8 ohm speaker for amp that has a 2 ohm speaker?

[GuitarStv]

I've got an old tube amp from the 50's or 60's, class A single el84 power tube so it's not very loud. I've been wondering if the (original) speaker in the combo is crap or not, and wanted to swap in one from my cab, but when I measure across the speaker terminals it seems like the speaker that's in there is 2 ohm (reads 1.6 on the multimeter). I've always understood that you can drive a higher impedance with an amp although it might sound quieter because it draws less power from the amp. Since it's such a low power amp to begin with though, would it even be able to drive the 8 ohm speaker?

 

[Securb]

I would connect the amp's speaker terminals to one of your cabs to see what kind of output you get. Also, it may be quiet because that speaker is faulty and out of the box was not 2 ohms. It might get louder with a different speaker.

 

[jeremy]

with a ss amp, you can usually go higher impedance than it is rated without hurting anything, but youll get less volume. with a tube amp the speaker is linked to the output tubes through the transformer. in most cases you can get away with a slight impedance mismatch, 2 ohms to 8 ohms is a big jump but at low volume settings for a short period of time, it should be ok

 

[GuitarStv]

I would connect the amp's speaker terminals to one of your cabs to see what kind of output you get. Also, it may be quiet because that speaker is faulty and out of the box was not 2 ohms. It might get louder with a different speaker.

Hmm. I just soldered the amp outputs to a jack, then connected to a cab. No sound at all. Soldered a jack onto the 2ohm speaker and plugged it into the new jack and it still is loud . . . but it's a 10" speaker that is super mid-rangey with no lows, so still kinda crap.

Weird. I'd have figured that some noise would come out of the 8 ohm cab.

 

[Securb]

That is strange. How does the 2 ohm speaker sound with a different amp?

What is the brand and make of the amp? Pics?

 

[GuitarStv]

I don't have an amp that can drive 2 ohms.

It's a Thorcraft Mustang. Weird old Canadian amp.




Looks like this:

 

[idsnowdog]

Since it's a strange impedance you may want to have it reconed.

 

[Securb]

I could only find one speaker that might work for you and it is way too expensive for that amp. I would just play the hell out of it and try to get some funky fuzz-inspired lo-fi tones out of the amp.

https://www.banzaimusic.com/Weber-HP-AlNiCo-California-10-2-Ohm.html

 

[idsnowdog]

Celestion makes 4 ohm 8 inch speakers so you could build a 2 x 8 cab. Otherwise there's little choice for 2 ohm speakers.

https://www.rockvilleaudio.com/rdsm1...hoCli4QAvD_BwE

https://celestion.com/product/eight-15/