Speaker Wiring

[Walt-Dogg]

I know this isn't specifically Sunn related, but then again, it's going to be part of my Sunn rig.

So I'm picking up a Music Man HD130 combo on Wednesday with no speakers, I have a pair of 16 ohm speakers I'm going to put in it and I plan on using one of these to hook them up:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Snap-1-4-13-Speaker-Cord-Combo-Amps-/370377437179?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563c372ffb

How do I go about connecting the speakers to that and to each other to achieve an 8 ohm load? Diagrams would be greatly appreciated.

[rot gut]

Solder the speakers together with a wire, positive to positive and negative to negative. Then attach those snaps to one of the speakers, positive to positive and negative to negative. If you can't snap the clips on cut them off and expose the wire and then solder it onto the speaker.

[Ryanx]

someone should throw up some wiring diagrams for 4x12 speaker configurations in 16 and 8 ohm loads.  same with 2x15's.  i know i personally am curious about the 2x15's, but it seems it would save a few of the big dogs from typing "use the search" a jillion times

[EdBass]

Here's a good quickie tutorial that foxfire posted a few weeks ago;

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/spkr_wiring.html

[Walt-Dogg]

What I'm looking to find out, is how to connect the speakers to each other and what tabs to use.

This is what I know I need to do, can someone complete it for me?

[EdBass]

I think this is what you are talking about;

[Walt-Dogg]

Perfect, thank you.

Now to tell positive from negative with the 1/4'' piece I have.

Nevermind, it's got a red dot on one of the snap on ends, am I correct to assume that's positive?

[wildbill96]

The red dot on each speaker is the positive terminal.  If you wire two 16 ohm speakers in series (positive to negative) you'll end up with a 32 ohm total load.  If you wire them in parallel (positive to positive and negative to negative) you'll end up with an 8 ohm load.

[EdBass]

I suggest that anybody doing any wiring work, particularly gigging players that may need to "wing it" on the fly in an emergency, get a multimeter to avoid catastrophes. Wall voltage, speaker impedance, battery life, cable continuity, and many other things can be reliably checked out in short order.
Particularly with how inexpensive they are; here's one for $3.50.

http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-90899.html

You probably spend more than that on gas getting to a gig. 

Also, the battery test detailed here;

http://sunn.ampage.org/sdp/index.php/topic,5585.0.html

is a good way to make sure everything is copacetic before you apply big power to your new wiring.

[Walt-Dogg]

You're kidding!

Well, thanks for clarifying everything, but it looks like I'm not gonna be picking up that Music Man as the guy that I was selling my early 70's Concert Lead to totally flaked on me today.

[wildbill96]

I'll second the comment from EdBass.  I've been playing bass for about 30 years and earned my Electrical Engineering degree from Ohio State University about 25 years ago and I have to agree that double checking things with a multimeter is never a bad idea.  Go to Harbor Freight and buy a basic digital model for next to about nothing.  I'm a bit old school so I still use my trusty old analog meter.  

[Greg_M]

Although this site says its for car applications, it works just the same for speaker boxes on the stage.

http://www.bcae1.com/spkrmlti.htm