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Tweeters?..... We Don't Need No Stinking Tweeters!

#22
Szyszaczek said:
BTW what is the diffrence betwen twitter, horn and HF driver?
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Different word for the same thing, a loudspeaker for the higher frequencies.

But, normally the three you mentioned are used as follows:
tweeter = dome tweeter (Hifi) / bullet or slot tweeter (PA)
horn = a horn (which can be small when used for high frequencies or large when used for mids 'n lows)
HF driver = High Frequency Driver, this is the actual high frequency loudspeaker you would connect to a horn
 
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#23
Horn loading of drivers as the standard Foster / Fostex / P Audio etc is somewhat pointless, IMO. You find that these designs tend to end up with a horn that is too small to load the driver enough. This results in giving up extension in the critical area where the horn meets the cone drivers signal, instead boosting the rest of the sensitivity up to a level where it is too strong, and from which we bass players pad it down to a flatter response.
Some brands (EBS, I am looking at you!) do this right and implement a HF design which has more even response, goes deeper and has a better transition to the cone drivers. To make up for the higher power presented when playing deeper into the mids, they picked a driver with bigger Voice Coil. I have not heard any commercial bass cabs with coax drivers, and of the regular cabs, none has been better than EBS.
 
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#24
Jeff Scott said:
I used to use Traynor gear. :)

My first bass amp was a YBA-3 that I bought new in 1974, and I have owned a YSR-1 in the early '80s and made some great recordings with it with my old Rickenbacker 4005WB.

I also had a '60s YT-15 with EVM-15s in it, and more recently a pair of '60s YS-15 cabinets that I put Delta Pros drivers in to excellent effect.

No tweeters and they sounded excellent. :cool:

Here is the pair of YS-15 cabinets.

View attachment 619294

The YT-15 looked the same but (obviously) just one tall cabinet, and was actually divided internally so it was like a pair of cabinets attached together.

They sounded great with my old Walter Woods!

View attachment 619295
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That is beautiful
 
#25
My cabs are three-way and feature the nicest tweeter I've ever heard. When it is switched off, the very, very nice mid-drivers respond up to 8k. I usually run with the tweeter switched off and get all of the high-end detail I need or want. I am in the group that usually does not need a tweeter, regardless of its aroma... :cool:
 
#27
I just went thru a bit of tweeter pros/cons while planning my fEARful build. I'm opting for no tweeter because the cabs already have exceptional range. I turn the tweeters off most cabs even though I really like a bright sound sometimes.
 
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#29
I hate the sound of tweeters for "bedroom tone." Playing with a loud rock band, those harsh schlitty sounding highs make me sit better in the mix. I still think you should at least be able to attenuate the tweeter on every amp, or its not for me.
 
#35
Although when I first got it, I liked the sound of the 5 inch driver over a horn (Hartke 4.5XL), I always wished that you could turn it down or off if you wanted to but on that model there is no knob. So a couple of months ago I disconnected the 5" and re EQed. I was thrilled with the sound I was able to get without it. I have kept it that way ever since.
 
#36
Jeff Scott said:
With the right gear, tweeters/horns are unnecessary. When I did have cabinets with them they were usually set very low or off, but there have not been many that I have had with them.
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For me, the "right" cab has a tweeter. But only in the sense that it's "right" for the style of music I play. I have a cab that has a tweeter control on the front which is *nice*
 
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#39
"It's all about the bass, 'bout the bass. No tweeters."

  • How many of you have a preference for cabs without tweeters?
  • In what musical situations do you find them to be most appropriate for your needs?
  • Are there any of you who just simply do not like tweeters/horns at all in your cabs? Why?
  • Response.......................
  • Me, I have an Acme B-2 and the tweeter is turned off. Tweeters don't matter to me since my bass' eq stops at around 4,000 hz.
  • For slapping and snapping strings but I don't do that kind of thing.
  • I don't like tweeters because I don't need them so it's money wasted on the price of my cab. I don't care for the "zip", "zing" and annoying scratchy sound of round wounds + high eq + tweeters. It's just not my sound. But I understand that other bassists have their sound and I totally respect that others do like tweeters.
 
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#40
I've found that even the cabs I did have with Tweeters, I always just turned the dial all the way down. Never found a cab with them I liked to have em on. even at 1 or 2. That being said I prefer 15's, I use 2 DB115's for stage, and my 12's are GS112NT's for practice, small gigs. I don't even use 10's anymore. But out of the 15's or 12's I can more than enough highs that live or in a mix wouldn't be made more usable by adding a tweeter.
 
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