Grateful Dead Music Forum

I am grateful for all the advice I have obtained from this board!

Forgive my ignorance - I obtained a Blues Junior (tweed, Jensen speaker) - I was looking online, and see that the speaker is plugged into a jack in the amp - If I unplug the speaker, and plug the amp into my 2x12 cabinet with 2 K120s (each 8 ohm, so the cabinet is 4 ohm) - will I do any damage?

It would be going 8ohm to 4ohm - would this hurt the Blues Junior?

I would love to hear a K120 with this amp, and have no desire to remove one from my 2x12 cabinet -

I appreciate any advice or information!

I don't think it would do damage as a short experiment but you could just unplug one of the Ks to have a 8ohm load for a true sense of the tone at correct ohm match.

No worries. I've run a Blues jr with a 4 ohm load many times with no problems. However, there is a school of thought that says it stresses the output transformer.
That said, if you do some research, you will find that the general consensus is it's OK.

thanks!!!!

I'd defer to an electronics wizard who really knows what they're talking about, but since this is an internet discussion board I'll gladly dispense potentially incorrect information.

I think going to a lower resistance speaker has more risk than the other way around. Resistance is just that- it resists the flow of current to and through the speaker. So there is more current flow through the amp than it was designed for- hence the potential for cooking the transformer.

On the other side, I think it's riskier for a solid state amp than a tube amp. I'm pretty sure you can cook a solid state amp by turning it on with no speaker attached (zero resistance). Tube amps are a little more forgiving.

Now wait for additional real advice.

My information is based on my own experience plus research I've done.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. ... ab.511901/

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-central- ... -ohms.html

Added links

I have a switch on my 2x12 cabinet (SSP/JBL) that turns off one of the speakers, changing the impedance from 4 ohms to 8 ohms.
For some reason, I had yet to try plugging it into my Blues Jr.
Inspired by your post, I tried it this morning, and it sounded fantastic.
All of a sudden that little amp is now a player.

I do need to say that it definitely sounded better with just the one speaker (ie 8 ohms). More open.
With 2 speakers (4 ohms) it was absolutely not any louder, and sounded somewhat compressed.

Thanks folks!

I unplugged on of my cabinet speakers, ran the BJ through an 8 ohm K-120, and it is awesome! Highly increased clarity, of course!

I ordered the Frommel mods for the BJ, to get it closer to a Twin tone stack, and get slightly more headroom - this thing is a winner!