Help wiring a cab

[scmavl]

Could someone please help a true dummy?

I have a cab with two 8ohm Greenbacks that I need to wire to 4ohms (or 8, if possible) total load into a single jack. It's currently wired to 16ohms.

Drawing a picture would REALLY help. I have never tried to do this before, don't really understand loads, but I have rudimentary soldering skills.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

[TweeDLX]

Here you go. 8 ohms isn't possible.

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/spkr_p.gif

[scmavl]

Thanks! But where do the ends go on the jack? Anywhere special? Nor sure what the circle and lines mean...

[wall_of_sleep]

The two on the left connect to the jack. The circle contacts the cable tip and the upside down pyramid lines contact the cable sleeve (ground).

Connect your speaker positives and then connect your speaker negatives as shown above. This is considered parallel because current may either travel through one speaker or the other. In your series cab (which you have now), current must travel through one speaker and then through the other.

[scmavl]

Perfect! Thanks!!!

[scmavl]

Ah, there is only one normal speaker wire in there and the other is a single fat wire connecting the two speakers. I'll buy some wire at Radio Shack tomorrow. Is 18 gauge ok?

[TweeDLX]

Sure

[MT Buckaroo]

There is a single wire between your speakers because your two 8s are currently wired in series for a 16 ohm load. The single wire runs from the positive terminal of one speaker to the negative terminal of the other. Then you have one lead running from the negative of one speaker to the jack's ground lug, and the other lead running from the positive of the other speaker to the jack's hot (tip) lug.

If you want to wire those 8s in parallel for a 4 ohm load, you do it as pictured above, or check out the Avatar speakers website for other diagrams.

For parallel, the wire from the jack's hot tip runs to + of Speaker #1, and the wire from jack's ground lug runs to - of Speaker #1. Then you have to use two wires to connect Speaker #1 to Speaker #2, as follows: by running a wire from the second + terminal of Speaker #1 to the + terminal of Speaker #2, and a wire from the second - terminal of Speaker #1 to the - terminal of Speaker #2. Done.

If you are soldering, make sure you lay a towel underneath the speaker terminals so that you don't splash or drip solder into the back side of the speaker cone. I vastly prefer to use push on tabs as much as I change out speakers. Just got done soldering some female push on tabs to the ends of some cabinet wire this evening, in fact.

[scmavl]

Thanks so much. I think I'd rather use the push tabs. I assume I just strip a little of the pvc off, and solder straight onto the tab?

I appreciate the tip about laying the towel down, I wouldn't have thought of that.

[scmavl]

18 gauge TWO conductor speaker wire, right?

I bought some at Radio Shack but it looks kind of large. The staff was of no real help...