OHMS Question?

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BellycasterBellycaster Frets: 5834
Our Bassist is in another band and their Guitarist has kindly allowed me to use his cab for my Band's rehearsals. We share the room, obviously.

Question: 4x12 Marshall Cab, two outputs, one is 4 OHMS and one is 16 OHMS, but the cab was set to Mono. So, I went out from the 16 OHM output on the cab and set my Suhr Badger to 16 OHMS. Is this right.

Also, I was horrified to see that the cable that the other guy connected his amp to cab with said "Instrument Cable" on it. I used my Speaker Cable and told our Bassist to have words :)

Thanks
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Comments

  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    Yes, you had your amp and the cab connected correctly. (Other than that the jacks on the cab are *inputs*, not outputs ;).)

    Using an instrument cable isn't a good idea, but at guitar amp power levels, and especially into 16 ohms when the current is lower, you will get away with it.

    What amp does he use?

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • BellycasterBellycaster Frets: 5834
    Thanks @ICBM ;

    I did actually use my proper Speaker Cable, it's the other guy who I noticed had it hooked up with an instrument cable. The Amp he had hooked up was an EVH 50 Watter.

    As I'm embarrassingly not familiar with the true theory of Mono and Stereo, I wondered at the time if I had to halve the OHM setting, but glad I didn't.

    "Inputs" aye, that'll be me getting confused again ;)

    The Outputs on the Badger can be set to either 4,8 or 16, so it's good in that way. I should really find a good link somewhere with all this OHM Rule of Thumb stuff.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960

    I did actually use my proper Speaker Cable, it's the other guy who I noticed had it hooked up with an instrument cable. The Amp he had hooked up was an EVH 50 Watter.

    As I'm embarrassingly not familiar with the true theory of Mono and Stereo, I wondered at the time if I had to halve the OHM setting, but glad I didn't.
    It's quite simple - you can run the cab as either a 4-ohm or 16-ohm mono cab, or a 8-ohm-per-side stereo cab. I really don't like these switching panels though, they're not only confusing and easy to connect wrongly if you're unfamiliar with them, in a hurry or in the dark - they're also unreliable due to using the jack contacts for a lot of the switching, which is a very bad idea when they get old and the cables have been tugged a lot - the contacts get strained and can leave the amp with no load.

    If he's using the EVH at 16 ohms I wouldn't be *too* concerned for the cable, but it's still not good practice.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • BellycasterBellycaster Frets: 5834
    Thanks @ICBM ;

    Daft question 2. If it's running at 4 or 16 Mono, then are only 2 of the 4 Speakers in use? Both my cabs are simple 8 OHM with just one input, so I've not had the pleasure of 4x12's.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    Thanks @ICBM ;

    Daft question 2. If it's running at 4 or 16 Mono, then are only 2 of the 4 Speakers in use? Both my cabs are simple 8 OHM with just one input, so I've not had the pleasure of 4x12's.
    No, if it's set to mono then all four speakers are running - assuming the switching is working correctly! If you were connected to the 16-ohm input it must have been if it worked at all.

    If it's set to stereo then plugging into each input alone only gives two of the speakers - it's then essentially two 8-ohm 2x12"s (vertical) in the same box.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • BellycasterBellycaster Frets: 5834
    Ahhhh, that makes some sense to me, cheers :)
    Only a Fool Would Say That.
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