Efficient 8 inch speakers for a Pignose Hog 30?

[Mcabe]

After a months long hiatus, finally had an outdoor/ socially distant band practice at the drummers house. It was great to see everyone and play music again, but my acoustic bass was nowhere near loud enough. This got me interested in trying to refurbish my 20 year old battery powered Pignose Hog 30. It has a 4 ohm, 8 inch speaker that sounds ok on bass, but gets distorted when pushed, and lacks low end.

Any ideas for an efficient 8 inch speaker that would improve the sound over the stock driver? I think I might be able to enlarge the opening and fit a 10 inch speaker as well. I need to keep it small and portable, so am not interested in lugging around an extension cab.

 

[Wasnex]

After a months long hiatus, finally had an outdoor/ socially distant band practice at the drummers house. It was great to see everyone and play music again, but my acoustic bass was nowhere near loud enough. This got me interested in trying to refurbish my 20 year old battery powered Pignose Hog 30. It has a 4 ohm, 8 inch speaker that sounds ok on bass, but gets distorted when pushed, and lacks low end.

Any ideas for an efficient 8 inch speaker that would improve the sound over the stock driver? I think I might be able to enlarge the opening and fit a 10 inch speaker as well. I need to keep it small and portable, so am not interested in lugging around an extension cab.

Are you sure the problem is the speaker? Manual says 20W, 35W peak. My guess is it would be closer to 9W clean.

I would check out the original speaker to see what the impedance it is. Then hook up a decent speaker with the same impedance and see how loud it gets before it farts out.

A common mod for the Cube Street EX is to install Jensen MOD 8-20s. It's rated for 20W and comes in 4 or 8 ohms. Each side of the Cube Street EX is rated for 25 watts max. I doubt it would make much improvement.
Mod 8-20 | Jensen Loudspeakers

If you are willing to spend decent money, check at the Faital 8s and do some modeling to see which would work the best in the volume of the Hogs speaker cab.

Open the page and you can filter the results to 8s.
FaitalPRO | LF Loudspeakers

 

[abarson]

Don't waste your time trying to stuff a bigger speaker into an already small enclosure.

This Dayton might work for your application.
"Dayton Audio PA200-8 8" Pro Woofer Speaker" from www.parts-express.com!

 

[Blues Bass 2]

I put one of these in my Ampeg BA108 and liked the results . Sounds deeper than the stock speaker and still has good mids . The Faital works well in a small sealed cabinet .
"FaitalPRO 8FE200 8" Professional Midbass 4 Ohm" from www.parts-express.com!

 

[Mcabe]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I was just looking at the Faital 8FE200 last night. Seems to check all the boxes: reasonable mid bass response, high sensitivity, designed to work in small enclosures.

I think it is the speaker distorting, because I don't remember it farting out as much when I used to busk with it. It has a headphone jack, so it should be easy to confirm that the problem is with the speaker and not the amplifier itself.

 

[BassmanPaul]

I put one of these in my Ampeg BA108 and liked the results . Sounds deeper than the stock speaker and still has good mids . The Faital works well in a small sealed cabinet .
"FaitalPRO 8FE200 8" Professional Midbass 4 Ohm" from www.parts-express.com!

That driver is worth more than the entire amp!! OP don't try to put lipstick onto a pig's nose!!

 

[Blues Bass 2]

That driver is worth more than the entire amp!! OP don't try to put lipstick onto a pig's nose!!

That is funny but the speaker only costs $50 . My Ampeg cost $100 new so I was spending half of what my whole amp cost on just the speaker so I was being kind of foolish but like the way it sounds . The Pignose costs about three times what my little amp does so it's not such a stretch . For sure make sure it's the speaker and not the amp , it sounds like you are on board with that .

 

[Redbrangus]

It has a headphone jack, so it should be easy to confirm that the problem is with the speaker and not the amplifier itself.

I'm not so sure that this is so. The two obvious possible problems are that the speaker is crapping out as it exceeds it's mechanical limits or the amp is clipping, as @Wasnex seems to be suggesting. In the latter case, listening at the headphone jack isn't likely to reveal the problem as the amp will no longer be driving it's low impedance load, so isn't likely to be driven into clipping until well after your headphones will have bitten the dust.

