Whats the ultimate 12" guitar replacement speaker?

I've never compared personally, but maybe the bleed / cancellation from three nearby speakers is an integal part of the rock guitar sound we're accustomed to hearing.
 
It's simply a matter of the size of the enclosure; a 4x12 will resonate much more and have a much deeper, fuller sound than any 1x12 or 2x12 can. If close-mic'ing a speaker meant that all your were recording was the sound of the speaker, then all cabs with the same speakers should sound pretty much the same when they're close mic'ed, but they do not! I would never record with anything less than a 4x12 personally (and have mic'ed up multiple 2x12's with "eh" results)
 
It's simply a matter of the size of the enclosure; a 4x12 will resonate much more and have a much deeper, fuller sound than any 1x12 or 2x12 can. If close-mic'ing a speaker meant that all your were recording was the sound of the speaker, then all cabs with the same speakers should sound pretty much the same when they're close mic'ed, but they do not! I would never record with anything less than a 4x12 personally (and have mic'ed up multiple 2x12's with "eh" results)

what about a full sized cabinet w/one speaker? (other holes sealed of course).

has anyone ever tried?
 
sorry if this is completely a noob question, but i truly havent ever messed with this before. is replacing speakers in a 2x12 or 4x12 as simple as screwing/unscrewing speakers and connecting the wires... or is there more involved like a pickup swap (soldering, grounding, etc)?

i'm considering swapping out the speakers in my Vetta 2 combo with these universally praised V30's and seeing if it improves it, but not sure if its as simple as i may think it is
 
how about...taking a crappy cab with whatever speakers that may or may not even be blown, replacing one of said speakers with a juicy new v30 and simply tracking only on that cone. is this the type of thing that would PROBABLY work just fine for all intents and purpopses but purists will say NONONONO because of the crudeness of it?
 
Well one thing I can say I'm probably sure of is that it'd be better to replace all 4 speakers than just 1 to really get the tonal benefit, but I have no experience to back this up (it just makes sense theoretically to me because of the next point I'm about to make ;)). However, one thing I am certain of is that the same speakers in two different cabs will definitely sound different; not necessarily better or worse, hell, at some point in the future I may hear a clip of a Marshall MG cab with the speakers swapped for V30s that is the greatest sounding thing in the world, but I know that between my old Mesa Stiletto cab and the Recto cab I replaced it with, despite the fact that they had the same speakers (right down to the same impedance, both for the individual speakers and the overall wiring impedance), I much prefer the Recto cab for it's lack of excessive mids! (spec. in the 400 Hz range). Here's a thread with comparison clips
 
Mixing speakers is just begging for issues. All speakers playing a given frequency range should be the same speakers in the same (spec'd) enclosure (unless there is some hella extensive planning and design behind it, which I couldn't even imagine trying to accomplish). Cancellation is not a friend of anybodies.
 
Mixing speakers is just begging for issues. All speakers playing a given frequency range should be the same speakers in the same (spec'd) enclosure (unless there is some hella extensive planning and design behind it, which I couldn't even imagine trying to accomplish). Cancellation is not a friend of anybodies.

hrmm, i see your point. :erk:
 
what about a full sized cabinet w/one speaker? (other holes sealed of course).

has anyone ever tried?

The speaker needs a proper sized enclosure, if you put 1 speaker in a cabinet that was big enough for 4 speakers, then the low end bass would be extremely flubby, not to mention the fact that you would risk blowing the speaker because the larger the enclosure, the lower the resonant frequency and less "acoustic suspension" the speaker would have, meaning it would handle much less wattage. In short, a speaker and it's enclosure go hand in hand.
 
The speaker needs a proper sized enclosure, if you put 1 speaker in a cabinet that was big enough for 4 speakers, then the low end bass would be extremely flubby, not to mention the fact that you would risk blowing the speaker because the larger the enclosure, the lower the resonant frequency and less "acoustic suspension" the speaker would have, meaning it would handle much less wattage. In short, a speaker and it's enclosure go hand in hand.

ah thanks for the reply! I educated myself a bit about this since the post in the course of researching whether i could play a guitar cab w/bass amp and vice versa. (when i was young and pleasantly naive i played an RP-1 into a Kustom Bass head into a couple random speaker cabs, one had a 15" bass speaker in it and it was pretty cool - glad i don't have any recordings of it to shatter the illusion though)

I know some hi-fi speakers use extra drivers that aren't plugged in - what would happen in a guitar cab in that situation do ya think?