Cabinet wiring & dummy loads

[75lespaul]

I'm very bad with wiring & ohmage so I'd like some advice from the experts!

Can you wire up four 8 ohm speakers so that the cabinet will be 16 ohms? If not, and I'm kinda sure you can't, is there such a thing as a dummy load so the amp see 16 ohms. I'd like to do this because I have two 4x12s I just got that I'm replacing the speakers in for one setup but I'd like to use them in another. The speakers are 8 ohms but the amp only has an 8 and 16 selector, no 4.

If I just wire up one 8 ohm cabinet, is there a safe way to run an 8 and 16 ohm cab together with only an 8 or 16 ohm selector on the amp? It's a tube amp by the way so again, I'm pretty sure you can't but I'm not very good with these things. I've been going nuts trying to find stuff on the web but I guess I'm just looking in the wrong places.

Bottom line--do I just have to sell the speakers and buy 16 ohm speakers?

Thanks all :smoker: :smack:

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Cabinet wiring & dummy loads

You can wire up four 8 ohm speakers to be either 2 ohms or 8 ohms or 32 ohms...that's it.

If you connect them all in parallel, the combined load will be 2 ohms...like a Fender Super Reverb. If you connect them all in series the combined load will be 32 ohms.

But if you connect two speakers in series and another pair in series, each pair will be 16 ohms. Then, if you connect those two 16 ohm pairs in parallel, you'll have an 8 ohm load.

Lew

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Cabinet wiring & dummy loads

Thanks Lew--That's what I thought. I was just hoping I was missing something. :smoker:

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Cabinet wiring & dummy loads

How about a dummy load. Can something be built to make the amp see a 16 ohm load from an 8 ohm cabinet? :saeek: