Cab Questions

[RiseAgainst]

I have a mesa walkabout head with a 2x12" mesa cab. I was thinking of purchasing a further 2x10" for more volume. Would attaching a second cab provide a volume boost or simply redistribute the volume through the 2 cabs?

Also, re-reading the mesa handbook it states the walkabout is designed for 4 ohms, but will work with 8 ohm cabs but will half the output to 150W. I'm really hoping the attachment of the second cab would somehow lower the ohm level to allow the full potential of my head. Is this the case at all?

Thanks

 

[RickenBoogie]

Depends. How many ohms is your 2x12? If it's 4, you're done. If it's 8 ohms, you could add another 8 ohm cab, and have a 4 ohm load. In that case, you'd also be done. Does that help?

 

[billfitzmaurice]

I have a mesa walkabout head with a 2x12" mesa cab. I was thinking of purchasing a further 2x10" for more volume. Would attaching a second cab provide a volume boost or simply redistribute the volume through the 2 cabs?

If you add a second cab identical to the first you'll get 6dB additional output, 3dB from the mutual couping of two cabs, 3dB from the halved impedance load. With cabs that aren't identical you'll get an increase, but how much can't be accurately predicted. When mixing cabs with different responses they're just as likely to detract from each other as to augment each other.

 

[62bass]

I have a mesa walkabout head with a 2x12" mesa cab. I was thinking of purchasing a further 2x10" for more volume. Would attaching a second cab provide a volume boost or simply redistribute the volume through the 2 cabs?

Also, re-reading the mesa handbook it states the walkabout is designed for 4 ohms, but will work with 8 ohm cabs but will half the output to 150W. I'm really hoping the attachment of the second cab would somehow lower the ohm level to allow the full potential of my head. Is this the case at all?

Thanks

Yes. You'll get the full 300 watt output from the Walkabout plus the benefit of the extra speaker area. The result will be a noticeably bigger sound. I've done it with the Walkabout and it can sound amazing when used with an extension cabinet.

Also, even though Mesa doesn't explicitly recommend running the Walkabout into any lower than a 4 ohm load, myself and many others have done so with no ill effects. I've run mine into 2.67 ohms and even 2 ohms all night and the amp didn't overheat or fail. It's a well designed product with excellent cooling.

 

[RiseAgainst]

Excellent! Thanks heaps, I was really getting worried I blew a ton of cash on a cab I can only run at half power, but the fact i can lower the ohm rating to 4 by attaching a second 8ohm cab is great. Thanks guys!

But yeah, with the 2ohm rating thing...just running it at 4ohms should be fine, after I blew a couple of amps when I was starting out by pushing them too hard I kinda get sketchy about stretching my gear against what the advisory sticker says