Mix 4 different speakers in a 4X12? (studio use)

[bforest4]

Anyone Mix 4 different speakers in a 4X12, how well does it work and sound? I want variety for recording, I could close mic any of the 4 speakers to get a different flavor. I was thinking G12H30, G12H30 Heritage, G12M Greenback, G12M Greenback Heritage. I could still get the heritage sound or the standard sound and save some money by not having to buy 4 heritage series. It is also alot cheaper than 2 2X12 cabs and I could use a 100 watt amp without blowing the speakers.

[John Phillips]

I think I read somewhere about Marc Bolan doing this in the 70s, but I could be wrong.

I'd personally choose four even more different speakers than the pairs of Heritage/non-Heritage models - something like:

G12M-25
G12H-30
Vintage 30
G12T-75

That should give you pretty much all the classic tones from one cab. You'd maybe want a G12-65 or a Classic Lead instead of any of those you didn't like...

[GTRJohnny]

From an audio standpoint, you're going to introduce a certain amount of phase cancelling and possibly some frequency response peaks and valleys. If you've heard it and it's cool with you, rock on. But, it makes better sense to match your speakers from a recording standpoint.

If your speakers aren't matched, they can be working in part against each other rather than together. Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but then neither did Eddie VH running speaker outs into the inputs of his amps. He obviously proved me wrong - even though he probably blew up a lot of amps in the process.

[GTRJohnny]

I should add there's no harm in doing it, other than the recorded tone. We used to pull the leads to extra speakers when recording and try to get the number down. I always found a single speaker (and usually a small amp) recorded better and sounded bigger than a 4x12 with a big amp. Just my 2 cents...

[sethmeister]

Originally Posted by GTRJohnny

I should add there's no harm in doing it, other than the recorded tone. We used to pull the leads to extra speakers when recording and try to get the number down. I always found a single speaker (and usually a small amp) recorded better and sounded bigger than a 4x12 with a big amp. Just my 2 cents...

You pulled 3 of the leads inside a 4x12 cab so that only one speaker in the cab was active?

I've been meaning to try that so I can record at lower volumes but still get good speaker involvement.

[bforest4]

Thanks for the opinions, anybody else? people seem to mix 2 different types of speakers alot, but I never see 4 different one's mixed.

[GTRJohnny]

Originally Posted by sethmeister

You pulled 3 of the leads inside a 4x12 cab so that only one speaker in the cab was active?

I've been meaning to try that so I can record at lower volumes but still get good speaker involvement.

Yes, we did. Looking back, we weren't experts in making sure our ohm settings were correct, but it did record better. It's a lot easier in open back cabs, but still doable in others. Many times, we took Marshall outs into single extension cabs or jacked into the speaker of a single combo. If it was open, we'd mic a ways behind it to pick up the effect with a rolled off condenser or a PZM.

Many people think that a bigger amp sounds bigger. That might be the case when standing by it, but not when recording it. You'd be surprised how many huge sounding guitar tracks were recording with Champs and Deluxes.