Questions regarding stack head and cab...

Hi guys,
Just out of curiosity (I don't plan to buy anything soon as such), I wanted to know certain things about stacks... Here are a few queries..

1 - Do amp heads have speakers? Do they work by themselves?
2 - Do all amp heads have tubes or are there solid state heads too?
3 - Do the cabinets have tubes in them too?
4 - Is it necessary to always have cabs of higher wattage than the head?

 

1) - Amp head does not have speakers in them, you need a separate speaker cabinet to get the sound out, It is absolutely critical that one does not power on a amp head without the speaker cab connected.
2) Yes, amp heads come in tube and solid state heads too.
3) If it is a amp head and cabinet setup, No the speaker cabinet does not have tubes in them....The tubes are always in the amp itself, never connected to a speaker on their own.
4) Yes, Low powered speakers connected to a high powered amp may blow the speakers out. It is always good to have a buffer. Tube amps have a tendency to go above its rated wattage.

 

One more question:
Can I use an amp of low wattage as a head by lining it out to a cabinet?

 

Yes, but keep in mind to match the impedance of the speaker with the impedance of the amp, it is really critical.......a mismatch could turn out to be really bad.

 

What do you mean by "lining out"?
The "Line Out" on a combo amp is not for plugging into a speaker cabinet. If it says "Extension Cabinet" on the label then you can connect a cab there of certain impedance.

 

Tell you the true reason why I'm asking this question,
Tube stacks tend to cost a fortune... So I thought why not buy a cheap but good tube amp like Bugera V5 or Laney cub 10 and line it out with a 1x12 or 2x12 cab... Even while in practice, I've never really liked the sound coming out of 8 inch speakers... Just not enough power in your hands, if you understand what I am saying... Too puny and too suppressed... Not that I plan to blow the entire neighborhood with the 12 inch amps but if you play the latter long enough, you will not like the former too much... Call it a bad habit if you may..

So what is the difference between an extension cab and a speaker cab for a stack? And by impedance, does it mean they consume the same power? (forigive me for my ignorance, I'm a first year IT student)

 

There is a bit more to it then just using 12" drivers, but anyways I assumed you wanted to take the Line Out from the Cube(?) & plug it into a speaker cabinet. That wouldn't work, speakers need a lot more current than a Preamp/Line out provides.

Speakers have certain wattage, Celestion Vintage 30's are 30W speakers. Normally Celestions in particular can handle a bit more than their rated power handling. So you usually plug an amp head whose wattage is less than 30W to a single Vintage 30 speaker.
Impedance is in "Ohms", speakers come in 8ohms,16ohms etc. Depending on series or parallel wiring the net impedance of two speakers will be either half or double of their added impedance. This will be the impedance of the cab. The amp will have options in most cases to support more than one impedance value.

On combo amps, there is usually an option to use an external cab instead of the internal speaker. So we call it an extension cabinet.

A full stack would have two 4x12 cabs connected to parallel, going into the amp head. if it's just one 4x12 cab & amp head then its called halfstack.

A 50-100W combo amp with two speakers should have enough bass response to shake the walls of a house when turned up, although it depends on the speakers used too. It will be a pain to move around though without wheels mounted on its bottom. So there's that.

Never buy a Bugera amp, it's as good as trying to catch an arrow with your hands but eyes blindfolded. The quality control is hit or miss with them. If you want something better built but lest costly than imported amps then look into BE3 amps. They aren't mass produced so the quality control is tight with those.

 

VIntage 30 are 60W i think..

 

^^^^+1, You are right!!!!!!

 

Oh yeah, I was thinking of something else lol

 

@henryh ---

"Celestion's in particular can handle more power than what they are rated for" --- Just so you know, there are other brand of speakers which are much better made than celestion speakers, Celestions that are made in the UK are highly expensive, even the chinese made celestions are really expensive...(Like Gibsons, QC going down the drain, Celestion is on the same path), all others are really not worth paying the premium for what they are worth. The thing about celestion is many known guitarists used them, so they considered great and are followed by others.....It depends on your definition of "a bit more".

 

Obviously the reason why I don't have authentic Celestion Heritage 65 drivers instead of WGS ET65 drivers in my cab
I was able to get two of those at around 15k direct delivered to my doorstep, whereas the Celestion would cost more than 30k for two.

However I wouldn't say Celestion quality has decreased even though they moved the factory to China. You won't find reports of their high end speakers crapping out within short time of use. However the prices are very bad, I wouldn't pay those prices for them. But there is no denying that their power rating are not the extremes of what their speakers can handle. A 100W Plexi type amp running through four 25W Greenbacks at more than half volume won't burn the speakers out in an hour, however if you replace the speakers with Scumbacks for example then it will take about 15 minutes at max for them to burn out at the same volume. The reason being Scumbacks are rated accurately to their power handling whereas Celestion aren't

 

@aryasridhar

Your sig shows that you use the cub 10 as a head with the DIY cab... That's what I actually wanted to know.. Are these types of cabs you made readily available in the market?

 

Yes, you could get these cabs made or can buy them from stores too, I had some specific requirements so made it myself and it turned out to be much cheaper than any brand could have offered me, many of the branded ones are made of MDF etc, which is not a very sturdy material.....hence i built my own

 

Hmm...
Pretty much anything with celestion speakers would do then... Right?

U know, something like this, paired up with a cub 10...
Buy Laney Speaker Cabinet 35w 1x12 Celestion Loaded Gs112ve Online | Best Laney Guitar Amps in India | Furtados Online

 

The link's title has wrong wattage in it. It's a 75W cab Laney Amplification

 

Not just a celestion, you can also try out Eminence Speakers, they are great speakers and are much less priced than celestions, Made in the USA, great quality stuff.....I am using an Eminence Governor 12" in my cab, and it works great with my cub 10, have some demo tracks of it as well.......Check it out --- My New Guitar Cab Demo (Built by me) by aryasridhar on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

 

Are readymade cabs available with eminence speakers? Please gimme some examples...

 

If you want to get a readymade cab, there are very less options with Eminence spkrs, esp in India, but if you have a budget of atleast 15k you will be able to get some good cabs.
Vox Night Train cabs are good and are well made, and the Marshall Haze cabs are also good.

 

If you want to get a readymade cab, there are very less options with Eminence spkrs, esp in India, but if you have a budget of atleast 15k you will be able to get some good cabs.
Vox Night Train cabs are good and are well made, and the Marshall Haze cabs are also good.