http://www.demeteramps.com/ "silent speaker cabinet" under the products menu.

a friend told me he uses one of these to cut guitar in a condo enviornment, instead of the pod type thing...

Anyone use this or similar? I need to cut guitars in the home studio, but volume is an issue.... and I'm pretty underwhelmed by the pod type virtual stuff.

( but what do I know, I'm a drummer)


any experience with these?


cz

Aidy Hall uses something similar...if he ever stops working he may get online and comment!

I use the Randall version. It's a godsend. My wife would be sleeping and I'd be cutting Dual Recto guitars at 1:00am in our apartment. Now I have it in my studio closet, and use it as my main guitar recording cab. The bottom end can get a little overwhelmed by the Mesa mega bottom, but I also run a '68 Bassman head that sounds amazing together. It's a MUCH better way to go than a speaker sim (palmer style rack unit).

I have the silentspeakercabinet for 2 years now. I like really dry, direct guitar sounds, especially with distorted tones. For clean and crunchy sounds I think the ssc is very nice, the more gain you use the more boxy the sound gets, for this I mostly prefere my marshall se100 and use the ssc as a real speaker for loading the amp. Ah yes, and I got better results by damping the inside of the box with lots of foam.
Best

shapemod

I have a similar product- called a Hermit cab.
These sort of devices sound better than modelling amps, certainly.
You are not able to get a very open sound, so if you were intending on close micing anyway it is a good way to go.
I fine it is great with Fenders, Matchless and Marshalls, not so great with Mesa, Engl, Soldano.

I had a Demeter silent speaker cab... and it was great. I mod'ed it to use 2 mics inside, instead of just 1. However, some people wouldn't give it a chance, due to it only being a 1x12".

But on more than one occasion other engineers would ask about 'how I got such a big tone' on my guitars... then they'd all be surprised to find out I was using the demeter (with either a Boogie MkIII Simul-class or a Road King).

When tracking bands in one big room, it was a godsend to be able to isolate the guitars like that. (Not to mention being able to play guitar when living in an apartment)

Cheers,
CJ

I own the Demeter SSC.

I don't know what your expectations are, but it's not totally silent. With a cranked 50 watt amp, it will cut the volume significantly, but your downstairs neighbors will still hear it. 50 watts, significanly quieted, is still pretty loud! Think of it more as a studio tool to provide some isolation rather than a devcice that will let you crank your Marshall without guilt at 1:00am.

There's not a lot of room for mic positioning. About a foot; maybe 18 inches max. Larger mics can be problematic. Tube mics also present a challenge because, stock, there is a panel with only a jack for the speaker cable and another XLR connector. I modified mine. I removed the "arm" and now I just use a small 4 inch tall desktop mic stand with a weighted circular base inside -- it allows for more positioning options. Then again, most people will just use a 57 or 421.

It sounds decent. Not ideal, but I've gotten some good tones. The amp, speaker, mic, pre, guitar, and player obviously have a lot to do with how it sounds and YMMV.

I still use a POD XT sometimes out of convenience, if that says anything.

Are you really recording the amp at full volume? I'd heard that some big dog engineers were recording amps at relatively low volume (even when it's heavily distorted guitars) and sum' bitch, it works! No need to throw 140 SPLs at your mic to get a big sound. YMMV I suppose.

But where does the air go?

If you want power tube distortion and/or are running a non-master volume amp, you have to crank it. Or not. It depends.

I've run my 22 watt Deluxe Reverb Reissue through it with the volume past 2/3 of the way up and it's audible outside the box.

I have had one for a few years now and I think its killer. I have a bunch of guitar amps, and I find it sounds great on everything. I must add that a Marshall Power Brake or similar will help. Due to the fact that it is a Vintage 30 speaker in it, a 100 watt amp could do it some harm.