Mesa Head and Marshall cabs

[JALIN]

Can I just plug in my Mesa Solo 50 head into a 16ohm Marshall 1960TV cabinet? My head is 8ohms with optional stereo at 4ohms.

[ex-250]

i think as long as the cab ohms arent less than the head ohms your safe

[Duke of Metal]

Can I just plug in my Mesa Solo 50 head into a 16ohm Marshall 1960TV cabinet? My head is 8ohms with optional stereo at 4ohms.

Not sure if its a good idea to miss-match the impedance between an amp and cab. It could cause problems with the transformers on the amp. Also can cause tonal problems. impedance miss-match cause can overdrive to be weak and sound to be muddy and other tonal/sound problems.


Duke

[JALIN]

So here is toughy, well to me anyways. How would one change the impedance on the cab from 16 to 8ohm?

[Duke of Metal]

So here is toughy, well to me anyways. How would one change the impedance on the cab from 16 to 8ohm?

If your lucky enough.. you could change the wiring of the speakers.

Check what the impedance of each speaker is and see if you can re-wire it to 8ohms using this one of these diagrams. I could be wrong but I believe each speaker you have in there is 16ohms.
http://professional.celestion.com/se...kerwiring.html


Duke

[muttonchopsrule]

So here is toughy, well to me anyways. How would one change the impedance on the cab from 16 to 8ohm?

if the speakers are rated at 16 ohms each, then you can't make it 8 ohms, it isn't possible. but you can make it 4 ohms but wiring them all in parallel (if they are all 16 ohm speakers)

[HolyDirt]

if the speakers are rated at 16 ohms each, then you can't make it 8 ohms, it isn't possible. but you can make it 4 ohms but wiring them all in parallel (if they are all 16 ohm speakers)

yup, thats how it works

[JALIN]

So if I change all four speakers to 8ohms, would I have to mess around with the wiring or could I just swap speakers and plug in?

[y2stevo]

So if I change all four speakers to 8ohms, would I have to mess around with the wiring or could I just swap speakers and plug in?

I think you'd have to get 8 ohm speakers..but for now if you disconnected two of the speakers and just used two speakers then you could use it in 8ohm, but right now i can't remember if you have the 2 speakers you want to use in series or parallel..im sure someone here will know..

[some_dude]

If they're 16 ohm speakers, just wire them all in parallel and plug into the 4 ohm jack.

If they're 8ohm speakers, wire them two pairs in series, then wire the two pairs together in parallel, and plug into the 8ohm jack.

Those 4ohm jacks aren't stereo outs. They're a parallel split off a 4 ohm tap. That way, you can easily run two 8ohm cabs without need of a separate parallel box.

[mrid]

I've got to disagree here. There's plenty of musicians who use ~50 watt amps /w 8 ohm taps running into a 16 ohm cab. If it was such a major issue, then why aren't there a ton of rewired cabs floating around, or for that matter why doesn't everyone carry around a multimeter to check the load on cabs before they plug in? IMO, it's a scary though to imagine plugging in a 100 watt amp with a 16 ohm tap into what I thought was a 16 ohm cab that turned out to be rewired. While it's obvious that an exact load match is ideal, I don't believe that you'll run into any serious issues with this particular mismatch...if you do, then your tranny was on the way out anyway. There will be a subtle tonal issue to consider, though...

[Empty Pockets]

This is interesting, because my amp is 4 ohms and my cab is 8 ohms, and people've told me that this could lead to some serious problems, like tubes and other parts of my amp literally burning up. Wouldn't this be the same issue?

[mrid]

Diagrams: http://www.avatarspeakers.com/wiring%20diagrams.htm

[3 cent hero]

if the speakers are rated at 16 ohms each, then you can't make it 8 ohms

yes you can. wire your speakers into two sets, like this. (yours'll look different, i switched positive/negative on some of the speakers so it would be easier to read, watch for that) this wiring will give you two sets of 16 ohm speakers. then use a wire from one of the sets' positives to the others' negative, and use the other negative and positive for the jack, like this. (sloppy diagram, sorry. you'll get the idea though)

this will give you an 8 ohm load. if its a stereo cab, you'll never be able to use stereo again with it wired like this


and also, if you have a 8 ohm head and a 16 ohm cab it'll be fine.
2 ohm source + 4 ohm speaker=works fine
4 ohm source + 8 ohm speaker=works fine
8 + 16... well, you get the idea.

you can't do it like 4 ohm source + 2 ohm speaker (or 8+4 etc), youll fnck everything up. and if you use a 2 ohm source and a 16 ohm speaker (for example), it works fine too, but you'll lose alot of bottom end and wear down the source really fast, not to mention the speaker(s)


there ya have it!
william

[JALIN]

yes you can. wire your speakers into two sets, like this. (yours'll look different, i switched positive/negative on some of the speakers so it would be easier to read, watch for that) this wiring will give you two sets of 16 ohm speakers. then use a wire from one of the sets' positives to the others' negative, and use the other negative and positive for the jack, like this. (sloppy diagram, sorry. you'll get the idea though)

this will give you an 8 ohm load. if its a stereo cab, you'll never be able to use stereo again with it wired like this


and also, if you have a 8 ohm head and a 16 ohm cab it'll be fine.
2 ohm source + 4 ohm speaker=works fine
4 ohm source + 8 ohm speaker=works fine
8 + 16... well, you get the idea.

you can't do it like 4 ohm source + 2 ohm speaker (or 8+4 etc), youll fnck everything up. and if you use a 2 ohm source and a 16 ohm speaker (for example), it works fine too, but you'll lose alot of bottom end and wear down the source really fast, not to mention the speaker(s)


there ya have it!
william

When I was 16 I was interested in surf, girls, and just playing guitar. All this technical mumbo-jumbo was meaningless to me at that age. You know your ****, thanks for the feedback.

[3 cent hero]

also, if you want to lose a little bit of high end and gain some more low end from your speakers...

at the jack, switch the positive and negative, so the negatives go to the positive post and the positives go to the negative post.


just in case you need more lows
william

[some_dude]

I've got to disagree here. There's plenty of musicians who use ~50 watt amps /w 8 ohm taps running into a 16 ohm cab. If it was such a major issue, then why aren't there a ton of rewired cabs floating around, or for that matter why doesn't everyone carry around a multimeter to check the load on cabs before they plug in? IMO, it's a scary though to imagine plugging in a 100 watt amp with a 16 ohm tap into what I thought was a 16 ohm cab that turned out to be rewired. While it's obvious that an exact load match is ideal, I don't believe that you'll run into any serious issues with this particular mismatch...if you do, then your tranny was on the way out anyway. There will be a subtle tonal issue to consider, though...

There's nothing wrong with using an 8ohm tap into a 16ohm cab, but if you don't mind taking the time to rewire it, what is there to loose?...

It would be a good idea to write the new impedance on the patch panel though.

I always carry a multi-metre in my equipment box. It speeds up fault finding if you have a dead cable, and it's handy for when you plug into other peoples cabs (In my experience, as soon as you say ohms, most people get this blank stare on their face... ).

[B2D]

I know I got here late... but I run my Rectoverb head into a Marshall 1960AX cab, using the 8ohm out into the 16ohm cab with no problems. The amp's manual (and a tech at bogie I spoke with) told me that this was OK to use and that it was a "safe" mismatch. Howvever I'm going to try to rewire to an 8-ohm cab because lower ohmage settings tend to be louder and bassier, which is what I want if I'm using Greenbacks.