my amp plan

[DLRdelight!]

so here is my plan. buy the 5150 cab for 250 and take two of those speakers and put them into my peavey 212 transtube series amp.

then i plan on ordering either celestion vintage 30s or the g12h30s and put four of them into the 5150 cab

what do you guys think??

[BrownSound1]

How many watts is the Peavey combo?

[DLRdelight!]

i believe it is 200 watt

[BrownSound1]

Ok, well knowing Peavey it is 200 watts @ 4 ohms. So here's what you're going to get... I'm pretty sure that those two speakers are 8 ohm speakers in your amp. They are in parallel, thus yielding 4 ohms of impedance. If you stick two 16 ohm speakers in there like the ones out of a 5150 cab, then you'll have 8 ohms of impedance. This is going to cause your solid state amp to drop to 130 watts. The Sheffield speakers out of a 5150 cab are 75 watts each, so you'll have 150 watts of power handling out of the speakers. Not a lot of speaker headroom, but that is a good thing when it comes to guitar speakers. :D

If this had been a tube amp that was wired to work with let's say a 4 ohm load, then you couldn't just swap the speakers. A lot of combo tube amps don't have impedance switches on them, so you'd have to go in and change taps on the output transformer. Impedance has to be matched on tube amps, whereas solid state amps simply put out less or more wattage. All of the big tube heads and some combos have impedance switches so you'll get your rated power at 4, 8, or 16 ohm loads.

[Nitro Express]

Can't you dump lets say 8 ohms into a 4 ohm speaker cabinet? Sure it will change the tone but as long as the transformer is going into less ressistance it's safe. I've heard of people doing such because they dig the tone.

If you go 8 ohms to 16 ohms the transformer builds up enough heat to burn itself out but if you mismatch into less ohms the transformer will not heat up to unsafe levels. Now whether your speaker coils overheat is another matter.

This is just stuff I've read and heard over the years. I always played it safe and ran 16ohms to 16 ohms and 8 to 8.

[Nitro Express]

250 is a good deal for a 5150 cab. It will last longer than you will unless you set fire to it or run a truck into it at high speeds.

You can always but new speakers. I would play it for awhile and see if you like it as is. I really don't think the Sheffield 1200 speakers are that bad.

One thing about 5150 cabs is you need to make sure all the screws on the back and on the speakers are tight! If not, the cabinet does not sound the best and can actually fart.

[DLRdelight!]

alright thanks

[DLRdelight!]

well ijust checked the speakers and each of them says 16ohms

so this means??

and by the way the speakers are peavey sheffields model 1230

[DLRdelight!]

oh and is it hard to change speakers by yourself??

[kentuckyklira]

Originally posted by DLRdelight!
oh and is it hard to change speakers by yourself??

No.

[BrownSound1]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Can't you dump lets say 8 ohms into a 4 ohm speaker cabinet? Sure it will change the tone but as long as the transformer is going into less ressistance it's safe. I've heard of people doing such because they dig the tone.

If you go 8 ohms to 16 ohms the transformer builds up enough heat to burn itself out but if you mismatch into less ohms the transformer will not heat up to unsafe levels. Now whether your speaker coils overheat is another matter.

This is just stuff I've read and heard over the years. I always played it safe and ran 16ohms to 16 ohms and 8 to 8.

I believe you have that backwards bro. It is safer to run your amp into a higher impedance load than into a lower impedance load. In all honesty a speakers impedance changes as it is played anyway. Depending on what signal is going in, a 16 ohm speaker can change from 12 to 400 ohms because it is an inductive load.

[BrownSound1]

Originally posted by DLRdelight!
well ijust checked the speakers and each of them says 16ohms

so this means??

and by the way the speakers are peavey sheffields model 1230

So this is in your current amp? Well if that's the case you have an 8 ohm load, and your amp is currently running at 130 watts, since it is solid state. In other words, you'll be running the same power when you drop the 5150 Sheffields in.

Changing speakers is fairly easy.

[DLRdelight!]

alright thanks guys for the help. guess im gonna go get me that 5150

[BrownSound1]

Oh one thing...you'll pay at least 400 bucks for 4 Celestions by themselves.

[BrownSound1]

Shit...forgot to mention that dropping two G12H30s into that 5150 cab will reduce the wattage of the cab. Basically it'll be a 60 watt cab because those speakers are 30 watts each. Even though you have two other speakers than can take higher wattage you'll be governed by the small ones. Vintage 30s are higher wattage at 60 each, but are totally different tone wise. They're fine for metal, but I wouldn't want to play blues through them. Never been a big fan of those speakers, but I know loads of people who love them. Who knows, they may mix nicely with the Sheffields. My recommendation would be to do a cross pattern with them by instead of removing the bottom or top set. Remove one from the top and one from the adjacent bottom...this will give you a good mix of tone.