Tech question regarding speaker power.

Hi all,

Recently i've been starting a stomp box to use when playing the guitar, for those who don't know it's just a box or board that has a speaker or pick up attached, you plug it in to an amp and it gives you a nice drum beat when you tap it.

Now the one i want to make is here....

Stomp box

I saw this used to great effect at a gig the other week. Exactly the same design, the speaker used on the wood was a 500 watt one so had lots of nice base. It was however, plugged into a PA system that the venue owned. The PA system was an average one for a small music venue so i'm guessing around 500 watts. (Beginners guess there).

A friend of mine just gave me two speakers to make this stomp box with, a 400 watt and a 750 watt.

However, my hope is to use this box in my Roland Street Cube which is 5 watts (sounds louder though).

My question is, and the thing i'm worried about is.....if i am stomping on a 400 or 750 watt stomp box, plugged into a 5 watt amp, can i blow the speakers? Or will the amps only use what it needs?

Apologies if this sounds a bit vague, i have no idea about music electronics.

Thanks.

CX.

Originally posted by CX
My question is, and the thing i'm worried about is.....if i am stomping on a 400 or 750 watt stomp box, plugged into a 5 watt amp, can i blow the speakers? Or will the amps only use what it needs?

As the page says, the speaker is just acting like a (bad) microphone.
The power rating of the speaker is completely unimportant. All you ever get out, no matter what the size or power of the speaker is a tiny signal that needs amplification.

The amp you use, whatever amp it is, will not be blown by the tiny output from the stomp speaker.

Edit - I'd go so far as to say you shouldnt even refer to your stomp thing as a "750 watt stomp box", because the mere mention of the speaker's power rating in this context is irrelevent and misleading.

Ignore, my post. I didn't read that the OP wanted to use a speaker as a mic.

The amount of power a speaker acting as a microphone would produce would not be anywhere near enough to damage your amp, I would think.

I'm not knowledgeable about it all though, and someone will come along to explain if it is or not, but you're basically turning a speaker into a microphone, and using the wood to 'amplify' the input enough.. it seems.

That's why you need to plug the box into a powered amplifier, same as your guitar, or you could just plug your headphones into your guitar. You can't, there's not enough power created by the instrument.

I'd love someone to explain if I'm wrong and why, my old man was good with electronics and this sort of thing. I was too busy cleaning beer bottles.

Originally posted by alfa1

Edit - I'd go so far as to say you shouldnt even refer to your stomp thing as a "750 watt stomp box", because the mere mention of the speaker's power rating in this context is irrelevent and misleading.

edit on 11-4-2013 by alfa1 because: (no reason given)

Ah i think i see what you mean now, it's a bit like someone buying a state of the art super dooper powerfull car stereo, but still using crappy 10 watt speakers in the car?

So am i right in saying though, if i did for example use the 750 speaker, i'd have more available to me should i ever need to use it in a bigger venue with bigger PA systems? I mean theres no harm in having the bigger speaker on there? (apart from the damn weight lol)

Thanks for the information, it is much appreciated. Apologies for the misleading use of terms, as i said, i know little about this.

Cheers everyone.

Originally posted by Hellhound604
Ignore, my post. I didn't read that the OP wanted to use a speaker as a mic.

edit on 11/4/2013 by Hellhound604 because: Misread OP

Apologies, my fault for not explaining it right.

I'm not clued up on this kind of thing, didn't realize it was acting as a mic until it was just mentioned.

CX.