Ibanez SW65 amp mods
 

I have an Ibanez SW65 amp and just picked up the SW115S external 15" cab for it's big brother the SW100. Of course I want to pair them up :)

Now before anyone says I need a bigger head I have a Carvin 300w (BX600) amp with a 2 10" and a 1 15" cab. The SW65 is for playing in the bassement.

It's well known that the SW65 is not a loud amp. I'm not sure if it's due to the amp output tank, the speakers or both. I kinda suspect that Ibanez throttled it back intentionlly as to to not loose SW100 sales to the SW65.

The SW65 can handle a 4 ohm load. The SW115s is an 8 ohm speaker cab (15" and a tweeter).

Ibanez does not state what the impeadence load is for the internal SW65 speakers. The parts list state that the speakers are:

PJ1204 SW65 12" speaker

SPKKP308-M01 Tweeter for SW65

I'm guessing that the 12" is a 4 ohm speaker (1204). PJ stands for Power Jam.

No idea what the tweeter is but it's either a 4 or 8 ohm. I'm guessing it woukld be a 4 ohm wired in series with the 12" for a total load of 8 ohms. (I would look inside but the SW65 amp is in Atlanta and I'm in Orlando this week.)

So what I'm thinking is to run the 15" cab in parallel with the internal speakers droping the total load to 4 ohms.

Has anyone peeked inside the SW65 and knows exactly how the tweeter is wired and what the speaker impeadence values are?

Many thanks!

Also, does anyone have the schematic for the Ibanez SW65?

Most likely, the SW65 amp is loaded with a 4 ohm 12, making it impossible to add on an ext cab. The tweeter does not affect the total impedance. If it were possible, there would be an ext spkr jack on the back. Not what you want to hear, but very few, if any, small combo amps are designed to "add-on" extra spkrs.

no external speaker jack = internal speaker is 4 ohms or the amp was designed for an 8 ohm min speaker.


I have changed my internal speaker on my Ibanez Promethean P3115 from a 4 ohm to an 8 ohm Eminence 3015. This gives me the option of adding an external jack but the 3015 is so efficient there is no need.

Thanks! I'm new to bass amp cabs w/tweeters (I'm a guitar guy). So that makes a lot of sense.

My options are to just use the 15" external or better yet replace the 4 ohm speaker with an 8 ohm and use them both for a 4 ohm load.

If I do replace the 4 ohm 12" internal with an 8 ohm, can I still use the existing tweeter?

Yes.

Sweet! Thanks!