Re: [Harp-L] Ripped speaker cones



AFAIK "Rocket 88" (Ike Turner) was the first record with a ripped
speaker cone.  Link Wray did it on purpose on "Rumble."

Michael Easton wrote:

AFAIK it was a common practice in the late 60's early 70's as a way to get more distortion or fuzz
out of an amp. My brother use to do it to his speakers.
A scalpel blade was used to put cuts in the speakers then the cuts were sealed with nail polish to keep from ripping further. You just put in as many cuts as needed until
you got the sound you wanted.


Another method I heard from an amp tech is to spray Aqua Net (hairspray) on the cone. It's suppose to react with the paper giving a similar fuzz tone.

mike
On Jan 14, 2006, at 5:24 AM, Dave R. Fertig wrote:

This same lo-tech method for obtaining distortion was employed by Carlos Santana. I saw him talk about it in a smokey basement in N.W. Washington, D.C., I think it was like 1968 or '69, it's all so fuzzy... but as I recall he made a couple or few slashes - over the gasps and initial objections of his rotund plank spankin' cuzz, whose name I don't recall, but I think it was the band's name, Zapata.

I seem to recall the few cuts were radiant, rather than lateral, or parallel to the rim or driver, but can't be sure thirty-six years later. I do remember we thought it was easy and reckless for a seemingly rich rocker to slash cones, but a garage band couldn't so easily afford to replace them, and I think they had much shorter usage lifes, shredding not so long after the "modification." But again, it's all so darned fuzzy...

Sounded great though!

Harp content: I wasn't playing harp at the time, I was like 13 years old and running cables and rolling papers. But I was preparing myself spiritually to play the blues.

-Dave Fertig

At 05:12 AM 1/14/2006, you wrote:

From: John Frazer <jfrazer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 29, Issue 34
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:08:55 -0800

Spirit in the sky was played using a speaker with a rip in the cone.

hj

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