How to build a Series Cabinet Combiner

I like coming up with solutions for unusual requests. I had a client want to use four cabinets but their amplifier only has two output jacks. To solve this problem I built them a pair of cabinet combiners that will place each pair of his cabinets in series before the two pairs will be paralleled again in the amp.
This way all four 8Ω cabinets will be wired together as a single 8Ω load and will be powered through the 8Ω output jacks on the amplifier.

If you are not familiar with series and parallel resistance there are many great resources throughout the internet to better understand this. Ohm's Law is quite a loaded topic for a beginner but as a Guitar or Bass player, we really don't need to know all that to properly hook up our cabinets. What we need to focus on is a basic understanding of series and parallel resistance.

The easiest way to understand this is knowing that when two equal values are used in parallel the total resistance will be halved.
For example, connecting two 16Ω cabinets in parallel will yield a total load of 8Ω. This is why when connecting two 16Ω cabinets in an amplifier you will want to use the 8Ω taps (or jacks).

Here is a handy parallel resistance calculator you can experiment with.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tool...

When connecting two loads in series the resulting value will be doubled. Two 16Ω cabinets in series will yield a 32Ω load. This isn't a likely situation you will ever encounter as all amplifier output jacks are connected in parallel. Daisy Chaining cabinets is also just a layman's term for connecting them all in parallel.

Since it is very important that tube amps see the correct load I would suggest doing some research to ensure you have a good grasp on the topic. This will help in getting better life and sound out of your amps!

Thanks for watching and if you have a unique problem I would like to come up with a unique solution. Send any requests to [email protected]