Hooking up my Cabs Correctly

[Jazzphone]

Hey guys, this is my first post so I hope you guys can help me. I didn't know exactly which forum to put it in, but here I go.

I have 2 Slant 4x12 Rectifier cabs. I want to hook up my Triple Rectifier and My Fender Super Sonic head up to both cabs.

Here is the catch though...I want to dedicate 1 whole cab to the Mesa...but on the second cab...I want 2 Speakers for the Fender and 2 Speakers for the Mesa. Since all the Mesa cabs can be wired in stereo...I didn't think it would be a problem

So all together I would have 6 Speakers for the Mesa, and 2 for the Fender for a total of 8 Speakers for 2 cabs.

Now my question is...as far as Ohms go...how do I hook this up correctly to each head unit. The Fender as a Selecter 4,8, and 16 switch on the back...and the Mesa has plugs for 4, 8, and 16.
The back of the cabs have a 8 Ohm in and a 8 Ohm Out...plus A stereo selection which gives you a 4Ohm Left and a 4Ohm Right jack.

Here is a picture of the jack plate on the back of the cabs.

http://mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Guitar Cabinets/4x12-JackplateLG.htm

Thank you guys for your help...you guys are very knowledgeable

 

[Miller72]

With one 8 ohm cabinet and one 4 ohm cabinet, you'd be running 2.67 ohms for the speakers, which is less than what your Mesa has to offer. There's debate out there about speaker load mismatch, and although some amps handle it better than others, I personally wouldn't risk it. Here's a link to a pretty handy calculator:
http://www.about-guitar-amps.com/speaker_ohms_calculator.html

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

8 and 4 ohms is an awkward mismatch....I'd contact Mesa about whether there is a safe way to run that sort of setup.

If you REALLY want to do this, it would be easier to run with two 16 ohm 'cabs'...

So, you could rewire the two speakers in one cab to 16 ohms rather than 4...simple run them in series rather than parallel.

As for the second cab, it wouldn't be so easy. You'd have to get a quad of 16 ohm V30s, then you could wire it for 16 ohms.

Then, two 16 ohm cabs would run at 8 ohms on the Mesa. The Fender would run at 4 ohms, as the cab split originally. But at that point, I'd also change that half of the cab to 16 ohms...the fender will simply run at 16, and if you ever choose to use the cab as usual again, if would be 8 ohms.

Good luck :wink: