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kt66

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ecc83

No, the output of a guitar amplifier, even if only mildly overdriven contains strong HF harmonics that are 'filtered' by the poor HF response of the standard guitar speaker. Many a dad's tweeter has been burned out by even quite modest 'widdling' by an errant sibling.

Electrostatic drivers are no 'faster' than their moving coil counterparts*. What they DO have is very effective natural damping and low colouration. These qualities give them an excellent transient response.  The same qualities are found in ribbon mics and tweeters and you do NOT want to put 20watts of HM thru an Adam monitor!

ICBM and other experts here are often telling us that 'hi-fi' technology is almost always the LAST thing you want in a guitar repro system!

*The 'speed' of any audio system is simply proportional to its bandwidth, the transducer type is unimportant so long as it can reproduce said bandwidth.

Dave.

Rocker

My inexpert input is that I consider the guitar amp and speaker(s) to be a single unit. The amp and speaker each adds its characteristics (distortions) to the sound, a sound that we guitarists love. And standard guitar speakers are cheap if replacements are ever needed unlike electrostatics or other speaker technologies.

kt66

thanks, I forget about distortion, and guitarists love for it, I only play with a very clean sound. 

ecc83

kt66 said:

thanks, I forget about distortion, and guitarists love for it, I only play with a very clean sound. 

Even what YOU consider  a 'clean' sound would be distorted horror to a hi-fi buff! This is largely because the SPEAKERS can reproduce the nasty harmonics. 

If you can ever arrange to play guitar CAREFULLY through a wideband speaker you will find it sounds dreadful. This is why we have 'emulation' filters!

Fave.

ICBM

You definitely do *not* want to put distorted guitar through electrostatics - even more so than other hi-fi speakers.

Firstly it will sound terrible.

Secondly it will get expensive!

You *can* use hi-fi speakers in the same way as you would studio monitors, for reproducing a fully-speaker-emulated electric guitar sound at a low enough volume that it won't stress them, or for acoustic guitar (although it would still be wise to use a limiter).

I blew my first set of - luckily not very good or expensive - hi-fi speakers exactly by not knowing that at the time .

Although the odd thing is that I've discovered that I *do* like the sound of some - mostly semi-acoustic - electric guitars DI'd through a good PA, usually using the neck pickup. It can sound a bit like an acoustic guitar with a soundhole pickup.

ecc83

ICBM said:

You definitely do *not* want to put distorted guitar through electrostatics - even more so than other hi-fi speakers.

Firstly it will sound terrible.

Secondly it will get expensive!

You *can* use hi-fi speakers in the same way as you would studio monitors, for reproducing a fully-speaker-emulated electric guitar sound at a low enough volume that it won't stress them, or for acoustic guitar (although it would still be wise to use a limiter).

I blew my first set of - luckily not very good or expensive - hi-fi speakers exactly by not knowing that at the time .

Although the odd thing is that I've discovered that I *do* like the sound of some - mostly semi-acoustic - electric guitars DI'd through a good PA, usually using the neck pickup. It can sound a bit like an acoustic guitar with a soundhole pickup.

The advent of the active monitor and PA speaker has largely eliminated the risk to the drive units so long as the speakers are of high quality and have well designed protection circuits in the amplifiers. This will do nothing however to make a screaming lead guitar sound better!  Your special case excepted IC.

There is also the fact that there are very few hi fi systems or monitors that can come close to the sound levels produced but even a 15W valve amp and a 100dB/W/mtr speaker!

Dave.

TheMarlin

kt66 said:

My first love is HiFi, I wear many nerd hats.
No doubt to me that electrostatics are the most accurate reproducers of the source.  The detail is frightening.
The speed they react at is unbeatable but you need big ones for bass.
They seem perfect for guitars to me, especially as part of an acoustic amplified set up. Also would 
be perfect for those who like to play 100s of notes a second. 

Anyone ever seen, heard, or had one? 

I’ve has Quad ELS57’s and 63’s. Also had Mark Levinsin Electrostatics. 

My my favourites are still the 57’s. But, don't put clamps on then, it kills their beautiful open tone. 

Im on the look out for another set of Mark Levinsin Electrostatics, I don’t have the footprint for. 57’s any more.  

kt66

I got great new design clamps from Classique Sounds in Leicester for my old 57s. Didn't change the sound at all. They 
are long gone. I still have a 22 and 2 pairs of II's. Using Rogers LS5/9 for years now. 
Loved the Quads, but not for family life in small house. 
Anyone ever turned a 22 into a guitar pre amp???

Danny1969

A lot of people my age started off playing guitar into Hi Fi's and radiograms because that's all there was. It used to sound terrible if you used any kind of overdrive or distortion, like a bee in a jam jar !    Clean sounds were also pretty uninspiring