Will I ruin my Gibson?

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 12 Jul 2000 8:29 am

I have a Gibson solid state amp (SS 100) I think. It sounds great with a 4 Ohm speaker that I got from Musician's friend. So good I'm wanting to order another one. Will the resulting 2 Ohm load harm the amp. I'm using the amp for small venues. I also have the new Session 2000, and PX 300. There are no markings on the little amp about speaker loads, I'm assuming that like most solid state amps it likes 4 Ohms. BTW the speakers I'm talking about are only available with 4 Ohms.

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Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 12 Jul 2000 10:06 am

2 ohms is getting close to a short (0 ohms) but how about wiring the two speakers in series (as opposed to parallel) and see how the amp likes 8 ohms? How come you need two speaker if it sounds so good already?

Bob

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 12 Jul 2000 9:01 pm

Yeah, that's what I am planning to do. {series} just wanted to get all the headroom i could out of it. I know just enough electronics to get myself into trouble. Thanks
Jim

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Jul 2000 3:14 pm

Jim, if it sounds good...leave it alone! Since you have bigger amps, you don't need this one for big gigs. I suspect you bought the ($50) 4-ohm Fender speaker (since that's the only 4-ohm speaker in their catalog). If you wanted to add an extension speaker, you should have bought the ($80) 8-ohm speaker. No, I don't know why it's $30 more, probably because they don't sell as many. For all you know, the amp may be designed for an 8-ohm speaker to start with! Anyway, you said it was a small amp, so it's probably not big enough for 2 twelves. And running an extension speaker in series isn't like running one in parallel. You'll need some method of "switching in" the extension speaker. It's probably more trouble than it's worth.

Now I'll probably get a lot of flak for this, but I'm going to try to give you some "good" advice. First, learn a little about ANY amp BEFORE you start buying stuff for it, or think about modifying it...it might save you some grief down the road. Second, if you ever again decide to purchase a speaker, consider a JBL, a Black Widow, or an EVM. Why? Because these are just plain "better" speakers than the "general replacement type" you buy elsewhere.

An no, I'm NOT "scolding" you, I'm just trying to help...please take my comments in good spirits! [This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 13 July 2000 at 04:15 PM.]

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 13 Jul 2000 6:40 pm

Jim,
Go with BlackWidow,you can get a Peavy
112 or a 115 enclosure,course Peavy makes
good stuff. MHO

Bill

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[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 13 July 2000 at 07:43 PM.]