As far as spikes go I like brass, zinc and some mild steel. I’m not crazy about the sound of too much hard material in the system, to easy to get frequency clusters and stage holes with harder materials. I’m cautious about the sound of Maple. Maple is the Aluminum of the wood world. Sometimes I will use Maple or Aluminum for Tuning bars but that’s only with certain woods or sizes of side boards on speakers, rare for me though.
With cones, Brass blends are my fav. Not always 360 but 360 is a great standard to start with. Doing Copper/Zinc alloy blending can get pretty expensive. 360 is so great because you can play with speeds (turn) and different shapes easy. I should give this tip as well if folks are using the brass cones (mine or others). If you’re using Brass cones and you’re finding the highs still a little too forward or brittle, take 220 grit sand paper and gently sand the end of the cone tip just barely and it will smooth out the transfer. You can do this same trick on your other cone types as well, just be careful to only do this on the tip or top surface. If you do this with the main part of the cone you can screw things up. And always sand in the direction of the turn and in circles, don’t do side to side sanding on metals. Since I have moved to the desert I find myself blending less metals and curing more wood. LTR has been a major hit for me and I can voice the wood to different grades, and that goes a long way in helping folks get those missing tones they’ve been hunting for.
There’s lots to look into when using any material and shapes and the only way to come up with a formula is to jump in and do it. Folks who just throw out material names without giving a formula of use are not very accurate. But if you talk to someone who has takin the time to play around they can help you.
Michael Green
