Running a 16ohm and 8ohm cab together

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jake5150

jake5150

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I'm using an 8ohm Diezel FL v30 cab with my VH4, sounds great. For bigger gigs it'd be nice to somehow incorporate my 16ohm Marshall 1960a as I'm the only guitarist in the band. Is there any safe way to do this? I've already done a bit of research and discovered the Weber Z Matcher, although I haven't found a huge amount of info on it. Does anyone else make anything similar? Or is there an easier way of doing it?

Thanks!
 
You can run it lower and be OK I hear? One way stresses the amp and is bad, the other way is ok.

I would not advise any of that, rewire the 8ohm cab to 16 ohm and match them up is my opinion.
 
I didn't think you could wire an 8ohm cab to be 16? It's 8ohm mono and 16ohm stereo
 
jake5150":3rflq9kl said:
I didn't think you could wire an 8ohm cab to be 16? It's 8ohm mono and 16ohm stereo
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The speaker ratings and wiring methods determine total load options.

I’m no expert but maybe mono/stero is what you need? Not sure what ohm your speakers are.

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/4x12wiring.html


Edit: I guess you need both amp jacks for this. So you’re right probably. New speakers or mismatch I suppose.
 
It's 2 16ohm speakers. I think it's only possible to wire them in 8ohm or 32?
 
jake5150":1tq3zmaw said:
It's 2 16ohm speakers. I think it's only possible to wire them in 8ohm or 32?
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Yes, but isn't the other cab already at 8 ohms? Just have them both to 8 ohms and run amp at 4?

Annnnnd edit again :scared: The VH4 doesnt have the ohm switch does it?
 
One cab is 8ohms (2x16ohm speakers) and the other is 16ohms or 4 ohms (4x16ohm speakers)
 
Not sure how the Diezel speaker outs are, but if I were running my Mesa 8 Ohm cab with my Marshall 16 Ohm cab out of my JMP 2203 I'd set the impedance selector to 4 ohms and be OK. As long as you run lower than your lowest impedance cab you will be fine.
 
Maybe Jim or one of the pros can chime in but afaik there is no way to do this unless you do the mono/stero wiring for one cab and IF your amp allows you to use 3 of the jacks.

TBH looking at the back of the VH4 is pretty confusing to me. Not sure if you can use 3 jacks or not.

If you can:

The 2x16 ohm speaker cab = Mono/Stereo in same cabinet using DPDT switch = 16 ohms to each channel if run in Stereo.

Run the 2x12 into the 2x16ohm jacks and then run the 4x12 into the single 16 ohm jack.

Something tells me that is bad. Mathematically it makes sense to me but I am unsure if the amp will allow the use of 3 jacks. I would call Diezel to confirm.

Just trying to help. Your best bet is probably to replace some of the speakers for different ohms.



Racerxrated":1u89ofqz said:
Not sure how the Diezel speaker outs are, but if I were running my Mesa 8 Ohm cab with my Marshall 16 Ohm cab out of my JMP 2203 I'd set the impedance selector to 4 ohms and be OK. As long as you run lower than your lowest impedance cab you will be fine.
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Also this is accurate ^^^ I just personally prefer not to mismatch just in case. Looks like the Diezel only allows for a single 4 ohm jack however.
 
With all of this said, I hope you get it figured out.

Running a Miked cab on each side of the stage for a one guitarist band is Awesome!!! :rock:
 
The 8 ohm cab will draw twice the current as the 16 ohm cab. Neither can be wired to match the impedance of the other
 
The two above posts are correct. You have a total load of 5.33 ohms, so just run your amp on 4 ohm. Further, the 8 ohm cab will be louder than the 16 ohm cab as it will pull twice the power. I think you'll be fine to run it this way. I've done it several times........but only at home and not in a gig situation.
 
Buckeyedog":1xk99ixj said:
The two above posts are correct. You have a total load of 5.33 ohms, so just run your amp on 4 ohm. Further, the 8 ohm cab will be louder than the 16 ohm cab as it will pull twice the power. I think you'll be fine to run it this way. I've done it several times........but only at home and not in a gig situation.
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I always read that you go up to the next Ohm rating and not down.. Meaning if its 3.9 then run at 4 and 4.1 or higher you would run at 8. :confused:
 
I hear both ways too, but seems to me the most common train of thought is to run it lower. Like mesa amps for example. They normally only have up to an 8 Ohm out, but they say you can run a 16 ohm cab.
 
Some amps have a slave out for a second cab and can adjust for impedance and output levels. Is there anything like that?
 
jake5150":ir3kjvu5 said:
I'm using an 8ohm Diezel FL v30 cab with my VH4, sounds great. For bigger gigs it'd be nice to somehow incorporate my 16ohm Marshall 1960a as I'm the only guitarist in the band. Is there any safe way to do this? I've already done a bit of research and discovered the Weber Z Matcher, although I haven't found a huge amount of info on it. Does anyone else make anything similar? Or is there an easier way of doing it?

Thanks!
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You can run them together using the 4 ohm output jacks on the VH4. Resulting ohms is 5,3.
 
Run it the same as you would 2x8. You're safe at 4ohms, either way you slice it.
 
The 8 ohm cab will draw twice as much power and be louder than the 16 ohm. It also will put stress on the power tubes and wear them out faster. You should always have two cabs with the same ohm rating to avoid problems.
 
The best way to do this, would be to put 8ohm speakers in the 2x12, and wire them in series for 16ohms. That way you have two 16ohm cabs, and you run the amp at 8ohms.

Now that being said, I gig'ed hard for 10 years with all sorts of mismatched cabs, replace power tubes when I could afford it (which was about every 4 years) never once had a problem, but YMMV.
 
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