Members sundogkid Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Long story short, I picked up a mesa head, and I have a vintage 4x12 cab thats running greenbacks-16 ohms . The head has an option for 8 ohm impedence out. Now besides the fact that the head will have to work a little harder, and the tubes will be pushed a little more,is there any major downside to running a setup like this? (8ohm head to 16 ohm cabinet?) I have a fairly good grasp on impedence, but I don't want to have any major issues with either the head, or more inportantly, my original green backs your input is appreciatedm/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 match. I've heard somewhere, that as long as the amp is lower number you'll be alright, but just match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members solarburn Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 From Avatar: Briefly, most solid state amps will mention either in its owners manual or on the back of the amp itself, the lowest resistance that the amp wants to see hooked up to it....and you usually don't want to go below what it says. For example, most bass guitar amps want to see no lower than a 4 ohm load and that is the load where the amp puts out the most power. So , the idea is that you should get either one 4 ohm cab and that's it...or two 8 ohm cabs because two 8 ohm cabs together makes a 4 ohm load. Some newer bass amps will go down to a 2 ohm load so you could use either one 2 ohm cab even though that is a little rare..or two 4 ohm cabs. It's the same principal for solid state guitar amps with single or multiple cabs and many guitar amps can go down to a 4 ohm load but many only go down to an 8 ohm load. For an amp with a minimum 8 ohm load, you'd want either one 8 ohm cab or two 16 ohm cabs..because two 16 ohm cabs makes an 8 ohm load to the amp. With tube amps however, it is really best to try to match the amps exact load requirement. There are many different tube amp designs relating to the power transformer and output tubes, so you should check with your tube amp manufacturer to see if it is appropriate to deviate away from the original desired load. A tube amp with the wrong speaker ohm load connected to it could sound fine but could be stressing the tubes and transformer causing them to prematurely wear out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sundogkid Posted April 26, 2008 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Ya, I know the downside to this setup, but I've always ran the same impedence for the head and cab before. So I thought, being a new setup, and a pricey cab and head (for me at least) I better do some home work:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sundogkid Posted April 26, 2008 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Well the amp head is a Mesa Boogie F 100 a/b tube amp, 100-60 switchable. Im looking for requirements right now (I bought it used , don't have a manual) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 I have that amp. And I actually did run it into a 16 ohm cab for a while with no problems, it has never showed signs that it was an issue, but I don't know if it got away fully unscathed, I'm not sure if I should worry for this one in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sundogkid Posted April 26, 2008 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 According to the pdf manual I just downloaded, Mesa states that a 8 ohm to 16 ohm cabinet is a "safe mismatch, resulting in a warm darker tone, with less punch" I think Im good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members solarburn Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 According to the pdf manual I just downloaded, Mesa states that a 8 ohm to 16 ohm cabinet is a "safe mismatch, resulting in a warm darker tone, with less punch"I think Im good to go. Aren't you glad you checked?! Good job for looking man. Its not like there's a "am I frying my OT meter" built into the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Aren't you glad you checked?! Good job for looking man. Its not like there's a "am I frying my OT meter" built into the amp. that wouldn't be a bad idea though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sundogkid Posted April 26, 2008 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Yeah, I was pretty sure it would just cut the power output down a bit, and work the tubes a little more. I play mostly funk,blues,motown, so I wasn't too worried about pushing the head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members maxkazar Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 Dosent the half power switch change the Ohm load? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted April 26, 2008 Members Share Posted April 26, 2008 I don't think so. That is a fantastic avatar by the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobrahead1030 Posted April 27, 2008 Members Share Posted April 27, 2008 if your cab can be run @ 8 ohms per side mono, you could just run it from your 4 ohm outs (assuming you have them) on that note...i don't get why mesa is so weird with the outputs like that; my buddy brought his rectoverb over a while back and we couldn't run it to my 16 ohm splawn cab like normal...thankfully i had extra speaker cables, so we just ran from the 4 ohm outs on his amp to the 8 ohm stereo ins on the cab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.