Mesa Oversized cab & 5150, hooked up correctly?

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

I have the head set to 8 ohms and am plugging into this 8 ohm pickup...The boogie cab is 8 ohms total right?

Ohms confuse the fuck out of me sometimes, please excuse my retarded questions!

thanks!

 

[anomaly]

Correct.

 

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

Phew! thanks...

Nothing to see her folks, retarded amp fiend has found his answer.



-Joe

 

[broknstuff]

Yup. on mine the two left inputs (left when you are looking at the backplate, like you have in the picture) have that cover on them. Here's a run down:

Bottom right: 8 ohm mono, you'll be running all 4 speakers, set your amp to 8 ohms.
Top Right: That is if you want to daisy chain with another cabinet. So the signal would go amp-->into bottom right of mesa cab--> the top right of the mesa cab plugged into a second cab. In that case, you should set the amp ohm to add up whatever the mesa cab and the other cab is. Ideally you'd only do this with another 8 ohm cab; 8 +8= 16 ohms, so you should set your amp to 16 ohms

Now for the left side: Each one of those inputs is wired to just two of the speakers. The top one I think is the right two speakers and the bottom one is the left two speakers, but forget which is which. You want to use these these if you want to run two different heads at the same time into the mesa. For example's sake let's say a mesa rectifier and a mesa stiletto. You'd run the 4 ohm out of the rectifier into one of the left inputs, and the 4 ohm output of stiletto into the other left input. Imagine the left side just making the 4x12 two different vertical 2x12s within the same box.

 

[D-Rock]

Bottom right: 8 ohm mono, you'll be running all 4 speakers, set your amp to 8 ohms.
Top Right: That is if you want to daisy chain with another cabinet. So the signal would go amp-->into bottom right of mesa cab--> the top right of the mesa cab plugged into a second cab. In that case, you should set the amp ohm to add up whatever the mesa cab and the other cab is. Ideally you'd only do this with another 8 ohm cab; 8 +8= 16 ohms, so you should set your amp to 16 ohms

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs together, shouldn't you set the amp to 4 ohms? I'm running two 8 ohm cabs together, but not daisy chaining, and I have my amp set to 4 ohms.

Congrats MightyJoe! You made a decision and picked a great cab! How you liking it?

 

[nwright]

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs together, shouldn't you set the amp to 4 ohms? I'm running two 8 ohm cabs together, but not daisy chaining, and I have my amp set to 4 ohms.

correct.

 

[D-Rock]

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs together, shouldn't you set the amp to 4 ohms? I'm running two 8 ohm cabs together, but not daisy chaining, and I have my amp set to 4 ohms.

correct.

Your band is great. Really nice amps and guitars. Right up my alley.

 

[broknstuff]

Bottom right: 8 ohm mono, you'll be running all 4 speakers, set your amp to 8 ohms.
Top Right: That is if you want to daisy chain with another cabinet. So the signal would go amp-->into bottom right of mesa cab--> the top right of the mesa cab plugged into a second cab. In that case, you should set the amp ohm to add up whatever the mesa cab and the other cab is. Ideally you'd only do this with another 8 ohm cab; 8 +8= 16 ohms, so you should set your amp to 16 ohms

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs together, shouldn't you set the amp to 4 ohms? I'm running two 8 ohm cabs together, but not daisy chaining, and I have my amp set to 4 ohms.

Congrats MightyJoe! You made a decision and picked a great cab! How you liking it?

Correct, because you are using two cabinets in parallel (i.e. they are both connected to the head directly, so amp output 1 --> cab 1 and amp output 2 --> cab2). In parallel if the cabs have the same resistance, as in this case two different 8 ohm cabs, then the final resistance is the resistance of the cab divided by the number of cabs. So in your case 8/2 = 4; so you set the amp to 4 ohms.

If you are daisy chaining cabinets, so that it is amp --> input to cabinet 1 ---> ouput of cabinet 1 ---> input of cabinet 2, then you are running the cabinets in series. When you add resistance in series, the total resistance is just the sum of all the individual resistances. So in the case of the OP, 8 + 8 =16, so he would have to set his amp to 16 ohm tap.

In summary, yes, you are running it correctly.

 

[D-Rock]

Bottom right: 8 ohm mono, you'll be running all 4 speakers, set your amp to 8 ohms.
Top Right: That is if you want to daisy chain with another cabinet. So the signal would go amp-->into bottom right of mesa cab--> the top right of the mesa cab plugged into a second cab. In that case, you should set the amp ohm to add up whatever the mesa cab and the other cab is. Ideally you'd only do this with another 8 ohm cab; 8 +8= 16 ohms, so you should set your amp to 16 ohms

If you're running two 8 ohm cabs together, shouldn't you set the amp to 4 ohms? I'm running two 8 ohm cabs together, but not daisy chaining, and I have my amp set to 4 ohms.

Congrats MightyJoe! You made a decision and picked a great cab! How you liking it?

Correct, because you are using two cabinets in parallel (i.e. they are both connected to the head directly, so amp output 1 --> cab 1 and amp output 2 --> cab2). In parallel if the cabs have the same resistance, as in this case two different 8 ohm cabs, then the final resistance is the resistance of the cab divided by the number of cabs. So in your case 8/2 = 4; so you set the amp to 4 ohms.

If you are daisy chaining cabinets, so that it is amp --> input to cabinet 1 ---> ouput of cabinet 1 ---> input of cabinet 2, then you are running the cabinets in series. When you add resistance in series, the total resistance is just the sum of all the individual resistances. So in the case of the OP, 8 + 8 =16, so he would have to set his amp to 16 ohm tap.

In summary, yes, you are running it correctly.

Great explaination, thanks. Is there a noticeable difference in tone when daisy chaining in series at 16 ohms compared to in parallel at 4 ohms?
I've heard that when you run your amp at 16 ohms you are working the amp's output transformer more.