Sound Garage Tales

I started using this clever 3 Way Input for all my 2 x 12″ Speaker Cabinets last year, found in Dave Hunter’s The Guitar Amp Handbook, a fabulous book that every serious guitar player should read it. Dave writes with a clear, accessible lingo, and the the book gives instant access to some of the most important aspects and facts of the guitar amplifier, revealing the myths and hypes of the cork-sniffers that are floating out there.

I can’t tell how much flexibility it adds to the way you can use a regular 2 x 12″ (or 2 x 10″ for that matter) speaker cabinet! In a nutshell Dave writes:

“Here’s a cool little mod that I’ve put onto a number of my own speaker cabs, especially those with mix-and-match speakers of different characteristics that I tend to use a lot for recording in addition to gigging”

I am using a blank cabinet dish drilled for three input jacks (preferably UK made switchable Cliff), and wire it up as in the diagram below. Make sure you respect the speaker polarity connections on it, otherwise you might end up wiring them out of phase, and your speaker cabinet will sound weak and boxy due to the two speakers canceling each other.

This way, your regular 2 x 12″ speaker cabinet becomes super-flexible to be used in multiple settings such as:

• a “virtual” 1 x 12″ speaker cabinet by tapping into one of the speakers individually (8 ohms/each), capturing each of its own particular flavor in a recording session.
• a regular 2 x 12″ with both speakers connected in series at double their impedance (16 ohms)
• stereo configuration speaker cabinet, running two guitar amp heads into each individual speaker input (8 ohms/each)
• a 4 ohms total impedance speaker cabinet for amps that have multiple outputs of a single impedance (Fender, etc.), using two speaker cables for each jack in a parallel connection.

Here is the wiring diagram I am using for my Gabriel 2 x 12″ Slant Speaker Cabinet with convertible back, but the mod can be used on any 2 x 12″ or 2 x 10″ speaker cabinet configuration.

Pop in a combination of Celestion speakers of your choice, (I prefer pairing the 8 ohm AlNiCo Blue Celestion Speaker with a 8 ohm G12M Greenback Celestion Speaker speaker) and you will have an outstanding sounding and very flexible speaker cabinet!

UPDATE (Dec 20, 2011): On of my blog readers, Lee Campen sent a parallel wiring version diagram that will actually let you use two 16 ohms speakers. This way you can tap both of them at 8 ohms or each one separately at 16 ohms each! Thanks Lee!!!

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