Stupid cab question

sbecker67

sbecker67

New member
Sometimes my ignorance amazes me!

My cabs both have two jacks to accept a speaker cable from an amp. They are NOT stereo cabs.

A. Does it matter which input is used?
B. Could I use both and plug in two seperate heads? Knowing of course that I could NEVER run both heads at the same time into the same cab.


I have two heads; a Road King and a Marshall. I have two cabs. I have limited space and don't want to buy another cab for the Marshall. One of the things I love about the RK is the built in A/B/Y cab switcher so I can assign either cab A, B or both to any channel so I don't want to only use ONE cab with the RK and the other with the Marshall.

Can I plug both amps into both cabs? Again, I'm aware that I could never use the heads together in stereo going into the same cab(s) and shouldn't even switch back and forth between them when using effects and such.

I've looked at the Radial products but their head switcher only works with a single cab plus I already have a Morley Tripler to feed the input of three amps. I could probably use the Headbone with the Cabbone but if I'm going to lay out $600 for switches I may as well get this

http://www.guitarx.com/cgi-bin/stor...&back=&pid=2928&keywords=&product=EfxBrunetti

this thing is insane!!!
 
Re: Stupid cab question

If the cab inputs are wired parallel (they most likely are) you can use either one.
You are correct, you cannot run two heads into the same cab at the same time. But keep in mind, any switching needs to have a load for the amp you are not playing through. A regular A/B-Y would leave one of the heads with no load. I do not know how long it would take to burn down an OT with no signal through a functioning amp head, but there is no sense in pushing your luck unless one of the pedal/electronics gurus tells you it is safe.
Good Luck
 
Re: Stupid cab question

zzmoore said:
But keep in mind, any switching needs to have a load for the amp you are not playing through. A regular A/B-Y would leave one of the heads with no load.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

The set-up I'm trying to achieve is just to be able to plug into my main board and be able to use any ONE of three amps without having to unplug this and plug in that. To that end, I have this at the end of my board feeding the inputs of the different amps (http://www.morleypedals.com/dtripler.html).

Satisfying the load requirement entails having the head connected to a cab at all times, correct? With what I'm proposing that would be the case. I'll attach one amp to the left input of the cab and the other to the right.

There are situations where both amps will be turned on but only ONE amp will be active, receiving the input from the board, at a time. I often switch between the different amps but always "bypass" one before activating the other. Does that represent a "load" issue?
 
Re: Stupid cab question

The "Trippler" will work great if you are using combo amps. If you are using heads, all amps will be hot to the same cab at all times. The foot switches are selecting a route for your guitar, not for the amps. Unless I misunderstand what the Trippler is doing.....
 
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Re: Stupid cab question

zzmoore said:
The "Trippler" will work great if you are using combo amps. If you are using heads, you will be switching the heads OFF of the cab and they will not have a load at that point. Just because a head is physically plugged into a cab is not enough if the switcher is disconnecting it....
Click to expand...

My ignorance is showing again. The Morley switcher doesn't change the cabs at all; it's a switch that sends the guitar signal to the amp input(s) of my choosing. If you're aware of this then I don't understand how having an amp turned on, plugged into a cab, but not being fed an input signal is causing load issues. Unless, by activating head "A" it causes the load to be severed to head "B" that is also attached to that cab; is that it?

It seems there will be no issue if I only play one or the other and only turn one on at a time; correct?


Beginning to see why that Brunetti switcher is a $1,000.00
 
Re: Stupid cab question

Yes, you are correct. But keep in mind you will have to be turning amps On and OFF. You will not be changing amps at the "flip of a switch".
As far as you first question. You cannot have two active heads plugged into the same cab. With an A/B-Y you are only routing the guitar input. The other head will still be hot and plugged into the same speaker; it will not have a guitar signal but it will be hot to the same speaker with the power tubes running.
 
Re: Stupid cab question

Thank you. I understand. Since I have 5 amps, there are going to be 2 that I can't have incorporated into the main board anyway so keeping the two heads isolated won't be an issue. I would have preferred to have the Marshall and Mesa together but so be it.
 
Re: Stupid cab question

Binnerscot said:
You need one of these, as you have already looked at, but you may have to simplify your ambitions:

http://www.stompin-ground.com/products/radtone-headboneVT-over.htm

I would daisy chain the cabs.
Click to expand...

If they were two "normal" heads, yes, the Headbone would be fine but one of them is a Road King and I want to retain the ability to assign different cabs per channel; that's why I bought two seperate and distinct cabs.

I could probably make a Headbone work if I only use one of the cabs with the Marshall but I did want to run that as a 4x12 and still retain the full functionality of the RK.

I'll have to look at the HB again....maybe I can do the RK and TSL on the same chain and then hook up the other amps to the Tripler............Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
Re: Stupid cab question

Alright; would this work:


At the end of my pedal chain I feed a good A/B/Y switch.
The A/B switch feeds a Radial Headbone and Morley Tripler
The Morley feeds a Vox combo (ch 1 & 2) and a Fender combo
The Headbone feeds the RK and TSL heads.

The Headbone outputs to cab A.
The TSL cab output feeds the Headbone as normal
Ther RK has two seperate cab outputs, A & B. The cab output is activated by channel. I typically assign cab A to channel 1 & 3, cab B to channel 2 and both cabs A and B to channel 4. If the "A" output is sent to the Headbone and the "B" output is sent to my other cab (cab B) direct so that the RK and TSL are "sharing" only cab A the combination of the Headbone and the RK's own cab switching functionality will be acceptable?

In this set-up, I could never run the RK and TSL in stereo because the Headbone only allows one head be active at a time; it cuts off the signal to the other head and applies a load to that speaker connection. Though I could run either of these two in stereo with any one of the two amps linked to the Morley via the A/B/Y switch.

This could be interesting. I would have two independant two amp rigs all sharing the same pedal chain capable of using any one of the two amps from each rig in stereo with the other.

the 5th amp was never intended to be a part of anything; it's what I take with me when I go jam with friends.

Sound right?
 
Re: Stupid cab question

I suspect that what you want to do will be best accomplished by a good rack with some good MIDI control. The only thing you are missing in the post above is the duct tape....LOL
 
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