Or an old AJS, Norton, RE, etc. First time I encountered the Whitworth standard, I was but 18 and thought I had everything covered with my SAE and metric tools...such a silly boy was I!
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Rant.. Neutrik Connectors Without 1/4” Connectivity
- Thread starter 57pbass
- Start date
Or an old AJS, Norton, RE, etc. First time I encountered the Whitworth standard, I was but 18 and thought I had everything covered with my SAE and metric tools...such a silly boy was I!
Neither my old v4b or 810 have speakon connectors because they're from the 70's. I don't plan on modifying either of them, and I don't use one without the other. Easy...
Nah, I most certainly did not.
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Nobody said you should modify your old stuff. But simply buy a cable that has 1/4" on one and end speakon in the other if you buy a new cab. It's not tue job of new cab makers to cater to a vintage V4. That's all I'm saying.
Why am I buying a new cab? Where did I ask cab makers to cater to my vintage tech?
Been thinking about it for a while. Just never got a round tuit. lol
A couple NL4 sockets eh. I'll source that and do them both. I won't be daisy chaining them...so, one each should be sufficient.
Thanks for the info.
I had all my late father's old Whitworth tools when I bought my old MGB years ago. Sourcing a good quality set of Pozidriv screwdivers took some time though. Then it took me a while to replace all the manked up screws destroyed by the Previous B#%%&y Owner's use of a Phillips screwdriver.
Right there with you; right tool for the job.
Thankfully McMaster Carr has these as well as JIS screwdrivers (Japanese Industrial Standards) which has been a lifesaver when restoring old Japanese motorcycles.
McMaster-Carr
You'd rather duct tape an end (onto? into?) a speaker input than use a modern locking mechanism that's orders of magnitude less likely to fail over millions of uses? Okay.
I just bring a spare cable, which I'd do anyway. But in 45 years of using 1/4" jacks on speaker cables, the only ones I ever had fail were ones I tried to solder myself when I was a kid and had no idea how to solder.
I like his "That's why God gave us duct tape..." Sure.. conductive tape on connectors carrying high current... brilliant.
I've seen speaker plugs electrical-taped to cabinets, but never duct taped. There were two reasons for this, and both were poor decisions on the part of the owner:
1) The guy didn't know how to adjust a 1/4" jack to tighten its grip, and 2) The plug seemed to be live often and would give you a nasty shock at idle.
But you wouldn't want to ever use duct tape on plugs, because many brands of duct-tape are either totally or slightly conductive.
The guy who owned that taped up cabinet I referred to eventually replaced the jacks with SpeakONs.
I've also seen a speaker tower fail, only to have the top mid-high cabinet (which weighed about 90 lbs) hanging by it's SpeakON. Try doing that with flimsy lamp-cord connected to a 1/4 cable.
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To me it seems like the OP is just venting his inability to move forward.. but do as you wish and stop wasting time on trying to get everyone else on board with what you want.. there is a reason most dealerships don't sell too many stick shift cars... and yes if you are a stick shift only type of guy then go buy a stick shift or make your auto into a stick shift (with clutch) and go on about your life and stop saying it's ridiculous to have a Speakon Jack because you don't have gear that uses it... everyone is offended by something and you being offended by lack of 1/4 is about what our society is like right now, won't move forward is not the same as can't move forward...
Speaking of PF-500s, I'm pretty sure that the way I blew my power supply was by absent-mindedly unplugging the 1/4" speaker cable while the power was still on... Speakon at least makes you pause and remember that it ain't your instrument cable and, hey, is the amp turned off?
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- Feb 12, 2006
- 61,077
- 5
- 221,167
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
If that was the case, the SpeakOn would have prevented the short circuit event that happens with a 1/4" plug. One major benefit of "advanced SpeakOn technology".
Indeed. Idiot-proofing sometimes works.If that was the case, the SpeakOn would have prevented the short circuit event that happens with a 1/4" plug. One major benefit of "advanced SpeakOn technology".
I'll bet if somebody around here started a vicious rumor that SpeakON connector allowed all of the watts to come through, you couldn't keep those things on the shelf.
Yeah, I reckon that you were lucky. I also played for 40 years with 1/4 connectors and never had a single problem. Then I buy an amp with 1×1/4 connector & 1×Speakon, which made no sense to me; one or the other, surely?
And, of course, although everything was fine with the amp, the speaker connection configuration was an obvious weak spot. I mean, a 1/4 connector? So you won't be surprised to hear that I had to return the amp, and all because of a dodgy speaker connection. It was infuriating to say the least, but it had to be returned.
My replacement is due to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully, the connectors will be fit for purpose; unlike the last one. Talking of which, did I mention that the 1/4 connector was fine!; it was the Speakon that was defective.
So, yeah, I reckon you have been lucky; at least luckier than I.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 61,077
- 5
- 221,167
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
Are you sure the problem wasn't due to a defective SpeakOn plug on the speaker cable? There are a lot of Chinese knock-offs, counterfeits, copies (call them what you wish) that are awful. It's one of the biggest problems we see with regard to "defective amp" claims, yet it has nothing to do with the amp!
It's no different than the intermittent 1/4" plug problems due to undersized Chinese sleeves that aren't 1/4" but either a (poor) metric approximation or crappy tooling. Then there's the 1/4" plugs that barely fit the jack and get stuck tight... again a claim of defective amps yet we have to cut the connector off the plug... lo and behold the plug is greater than 1/4" diameter. There are standards for a reason, it's not the amp manufacturers (at least those who use quality parts) who are to blame as we can't control the quality of accessory products that some players are willing to accept.
Save yourselves the grief, use only genuine Neutrik brand SpeakOn plug. The difference is night and day, really. Crappy parts are just that, crappy, and it doesn't matter if it's 1/4" or SpeakOn.
It's no different than the intermittent 1/4" plug problems due to undersized Chinese sleeves that aren't 1/4" but either a (poor) metric approximation or crappy tooling. Then there's the 1/4" plugs that barely fit the jack and get stuck tight... again a claim of defective amps yet we have to cut the connector off the plug... lo and behold the plug is greater than 1/4" diameter. There are standards for a reason, it's not the amp manufacturers (at least those who use quality parts) who are to blame as we can't control the quality of accessory products that some players are willing to accept.
Save yourselves the grief, use only genuine Neutrik brand SpeakOn plug. The difference is night and day, really. Crappy parts are just that, crappy, and it doesn't matter if it's 1/4" or SpeakOn.
I can assure you, it was the Speakon connector.
I've been using Speakon connectors with other amps for years with no problems. The majority of all my recently purchased equipment has Speakon connectors too.
As for cables, I learned a long time ago that it pays to buy quality cables, no matter what. To me, that's just common sense; I mean, skimping on cables having spent a small fortune on instruments, amplifiers, cabinets and accessories, is madness.
I readily concede that I was surprised with what I found as, I suspect, was the retailer who sold it and then examined it upon its return. But a faulty Speakon connector it most definitely was.
I also believe (?) that I was unlucky. But, then again, back in the day, bass playing was certainly much more straight forward than today. We just got on with it; playing bass; not fixing problems with gear. Sure, the gear wasn't as "powerful" as it is today, but it worked, always. IMHO, things are different now, and not all to the good; but that's a completely different story for a completely different thread...
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