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My first project... will this work?

C

ColinGWood

Aug 4, 2009
313
0
The Great White North
#1
Hey guys, relative bass newb here.

I've been itching to do some macgyvering and now that it seems i might have swine flu and will be locked up in bed for the next couple days, i figure its time to air this theory out.

So I just picked up my first *nice* amplifier, an SWR Baby Blue 2 Studio Reference combo. Reaal nice tone, love the gain, and the aural enhaner is pretty cool too. Before that i was playing through my *practice* amp, a Kustom KBA16. Small little amp, but i LOVE the tone i was getting out of the Celestion speaker. It's got a real nice woof.

Is it possible to rewire the KBA16 combo into simply an extension cabinet?

this may be an absolutely ludicrous question, but i want to learn as much as i can about whatever i can, including what makes an amp tick.. or woof, rather!

any input is GREATLY appreciated!

greenkid
 
#2
Yes you can (maybe). In reality combos are nothing more than a head and a cab in one package. To avoid damaging your equipment, learn a ton about how this stuff works, and figure out if you will be able to use your cab with that amp, read ALL of this post, it's extremely helpful.
 
#3
oh and heres specs on both amps:

******SWR Baby Blue 2 Studio Reference******
150w, 8 ohms
2x8" speakers, plus a 5" horn

(this info from the online manual, not really familiar with the numbers or terms :S)
Maximum Power at 1KHz Under Clipping
120 Watts RMS @ 8 ohms (head only w/ 8 ohm speaker enclosure)
160 Watts RMS @ 4 ohms (internal speaker complement)
180 Watts RMS @ 2.6 ohms
200 Watts RMS @ 2 ohms

8" Loudspeaker
Low resonance
1.5" voice coil
30 oz. magnet
60 watts continuous sine wave power handling capacity
Shallow cone design for low distortion
Impedance: 8 ohms

5" Cone Tweeter
1" voice coil
cast frame
12 oz magnet
50 watts continuous sine wave power handling capacity
Impedance: 8 ohms

******Kustom KBA16******

16W, 8ohms
 
#6
but also... if this works, is there any tips anyone can give me for rewiring the Kustom? I unscrewed the back panel and all these resistors and wires and stuff on the chipboard look pretty intimidating. Im eager to learn though!!!


Hopefully if it works out I'll have a killer macgyver rig for playing house parties and such.
 
#7
Mmmmm. Like I thought. So your combo amp's minimum impedance is 8, and your combo amp's speaker's impedence is 8, meaning that you get as much wattage through that speaker as possible. This is generally the case with combos. It would be possible to do some tricky wiring to hook up additional speakers to the amp, but if you do that then you will get less and less wattage to each speaker. Since you're already running at minimum impedence, I wouldn't reccomend trying to hook up additional cabs, because you won't see a lot of improvement. On the other hand, experimenting with this kind of thing is loads of fun, and I encourage you to take that stuff apart, do some non-permanent wiring, and see what happens. You can always put everything back together the way it was, no harm done.
 
#8
The specs say the head portion will do 2 ohms min with a 4 ohm extension. The internal speakers of the baby blue = a 4 ohm load. Your iddy biddy 8 ohm Celestion speaker designed for a 16 watt amp will see 1/3rd of a 2.67 ohm load @ 180 watts, meaning it will have to be able to handle 60 watts instead of it's usual 16. Do you see what I'm getting at here? It might be fine, but don't go all Ted Nudgenty on it.
 
#9
Jaco who? said:
The specs say the head portion will do 2 ohms min with a 4 ohm extension. The internal speakers of the baby blue = a 4 ohm load. Your iddy biddy 8 ohm Celestion speaker designed for a 16 watt amp will see 1/3rd of a 2.67 ohm load @ 180 watts, meaning it will have to be able to handle 60 watts instead of it's usual 16. Do you see what I'm getting at here? It might be fine, but don't go all Ted Nudgenty on it.
Click to expand...

ye, i get that its not gonna work out golden. I wonder if i could just split the signal and run it to both amps?

sory if my questions are rediculous, but i like to think punk is still alive, im just learning as i go here. im still in my first year of playing too btw so my knowledge on thiese kind of things has room for improvement
 
#10
silky smoove said:
Sorry to hear about the swine flu. 3 people I know have had bouts with it. Lots of fluids, lots of vitamins and plenty of rest. Get better!
Click to expand...

hah thanks, yea im just wrapping myself up in blankets rather than go down to the hospital where ill have to wait in a room with 60 othr people for 6 hours... just so the doctor can tell me to go home and wrap myself up in blankets!!
 
#11
ColinGWood said:
hah thanks, yea im just wrapping myself up in blankets rather than go down to the hospital where ill have to wait in a room with 60 othr people for 6 hours... just so the doctor can tell me to go home and wrap myself up in blankets!!
Click to expand...

VITAMIN C.
Dead serious. Cures friggin' EVERYTHING. Take a pill every hour. You will get better. In two days. I'm not joking. It's miraculous stuff. About two years ago four people in my house all had the flu - I started coughing, and I started popping Vitamin C pills, by the next day the cough was gone, and I never got sick. Since then I take a multivitamin and a vitamin C pill every day and I haven't been sick once since then, 'bout two years ago. Not even a cold.
 

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