HALPP!!! How do I tell ohms output on vintage Baldwin SS head?

[Ubehebe]

Hi there:

Wow!  I'm so glad that I found this site. I'm not quite ready to start building my own SS amp, but I'm trying to save the old ones!  I have a primo Kustom SS 150 combo and the mysterious Baldwin Professional 2 x 12 Professional Custom with the rare Supersound! (In near-perfect shape I may add ... Wotta sound!  WOW!!)

Anyway, I have a new Baldwin mid '60s SS head on the way.  Off ebay and it supposedly works.  100 watts instead of the Baldwin' Pro Combo's 45 watts.  Might be an early Baldwin SS Exterminator top, if you guys are faimilar with the oldies.  Not sure until I see it, but I am psyched to try it out, hoping that it sounds like the point-to-point wired Professional Custom that I have now. 

But here's the prob:  How do I find or figure out the ohms rating for a speaker cabinet to use with it?  The Baldwin SS Professional 2 x 12 combo has two 4-ohm speakers wired in parallel for 2 ohms  (I think), but that doesn't mean that this one wants 2 ohms.

What can I use and not use? 

How can I find out what would be the optimal ohms for a cab for this head? 

Is there some way I can measure the output and get the correct resistance that way? 

Could a pro place like Orance County Speaker Repair somehow test the output and give me the best ohms rating for a cab? 

Thanks for any help you can give.  It's going to drive me crazy to have that head sitting here, being too afraid of blowing it up by plugging it into the kustom speakers or may be the speakers on a Deville tubed 4 x 10.

Thanks,

Irv Dierdorff

[LJ King]

Two ohms is the correct minimum load for this amp. You might also want to remember for when you need it that the extension speaker jack puts the extension speaker impedance in series with the internal speaker impedance.

The real output impedance from a solid state amp is usually very low. The minimum load impedance is usually a "stated figure" to prevent the amp from destroying itself.

[Ubehebe]

Hi there:

Thanks for your response!! 

>>>>>Two ohms is the correct minimum load for this amp.

Can I use this SS Baldwin amp head (NOT the external speaker jack on  a combo Baldwin SS amp) with speaker cabs that are MORE than 2 ohms, like a 4 ohm speaker cab or an 8 ohms speaker cab? 

1. Will there be any chance of damaging the Baldwin head?

2. Will such a setup lower the power of the amp?

>>>>You might also want to remember for when you need it
>>>>>that the extension speaker jack puts the extension
>>>>>speaker impedance in series with the internal speaker impedance.

I was wondering about that.  Thanks so much for adding that.

1. What can I add safely for  impedance in an extension speaker cab for the Baldwin combo amp (NOT the Baldwin amp head) with the extension cab jack?

2. So depending on your answer to question 1, can I add an 8 ohm cab? If so, would the new combined resistance would be 10 ohms?  If I used a 4 ohm extension cab, the total reistance would be 6 ohms?

3. If I can add a cab with a different ohms rating (a 4 ohm or 8 ohm cab) will that change the power output?

Thanks so much for your help.  I really really appreciate it. Sorry if I asked some stupid questions.  I jsut don't want to take any chance of hurting either the SS baldwin combo amp or the new SS amp head

Irv

[guitarampsky]

The Baldwin amp head is probably a C-3 model. I've omly seen one of them. The C-3 was built on PC board, rather than " Holey Board " like the C-1 "Professional ". It belongs to the son of the Baldwin factory Plant manager in the 60's. I think I may have a scan of the C-3 schematic, also.
Mr. Lynn
a new guy here, hope I'm not out of line jumpin' in here