NordicThrasher

I have a Line 6 Spider III cab and on the back, it says 150 watts. I'm looking into getting a Marshall DSL 100H and I was wondering if it's possible to match it with the aforementioned cab. I don't know much about ohms, so if someone could fill me in on the gist of it (I only know very basics about this stuff, so forgive the noobie question!).
Thanks!

Dave_Mc

what impedance is the cab? (in ohms)

but odds are it'll work, the dsl has 4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker outs, and I doubt your cab is anything other than one of those 3 impedances.

you just plug into your cab (the mono socket if it's a stereo cab, i have no idea if it is or not) and then plug into the amp and set the amp to the same impedance the cab is in mono mode.

that being said, it's probably not an amazing cab. but it should "work".

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gumbilicious

man, line 6 makes it hard to tell what the impedance of their cabs is. it seems like a line 6 cab can do 4 or 16 ohm mono though (correct me if i am wrong).

it seems the marshall DSL 100 can do either:
- one 16 ohm cab through the 16 ohm output
- two 16 ohm cabs through both the 8 ohm outputs
- one 8 ohm cab through one of the 8 ohm outputs

so, i'd set the line 6 cab to 16 ohms and run it out the 16 ohm output on the marshall.



'ohms' are a unit of measure for resistance in direct current. a simple, if fairly inaccurate, analogy would be to think of a river or stream. the water flowing down the stream would be the electricity, the amount of water passing a given point of the river would be the electrical current. anything the slows down the electrical current, like a rock in the river, would represent electrical resistance.

the electricity that is dealt with in a guitar amp to guitar cabinet is not direct current though, it is alternating current, and that above analogy completely breaks down when discussing AC. resistance in AC is called 'impedance', because it has to account for resistance and reactance.

just knowing the idea of resistance and knowing impedance is more complicated than resistance is probably more than you need to know. the important part is that a tube guitar head will want to see a 'load' (an electrical impedance, aka a speaker cabinet) when the amp is operational. not providing a load can damage the most expensive part of the amp.

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
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Dave_Mc

^ maybe you looked up the newer dsl? i got a manual from the marshall site (i think it was the older one, i assumed he has the older one) and it had 4, 8 and 16 ohm options.

other than that, agreed

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gumbilicious

yeah, i was gonna say something about that, i got a shot from a website of the back of what looked like the new DSL. even marshall's site doesn't have a pic of the back.

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

NordicThrasher

Yeah, it probably wouldn't even provide the full tonal quality and potential of the head (the cab), but it will do for now. Anywho, the back says "150 watts (each side)" with "8 ohms left and 8 ohms right" for Stereo, and the Mono is 4 ohms.

NordicThrasher

The last part about damaging the amp I did know, and a very important fact it is!
Thanks for putting in perspective, though, I pretty much have the essential idea of it now.

gumbilicious

well, that is an issue. the DSL can't take a 4 ohm load. you can technically just use one of the '8 ohm, 150 watt' sides, but you will just be using 2 speakers.

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"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

Kevin Saale

If you wired up a y cable the right way you could run each side together in series to the 16 ohm jack. Or you could rewire the cab to run 16 ohms mono. Given that the cab is almost certainly wired with spade connectors that wouldn't be hard.

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NordicThrasher

The DSL100H?
Cause I know the old DSL was the JCM 2000 so I'm just making sure we're talking about the same amp x)

EDIT: I use Stereo currently, with the head I have now, a Spider III HD75. Not sure if that matters or not. So I have two cables for that. Does the head come with cables of its own (Marshall)? (Assuming it does...)

gumbilicious

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DSL100H

the back pic only shows 8 and 16 ohm outs



your head is a stereo head, the marshall is a mono head (the marshall only effectively send out 1 signal that can be run in parallel).

if you cab only has 8 ohm stereo or 4 ohm mono, then you can only run one side of your stereo cab (barring kevin's advice).

marshall will prob not come with it's own speaker cable.

__________________
"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

Kevin Saale

^Yep. Like I said, your best bet is to rewire the cab for 16 ohms mono. Its not hard. Since the cab is 4 ohms mono and 8 ohms stereo that means it has all 4 ohm or 16 ohm speakers, so its possible to wire it for 16 ohms mono.

__________________
I don't give a shit if you listen to me or not.

Quote:

Get three coffins ready. My mistake, four coffins.

NordicThrasher

Odd that even though the back of my cab has two inputs for 8 ohms and so does the back of the Marshall, it still will only input through to one side of the cab . This is why I like to get a second opinion, so to speak, for this stuff. Thanks guys! A little disappointing but I'll keep searching for that perfect amp that will work for me.

EDIT: I don't suppose the JCM 2000 is any different, as far as its ohms requirements and matching my cab. I'll check but it probably isn't

NordicThrasher

Eh, but I'd be too afraid of ****ing up the thing because I've never done anything like that before. Plus if I wanted to use the old head for anything, it probably wouldn't work and I'd have to rewire it, wouldn't I?
I mean, if I could do it and knew how I totally would but, I dunno, man. Too risky?

Kevin Saale

It would still work if the cab was 16 ohms mono. And trust me, there is nothing to mess up. Just take a clear pic of the wiring before you start, so you'll have a reference to go back if need be. After that, show us the pic and we can tell you exactly which wires to move. When you see these spade connectors (assuming thats what your cab has) you'll see why its silly to worry.

__________________
I don't give a shit if you listen to me or not.

Quote:

Get three coffins ready. My mistake, four coffins.

NordicThrasher

This is what the back of the cab looks like on the inputs. I'll work on unscrewing the back panel now.

EDIT: Can't even figure out why this back panel's not coming off. I've removed all the screws on it. Do the cable jack frame screws need to come off too? I just didn't want to rip any wiring out by accident.

Attached Images

 

NordicThrasher

If I did what Dave said, it should work, at least the with JCM 2000, because that has an ohms selector. the DSL100H doesn't appear to. I could just go with the older model. It'd probably sound better anyway. It would save me ****in' around with my cab's wiring, too.

gumbilicious

you are correct.

__________________
"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."
-ae

NordicThrasher

So, basically, I select 8 ohms and hook it up in stereo format, as I normally would, like with my current head, or are all Marshalls mono and I would just put one cable in the mono jack in the cab and select 4 ohms, on the head, since that's what I have for mono on the cab? Just clearing it all up, sorry! x)