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2 amps into 1 cabinet
- Thread starter fatsobasso
- Start date
hmm...i'm probably the wrong guy to ask about this technical and wiring stuff but here i go,
umm same situation probably doesn't apply here but a friend of mine did the same thing except with a guitar cabinet.
he took an old, empty marshall cabinet and loaded it with some old celestions and some old vox (Bulldog?) speakers.
he has it so that he doesn't connect the two speakers together. he just has the two speakers running together...
but he also has it so that you can either run the vox or the celestions or both at the same time. they each have different impendence amounts (4 ohms and 8 ohms).
if you could do something like that where you just put two speakers in a cabinet and just connect them to whatever head you want.
might work???
anyways i hope this was somewhat helpful and don't make fun of me if i said something wrong or missused a "technical term" lol.
umm same situation probably doesn't apply here but a friend of mine did the same thing except with a guitar cabinet.
he took an old, empty marshall cabinet and loaded it with some old celestions and some old vox (Bulldog?) speakers.
he has it so that he doesn't connect the two speakers together. he just has the two speakers running together...
but he also has it so that you can either run the vox or the celestions or both at the same time. they each have different impendence amounts (4 ohms and 8 ohms).
if you could do something like that where you just put two speakers in a cabinet and just connect them to whatever head you want.
might work???
anyways i hope this was somewhat helpful and don't make fun of me if i said something wrong or missused a "technical term" lol.
wow,,, did you do this before, or after your original post ?
your post above,, just totally boggles my mind.. not only did you do it already,,, but then you decided it was nappy time ??? & just about burnt up not one,,, but two amps ???
wow... how high were you ?
Follow the signal path. The amplified signal goes out one of the amp's outputs, down the speaker cable and into the cab as normal. Problem is, there's another speaker cable plugged into the other speaker cab connector, and they're linked. The signal jumps to the other cable and continues to flow through it. It's designed to pass the signal to a second speaker cab, but as you've got it plugged into the amp's second output, the signal goes back inside the amp. Here's the amplified signal is amplified again, and again, and again, many times per seconds and before long... BANG. The amp heats up and that's the end of that.
You did indeed get lucky. You obviously had the volume very low and that saved your amp.
My suggestion for your lessons is to use a cheap line mixer to plug both basses into the one amp.
i have gone thru the thread, & read all the posts, & i think i asked some valid questions. ( altho the questions do not require a response,,, but just about anybody that reads this thread, would probably come to the same conclusion )
i have gone thru the thread, & read all the posts, & i think i asked some valid questions. ( altho the questions do not require a response,,, but just about anybody that reads this thread, would probably come to the same conclusion )
True. I didn't want to get harsh on the guy myself, but how do you give a bass lesson and not know that running two heads into one cab is bad?!?!
See, now you got me doing it...
OK guys i worked like 65 hrs this week,a friend wanted a bass lesson,so i thought i read somewhere, you can plug 2 into 1.
Anyway to clear everything up,here is what i did,and you guys tell me if i should expect any damage soon,here go's--------
I hooked a a speakon cable to 1 amp,then to the cab. I hooked the other head to the cab with a regular speaker cable. I tried both amps out for about 2 minutes, they seemed to work fine,but i did notice there were running hot.
So then i muted both amps,gk1001rb2 has a mute switch,and i went to sit down and wait for my friend from work to arrive, for his lesson, this is when i nodded off for about 15 minutes or so.
Ok, so he arrived,we plugged in our basses,each of us plugged in to a seperate amp,then we started jamming,and my signal kept cutting out,then both our signals cut out,so i unplugged one head form the cab,thats the whole story.
Anyway to clear everything up,here is what i did,and you guys tell me if i should expect any damage soon,here go's--------
I hooked a a speakon cable to 1 amp,then to the cab. I hooked the other head to the cab with a regular speaker cable. I tried both amps out for about 2 minutes, they seemed to work fine,but i did notice there were running hot.
So then i muted both amps,gk1001rb2 has a mute switch,and i went to sit down and wait for my friend from work to arrive, for his lesson, this is when i nodded off for about 15 minutes or so.
Ok, so he arrived,we plugged in our basses,each of us plugged in to a seperate amp,then we started jamming,and my signal kept cutting out,then both our signals cut out,so i unplugged one head form the cab,thats the whole story.
Bass-
This is how great discoveries are made. Never mind the risk to life and limb. You might want to redo the experiment while standing in a tub of water. Make that lard.
No it would not. With no signal the amp hot is essentially at ground potential. If you connect another amp to it that is also not putting out a signal nothing happens. Thus the two amps happily coexisting while the OP slept. It's when you start outputting a signal that the problems start. One amp acts as a short to the other and eventually one amp will fail, thus the amps cutting out during the lesson and being extremely hot. When one fails it could then kill the other amp.
Yes the OP was lucky - very lucky actually, no permanent damage was done.
As for the suggestion for wiring speakers in the same cabinet for separate amps. It would be OK if the cabinet is constructed using separate chambers for each set. If not at high volume I could see a problem of the drivers fighting each other (see FAQ re passive radiators. At low volumes it should be ok. Best to use different cabs for each amp or, as previously posted, a small mixer to drive the amp.
Paul
