I don’t think old amps are that finnicky about speaker load, I’m just always sure not to plug a 2 ohm cab into a 4 ohm Bassman amp or a 16 ohm cab into a 4 ohm amp. But you can still plug a 4 ohm amp into a 8 ohm cab, 8 ohm cab into a 16, etc. i only really own vintage tube amps from the 50s - 70s except a favored Balls AC30 and never have any problems. Even if I accidentally plug into the wrong speaker out on an Ampeg or something, it generally wouldn’t hurt the amp for a minute unless you’re really blasting the fucker trying to figure out where your sound is.

One thing is that you can hear a slight ohm difference and sometimes its even an improvement if you kind of want to narrow the bandwidth of an amp sound, which can be helpful if you’re trying to get a traditional rock sound out of a Fender or whatever. I would disconnect two speakers from my Super Reverb for that reason.

I’d be more cautious with that Radial head switcher that is supposed to allow you to swap two heads into a single cab while they’re all on. That company obviously knows what they’re doing, but that box kind of feels like a solution looking for a problem.

Kniferide wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 10:27 am out of curiosity, how does something like this affect the speaker load. I know a lot of old tube amps are pretty sensitive to having the right load and it can damage the output transfmr if you are too far under/over load. Also, how much over/under is actually a bad idea? I used to sit my Twin Reverb ontop of a Bassman 2x15" cab and use the second spkr out to be stupid all teh time when I was a kid and it never seemed to cause any damage. It was one of the 135 super linier things though. No idea what that really means. I've never really gotten too far into changing speakers/cabs out so I haven't really thought about it in a long time.

My understanding is that it's basically invisible as far as load goes. The speaker in and out Jacks are directly connected with the DI circuit feeding off of that connection (if I'm explaining that well at all).
You can't run the JDX on a tube amp without a speaker attached because it doesn't provide any load at all.

Ive run it in between head and cabs or out of the extension cab jack on fender style amps (with the main speaker connected). I also made a speaker cable with alligator clips on one end and connect that to the lugs on the speaker when it's a combo and the speaker is hard wired.

adavidmackinnon wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 5:45 pm

Kniferide wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 10:27 am out of curiosity, how does something like this affect the speaker load. I know a lot of old tube amps are pretty sensitive to having the right load and it can damage the output transfmr if you are too far under/over load. Also, how much over/under is actually a bad idea? I used to sit my Twin Reverb ontop of a Bassman 2x15" cab and use the second spkr out to be stupid all teh time when I was a kid and it never seemed to cause any damage. It was one of the 135 super linier things though. No idea what that really means. I've never really gotten too far into changing speakers/cabs out so I haven't really thought about it in a long time.

My understanding is that it's basically invisible as far as load goes. The speaker in and out Jacks are directly connected with the DI circuit feeding off of that connection (if I'm explaining that well at all).
You can't run the JDX on a tube amp without a speaker attached because it doesn't provide any load at all.

Ive run it in between head and cabs or out of the extension cab jack on fender style amps (with the main speaker connected). I also made a speaker cable with alligator clips on one end and connect that to the lugs on the speaker when it's a combo and the speaker is hard wired.

Seems like it would add the load of the input side of the transformer in parallel to your speaker load, but I don't know if it matters. My main amps are both low watt 60s tube amps and I've been warned about the speaker loads but don't know if it is alarmist mojo voodoo. I know with all the silver faced shit I owned as a kid I just plugged in everything under the sun with no I'll effects.

Bought a Quilter Tone Block 202 a couple of weeks ago while my tube amp was and still is in the shop. Now I'm thinking about selling my tube amp and getting another one for the other cab. One for 1x15 and one for my 2x12.

Shit those little fuckers sound great for that price point. Shit, they sound great period.

Got my Shure VP88 from Ebay. $110 after shipping. They had a "Make an offer" option and I offered $100. I low ball ebay all the time and it has worked a few times especially from Ebay Stores. It's a really great mic. Has a Mid/Side matrix built into the body. You can choose 3 widths and the summed sides come out of the stereo adapter cable as a Left/Right stereo image, or... you can put it in MS mode and the Mid comes out of one xlr and he side signal comes out of the other. It has 2 very thin small elements (about half an inch) one is bi directional and the other mid is cardioid. The caps look kinda crappy and I didn't expect it to sound very good but it really sounds great. I'd record vocals with it. It's pretty smooth and not harsh at all. Can't wait to try it as a drum overhead.

That's a crazy good deal

ChudFusk wrote: Mon May 05, 2025 11:04 pm That's a crazy good deal

I was completely shocked that it worked, it was listed as "untested" Its a pretty fun weirdo mic.

Played with the Yamaha Reface CP a bit. Apparently the Sound In My Head is a Wurlitzer, not a Rhodes, but I think they messed up by not having a two band eq like on a real Rhodes. We used to have them in practice rooms at my high school years and years ago and you could get that sound with just that and the trem.

I guess where I was messing with the Moog until it sounded like an electric piano or an organ, I was messing with the fake electric piano until it sounded like a synth.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 12:33 pm Played with the Yamaha Reface CP a bit. Apparently the Sound In My Head is a Wurlitzer, not a Rhodes, but I think they messed up by not having a two band eq like on a real Rhodes. We used to have them in practice rooms at my high school years and years ago and you could get that sound with just that and the trem.

I guess where I was messing with the Moog until it sounded like an electric piano or an organ, I was messing with the fake electric piano until it sounded like a synth.

Wurli models always sound better than a rhodes model. I feel like when they model a rhodes, they really try to do for that 80's smooth R&B/POP rhodes sound (cheezy) and they don't get the breakup right when you hit a key hard. Wurli models really have that bite. With our actual Rhodes, you can get that wurli thing by cutting the low a little, and maybe a tiny bit of Overdrive, I use a Red Llama style OD with our rhodes and it sounds good. I bet a boss style graphic EQ is a good match for that ReFace. Boost that 800, get that snarl. I still haven't found a simulation of a Rhodes that acts like a real rhodes, or at least not like ours.

Good idea, I had it going through a Tronographic Boxidizer, but I think an EQ pedal would find the sweet spot a little better. Plus a vintage style comp to help shave off that 80s style attack. I never made the connection between the Rhodes Mk II and that one goddamn DX7 sound, but I can see its kind of a logical progression now.

I am full on considering selling a ton of shit to get a Rhodes or Wurlitzer though. Whatever’s closest that isn’t completely fucked for around $2k. But then I’ll be shopping around for Prophet 5’s and fancy Melotron modules after that, and its already been a hell of expensive month with a midi controller and stands and stuff. It’s cool to be part of the club but I’m fucking done for a while.