Ohm's and tone

[TomiR]

So here's my problem, I am going to buy an 16ohm Orange 4X12" cabinet, but my Single Recto only has two 4ohm and one 8ohm speaker outputs.

Well, the Recto's owner's manual says, that using cabs with bigger impedance ratings will not hurt the amp at all, but using cab's with smaller ratings will wear out the power tubes faster.

So according to the manual, I could just use the amp's 8ohm output to the 16ohm cab with no worries.

But, some people say that this will affect the tone of the amp? Any experiences?

 

[hsinn3r]

i have no experience, but if you can get inside the cab, it should be easy to rewire it to give you the rating you want.

 

[TomiR]

Yeah, the cab has four 16ohm speakers, so I could always wire it in parallel to turn it into a 4ohm cab.

I hope it has connectors, so I don't have to solder a brand new cab. I have done it many times with guitars though.

But well, I don't even have one yet

 

[::XeS::]

4*12 cabs have a series/parallel connection...so if you try to rewire you haven't different rating.
If you connect a 16ohm cab to an amp with 8ohm/4ohm selected, the pressure of the cab will be divided by 2/more. You don't broke anything but it doesn't sound like 8ohm/8ohm or 16/16..
Solution? Replace every speaker of the orange cab or...buy different cab..

 

[TomiR]

4*12 cabs have a series/parallel connection...so if you try to rewire you haven't different rating.
If you connect a 16ohm cab to an amp with 8ohm/4ohm selected, the pressure of the cab will be divided by 2/more. You don't broke anything but it doesn't sound like 8ohm/8ohm or 16/16..
Solution? Replace every speaker of the orange cab or...buy different cab..

If you wire four 16ohm speakers in parallel, you get 4ohms. Yes, the cabinet is originally serie/parallel, but it can be wired into a 4ohm one like this:

But maybe getting a different cab is not a bad idea... Too bad the Mesa cabs are like 1400€ in here.

 

[::XeS::]

Yeah, 4 speaker in parallel is another solution...
Personally, my best solution is: buy 4 speaker, buy good wood and build your cabinet looking the correct size of your favourite cab.
More cheaper and works perfectly

 

[hsinn3r]

Yeah, 4 speaker in parallel is another solution...
Personally, my best solution is: buy 4 speaker, buy good wood and build your cabinet looking the correct size of your favourite cab.
More cheaper and works perfectly

i'm thinking about that, too, but i'm afraid that i'll just spend a lot of money on a big rattling box...

 

[greyskull]

orange are way better.
rewire that shit

 

[skuller]

These guy's make good stuff. You can order it how you want, too:

http://www.earcandycabs.com/

 

[TheSweetener]

Just connect another 16 ohm cabinet to the Rectifier so the whole system has 8 Ohms. You don't have to mic the other cab. That's what I do sometimes.

 

[MetalWorks]

A friend of mine had a 16ohm Krank Cab and an 8ohm Mesa cab.

The Mesa was always louder.

But didnt change the head's tone.

Which is usually the case with any cabinet combined with a higher ohm rating.

I would make sure that the Orange speakers arent like 150 watts a piece otherwise you might have a power problem. The cab will want more power and the head wont put out nearly the volume you need.

We rewired the Krank cab because it also was 4 16 ohm speakers. Figured it would be like a Marshall Cab.

Wrong. The Eminence speakers at 4 ohms want 150 watts each where as a marshall celestion wants 75 Watts per speaker hence the 300 watt 4ohm cab.

The problem is that at 4 ohms, the wattage it needed was crazy and required about 600 watts which the Krank head or any 100 watt tube head could never put out.

Thats why they are at 16 ohms, which only needs like 150 Watts.

It ended up being hella quiet wired at 4 ohms.

Should be fine if they are the 60 or 75 watt speakers like Celestion G12 or V30's.

 

[billcraftmetal15]

OT:
but could anybody tell me which (if any) of the marshall cabs available has V30's? if not can anyone tell me if the G12-75s are any good.

 

[Gnash]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Marshall-1960BV-Vintage-Cabinet?sku=482775

 

[billcraftmetal15]

awesome, thanks very much!

 

[TomiR]

A friend of mine had a 16ohm Krank Cab and an 8ohm Mesa cab.

The Mesa was always louder.

But didnt change the head's tone.

Which is usually the case with any cabinet combined with a higher ohm rating.

I would make sure that the Orange speakers arent like 150 watts a piece otherwise you might have a power problem. The cab will want more power and the head wont put out nearly the volume you need.

We rewired the Krank cab because it also was 4 16 ohm speakers. Figured it would be like a Marshall Cab.

Wrong. The Eminence speakers at 4 ohms want 150 watts each where as a marshall celestion wants 75 Watts per speaker hence the 300 watt 4ohm cab.

The problem is that at 4 ohms, the wattage it needed was crazy and required about 600 watts which the Krank head or any 100 watt tube head could never put out.

Thats why they are at 16 ohms, which only needs like 150 Watts.

It ended up being hella quiet wired at 4 ohms.

Should be fine if they are the 60 or 75 watt speakers like Celestion G12 or V30's.

Thanks man! A very informative reply

Yeah, the cab has V30's, they are pretty much essential to "my tone".

I ordered the cab on monday, and it will take about two months until it arrives, since the Finnish importer didn't have the black ones in stock.
(Orange PPC412 Black)

I think I will decide what to do when I get it, but it is always cool to have options.

People really seem to love these cabs, I hope I will too.