Nostalgic Distortion
New member
Recently I stopped by a music store that was having a going out of business sale. I didn't see a whole lot of interest but they did have a big stack of brand new Limited Edition Tan Blackstar HT-20's that they were unloading for $250 a pop. I'm not usually a big Blackstar fan but for that price I figured why not?
When I got the head home I stuck it on top of my V-30 loaded 1X12 to try it out. Everything checked out just fine however I did find just one little issue with it. As anyone who has any experience with these knows Blackstar put them into ridiculously large cabinets for a 20W head & it looked kinda silly on my little 1X12 cabinet. HMM, WHAT TO DO????
At the time the 1X12 was the only cab that was out because when we had our newest baby I was forced to store a bunch of gear for the sake of space. I have a Greenback loaded 4x12, a V-30 loaded 2x12, & I had a S.S. Fender Princeton Chorus 2x10 that died so I converted it into a cabinet. Of course when I did this I did a rather crude job. I never even pulled out the amp, I just clipped the speaker wires, hooked it up to a jack, & used it.
After some thought I decided that a narrow panel 2x10 might just do the trick so this time I pulled the chassis, stripped the Tolex, painted the cab as well as the hardware, & did it up real nice! Or so I thought anyway?
Now that the cab was all pretty I turned my attention to the drivers inside. Currently it's still loaded with the stock 10's which sound alright but they're not really the flavor of speaker that I'm after? After a little more thought I decided that I'd buy a couple 8ohm Eminence Red Fangs to stick in it for a 16ohm 100W 2x10 cabinet that I can use with that amp & several others if I so choose.
Here's where things get screwy... For some reason I had it in my head that I'd originally wired that cab in series, with the two stock speakers being 8ohms that would make it a 16ohm cabinet & that's how I've been running it for the past few days. Apparently I was wrong...
When I first converted it into a cab I had just bought a Panama Loco that could either run at 4ohms or 8ohms so I wired it in parallel for 4ohms. I sold the Loco a few weeks later, stored the cabinet, & hadn't really thought about that 2x10 since. When I brought it back out the other day for the HT-20 I just assumed that it was wired in series (16ohms) because WTF would I need a 4ohm cabinet for?
This morning I was watching some Red Fang demo's & when I had a look into the back of this fella's 4ohm 2x10 I'd realized that during the painting process I'd completely missed the fact that mine was wired for 4ohms as well!!! I don't know how the hell I missed it but I did....
Luckily I'd only put a couple hours on the head like this since I bought it & it was easy enough to change the wiring over this morning. So hopefully I've gotten it done before any serious damage occurred to the head/transformers. That said, if I hadn't decided to change the speakers who knows when I would have realized that it was wrong or if I ever would have before the head became a paperweight???
This is what happens when you have entirely too much freeking gear!!!!
When I got the head home I stuck it on top of my V-30 loaded 1X12 to try it out. Everything checked out just fine however I did find just one little issue with it. As anyone who has any experience with these knows Blackstar put them into ridiculously large cabinets for a 20W head & it looked kinda silly on my little 1X12 cabinet. HMM, WHAT TO DO????
At the time the 1X12 was the only cab that was out because when we had our newest baby I was forced to store a bunch of gear for the sake of space. I have a Greenback loaded 4x12, a V-30 loaded 2x12, & I had a S.S. Fender Princeton Chorus 2x10 that died so I converted it into a cabinet. Of course when I did this I did a rather crude job. I never even pulled out the amp, I just clipped the speaker wires, hooked it up to a jack, & used it.
After some thought I decided that a narrow panel 2x10 might just do the trick so this time I pulled the chassis, stripped the Tolex, painted the cab as well as the hardware, & did it up real nice! Or so I thought anyway?
Now that the cab was all pretty I turned my attention to the drivers inside. Currently it's still loaded with the stock 10's which sound alright but they're not really the flavor of speaker that I'm after? After a little more thought I decided that I'd buy a couple 8ohm Eminence Red Fangs to stick in it for a 16ohm 100W 2x10 cabinet that I can use with that amp & several others if I so choose.
Here's where things get screwy... For some reason I had it in my head that I'd originally wired that cab in series, with the two stock speakers being 8ohms that would make it a 16ohm cabinet & that's how I've been running it for the past few days. Apparently I was wrong...
When I first converted it into a cab I had just bought a Panama Loco that could either run at 4ohms or 8ohms so I wired it in parallel for 4ohms. I sold the Loco a few weeks later, stored the cabinet, & hadn't really thought about that 2x10 since. When I brought it back out the other day for the HT-20 I just assumed that it was wired in series (16ohms) because WTF would I need a 4ohm cabinet for?
This morning I was watching some Red Fang demo's & when I had a look into the back of this fella's 4ohm 2x10 I'd realized that during the painting process I'd completely missed the fact that mine was wired for 4ohms as well!!! I don't know how the hell I missed it but I did....
Luckily I'd only put a couple hours on the head like this since I bought it & it was easy enough to change the wiring over this morning. So hopefully I've gotten it done before any serious damage occurred to the head/transformers. That said, if I hadn't decided to change the speakers who knows when I would have realized that it was wrong or if I ever would have before the head became a paperweight???
This is what happens when you have entirely too much freeking gear!!!!
