Proper speaker quad wiring?

[bob p]

Open drivers? I see blown greenbacks in half-stacks all the time. It tends to happen when people pull the OEM speakers out of their 1960 cabs and put greenbacks in their place ... especially if they drive them with a 4-tube head.

Lately the problem has been one of idiot bass players blowing up their vintage drivers/cabs. They like to blow up Mesa / EV cabinets by going out and buying a kilowatt Class-D amp and driving the shit out of them.

Doug must have a kinder, gentler clientèle up there in Grand Rapids.

[imaradiostar]

have 4 "Grenbacks", 20W RMS if original; 25W RMS each if reedition.
As they print in the label "25W .... period" because they use old technology untreated brown Kraft paper coils , glued with nitro lacquer.
If you use one of these cabinets with a 100W head, full tilt (specially the non master volume ones), *definitely* you won't finish your show , not even a rehearsal.

I wonder how Eric Johnson gets through a show? Last I checked he uses 4 old low power speakers with a 100 watter all the time. I'm not saying that to be a smartass, I'm just wondering what the difference is.

Jamie

[bob p]

I don't think he runs his amp at 11, does he?

[J M Fahey]

Probably, plus there's an added factor: he may be using a couple heads with old tubes there; not that he "bought worn used tubes for Mojo", quite the contrary, he's *adding* Mojo to them by playing

I very much doubt he reads My Gear Page or My LesPaul Forums to follow the latest trend, rather I feel he´ll stick to his faithful workhorses the way we love an old comfortable pair of shoes .

What's the point? : old (good) tubes don't die a violent death but simply loose emission along years (as if you were adding an attenuator) but still sounding good, even smoother like good wine.

I often find 100W Marshalls imported in the 90's still working, but putting out *nowhere* near 100W .... which by the way is fine

I have seen some down to only 50W RMS (real power on the bench) , a Fender Twin Reverb with original Sylvanias bought in '83 putting out clean 40W, and so on.

Eric Johnson might be in that league.

FWIW Eddie Van Halen said he *loved* an old worn Marshall head he had used in his youth, it belonged to a Club where he played often when he was in High School.
When he became rich and famous, he went back and bought it from the now ageing owner, and used it "as is":
His Tech tried to retube it, it was impossible because tube pins and sockets had become a sigle piece of rust.
No way to pull them except by destruction.

A couple years later he has sockets replaced, so he could plug new tubes in ....... and boy, was he disappointed !!!! It had lost all of the smooth as thick coffee and cream sound it had before.

So maybe there's your answer.

EDIT: just watched:
http://youtu.be/oY4onujPitc
At 4:33 minutes you can clearly see his Marshall head driving *two* vintage (lighter cloth) Marshall cabinets, which of course is the Factory approved way.
There's also 2 "Twins" on the floor which are used at the end for some clean reverb drenched riffs.
He either has a footswitch controlling a relay to switch amps or he always plays into all 3 all the time and the Soundman chooses which one to send to the Public.
And a lot of fine playing.

[imaradiostar]

Appearances can be deceiving. Eric is very open about his equipment and it's been well documented at this point. His "lead" marshall sits atop the stacked 4x12 cabinets. There is another marshall set up with 6l6 tubes that sits on a chair behind the amps. One head per cab, each for a dedicated sound.

Jamir

[cbarrow7625]

Ah, the example given uses 4 ohm drivers, not 8 ohm. when 1 speaker in a parallel pair goes out you get 4 ohms, the other parallel pair is 2 4 ohm speakers in parallel so that's 2 ohms, 2 ohms plus 4 ohms in series is 6 ohms... providing I got my math right.

Well, that's what I get for reading and replying while on the porcelain throne. Let's just say I was distracted.....also, not a great place to work out math in your head. J M is completely correct.

[J M Fahey]

Not such a bad place to catch up with delayed reading.
I'm rereading "The Maltese Falcon" bit by bit , just by leaving a copy there on a shelf
Only problem is that it's hard to put the book down in the middle of a mystery or action part.

Oh well

[Enzo]

That is what high-fiber bran muffins are for, to provide extra reading time.

[The Dude]

Yes but be careful.

According to the Mayo Clinic regarding hemorrhoids:

Avoid long periods of sitting. Sitting too long, particularly on the toilet, can increase the pressure on the veins in the anus.

[Leo_Gnardo]

That is what high-fiber bran muffins are for, to provide extra reading time.

While consuming, or, ahem, the "final act" of digestion?

I keep my attention on an entirely different variety of muffin...