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Run my amp head through P.A. Speaker???

Started by GuitarDan, March 18, 2011, 02:14:21 PM

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GuitarDan

Does anyone know if I can link my amp head directly to one of my P.A speakers? I'm unsure because it's actually 3 speakers in one cab (bass, mid, tweeter) , not 1 speaker like you would have with a normal guitar cab. Would I do any damage to it? And would it sound alright?

I've not got a proper cab for it yet, so was just wondering if I can do this until I get one.

And I don't mean for a gig - that would be silly. Just for practising at home.

Thanks.

bry melvin

you probably can:

this assumes the impedence matches:

however guitar speakers and PA speakers do NOT sound the same IT probably will sound pretty bland. Guitar speakers tend to distort in ways that favor guitar sound. PA speakers are essentially hi fi.


J M Fahey

You can, at home levels.
Acoustic clean sound will be fantastic; distortion will be buzzy as a beehive in a 50 gallon drum.
If you have a tweeter level control turn it down to "0" or as low as possible or tape 2 or 3 layers of thick cardboard over it.

GuitarDan

#3
Thanks for the replies. Just tried it. It sounds great clean with my Jag but not tried overdrive yet. They're good speakers though so it might sound good on overdrive. It's got 12" Celestion Sidewinders in but I'm not sure about the tweeters and the 6".

Quote from: bry melvin on March 18, 2011, 03:17:27 PM
you probably can:

this assumes the impedence matches:

however guitar speakers and PA speakers do NOT sound the same IT probably will sound pretty bland. Guitar speakers tend to distort in ways that favor guitar sound. PA speakers are essentially hi fi.

It's got 3 speaker outputs - 4Ω 8Ω and Ω16. I think mine are 8.
It sounds great at low volume - not bland at all.


Quote from: J M Fahey on March 18, 2011, 08:06:57 PM
You can, at home levels.
Acoustic clean sound will be fantastic; distortion will be buzzy as a beehive in a 50 gallon drum.
If you have a tweeter level control turn it down to "0" or as low as possible or tape 2 or 3 layers of thick cardboard over it.

I do have a tweeter volume but it's on my stereo amp, so I'll be bypassing that anyway and just using the guitar amp-head and one PA speaker. The guitar amp has only one tone pot. There doesn't seem to be anything coming out of the tweeter anyway, even when I'm playing up the neck. Still works with my mp3s and cds though - crystal clear hi-hats.

I don't know what's going on there. If anyone knows why, I'd be interested to know.

Thanks again,

Dan

J M Fahey

Your guitar practically has no "musical" sounds that high; however tweeters will happily reproduce buzzy unmusical harmonics.

joecool85

I've had good luck playing through a Dean Markley PA cab...but I think DM used guitar speakers on their PA stuff  ::)
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
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