Alright, guys...help me out here.
Apparently, when connecting an amp head to an external cab, you're supposed to use speaker cabling, which is different than instrument cable. Apparently, instrument cable can mess up your amp pretty badly, due to its lighter gauge...something about oscillation or something? I don't know.
Now.
As you have probably already guessed, I've been playing my 300W bass head through a 300W 4x10, with an instrument cable. (However, the cab is 8 ohms and the head is 4, so the amp isn't putting out full power.) I've had it for...um...actually, I think it's been about a week. More? About 9 days. I haven't played it every day, but I did play it outside with a friend once, at a pretty high volume.
Now.
How do I know if I've messed up my amp? Is there any way to know? Does anyone have any experience with this phenomenon? I don't want to kill my amp. I don't want to sacrifice any tone, either. I'm planning on getting a cable ASAP, and until then, I'm not gonna use the amp - but yeah, advice. How can I tell if I've done any damage? Thanks.
-lunchmeat
news to me... My speaker cab wiring is pretty hacked up and kludged together (I keep meaning to redo it, but haven't gotten around to it yet). I'm using standard 2-conductor AC power cable with a 1/4" jack on one end, and stuck directly to the speakers on the other. I don't really think you can do any harm by using a decent instrument cable. Yeah, if you use really thin or unshielded stuff, it might suck and pick up noise, but I don't think you'll hurt your amp or speakers. Unless you use _really_ thin stuff that can't handle the power, then it burns up and then you have no load on your amp, which tube amps don't like. That would have to be some pretty thin freaking wire.
TZ
No, it's a really bad idea to use instrument cable for speakers! It's a coaxial cable with the central conductor being a very fine wire, not meant to carry the heavy current of speakers. It runs the output impedance up, which may not be a great thing for your tube amp, and overheats the wire. It does act as an attenuator, cutting your volume some.
On your solid state bass amp I don't think you've hurt anything. But get some better cables.
Plain power or speaker cord with jacks on the end is fine. That's what I often use.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Interesting information from Ricochet as always. 8)
"That’s what takes place when a song is written: You see something that isn’t there. Then you use your instrument to find it."
- John Frusciante
Whew...turned out it was a false alarm.
I planned on buying a speaker cable, but it turns out the one I had was actually a speaker cable anyway...I got it from my friend, who used to use it as an instrument cable. I have done so, as well, and it does seem susceptible to interference...
The way I recognized this was by the stamp on the side of the cable itself; it clearly said "speaker cable", whereas the other cable I use as an instrument lead actually said "instrument cable". Talk about luck...someone or something out there is looking out for me. I'd have never guessed that somehow, I'd acquired a speaker cable.
Can I trust, this, however? Should I just get a new cable anyway to be sure? I just hope the amp and the cab will be fine...if it means picking up a spare cord somewhere, it's not a huge deal. My friend used this as an instrument cable for a long time; can I really trust the stamp? (The sleeve is molded, so I can't check the wiring inside easily.) I guess I'm just apprehensive...this is the second time I've freaked out about something that was actually okay. (The first was here.)
-lunchmeat
Whew...turned out it was a false alarm.
I planned on buying a speaker cable, but it turns out the one I had was actually a speaker cable anyway...I got it from my friend, who used to use it as an instrument cable. I have done so, as well, and it does seem susceptible to interference...
The way I recognized this was by the stamp on the side of the cable itself; it clearly said "speaker cable", whereas the other cable I use as an instrument lead actually said "instrument cable". Talk about luck...someone or something out there is looking out for me. I'd have never guessed that somehow, I'd acquired a speaker cable.
Can I trust, this, however? Should I just get a new cable anyway to be sure? I just hope the amp and the cab will be fine...if it means picking up a spare cord somewhere, it's not a huge deal. My friend used this as an instrument cable for a long time; can I really trust the stamp? (The sleeve is molded, so I can't check the wiring inside easily.) I guess I'm just apprehensive...this is the second time I've freaked out about something that was actually okay. (The first was here.)
If you can afford it get a new one. Better safe than sorry IMO.
For the record, there IS a difference between speaker and instrument cable and you should NEVER interchange them. Instrument cable carries a relatively small line level signal. Speaker wire is designed to handle a different and greater type load.
To use an analogy, imagine a fire engine trying to push thousands of gallons per minute through a garden hose instead of through a regular fire hose. You may get a good flow of water through the garden hose, but eventually you'll damage the pump in the fire engine.
That's what you're doing when you use instrument cable in place of speaker cable. Your amp is like the fire engine trying to push too much water through too little hose.
See here for a technical explanation:
http://volcanoboy.com/modules/articles/article.php?id=18&PHPSESSID=e4bc10640cded60c24486ca42002a71d
Picked up a 12-gauge, 6-foot speaker cable today. Probably paid too much for it (25 bucks). The upside? My tone's not as muddy, and the sound doesn't seem as forced. As such, I believe the the cable I was using was a true speaker cable (despite my friend wondering how he got it anyway, and being skeptical) but due to its size (I think it was 18-gauge?) it couldn't handle bass frequencies as well as this new cable. My low end is a lot tighter, not really as muddy, and I get more definition in the higher frequencies. Sounds pretty great, actually.
Bought it from a local shop...the guy there said that 16-gauge probably wouldn't cut it for bass, even after i told him that my amp was only 300 watts, running at half power due to resistance differences. 12 was the only other gauge they had...was I gipped?
-lunchmeat
No, I think 12 ga is pretty normal for speaker cable and $25 for a pre-made cable is pretty resonable.
