4x12 cabinet wiring help?

[Seashore]

I recently got this mid-2000s VHT Eminence 4x12. 16 ohm speakers, switchable between either 16 or 4 ohm mono and 8 ohm stereo. After playing through it for a while, I noticed some intermittent volume fluctuations and I traced the problem to the mono input jack on the cabinet. It looks like it's wired like this:




What I'd like to do for now, so I can keep playing, is swap over the jack from the other side (the one on the left in this photo) and hardwire it for 16 ohm mono-only operation, with the switch disconnected. I think what I need to do is what I've labeled below: 1 - disconnect the black and white wires on the left side of the left jack, leaving in place only the white wire coming from the pair of speakers to the positive terminal on that side; 2 - disconnect the black wire going from the other pair of speakers to the right jack, and move it over to the negative terminal on the left jack; 3 - disconnect the black and white wires from the center lugs of the switch and wire them together.





I think that will give me standard series/parallel wiring for 16 ohm mono operation. But I haven't done any wiring on guitar cabs before and I wanted to check myself before I wreck myself, or more likely, my amp. Does this look right to you folks? Is there anything else I should be aware of?

 

[Seashore]

Update - I did the above things and it seems to have worked out great. Everything sounds good, no more volume fluctuations so far.

 

[jeremy]

glad things got sorted out!

 

[nephilim616]

Hey! I have the same exact issue with my VHT cab from the 2000s too except one side is completely muted.

Is it necessary to splice the black/white switch cables together? Couldn't I just solder the negatives of each speaker set onto the each of the sleeve prongs and vice versa with the white for the tip
prongs?

 

[Seashore]

Hey! I have the same exact issue with my VHT cab from the 2000s too except one side is completely muted.

Is it necessary to splice the black/white switch cables together? Couldn't I just solder the negatives of each speaker set onto the each of the sleeve prongs and vice versa with the white for the tip
prongs?

Hey, I should have documented this better. Basically, what I did was bypass the switch and the faulty jack. I had to swap more wires around because the jack that was wired as the 16ohm mono input turned out to be the faulty one. Soldering the black and white wires together hardwired them into the configuration they were in when the switch was in mono mode.

I went and had a look at the wiring earlier today and looked up some diagrams, and now I'm more confused. What some illustrations call series-parallel, others call parallel-series. All I can say about what I did is that it's been working and sounding fine for the past 2 years, and I get a slightly low but apparently ok reading of just over 13 ohms when I put a meter on it. I might take it apart and rewire it to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Are you sure that you're in mono and plugging into the correct jack?

 

[nephilim616]

Hey, I should have documented this better. Basically, what I did was bypass the switch and the faulty jack. I had to swap more wires around because the jack that was wired as the 16ohm mono input turned out to be the faulty one. Soldering the black and white wires together hardwired them into the configuration they were in when the switch was in mono mode.

I went and had a look at the wiring earlier today and looked up some diagrams, and now I'm more confused. What some illustrations call series-parallel, others call parallel-series. All I can say about what I did is that it's been working and sounding fine for the past 2 years, and I get a slightly low but apparently ok reading of just over 13 ohms when I put a meter on it. I might take it apart and rewire it to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Are you sure that you're in mono and plugging into the correct jack?

Yeah, and even in stereo the only side that works is the right side.

 

[ehdwuld]

Ok I had a similar problem with my new HB vertical 2x12

I put two 8 ohm speakers in
And the Jack plate was set up for 16 ohm speakers

I couldn't use the 4 ohm combo
And had to install my own jumper to make it 16 in parallel

I sent a message to soundtown

https://www.soundtown.com/pages/contact-us

Described what I was trying to do
They sent me a wired plate to swap out mine with for $20 plus shipping

Life is easy
dont struggle
ask for help

 

[nephilim616]

Ok I had a similar problem with my new HB vertical 2x12

I put two 8 ohm speakers in
And the Jack plate was set up for 16 ohm speakers

I couldn't use the 4 ohm combo
And had to install my own jumper to make it 16 in parallel

I sent a message to soundtown

https://www.soundtown.com/pages/contact-us

Described what I was trying to do
They sent me a wired plate to swap out mine with for $20 plus shipping

Life is easy
dont struggle
ask for help

I believe Fryette is sending me over a brand new wired jack plate but I wanted to fix it myself since I'm impatient, also because I didn't want to blow up my 60 watt 1x12 with my Triple Rectifier