Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

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retinal orbita
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Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by retinal orbita »

My bass cab recently crapped out and I can't really afford to replace it (I mean I can, I would just rather not) and my friend offered me his old Traynor fridge that has a 15" and 410s.

Here they are, together, hanging out in my creepy basement together:

Image

I pull everything apart and test the speakers. Out of the 8 10" speakers 4 are working running at 6 ohms each when I tested them with a multimeter.

The 15" is working too, running at 6 ohms as well.

So here's the issue. My head is a solid state running at 8 ohms 250 watts.

The 410 was matched to the cab and ran at 8 ohms series/parallel

The fridge ran at 4 ohms, in the past.

So what I want to do is make a frankencab out of the fridge and run it at 8 ohms. I understand I can't just wire the 10s and the 15 together as that would run at 4 ohms. So what I want to do is wire 410s in series (or parallel?), and add a separate input for the 15 and essentially have a stereo bass cab running it out of the two outputs of the amp.

Does that make sense? Or am I going to blow up my amp and burn my house down at the same time?

For full disclosure, I am VERY new to this stuff so I'm basically taking what I've read online and trying to sort that info into something reasonable. This would be my first time soldering as well. My next steps would be to

a) buy some wire & soldering iron and
b) draw up a schematic
c) add another jack to the back of the cab (I would use the one from the 410)
d) hopefully not die

Any feedback would be appreciated.
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Re: Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by fishinjim »

retinal orbita wrote: So what I want to do is wire 410s in series (or parallel?), and add a separate input for the 15 and essentially have a stereo bass cab running it out of the two outputs of the amp.
If you haven't already, you might want to double check out how your external speaker jack works.
Putting a separate 8 ohm load into each speaker output may leave the head only seeing 4 ohms. Some amps have jumpers and/or switches to offset this.

If you're confident in those meter readings (6 ohm), I'm wondering if there isn't a way for you to series/parallel all 5 speakers and get into the 8 ohm zone so you only need one speaker cable.

ie...

3 x 6 ohm series = 18 ohms
2 x 6 ohm series = 12 ohms

Wire the above two series in parallel, and that should get you in the ballpark of 8 ohms.

Far as the soldering goes, not that difficult, but you may want to consider some spade terminals (if the speakers have tabs) at least until you're 100 % solid on the wiring configurations.

Take the above with a grain of salt and maybe wait for confirmation from others. I aint no pro at this stuff.
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Re: Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by retinal orbita »

fishinjim wrote:
retinal orbita wrote: So what I want to do is wire 410s in series (or parallel?), and add a separate input for the 15 and essentially have a stereo bass cab running it out of the two outputs of the amp.
If you haven't already, you might want to double check out how your external speaker jack works.

This is really great advice - thank you. I just checked and it runs at 8 ohms, 250 w in parallel. So that would mean if I connect both cables to separate speaker configurations the head will drop to 4 ohms? I'm going to try some temp connections before I solder anything together.

Thanks for the feedback. Cheers.
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Re: Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by TweedBassman »

most "8" ohm speakers read about 6.5 ohms. 4 ohm speakers are usually around 3.2-3.5. so, wire it up as if those speakers are 8 ohms.

for the amp output, the outputs are probably in parallel but you might be able to google that info, or just open it up (be careful) and check the wiring.
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Re: Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by retinal orbita »

Thanks - it says parallel right on the back so I'm assuming if I run two 8 ohm loads the cab will drop to 4 ohms. It's not a particularly great head but I like it.

I'll try to find a wiring schematic for 4 10s and a 15 if possible.
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Re: Can I get some input on my crazy cab rewire

Post by retinal orbita »

Image

Final result - I ran 4 10"s into one input @ 8 ohms, and the 15" through another input @ 8 ohms and with those together it runs at 4 and sounds GREAT.

I just need to clean the pots on my head, and get some new velcro for the grille cover and it's go time.
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