Is fuzz bad for tweeters?

[70sJazz]

Planning on using a Woolly Mammoth fuzz. Do I need to worry about damaging the tweeter to my cab. Must I attenuate the tweeter the whole way? What about combos that have no tweeter attenuator, it's good enough to just roll of the highs a bit?

Or shouldn't I be worrying about any of this?

[grue]

Well, fuzz sounds terrible through a tweeter, and smart people say you can damage it. Here is a thread:
Distortion and Tweeter

[bongomania]

Depends on how loud you play, and the wattage rating of the specific tweeter. Yes, it is possible to fry a tweeter with fuzz, in extreme cases--but people use fuzz on bass all day every day without destroying their tweeters, just by minding their levels. If you plan to crank it up to where the high-frequency content may exceed the rating of the tweeter, I'd suggest using an EQ post-fuzz to roll off the highs a bit.

[70sJazz]

OK so you guys that have tweeter cabs, what do you do switching back & forth between clean & fuzz sounds? Do you reach to your amps & dial the tweeter back each time or is cutting the treble control on your amp good enough to protect the tweeter & get a good fuzz tone?

[Mark Olson]

I wouldn't put tweeter and good fuzz tone in the same sentence. Not unless you were to say, "getting rid of the tweeter is key to a good fuzz tone". Or some such.

[70sJazz]

OK but my only cabs have a tweeter. I don't like to play without one for my clean sound & I'll play clean more than 95% of the time. It looks like the best solution is to turn the tweeter the whole way down. That's kinda what I thought but just wanted to make sure.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by 70sJazz

Planning on using a Woolly Mammoth fuzz. Do I need to worry about damaging the tweeter to my cab.

You do. The potential for clipped waveforms to kill tweeters is the grain of truth behind the myth of under-powering.

It looks like the best solution is to turn the tweeter the whole way down.

That raises the possibility of toasting your LPad and your crossover, as they aren't designed to handle high levels of harmonic distortion either.
The only safe method of using fuzz with tweeters is if the fuzz has EQ to attenuate the highs.

[70sJazz]

Yikes. Well my Markbass head has the VLE filter knob. It basically rolls off the highs & makes the cab sound old school & vintage. Around a 1 o'clock setting, it makes the cab sound as if it's a cab with no tweeter. Maybe that's the way to go then to keep from overloading the tweeter or crossover.