got his distorted bass sound by using a guitar cab with blown speakers.

[Derelict78]

You can do it by cutting slits in the speaker cone. Use a razor blade and cut just a little at a time, check how is sounding and don't use an expensive speaker. If you don't like the sound you can re-cone the speaker.

[alterdcrash]

i used a razor blade and a pencil,i cut so many slices,poked so many holes,i even made a few large gaps,and it sounds the same as before
still crystal clean

[rbtr]

lolwut?

How big of a speaker are you slicing up? Maybe it has something to do with speaker movement, and if it's a large speaker it's not moving as much...I'm probably completely wrong, but maybe.

Just crank the thing.

[alterdcrash]

its a two 12inch speakers,they are cut up pretty badly too,no lightfuzz distortion still

[my bloody television]

that's really weird, because I ripped a cone on one of my speakers in my twin reverb this last spring and it was VERY noticeable...not a great sound by the way - sounded like trebly dry farts...replaced the speaker promptly. What kind of amp is it? How loud are you playing? where have you sliced? (I think if you slice closer to the outer perimeter you'll get more chance of harsh fuzzy disgustingness)