guitar speaker/was Re: Tube challenge!

[Don Tillman]

   From: "Paul R. Higgins" <higg0008 at tc.umn.edu>
   Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 12:22:57 -0600

   Some amps, especially Marshalls, are NOT adequately conservatively
   rated for the kinds of playing conditions they're often put in by
   musicians.

   As an example of this, take a look at a 100W Marshall (or Fender)
   output transformer; then compare it to a 30W tranny made by a good
   manufacturer like Hammond.  The 100W Marshall/Fender tranny will be
   the SAME size as a 30W Hammond!!  

Such a transformer size is not necessarily a sign of inadaquate
design.  A transformer needs to be large for the low-end frequency
range, right?  The lowest note on a Hammond organ is 32.7 Hz, the
lowest note on a guitar is 82.4 Hz.  That's a sizable difference.

   Read any guitar magazine, and you'll hear professional players
   talking about how they love their Marshalls, but they go through
   them like water.

Guitar players also throw amplifiers around, drop them onto concrete,
store pedals and random crap inside the amplifier, run the amp into a
short because they haven't noticed that the speaker cable is frayed,
run the amp into an open load by forgetting to connect the cable,
connect some device with a severe grounding problem to the amp thus
applying the ac line voltage directly to an input, and, of course,
they routinely dump beers into their amps.

I wouldn't say that a manufacturer like Marshall is cheaping out just
because some amps die under these conditions.

  -- Don