neepheid Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 Look out, BC hive mind, here comes a daft question! I'm scheming about getting a small bass head for use in emergencies (or when I get bored). Currently I have a rig consisting of a Markbass Mini CMD121P IV combo and a Markbass New York 121 cab. If I was to get some sort of mini head and I wanted to use both speakers, would it be as simple as getting a cable made up with a Speakon at one end and a jack socket at the other end, so I can simply disconnect the combo's speaker from the combo amp and then do the following: Emergency head > speakon-speakon > New York 121 speakon socket 1 New York 121 speakon socket 2 > speakon-inline jack socket > jack plug coming out of the back of the combo And therefore present a 4 ohm load to the amp? Pictures for context: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlefeeder Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 (edited) Yes. Been there, done that - I once managed to connect my main amplifier output to my back-up amplifier, and only one survived. Your option of making your back-up amp have the same connection as the combo amp is the safest option to prevent two amps being connected at the same time. David Edited November 10 by Mottlefeeder Re-read OP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted November 10 Author Share Posted November 10 Thanks for the input and the advice. I should have added that the kind of small head I'd be looking at generally only has a single speaker out connector (because it would need to be small/light for toting around to gigs to potentially not be used), hence why I'd have to go from head to cab then back up to combo speaker, utilising the cab's parallel wiring of its two speakon sockets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlefeeder Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 1 hour ago, neepheid said: Thanks for the input and the advice. I should have added that the kind of small head I'd be looking at generally only has a single speaker out connector (because it would need to be small/light for toting around to gigs to potentially not be used), hence why I'd have to go from head to cab then back up to combo speaker, utilising the cab's parallel wiring of its two speakon sockets. OK - your back-up head (Elf or similar?) will probably have a jack socket output so you would need a jack plug to speakon to connect to the extension speaker and a speakon to jack socket to connect that to the combo cab. That would also give you the option of connecting the combo amp to the extension speaker if the combo speaker was suspect. David 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 Ensure the combo jack follows the tip positive speaker outward motion convention. Aka 9v test. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted November 11 Author Share Posted November 11 10 hours ago, Mottlefeeder said: OK - your back-up head (Elf or similar?) will probably have a jack socket output so you would need a jack plug to speakon to connect to the extension speaker and a speakon to jack socket to connect that to the combo cab. That would also give you the option of connecting the combo amp to the extension speaker if the combo speaker was suspect. David Interesting thought - to be honest the amp I was eyeing up for the job has a single speakon output, but I'll think on some more. Glad I asked, what started off as something relatively simple in my mind has typically grown arms and legs as usual! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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