Speaker Driver?

I've been reading about speaker cabs and stuff, and I saw mentioned on one of these threads about skipping the driver so it won't sound good. Anyway, I was wondering, what exactly is the driver & what does it do? I can't find anything on the net about it.

[font=trebuchet ms]Welcome to the forum section of Guitar Tricks.

I don't understand what you mean by "skipping the driver so it won't sound good".

'Driver' is another word for speaker. It used to mean the rear part of a horn, (the voice coil and magnet assembly), but the meaning has shifted over the years.[/font]

Thanks. Somone said that when you go through the headphone out directly to a line in it wouldn't sound good because you're skipping the driver. I dunno, I'm confused. :confused: :p

Originally Posted by: ibo2Thanks. Somone said that when you go through the headphone out directly to a line in it wouldn't sound good because you're skipping the driver. I dunno, I'm confused. :confused: :p

Ya could have just asked me in that same thread...

The driver/speaker basically acts like a filter/EQ to your sound. Like I already said in that thread, when you play with a clean sound, it will most likely sound fine when you bypass the speaker. However, a distorted signal has a lot of high content content, which gets filtered out when you send it through a speaker. When you bypass the speaker, you bypass that filtering, and you end up with a very harsh, buzzy sound.
One way to get it to sound better would be to send it through a speaker simulator.

That make more sense?

Yeah they helps dude. Thanks. I'm wondering, though, if I were to plug my preamp out into our PA system and then just use that through it's speakers would that sound the same as if I were to plug those same speakers into my amp, after the power amp?

Most likely, no. But that's not to say you won't like it. Depends a lot on what kind of guitar amp you have and the sound you are looking for. I find the sound I want from my amp, then mic it to reproduce the sound out front. I also send another mic line directly to the monitor board. You could also do both-mic and line out-and mix them in two channels on the PA. Try it all to find the sound you want.

On many amps, if you plug a chord into the effects send, it breaks the signal to your power amp section = no sound to your speakers. If you still want to hear your amp's speakers, use a splitter and run a short chord right back into the amp's effects return. Run the other to the PA.

Ok thanks. Actually, my amp has an effects loop and a preamp out, then also a power amp in. I found that I can send a pre-out and use my own cabs. So that's not really a problem, but that is a good idea you had. I asked some people in a local guitar shop this same question and they said it's basically like running your preamp through a power amp (which is the same thing that's in the amp anyway) and out through the PA's speakers. He said to get a good idea how it would sound, I should try plugging my PA speakers right into my amp. (not exactly how it'll sound but very close) Anyway I tried this and it doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for everything, guys.