Fender extention speaker jack

[casey73]

Okay, I know I've seen this discussed before, but my memory is crapping out so I need a refresher. My Princeton has the extention speaker jack. Stock speaker is 8 ohms, and plugging in an extention speaker runs that speaker parallel and would put a 4 ohm load on the output tranny (assuming the extention speaker was also 8 ohms). I'm certain I've read (may O'Conner's book?) that Fender's transformer can hold up to this "mismatch" with no harm to the OPT or tubes.

Using that logic, I should be able to use my 4 ohm Celestion 30 in my combo as a single speaker. This is counter intuitive to my understanding of OP trannys, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Why else would Fender have put the extention jack in?

[tbryanh]

I have heard that putting the 4R load accross the 8R tap on the tranny won't hurt the tranny, bhe 4R load will not be damped as much as an 8R load connected accross an 8R tap.

When speakers are not damped enough, they sound boomy or muddy.

I don't know if 4R across 8R tap will sound boomy or muddy.

I have not tried it myself.

[stokes]

Using a 4ohm load on an 8ohm tap wont cause any harm to the OT,but it will cause the power tubes to run a little hotter,thereby shortening tube life to some degree.Whether it sounds better or worse is purely subjective.