From postmaste–(at)–riodeel.com Thu Aug 5 19:13:47 CDT 1999
Article: 194178 of alt.guitar.amps
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From: Ned Carlson Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Can Bassman Run 2 Ohms?
Date: 5 Aug 1999 00:53:21 -0500
Organization: Triode Electronics
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Thorny wrote:
> You could rewire a concert cabinet in a series/parallel combination to
> give it 8 ohms resistance from what I have read, but if the concert
> amp is functional, you may not want to do this. Also, it is not a
> match, but it is safer than using 2 ohms (as I understand it from
> listening to the guys that know what they are talking about on this
> group).

Man, I think it’s about time for the Big Giant Heads to get together
and write an FAQ for this newsgroup so these questions get
straightened out ahead of time. This must be the 340th time
this question has come up.

If you’ve *got* to run a mismatch on a tube amp, especially
on an amp which one can pretty much count on being overdriven,
*lower* is better than higher. The BF Bassman heads actually had
a main and extension speaker jacks, on which the ext speaker
DOES NOT WORK unless you’ve got the main speaker *plugged in*.
This means Fender themselves believed that running into
a lower impedance was OK.

Running into a higher impedance, especially if one wants
distortion, is NOT a good idea, as one takes the chance
of encountering the dreaded flyback effect (the higher
the wattage of the amp, the bigger the dread).
DFE can blow hell out of transformers, sockets & tubes.

—
Ned Carlson Triode Electronics “where da tubes are!”
2225 W Roscoe Chicago, IL, 60618 USA
ph 773-871-7459 fax 773-871-7938
12:30 to 8 PM CT, (1830-0200 UTC) 12:30-5 Sat, Closed Wed & Sun
http://www.triodeel.com