guitar amp cabinets... OHMS?

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TaylorEGO

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I have a blue Voodoo head that can run outputs at 8ohms or 16ohms

I have a 2x12 cab that is 8 ohms.

can I also run another cab? (let's say a 16 ohm 4x12, or an 8 ohm 4x12)
wouldn't another 8ohm cab take the ohms to 4 and make something not work?
and I have no idea what would happen if I had a 16ohm cab and an 8 ohm cab running at the same time...
I know very little about ohms and what will break...
but I dont want to break anything...

so... who knows all about OHMS?
 
TaylorEGO said:
I have a blue Voodoo head that can run outputs at 8ohms or 16ohms

I have a 2x12 cab that is 8 ohms.

can I also run another cab? (let's say a 16 ohm 4x12, or an 8 ohm 4x12)
wouldn't another 8ohm cab take the ohms to 4 and make something not work?
Click to expand...
2x8Ohms in parallel=4 Ohms
2x8Ohms in series=16 Ohms.

Make sure that the cabs are in phase with each other, in any case.
 
TaylorEGO said:
I have a blue Voodoo head that can run outputs at 8ohms or 16ohms

I have a 2x12 cab that is 8 ohms.

can I also run another cab? (let's say a 16 ohm 4x12, or an 8 ohm 4x12)
wouldn't another 8ohm cab take the ohms to 4 and make something not work?
and I have no idea what would happen if I had a 16ohm cab and an 8 ohm cab running at the same time...
I know very little about ohms and what will break...
but I dont want to break anything...

so... who knows all about OHMS?
Click to expand...

The short answer is no, you are already at the maximum load (lowest ohms) that your head can safely drive. If you connect to an additional 16 ohm cabinet, the loading on your amp will be 5.3 ohms, which is outside your amplifier's comfort zone.

The longer answer is with some speaker rewiring or replacement, or running cabinets in series, you could do it, but if you aren't up on amplifier loading and Ohm's law, you could damage your amplifier. Play it safe until you understand the fundamentals.
 
in series?

does running them in series, mean running the line from the amp to one cab and then out of that cab into the other?
 
TaylorEGO said:
does running them in series, mean running the line from the amp to one cab and then out of that cab into the other?
Click to expand...

No, that is still parallel. You can't do parallel with standard TS speaker cabling, you have to custom wire it.
 
TaylorEGO said:
does running them in series, mean running the line from the amp to one cab and then out of that cab into the other?
Click to expand...

No, there is no way to run cabinets in series without building some sort of custom speaker wiring. When you do this, you take a risk of generating a short or an open circuit, either of which can be destructive to the power section of your amplifier, which means a repair bill which could be higher than the cost of the amp.

I strongly recommend that you not do this unless there is a compelling reason that you must run two cabinets and one of them must be your 8 ohm cab. No offense intended, but the questions you are asking indicate to me that at your present level of understanding about this stuff you have a pretty good chance of getting yourself in trouble.

If what you are looking for is more volume, adding speaker cabs to your rig probably won't do that, anyway; in fact, if you start running cabs in series, the end result could very well be LESS volume. Put the amp on a chair, lean it back so it points at your head, mic the amp... try some other things first.
 
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