BillFitzmaurice.info

Hello - Wondering if there's an answer out there... I have two 2x12 guitar cabs with 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel for a 4 Ohm load. I'd like to add a jack & daisy chain them in series, to raise the total load to 8 Ohms. Is this possible without anything other than a properly wired jack? If so, can someone please diagram or explain this? Many Thanks.

rbarone wrote:Hello - Wondering if there's an answer out there... I have two 2x12 guitar cabs with 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel for a 4 Ohm load. I'd like to add a jack & daisy chain them in series, to raise the total load to 8 Ohms. Is this possible without anything other than a properly wired jack? If so, can someone please diagram or explain this? Many Thanks.

It would be better to series wire the individual speakers inside each cab to get a 16 ohm load. Then just run the two cabs parallel for an 8 ohm load

Bruce Weldy wrote: It would be better to series wire the individual speakers inside each cab to get a 16 ohm load. Then just run the two cabs parallel for an 8 ohm load

+1. The alternative is to series wire the two cabs, which can be done but it's a PITA. But I'll also say that no one needs four twelves. Reaching the entire audience is the job of the PA, not the back line.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:

Bruce Weldy wrote:But I'll also say that no one needs four twelves. Reaching the entire audience is the job of the PA, not the back line.

Oh how I wish all guitardists knew this.

Thanks all.

Agreed, 4x12 is generally overkill... but to the original question -

I have two 4 Ohm 2x12 cabs for two SS amps that like running @ 4 Ohms. I also have a tube amp that only likes 8 ohms, so I was looking for a way to simply mod the 4 Ohm cabs to use with the 8 Ohm amp.

Gear is left at different locations & it would be pretty convenient if I could work out the ohm-matching problem.

Maybe leave the speaker cabs alone (since you use them elsewhere) and make a special series-wired speaker Y-cable? You'd have to make sure you don't try to use it in any other application...

Make up a custom cable and label it liberally.

Amp out tip -> cab 1 tip.

Cab 1 ring - > cab 2 tip.

Cab 2 ring - > amp out ring.

Thanks! This site is an incredible source of knowledge.