Weber Mass 100 taking the place of a second cabinet

[rgorke]

I think this may be an obvious question but I wanted to confirm. If I wanted to use only one 100 watt cabinet with a 100 watt amp could I use a Weber mass 100 in one speaker jack to represent a second cabinet.

In other words, one 100 watt cabinet is not enough for a 100 watt amp dimed. Could I put a Weber mass 100 in the other speaker jack to ensure that I didn't blow the single cabinet's speakers?

In other words...10 watt amp, 2 speaker jacks. Speaker jack 1: 100 watt cabinet. Speaker jack 2: Weber mass 100. everything cool?

Thanks

[vanhalen5150]

10 watt amp? You mean a 100 correct?
Ive been using a 100 watt cab at 16 ohms and a 200 watt ohmite resistor (16ohms) in the other speaker jack. It really reduces the volume and takes a lot of pounding off your cab. Been doing it for about 4 months with a 12000 Metro with no issues. Just remember to set your amp load out to half.
The other thing about this is you can also use an attenuator with the cab. It allows you to jack the attenuator to the less attenuated values for a much better attenuated sound. The resistor works great in this set up.

[rgorke]

Oops, yeah 100 watt. I have been running the attenuator before the cab. After being at Jim's place, I wanted to just run one cabinet for a bit but safely since I only have one.

[irwin4star]

Yep. Will work fine. I do it all the time. Set the head on 8 ohms and the weber attenuator on 16 ohms with the attenuation knob all the way down so as to use 100% of the internal speaker motor. I would double check with an ohm meter to make sure you're around 7 or 8 ohms at the cable you're plugging into the head. It will vary a little with a jiggle of the knob but not to worry, it'll work fine. You also may have to connect everything up, play for a second, then check at the head/cable as sometimes it takes a little goosing of the attenuator to wake it up.

[rgorke]

Ok, I tried this this morning and it sounded horrible. I knew it would take down the volume but it sounded like a rug over the cabinet...no highs or bite at all.

I then tried just using the one cabinet with my 1/2 power switch engaged and it sounded much much better.

So here is what I have:

Amp Speaker jack #1 : 16 ohm 4 x 12 cabinet
amp speaker jack #2 : Weber Mass 100 set to 16 ohms and the dial all the way counter clockwise to zero.

[vanhalen5150]

Sounded horrible? It shouldnt. Are you sure its set to load? Even that shouldnt matter that much. Using speaker cables correct?

[irwin4star]

make sure all the bright switches on the attenuator are in the middle position which is off. At lower volumes, you can switch it on and then back to bypass just to get an idea as to how much volume it knocks off but mine doesn't change the tone at all.

[rgorke]

Thanks, I gotta futz with it for a while. It just doesn't sound right. Maybe inwasn't expecting it to cut that much volume. Seems to really knock down the volume a lot. Which if I think about it it should be about 1/2 as loud because the half the signal is going to the cabinet and half is going nowhere (attenuator).

Could you post a snap shot of where all your settings are?

Thanks

[irwin4star]

You running your head on 8 ohms? You have the standard weber mass 100? If you pop the speaker cable out of the head and measure the resistance between tip and shaft, what do you get?

[demonufo]

Seems to really knock down the volume a lot. Which if I think about it it should be about 1/2 as loud because the half the signal is going to the cabinet and half is going nowhere (attenuator).

Hmm, I wonder what is going on here. Effectively dividing the signal evenly between two halves would only cause a 3db drop in volume. The same as the difference between cutting the power in half (two tubes vs four etc.)
I take it you had the mass set with the minimum amount of attenuation?