DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

At the intersection of sustainable living and loud rock and roll you’ll find an innovative new speaker cone made of my favorite agricultural product, hemp. My friend Bruce K. pointed this out, and I’m so thrilled with it I may learn to play the guitar just so I can get my speaker cab retrofitted with hempcones.

A writer for Stereophile recounts a demonstration of Tone Tubbies hemp speakers:

With his bass feeding a Mesa Boogie Road Ready 215, he alternated via a switch box between two identical EV-M400 bass cabinets, one fitted with stock drivers and the other fitted with Tone Tubbies. The stock drivers had the edgy, hollow sound of many pro loudspeakers. The Tone Tubbies, by contrast, were full sounding — richer, deeper, smoother, by far more musical and more pleasant to hear.

If that review sounds underwhelming, remember that it describes a solo bass guitar. If a simple speaker change can make a bassist sound musical, it’s not only a good deal, it’s downright miraculous. Heh.

Hemp speakers are used by Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), and Norm Perry, who you’ve probably not heard of but whose band I joined in March. (I just unexpectedly discovered his endorsement of them on the Tone Tubby Field Reports web page.)