Cabinet speaker sugestions

[MikeST]

Hey guys,
I could use some suggestions.
I just bought a vintage musicman HD 130 head
I'd like to build a 4x12 cabinet for it.
I'm a better woodworker than a guitar player and I really don't know anything about speakers and wiring.
Theres a guy on e-bay that sells Jensen speakers that he says go into fender twins usually.

I have sort of a limited budget .
Any suggestions?
This amp was a totally cool vintage fender clean sound. Awesome thick reverb.
Also, can I just buy 4-12's and wire them together with an input jack?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just don't know anything about ohms and how they relate to setting up multiple speakers.

 

[MikeST]

Well , I have to tell you, after searching back-posts.
The avatar cabinets look pretty cool.

Can anyone tell mw what they think the 2 x 12 cabinet would sound like compared to the 4x12.

Like I said, vintage musicman reverb head.
Looking for a nice clean fender blues sound.

Maybe the 2 x12 would be fine. Especially on my budget.

 

[Outlaws]

A wood worker eh?

Why don't you build your own?

 

[Farview]

The jensens will be fine for that application. wiring the cabinet is not as hard as making it. If you are looking for that fender twin sound, you should build a cabinet like the one used with a fender twin. Once you build the cabinet, there are hundreds of people here that can tell you how to wire it. We will need to know the impedence (ohms) of the speakers you will be using (they should be all the same) , how many speakers you are using, and how many ohms the head will handle. (the impedence switch on the back)

 

[MikeST]

Now I think I should build my own.
Avatar has good deals on celestions like they use in their cabinets.

The head is a musicman HD130
130 watts RMS
Has a 4ohm-8ohm switch on the back of the head.

 

[Farview]

celestions break up differently than jensens. Personally I prefer celestions for distorted sounds and jensens for clean fenderish sounds. you will want to get 8 ohm speakers if you go with a 4x12 or 16 ohm speakers if you go with a 2x12 (you can also use 4 ohm with the 2x12)

 

[MikeST]

Thanks for the feedback.
Farview I appreciate it.
It can get really confusing.

There are a lot of speakers listed on e-bay.
A lot of Jensens.
Any reccomendations?

 

[Imaduck]

While building a cabinet is pretty easy, it can become expensive when you factor in all the extras; handles, casters, whatever you cover it with, metal grating or whatever you put on the front of it, etc. I would suggest just buying a pre-built cab, and then buy your own speakers separate. The only guitar speakers I've used enough to form a valid opinion on are Crates and Celestions, and I like them both greatly. There is an endless slew of commentary on this board about which Celestions to get.

If you do end up building your own cab, speaker wiring is really simple, so that should be the least of your worries. Once you pick your speakers and build it and all that, just post the specs up here and I'm sure I or somebody else will be happy to help you with it.

 

[Outlaws]

While building a cabinet is pretty easy, it can become expensive...

I am building my own cabinet right now. Not to save money, but because I want something no one else has.

 

[Hard2Hear]

Any reccomendations?

Yeah, buy my Fender GE412 from me for WAY cheaper than you could build one for!!! Ive been trying to sell it off for like 2 years..it's in the way here. 150 and shipping from KY takes it.

H2H

 

[Adam P]

As far as calculating impedance for multiple speakers, its just a matter of a couple simple formulas:

For speakers wired in series: R = R1 + R2 + R3 + R4

For speakers wired in parallel: 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2 +1/R3 +1/R4

where R is total resistance, and Rn is the resistance of each individual speaker. Use speakers of the same impedance for best results. Basically, plug different available speaker values (usually 8 or 16 ohms) and plug them into the formula, and pick the one that results in the same impedance as the output of your amp. If your amp has multiple impedance outputs (for example, my Sovtek MIG 50 can be 4, 8, or 16 ohms), match the impedance to another cab you might have, or plan ahead...thinking about picking up a vintage Marshall? Wire the cab for 8 ohms. Want a blackface Bassman? Wire it for 4 ohms.

For the record, I think most cabs are wired in parallel, but I could be wrong. Some (like the Marshall mono/dual stereo switchable cabs) might use a series-parallel configuration, where two pairs of series-wired speakers are wired in parallel to each other. In this case, and assuming that all of your speakers are the same impedance, the total impedance will be the same as any one particular speaker.

Lastly, the higher the guage of speaker wire (aka the lower the number), the better.

 

[Farview]

All of the old 'mono only' marshall cabs were series-parallel too. Thats the only way to get the cab to be the same impedance as the individual speakers. BTW vintage (70s and 80s) marshall cabs were normally 16 ohms, so that you could run four of them from 1 head (that would be 4 ohms two cabs would be 8 ohms)

 

[MikeST]

I would be interested in that cabinet.
Tell me more about it if you get the time.
I imagine it would cost a bunch to ship here to chicago.

Have a picture or anything?
Mike

 

[Hard2Hear]

Mike-
Sent you a PM.
I just had a heavier amp sent to me from NC and it cost about $65 UPS.

H2H