Connecting a guitar amp head to a cabinet might not be a hard thing to do but if you have never done it, you need to know a couple of things.
Because if you do it incorrectly, you might damage the cabinet or amp head. Also, there are different ways to connect them.
Let’s dive in and learn how to connect a guitar amp head to a cabinet.
Things To Check Before You Connect Head And Cab
So, before you start connecting amps and cabinets, it’s important to know a few things. This will help you to avoid any issues.
There are different kinds of guitar amp heads and cabinets with different features and not every amp and cabinet work well together.
There are three things you should consider: wattage, impedance, and cable to connect an amp to a head.
- Wattage – Make sure the wattage of your amp head and cab are compatible. If the wattage of your amp head is too high for your cab, you risk damaging the speakers. On the other hand, if the wattage of your amp head is too low, you may not be able to achieve the volume and tone you’re looking for.
- Impedance – The impedance of your amp head and cab should also match. Impedance is a measure of the resistance of your speakers to the current flowing through them. If the impedance of your amp head and cab don’t match, you may experience poor sound quality or even damage to your equipment.
- Speaker Cable – You’ll need a speaker cable to connect your amp head to your cab. Don’t use a standard guitar cable because it won’t work and may damage your gear.
When you make sure that everything is correct, it’s time to start connecting the guitar cabinet to an amp head.
How To Connect Amp Head To A Single Cabinet
Connecting a single amp head to a single cabinet is very straightforward and everyone can do it easily.
But before connecting, turn off and unplug the head. If you don’t do so, you might damage your cabinet or amp tubes.
Also, make sure that impedance and wattage of the head and cab are matching. If you are not sure, read the manual or find the tutorial video on Youtube.
Now, if everything’s OK, take the speaker cable and plug one end into the amp and the second into the guitar cabinet.
Just turn on your amplifier and that’s it. You have successfully connected a guitar amp head to a guitar cabinet.
How To Connect Amp Head To Two Cabinets
Now, if you want to connect your guitar amp head to two cabinets, it requires a different approach. Also, there are different ways you can achieve this.
When you want to use two different amp cabinets with a single guitar amp head, you have options to choose between two types of connection – series and parallel.
But before you decide to connect two cabinets with one amp head, make sure that your amplifier head has options for multiple speaker outputs.
Series Connection
A series connection between the amp head and cabinet means, that signal from the amp goes to one speaker and from the other, it goes to another speaker.
This means that the first speaker will have an impact on the sound of the second speaker and so on.
And also pay attention to impedance which is measured in ohms. If both speakers have 8 ohms of impedance, your amp should have 16 ohms of impedance output.
Most modern amps will have multiple speaker outputs and it might tell you which one is for one speaker and which one is for multiple speakers.
Parallel Connection
On the other hand, the parallel connection between the amp head and cabinet means that the signal from the amp is split equally between speakers.
So, each speaker receives the exact same sound. And this is my preferred way of connecting amps with multiple speakers.
And regarding impedance in parallel connection, if the speakers have 8 ohms each, then you have to use 4 ohms output on the amplifier head.
For a more detailed explanation, you can watch this video.
Conclusion
Connecting an amp head to single or multiple cabinets is quite easy to do but to avoid amp or cabinet damage, you need to know the details. Hope this small guide will help you.