Do I ever not need help?

[Return of Guitlouie]

So, I haven't posted here in a while..... life, you, know?  But of course, I come crawling back when I have a problem I can't figure out.  It seems like I should be able to do this, but I'm unsure.  So here it is.....I just got my incredibly cool old Fender Bassman head back to tip top working condition, it still lokks like crap, but that is mojo.  So I used to have a 2x12 cab for this thing that was 4 ohms, which is what the bassman needs.  Well, I don't have that anymore.  What I do have is a very cool Fender Custom Shop Cab that I love to death.  But, it is rated 16 ohms.  So, I popped it open in order to take a look, and discovered that it is wired in parralel/series, like a lot of Marshall cabs. So it has four 16 ohm speakers, and each pair is wired together in parralel, and then the two pairs are wired together in series.  Thus, the 16 ohm rating.  I want to change it to 4 ohms in the SIMPLEST way possible.  Any ideas?  I could just take it all apart and wire the whole thing parralel, right?  is that the easiest thing to do?  Or is there something even easier?  Thanks for any insights!

 

[Mor Paul]

Can't wait to try that amp out  :icon_thumright:
Can it be cranked at your house?

 

[NonsenseTele]

Can it be cranked at your house?

Ahhh vintage loud amp + 4 x12" and kids? don't think so :laughing7:

 

[Mor Paul]

Can it be cranked at your house?

Ahhh vintage loud amp + 4 x12" and kids? don't think so :laughing7:

When the kids aren't there  :laughing7:

 

[NQbass7]

All four in parallel should do it.

1/ (1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16) = 4

 

[jackthehack]

All four in parallel should do it.

1/ (1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16) = 4

:icon_thumright: +1

 

[mayfly]

All four in parallel should do it.

1/ (1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16 + 1/16) = 4

:icon_thumright: +1

++1

that should do the trick

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Yeah, the two parallels in series will make it 16 ohms, and the two parallel in parallel will make it 4 ohms.  That is how the two jacks on the back of a Marshall cab are wired, with the switch to make two 8 ohm loads (their version of stereo.)
Patrick

 

[Return of Guitlouie]

Thanks, guys.  I was actually looking for a shortcut to taking all the wires out and doing it from scratch, and I did understand that doing the whole she-bang in parralel was what I was shooting for, but thanks for reassuring me.  After careful thought, I realized that if I took the wire that the factory guys had bridging the two sets of speakers, and cut it in half, and took the half going to positive, and soldered it to positive on the jack, and same thing with negative, I would in effect be creating a parralel wiring scheme with minimal effort.  So that is what I did.  And it worked beatifully.  The amp sounds better than ever right now, as I went ahead and had a full re-cap done, and put in some new power tubes.  It is spanky as hell!!!  Thanks again guys....oh, and here it is in all of it's ragged ass glory

 

[mayfly]

Looks pretty good to me - I've seen a lot worse!

Amps like that are the ones that were used - because they're the ones that sounded the best.

 

[AutoBat]

i've always liked the bassman tone

 

[Mor Paul]

But... does it float?

 

[bob7point7]

Very cool! If I walked into a club and saw that sitting on the stage, I'd want to stay to hear the sounds coming from it.

 

[rossalex]

That looks fantastic man! Something to be proud of for sure.