I kinda-sorta tend to agree with @BassmanPaul about putting lipstick on a Pig(nose)...nice one, BTW...but in this case, spending ~$50 might be worth it if it makes a usable amp out of one that otherwise is not serviceable. Presuming one has a use for it, and presuming that a new, better speaker will resolve the issue, that is. I endorse Was's concept of temporarily connecting a 4-ohm speaker to see if it's the amp or the self-contained speaker that's causing the problem. My money is on the speaker. BTW, it would probably pay to roll off the low end quite a bit to avoid running out of horsepower, even with the new speaker. And @abarson is right that it is pointless to try to stuff a larger driver into what probably is already a too-small box.

 

[MynameisMe]

I have one of these. I find it best with my P bass with flats.
The active 5 string is too much for that little amp.
You can EQ it to get a decent sound but it may be the bass. Your bass.
I used the MXR preamp on it for a while and got a decent sound out of it.
I have used it for outdoor evangelism with an acoustic guitarist and we both plugged into it and it was plenty loud.

 

[Wasnex]

BTW, it would probably pay to roll off the low end quite a bit to avoid running out of horsepower, even with the new speaker.

This would definitely be a good place to use an HPF pedal.

 

[rickwick7600]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I was just looking at the Faital 8FE200 last night. Seems to check all the boxes: reasonable mid bass response, high sensitivity, designed to work in small enclosures.

I think it is the speaker distorting, because I don't remember it farting out as much when I used to busk with it. It has a headphone jack, so it should be easy to confirm that the problem is with the speaker and not the amplifier itself.

Whatever you decide to do, please post your results. I've been considering doing the same with my pignose.

 

[BassBeginer64]

I put one of these in my 25 Rumble made a major difference. nothing wrong with the oem one, if you want it just pay shipping for a OEM rumble 25 speaker
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AAPNKM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Reedt2000]

 

[Wasnex]

I had a friend ask me about this recently (he wanted to upgrade the tone of his) so I did some research. This is what I found as the most popular replacement, which is also an upgrade:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00346WOTC/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8


Lots of people say it's a big improvement on the original, and affordable. Its a tight fit apparently cause the magnet is bigger, but no need to modify the amp, just drop it in.

You might want to double check as Hog 30 uses an 8" driver and you are recommend a 5" replacement.

 

[jallenbass]

I had a friend ask me about this recently (he wanted to upgrade the tone of his) so I did some research. This is what I found as the most popular replacement, which is also an upgrade:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00346WOTC/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8


Lots of people say it's a big improvement on the original, and affordable. Its a tight fit apparently cause the magnet is bigger, but no need to modify the amp, just drop it in.

That's only a 5" though.

 

[Redbrangus]

I endorse taking @BassBeginer64 up on the offer of the Fender OEM speaker for just the shipping cost. That's a plenty good enough driver for this purpose, IMO. Unless you think the Pig' is worth spending $50-60 on, and you wouldn't have to spend much more than that to get a pretty decent small bass amp on Craigslist, IME.

 

[Wasnex]

I put one of these in my 25 Rumble made a major difference. nothing wrong with the oem one, if you want it just pay shipping for a OEM rumble 25 speaker
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AAPNKM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The attached document shows two sealed cab designs for the Alpha 8a. With cab Volume of .59 cu ft you get F3 of 70.59 hz. The response peaks around 140 hz, which is probably not going to sound great, but I believe it will be relatively fat sounding. The Alpha 8a can handle way more power than the Hog 30 is rated for. Sensitivity is 94dB.

Keep in mind the Alpha 8a is an 8 ohm driver. If the Hogs original driver is 4 ohms your going to be giving up a lot of power.

 

[BassBeginer64]

yup ya need to stay in a 4 ohm speaker.

 

[Reedt2000]

You might want to double check as Hog 30 uses an 8" driver and you are recommend a 5" replacement.

That's only a 5" though.

Crap, its a different model being discussed here... my bad

 

[JimChjones]

This would definitely be a good place to use an HPF pedal.

Has anyone on here ever posted anything on the lines of "an HPF pedal won't help you with this, don't waste your money on one"?