retracted...

[boogiemon]

...

 

[Bouncepogo]

does this not harm the amp at all?

 

[sixtonoize]

No. Mesa even encourages it in the manual.

 

[mr.sku11]

So it is safe to plug the one 8 ohm speaker in to a 4 ohm jack? My understanding is that they are to be used when connecting TWO 8 ohm speakers. But then again, I'm a tech newbie...any insight/explanations would be appreciated.

I could not find in the manual where Mesa encourages hooking up the speaker to the 4 ohm jack...

The manual reads:

SPEAKERS: Sensitivity to speaker mismatching in regards to ohmage differences is low, hence no damage to the amplifier will occur. However, very low ohmage loads will cause the power tubes to wear faster. The RECT-O 50 (combo only) is equipped with a Celestion Custom 90 single 12 inch - 8 Ohm speaker, but as you can see, other speaker configurations may be used.

When using two 8 Ohm speakers, connect each of them to the 4 Ohm speaker jacks that are provided, this will equal a 4 Ohm load which is the proper impedance required when using this particular speaker configuration.

 

[Bouncepogo]

I read the manual last night online, and it states that safe mismatching can be achieved by using a higher load speaker than the amp output.

For example an 8ohm speaker into the 4ohm amp jack, or a 16ohm speaker into the 8ohm amp jack.

I tried hooking my combo speaker (8ohm) into the 4ohm and got some good very low volume tones.

Thanks to the OP for posting this.

 

[mr.sku11]

Thanks for the explanation.

And thanks for the tip boogiemon. I tried this last night and to my ears, the tone is not drastically different. I noticed that there was less "fizz" on high gain, but did not hear any other differences. I don't know that this will completely transform your tone, but it will smooth things out a bit.

 

[boogiemon]

yeah, i tried it again & it's not as much of a diff as i 1st thought. i think i like the 8<->8 match better overall.

peace,

Thanks for the explanation.

And thanks for the tip boogiemon. I tried this last night and to my ears, the tone is not drastically different. I noticed that there was less "fizz" on high gain, but did not hear any other differences. I don't know that this will completely transform your tone, but it will smooth things out a bit.