Re: [Harp-L] Beam blockers



This tribal knowledge from the guitar world is very much an "it depends" situation.  First, the Weber style blockers, small disks mounted on the speaker axis, are ineffective.  They simply reflect the sound back into the cone, which in turn reflects the sound out of phase towards the front of the speaker.  The middle to edge of the cone is really the offending party in this crime.  The best solution is to cut a speaker-sized donut from 3/8" open-cell foam.  The donut hole should be about 2.5" on a 10" speaker, or 1/4 of the speaker diameter.  Just stick it on axis on the front of the baffle or the back of the grill cloth.  It will attenuate the ice pick highs without affecting anything below 1000 Hz.  

That said, here comes the "it depends" part.  The presence of the on-axis ice pick highs depends on your speaker and amp.  Some have 'em.  Some don't.  In general, ultra high gain amps (think Mesa Triple Rectifier) outfitted with bright speakers, with the gain dialed to 11 will benefit.  An old school single channel tube amp with lots of sag and typically dark speakers will go dead on you with this blocker installed.  Experiment.  Foam is cheap so you don't have to spend $40 to find out if blockers suck the life out of your amp.

Robert

On Dec 5, 2012, at 3:38 PM, Mike Butler <butlermike@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> any opinions on installing beam blockers on speakers in an amp used for harp (Peavey Delta Blues 2x10's)
> are they beneficial to the amplified signal related to harp ?




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