Buscarino Chameleon Speaker 8" Cabinet, from Buscarino

John Buscarino, a builder of fine guitars, was looking for a speaker that would accurately convey the fine nuances that his high-end custom-built guitars are capable of generating. Considering the fact that John builds acoustic, electric and jazz guitars he also needed one speaker that could handle both electric and acoustic pickups equally well. Unfortunately, a speaker like that does not seem to exist. John, a firm believer in the "If you want it done right, do it yourself" philosophy set out to create a speaker that would satisfy these needs and more.

Chameleon is a speaker system that is designed to accurately reproduce the sound of ALL guitars across their dynamic range. Hence, versatility has been one of the design goals from the beginning.

With Chameleon connected to your favorite amplifier, you'll get great results with:

* Archtop guitars * Classical nylon-string guitars * Flat-top guitars * Semi-hollow guitars * Solid-body guitars

You can even use a Chameleon as a vocal speaker if you like. Why not? It's designed to be a full-range speaker. Other applications to consider for your Chameleon are as a studio reference speaker or even as a small P.A. It's that good!

The secret: a professional quality coaxial speaker coupled with a custom designed crossover so the Chameleon can be run in two separate modes.

In "Acoustic Mode" the input signal is run through the crossover and then distributed to the woofer and the tweeter. You get the full range sound with all the highs you'd expect out of a flat-top or a nylon-string guitar.

In "Electric Mode", the full sound is routed to the woofer only. You get a warmer, softer sound that is perfect for Archtop and Electric guitars.

Here are Chameleon's design goals:

* Must achieve the best sound possible * Must be lightweight and portable * Must be built with the highest quality components. * Must be rugged, and durable. * Must be able to accurately reproduce both acoustic and electric pickups * Must be protected against distortion, amplifier overload and short circuit. * Must mount on a pole as well as on the floor. * Must be the only guitar speaker you will ever need

After many designs and numerous changes we are proud to say that we have finally reached our goal. No expense was spared. Whenever the choice was between "quality" or "cost", quality was chosen every time.

The Chameleon was the best speaker we could make, period

The Chameleon cabinet and crossover were engineered by Vance Dickason, using state-of-the-art computer modeling technology, combined with Vance's years of experience and golden ears. Vance has won awards for his work in loudspeaker engineering and has written a couple of critically acclaimed books in the field.

General specifications:

* Frequency response: 70Hz to 20KHz with a response curve as shown below
* Power handling: 175 watts RMS
* Efficiency: 96 Db
* Speaker impedance: 8 ohms
* Internal passive crossover at 12Db per octave.
* Speaker protection circuit with passive "soft" compression.
* Connections: Neutrik Speakon
* Dimensions: 14" tall, 11" wide, 8" deep. Stands 15" tall on rubber feet in front, and is angled backward at 12 degrees for enhanced projection.
* Weight: 23 pounds.
* Recessed carrying handle
* Pole mount
* Optional gig bag and/or case cover.

Speakers:

The speaker is the heart of the Chameleon, so finding just the right one was imperative. John experimented with the ones everyone else was using and found them woefully inadequate. With more research it soon became clear that superior quality speakers are expensive, so most companies choose lower quality cheaper speakers to keep the cost down.

For John just good was not good enough. Only the best sounding speaker would do - regardless of what it cost. After making several different prototypes with dozens of different speakers John finally settled on the Beyma. It was the clear winner and had all the features he was looking for to get the best possible sound out of your guitar.

The Beyma has a paper cone woofer with a die cast aluminum frame for the smoothest midrange and a polyester-domed tweeter for a silky smooth high end. The two elements: the woofer and tweeter are time-aligned. The result to the listener is a perfect blend of the highs and the lows creating a smooth and seamless sound. This also creates what is called a single point reference, which means that no matter where you stand in relation to the speaker there are no variations in the sound.

WHY HAVE DUAL MODES?

Electric pickups and acoustic pickups require different things from a speaker. Acoustic pickups require a higher fidelity full-range sound, whereas electric pickups require the full signal to run through the woofer.

The conundrum was how to get the speaker to do both. The answer was a switch in the back that would allow the user to switch from the full range coaxial woofer/tweeter combination for acoustic guitars to the woofer alone for electric guitars.

Prior to adding the tweeter, we experimented with filtering out higher frequencies for the electric sound. However, we discovered that by doing this the sound lost its ?edge?. So, a tweeter was included in the design. Redirecting the full signal to just the woofer in the electric mode made all the difference. The electric guitar still keeps its bite, the acoustic and classical guitars keep their warmth, the archtop is full and jazzy, and there is peace in all the land.

This sophisticated two-way passive crossover was designed by Vance Dickason. Our specifications were very easy to write, but NOT easy to achieve. Thanks, Vance!

The bottom line is this: You no longer need to have two separate systems for your acoustic and electric guitars. Now, one sophisticated enclosure does it all. And that, folks, is pretty darned cool!

Speaker protection circuit

The demands of the professional music business require absolute reliability. No gigging musician wants to carry more than what he or she absolutely needs to do the job, and if the only speaker you brought goes down - that's it. Your performance is over.

So, Chameleon HAD to be protected from over-power situations, from clipping, from short circuits - everything. The speaker protection circuit was custom-designed by Red Rock Acoustics. It uses passive "soft" compression to save the Chameleon from damage caused by over amplification without altering the sound in the least.

The speaker protection was tested in every punishing situation we could think of. We tested it to full capacity with a 500 watt Crown Amplifier, we cranked up the volume to earsplitting volume, we plugged in the overdrive pedal and went to town - The Chameleon handled everything flawlessly with no damage to the speaker and no sound degradation. Now that's what we call protection!

Enclosure Another place speaker manufacturers cut costs are in their choice of cabinet materials. They often choose cheap plywood. This choice not only affects the sound quality negatively but is also less rugged and a lot easier to damage. So we built the Chameleon enclosure out of 15-ply Baltic Birch plywood.

Baltic Birch is considered to be the best choice for instrument speaker cabinets. It sounds the best and there are no voids in the wood for the sound to get trapped or lost as can happen when cheaper plywood is used.

The enclosure is covered in rugged polyurethane spray coating, which eliminates the wear and tear that cloth or vinyl coverings are subject to.

The speaker grill is made of heavy-duty perforated steel and is curved for additional strength and beauty. The speaker is further protected from ambient dirt/dust by a cloth backing on the grill.

Chameleon grille

We used a recessed cup handle for easy transportation. It has the added bonus of keeping the top flat so you can safely place your amp on the speaker and it will rest flat.

We also included a high-quality pole mount so that you can elevate your Chameleon. We found that the guitar's sound is MUCH better in this mode. Instead of losing highs by firing the cabinet into a sea of tables, chairs and people's legs, your audience will be able to HEAR the guitar's sound more clearly. Try it. We think you'll come to prefer deploying the Chameleon speaker this way.

Chameleon's rubber feet are taller in front than in the back. This allows you to rest your Chameleon on the floor, and it will automatically tilt back twelve degrees. That's a thoughtful touch, isn't it?

We elected to use Neutrik Speakon connectors, the best we could find. These connectors are sturdy, and help to prevent short circuits to the output stage of your amp. If your amplifier has only a 1/4" tip/sleeve output, we offer Speakon-to-quarter-inch adaptors in the Chameleon Store. With a small footprint, sturdy components and a curved face, Chameleon looks small, competent and very powerful. It's cool just sitting there. And, guitarists are ALL ABOUT COOL!