Rig GAS headache- Ohms madness

[Augie]

I recently tried a mrkbass combo and am now racked by GAS. My issue is one of combining and modifying cabs to give me the most flexibility. This is still all in the fantasy stage but i want to know if i am on the right track or totaly deluded and a risk to myself and others.

I am looking at getting either the Littlemark Tube or the LMK tube 800 and the New york 2x12 cab. I would like to be able to use this with my current carvin 4x10. so i can go head + 2x12
head+4x10
head =4x10=2x12-here are my concerns

The cab is 4ohms and rated for 800W (for what their rating is worth) and my carvin is 8ohms rated for 1200W. The amp can go no lower than 4ohms. I know un-modded this is dangerous combo. BUT if i get a switch put in the markbass cab to switch it between 4 and 16 ohms running both cabs in series would give me 5.33ohms total. the amp runs 800W at 4ohms so nothing should get fried.

my concern is power distribution. if i do this will i cook the marbass cab? the amp? I think more power should hit the carvin, which should hack it OK.

Am i nuts?.....thats not the point, the real question is will this work/sound good/not set me on fire?

 

[Florin]

I think you beter use it the right way - 2X 8 ohms, less headache

You will end up doing this anyway, so I would save some time, energy and money and do the right thing from start

 

[DiMarco]

The alternative is slaving a cheap poweramp (samson class D or alike) and have that drive any extra cabs.
I'd go for what Florin said.

 

[Augie]

This isn't my first option, 2x8 ohms would be ideal. Markbass don't make an 8ohm 2x12. and i'd love to get a matched head/cab set. if it was available there would be no issue (or long winded post) here.

 

[The ShadowKnight]

Yep, I second both Marco and Florin. Plus in a dire emergency most cabs with multiple speakers can be rewired to fit 8 ohm

 

[Augie]

No way to get 2 8ohm speakers to 8ohms total. only 4 or 16. might have to look into another brand. still havent answered my Q, will it work? plenty of guitar cabs have switchable resistance. I figur with a switch i can always run at high power, and have the most combos.

 

[Gerry]

I had the same g.a.s and speaker concern. The 2x12 was meant to be a "stand alone" cab @800w, in their opinion. I'm guessing it's because they don't make a head with more power than that anyway. I got the 2x10 combo...again, and I'm waiting for the 2x10 ported extention cab. I tried it out and it will blow your head off. For more power using 2x12's, I would slave a second head and cab since they are so light weight and you have to bring the second 2x12 cab anyway.

 

[mart]

I recently tried a mrkbass combo and am now racked by GAS. My issue is one of combining and modifying cabs to give me the most flexibility. This is still all in the fantasy stage but i want to know if i am on the right track or totaly deluded and a risk to myself and others.

I am looking at getting either the Littlemark Tube or the LMK tube 800 and the New york 2x12 cab. I would like to be able to use this with my current carvin 4x10. so i can go head + 2x12
head+4x10
head =4x10=2x12-here are my concerns

The cab is 4ohms and rated for 800W (for what their rating is worth) and my carvin is 8ohms rated for 1200W. The amp can go no lower than 4ohms. I know un-modded this is dangerous combo. BUT if i get a switch put in the markbass cab to switch it between 4 and 16 ohms running both cabs in series would give me 5.33ohms total. the amp runs 800W at 4ohms so nothing should get fried.

my concern is power distribution. if i do this will i cook the marbass cab? the amp? I think more power should hit the carvin, which should hack it OK.

Am i nuts?.....thats not the point, the real question is will this work/sound good/not set me on fire?

I seemed to have missed this question when it was first posted. My understanding is that if you re-wire the 2x12 cab, putting the two 8ohm speakers in series rather than in parallel, then you should get a 16ohm cab that'll still cope with 800W.

Now, if you run a 16ohm cab and an 8ohm cab in parallel, then the one with less impedance will get more of the power (since it impedes the power less). And the imbalance is directly in proportion to the imbalance in impedance. So the 8ohm cab will get twice as much power as the 16ohm cab. Thus if you run 800W into the two of them, then the 8ohm cab will get about 530W and the 16ohm cab about 270W. It's not quite as simple as this, so allow a good margin of error on both figures. But it does seem like your two cabs will be fine with this arrangement. And yes, as you say, the total impedance would be 5.33ohms, so the head should be fine too. So I'd say it will work, and won't blow anything up. Whether it'll sound good or not, is very hard to foretell. Just try it and see.