How do you hook up two Marshall cabs to one amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter romanianreaper
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romanianreaper

romanianreaper

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After over 25 years of playing, I know that I should be an expert on this but I've never hooked up two speaker cabs at the same time. I just picked up a Marshall 1960BV cab and already have a Marshall 1960A cab. I thought it would be cool to hook both up with my amp.

If I understand correctly, I should plug a speaker cable into each jack on the back of my amp and run one cable to a cab (set at 8 ohms) and run the other cable to the other cab also set at 8 ohms. On my amp, the selector switch should be set at 4 ohms. Both cabs should be left at the "mono" setting since I want to hear all 4 speakers.

I'm confused about the whole "parallel" versus "series" thing. I can't seem to find any good info on that. With the setup above, is that considered "parallel" setup?

Thanks for the info.
 
Forgot to mention that I currently have the amp set at 16 ohms and run into the 16 ohm mono jack on the one speaker cab. So I guess I would be actually setting the amp at 8 ohms if I have each cab set at 16 ohms mono?
 
WHAT AMP are you using ?
I know it makes no difference but may simplify the answer.

Most Marshall 4x12 cabs are 16 ohms stock. Or they have the switch that makes them 4 or 16 ohm in mono and 8 ohm in stereo.

You want to use the 16 ohm setting on the cabs ..... the amp you want to set to 8 ohms or use two 8 ohm outputs. (the outputs on amps are in parallel)

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... google.com
 
romanianreaper":nic6x8yz said:
Forgot to mention that I currently have the amp set at 16 ohms and run into the 16 ohm mono jack on the one speaker cab. So I guess I would be actually setting the amp at 8 ohms if I have each cab set at 16 ohms mono?
Click to expand...
Yes :yes:
 
Yes, if you have two 16 ohm mono cabs, you run the amp at 8 ohm. You have a parallel circuit since you are basically sending half the signal to each cab. To calculate, figure product over sum or 16*16/16+16 or 256/32 = 8 Ohm. In a series circuit, you are running the full signal to one speaker, then it leaves that speaker and goes to the next one. In that case, you just add the Ohm's together. So basically 16+16 or 32 Ohm.
 
Thanks guys. I'm using a Marshall SLP Reissue which has two speaker output jacks on the back. The Marshall cabinets both have a switch for mono or stereo. For mono there is a 4 or 16 ohm option or 8 ohms in stereo. Damn this stuff gets confusing sometimes. :)
 
I think you have it ....

Set cabs to 16 ohms. Use both jacks on the amp set to 8 ohms.
 
stephen sawall":2ln3tqpz said:
I think you have it ....

Set cabs to 16 ohms. Use both jacks on the amp set to 8 ohms.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think the idea of running one cab into another cab, rather than having both cables come from the amp, was throwing me off a bit.
 
Set the head to 8 ohms.
Run a speaker cable from each speaker output to each cab.
Make sure each cab is set to mono/ if applicable.
Plug each speaker cable to the cab's input 16 ohms jack
 
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