Harsh, fizzy, raspy, really nasty, and not in a usable way, not even if you like extreme guitar sounds...misterfolkertsma wrote:Define, 'terrible'a.hun wrote:
First thing is to avoid any with a horn tweeter. These sound terrible for guitar, especially with any distortion.
Like, harsh?
Electric guitar sounds once they been through a guitar speaker have very little power at all in the frequencies above about 5kHz. Though there isn't very much treble power in most electric bass sounds, modern bass sounds often do go to much higher frequencies than guitar. An HF horn in a bass cab allows those (lowish power level) high frequency sounds from a bass to be heard - if wanted anyway. (Bass can actually be a much more 'full frequency range' instrument than guitar is and modern horn equipped bass cabs often go up to 15 - 20kHz instead of the typical 4-5kHz for guitar cabs!)
Imagine you were expecting to hear a nice rich trumpet, and instead you got a horrible ice pick 'gazoo on bad steroids' sort of sound, except trumpet loud. That is what happens when you use a speaker with real treble for electric guitar, especially a piezo type HF horn. Seriously, I've been there and it just doesn't work!
Probably wouldn't matter for long though to be honest. Since the guitar itself would put out lots of mid / high frequencies, and the bass amp would amplify them quite happily, you'd end up putting out a lot more power at those frequencies than the horn could ever handle and would blow it real fast. And you'd be happy it blew - trust me on that!!!
So why not just buy a cab with a horn and turn the horn down?
Because you'll almost always find that the main speakers in horn equipped bass cabs won't go quite high enough without the horn to sound any good for guitar. The crossover frequency may well be as low as 2.5 - 3.5kHz and with the horn dialled out your guitar would sound too muffled. (With the horn dialled even a little in you'll suddenly have those nasty raspy high frequencies back again. Just a little horn won't cut it either!)
That is why I'd honestly suggest non horn equipped cabs like those I mentioned.
Andy.