Musicians love their instruments. Ask a great guitarist to describe their favorite guitar and they may start at the head, fawn over the frets and fingerboards, talk about the curve of its body, and the beautiful inlays along its slender neck. Finally, their heart might race as they tell you about its output jack and the rockin’ 12” speaker on the other end of that cable.
The speaker gives a guitar its true voice - its tone. No other instrument is as reliant on its speaker as the guitar is. They are inseparable in the eyes of a knowledgeable musician. Musicians searching for the perfect guitar speaker was the inspiration for ToneSpeak™.
A Passion for Speakers
“We got approached by two guys in the music industry who had the goal of creating the world’s best guitar speakers,” says Dan Digre, President of MISCO. “They’d spent years listening to guitar speakers. They think they’ve listened to more guitar speakers than anyone else on Earth– and they’re probably right. They knew they wanted to create five different speakers to produce five of the most iconic sounds in music. It’s fun to work with people who are that passionate about speakers.”
The key to a great guitar speaker is its impulse and frequency responses. These parameters - which are technically forms of distortion - give a guitar its unique tone. MISCO transducer engineers fine-tuned every component of each ToneSpeak™ design - from the magnets, to the cones, to the proprietary adhesives that hold the cones in place - in order to perfect each model. The engineers got valuable feedback from some of the hottest guitarists playing today.
The impulse and frequency responses were measured with four different microphones, each tested in three different positions to ensure accuracy. MISCO used advanced Klippel technology to test and assess each speaker as it was created. The end results ‘speak’ for themselves.
ToneSpeak™ Lineup
Each ToneSpeak™ speaker is designed to help musicians recreate classic sounds that listeners may associate with a specific place or style.
The Austin 1250 delivers a pure American tone with balance, punch, fullness, and clarity. The mids are tailored and even. The highs are open and airy. The lows are tight and solid to round out the tone and perfectly balance the detail in the highs. The Austin 1250 is rated at 50 watts. It’s optimized for the popular Deluxe Reverb, but really is suitable to be placed in any quality amp.
Each ToneSpeak™ model is 12” and available in either an 8 ohm or 16 ohm design.
The New Orleans 1250 has a hemp cone that tames bright, harsh, ear-fatiguing amps and guitars. It’s warm, woody, smooth, and organic. The lows are full and defined, the mids are natural and warm, and the highs are creamy. It’s got a darker tone but not the muddiness that can be associated with it. This speaker is rated at 50 watts and excels playing the blues or some good honky-tonk.
The Birmingham 1275 is rated at 75 watts and has a personality all its own, with balance from top to bottom and rich harmonic complexity. There's a good punch and definition in the lows. The mids are warm and throaty. There’s nice grit with soaring articulation in the highs.
The Liverpool 1275 gives you the classic British rock tone. It is rated at 75 watts and has a complex, thick, and vocal midrange. This cuts through the upper-register. A full, lower-mid grunt completes the warm, gutsy, tight lows. The highs, while clear, open, and articulate remain warm and ear-pleasing.
The Manchester 1290 is even and balanced from top to bottom. There is no sacrifice in tone even at high power and high gain. This speaker plays well with pedals and is slow to break up. Guitarists will feel ultimate control with this 90 watt workhorse.
Each ToneSpeak™ speaker is American made and quality control is paramount because if you want your guitar to sound like it belongs in a blues bar in the French Quarter, it has to match the exact parameters carefully established for the New Orleans 1250. MISCO accomplishes this by passing each speaker it produces through an end-of-line test that confirms its frequency response, resonant frequency, polarity, impedance, and distortion. This final step ensures MISCO will create the world’s greatest guitar speakers.
