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Tweeter?
- Thread starter John Deacon
- Start date
A Tweeter is someone that uses an internet service to post inane 140 character messages about the minutia of their lives, generally rife with grammatical, capitalization and punctuation errors.
Oh wait. A tweeter is simply a high frequency speaker that is optimized for producing sounds at the upper end of the frequency range, generally from 2000 Hz (or higher) up to the limit of human hearing (generally accepted to be 20,000 Hz or so) or even higher.
Oh wait. A tweeter is simply a high frequency speaker that is optimized for producing sounds at the upper end of the frequency range, generally from 2000 Hz (or higher) up to the limit of human hearing (generally accepted to be 20,000 Hz or so) or even higher.
Ahhh gotcha. So it would almost be like another highs knob on my amp. I couldn't really hear a difference though when I turned it up, but I heard it was bad to leave it off. So I just raised it a little bit.
Per the above, a tweeter extends the frequency response of your rig into the low and upper treble region. Most drivers (10's, 12's, etc.) roll off around the upper midrange or lower treble region. So, like a PA cabinet, a tweeter just allows the entire range of your instrument to be heard (no the low and high notes, but the low and high frequencies).
If you are one who uses roundwound strings, and enjoys having some treble in your tone along with bass and mids, it is a beautiful sound, and will help you obtain a stage tone similar to a 'front of house' PA type tone that the audience typically hears.
On the other had, if you like a distorted tone (like from a tube amp driven hard or from a distortion pedal), tweeters can sound harsh and 'unmusical' with that kind of input signal.
Finally, tweeters can uncover and amplify both problems in your signal chain (i.e., a cheap amp that puts out a lot of noise/hiss, or a noisy bass with poor shielding) and issues with your technique (sloppy right or left hand technique, etc.). So, many who post that tweeters 'hiss' or 'sound bad' are actually hearing issues with other things that the tweeter is reproducing.
So, would it be safe to turn it completely off? I've heard that it can cause the amp speakers to blow.
I think the only issue there is that some attenuators might overheat when turned all the way off, but I think this has mostly an issue that no longer exists. Just to be sure just turn the tweeter down 90% (i.e., just barely on). You won't hear it, and you will have no issues.
You are OK by definition turning off the tweeter. A switch takes the tweeter out of the signal chain. An attenuator works a little differently (I'm not an EE, so getting a bit over my head). I believe an attenuator 'absorbs' some of the power as you turn the tweeter down, while a switch just removed the tweeter from the system. So, no problem at all with a switch... that's what it is there for.
An attenuator circuit is there because the designer assumed that those who buy a cab with a tweeter actually want a tweeter
. Again, however, turning the attenuator down to 'almost off' will be fine (and again, I think the newer attenuator designs don't have an issue being turned all the way off).Thanks! I'm going to turn it up just a little bit more to make sure. Better to be safe than sorry. Haha. Thanks again!
