Double Bass Risks of exceding minimum ohms.

[kurt]

I recently bought a shuttle 6.0 head with a 4 ohm schroeder mini 12 cab and while it sounds good with upright I need more oomf for Electric bass. The shuttle says minimum 4 ohms which is what the mini 12 is but I would like to add another cab. Is it gonna blow the head if I added another 10 or 12? would it be better to get another 8 ohm cab? it seems like a 600 watt head should be able to drive 2 small cabs. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Gearhead43]

Yes, you will likely damage the head if you run it at under the 4 ohm minimum load. The minimum load ratings are there for a reason. If you need more volume, you need two 8 ohm cabs, or a single larger 4 ohm cab, etc, etc.

 

[Rastus_01]

Going lower than the minimum ohms will almost certainly blow your amp, particularly when pushing it a bit. I am not familiar with that head so no real advice. If you love the sound of it, try to get hold of a 4 ohm quad or dual box so you can push more air. Other than that you will need a bigger head.

Connecting two 4 ohm boxes will mean you are running at 2 ohms, which doesn’t give the output anything to push against, which usually results in smoke and big repair bills.

Do not connect 4 ohm and 8 ohm boxes together, it won’t help. One speaker (4 ohm) will be a lot louder.

Rastus

 

[Uncle Snake]

Going lower than the minimum ohms will almost certainly blow your amp, particularly when pushing it a bit. I am not familiar with that head so no real advice. If you love the sound of it, try to get hold of a 4 ohm quad or dual box so you can push more air. Other than that you will need a bigger head.

Connecting two 4 ohm boxes will mean you are running at 2 ohms, which doesn’t give the output anything to push against, which usually results in smoke and big repair bills.

Do not connect 4 ohm and 8 ohm boxes together, it won’t help. One speaker (4 ohm) will be a lot louder.

Rastus

Right! 4 ohm + 8 ohm = 3.2 ohms. The amp may handle it for a little while at lower volumes but it will most likely sound like ass... :scowl:

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

+1 for everything that has been said.

Going below recommended impedance in SS amps always spells trouble if not disaster.

The majority of modern amps have a current limiting protection circuit in the output stages to prevent the output devices from self destructing.

Any kind of hard limiting or a complete shut-down isn't something You'd want during a performance, believe me.

Regards
Sam

 

[kurt]

Thanks guys. Someone told me if you daisy chain the cabs together it won't change the ohms is that true?

 

[UncleBalsamic]

Right! 4 ohm + 8 ohm = 3.2 ohms. The amp may handle it for a little while at lower volumes but it will most likely sound like ass... :scowl:

Just pointing out that it's actually 2.67 ohms in parallel.