Bass Cab wiring feedback

Are you sure that your head is 8 ohm? Not all, but most heads in general are 4.

 

If your meter is reading 6 ohms DC resistance for the speakers they are nominally 8 ohms impedance.

6 of one, half dozen the other.

So your head is 8 ohms minimum? If that is the case then no, you cannot configure these five speakers in a way that will work.

What you could do is wire the four 10" speakers in series/parallel to get an 8 ohm 4x10, and have a separate 8 ohm 1x15, but to wire these two in parallel you'd have a 4 ohm total cab that wont work with your 8 ohm minimum head (not to mention all the usual caveats about properly tuning the cab, avoiding mixed drivers and poor phase response, etc, etc).

 

4x10s plus 1x15 is a poor pairing at the best of times. I advise against it. You cannot combine five 8Ω drivers for a total load of 8Ω. Is the empty cabinet the one that has 4x10s plus a 15?? if not just go the 4x10 route and leave the 15 out of the equation.

 

exactly what model Yorkville head is it? It's worth checking documentation from the manufacturer. I don't recall seeing amps that can only handle 8 Ohms and not 4.. but I'm sure some exist. I can't imagine how you'd get 410's and a 115 into the same cab and have it work without separate chambers... and at that point just go with 2 cabinets.

 

Is this one of those Mesa cabs that has 410's and 115 in it?

They're still wired as if they were separate 410 and 115 cabs....4ohms. They just happen to be in one big box instead of 2 separate ones.

I don't know of any SS amps that won't do 4ohms, though there may be an odd one out there. Maybe an old Kustom or maybe the amp portion of a combo that didn't have extension cab jack???

Some old tube amps also wanted 8 or 16.

 

Assuming you need 8 ohms.

Use a crossover, wire the 4x10 for 8 ohms, and crossover to the 8 ohm 15"
The amplifier will see 8ohms

Now you're going to need to measure to see which one actually goes lower and is more efficient for the low end, either one may be better than the other.

 

Yup, that'll work.

You could also end up at the same place wiring all the speakers that way Inside the cab and having one input jack. One cable from amp to cab.

Electrically it's the same thing. 4ohms. The amp would be seeing the same 4ohms either way.

 

Yup. What Will33 said. Your amp can handle a 4 ohm load. The 2 jacks on the back are in parallel. If you put 2 8 ohm cabs, that will be 4 ohms. There is no reason you can't run a single 4 ohm cab into that amp as well. You'll just be as low as you can go.

So your existing cab originally came with a 115 and 410s? I can find an old Traynor with 210s and 115. http://traynoramps.com/bass/cabinets/product/tc1510/ Do you have a model number on it somewhere?

In that cab you could have 4 8Ohm speakers in series/parallel (8+8 = 16 ) and (8+8 = 16 ) / 2 ( because they are in parallel ) = 8 Ohms. And a single 8 Ohm 15. So (8+8)/2 = 4 Ohms You would be fine. Now.. finding replacement speakers is much harder since the speakers need to match the enclosure volume and porting if it has it.

They are in one large box... but can you look inside and see if they are all in the same shared cabinet space, or are the 10s separated by the 15 by a baffle/wall inside?

Then we'll need to figure out the exact internal dimensions of the cab and see if we can find speakers that will work well in the cabinet size. Unfortunately, I have not used the speaker/cabinet software out there and don't know how to help with finding a speaker.... but there are others that can. Unless you can find original replacements for the cab and be done with it.

 

OK I found a Mesa Boogie 4x10+15 Still cant find the Traynor one digging around online. That Mesa must weigh 2 tons.

 

That one probably weighs less than the one I played. Was all laminate with metal strips on every edge. Like a real ATA roadcase/flightcase that just happened to be a bass cab of dubious quality.

 

OK..... couple more questions..
1) you have a Traynor 115 + 210 cab
2) you also have a 410 cab

If you have the 15/210 cab, are the 210 holes plugged or covered? Or separated in the cab? You could ruin the 15 if you leave 2 10" openings in the 115+210 cab...

 

OP have you run any cabinet simulations on the cabinet to identify what drivers will work well in your box?

I too an unsure just what cabinet your are talking about. I played through a Trainer 4x10 plus 1x15 in a combined cabinet. I found it very poor. Has the cabinet got separate airspaces for the tens and the 15??