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Combo Amp Internal Speaker Connection Question

EMoneySC2

EMoneySC2

Aug 25, 2014
1,636
2,715
35
Minneapolis, MN
#1
Hey everybody,

I just came into possession of a Hartke 3500 MOSFET Transient Attack combo that has 15" and 5" speakers. I noticed the upper mids and highs were sounding kind of weak, so I took off the grill and pulled out the 5" speaker and saw that it wasn't connected to anything. The 15" speaker is connected to a 1/4" jack that plugs into one of the head's 2 8ohm speaker outputs. Both of the speakers have labels on them that indicate that they are 8ohms.

My question is, to get the 5" speaker back into the signal chain do I just connect it's terminals to the 15" speaker terminals, or should it's terminals be connected to another 1/4" jack that is plugged into the other 8ohm speaker output? My gut is saying that I just need to connect the two speakers together, but I would like to get a more confident opinion.
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#2
Well, the 5" HAS to be connected to a crossover first. It could be in the compartment behind the 5" speaker so pull it and find out. If there's no crossover and you connect the two speakers together, the 5" will last about 5 seconds.
 
#3
mmbongo said:
Well, the 5" HAS to be connected to a crossover first. It could be in the compartment behind the 5" speaker so pull it and find out. If there's no crossover and you connect the two speakers together, the 5" will last about 5 seconds.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. When I first pulled the speakers out I didn't notice a crossover, so that may be part of the problem. I'll take a closer look in a little while.

If there is a crossover, what would the wiring be like? Would it be: Speaker output -> Crossover -> one cable to 15" and one cable to 5"?

Thanks for the help!
 
#5
So there isn't any crossover inside the cabinet. There aren't any screws or screw holes inside, but there are a couple small dabs of hot glue so if there was a crossover at one point it was just glued down? This is a bit interesting.

Any idea what my options are for getting a crossover? Could I buy a Greenboy 15/6 designed crossover from speakerhardware.com and use that? This is what I'm thinking of: Invalid Link Removed
 
#7
moody said:
If the crossover is gone, have you checked that the 5" speaker is even working?
Click to expand...

A short test with some speaker cable and a 9V battery tells me yes, it is working. I get some crackly sounds when connected to the battery. I wonder if the crossover was glued into the cabinet, fell down and was causing issues or broke, and the previous owner just tore it out and decided to just go with the 15". The cabinet definitely looks like somebody has opened it up before.
 
#13
CL400Peavey said:
Only if you are building a fearful 15/6.
Click to expand...

Figures. I'll maybe email/call Hartke? I got this amp for $180 today, and I could return it if I choose. I'm not passionate about this amp, it was just loud and cheap. The 15" works fine, and sounds good with clean bass. However if I try to get interesting and throw in some OD or fuzz it just sounds poopy without upper mids and highs. My main reason for buying this was to be able to jam with other people and use it as a general beater amp, so it'd not a big loss if I can't get the 5" working.

Or I could get off my ass and design and a crossover myself...to make some use of my Electrical and Computer Engineering degree (outside of my job).
 

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