Metropoulos Forum

How easy / cheap is it to build a DIY cab switcher? I want to switch between two 8ohm 1936 Marshall Cabinets, on the fly.

I'd quite like to do it in a way which stops the Amp's output transformer from exploding.

It wouldn't be difficult if you're willing to switch it by foot or hand but if you want remote switching that's above my pay grade. You can do it with a foot switch I use the same true bypass switch as used for pedals. I use the center contacts for a LED to tell me which cab I am going to. I only use it to test speakers and cabs so I run short leads and an attenuated signal that might make a difference as the signal has a load on it from the attenuator even with no cab connected.

I have 8 amps all going into a switch box that I made that switch each amp to 6 different cabs, plain old 6 way rotary switch for cab selection, when I switch over to another cab I'm not playing, have never had a problem yet after about 7 years with this system.

Yes, so basically I just want to be able to A/B between two speaker cabs. It's not for live use, it's for experimenting with speakers. So I could just use a regular loop box? Speaker out into the loop box and then two outputs feeding into a cab each (assuming mono setup, which is all I do).

Any issue with the fact that the amp is using a PowerBreak? I'm just a bit worried that during switching, the OT might get upset, but hopefully, the milliseconds involved in switching are not even noticed by the OT, especially if I'm not playing at the time and putting it under load.

I already have a home-made (not by me) true bypass loop box somewhere, designed to put noisy pedals in a switchable loop. Think I will try that.

Just be sure the loop box has speaker wire and not shielded line or pedal level stuff.

Even a with a simple A/B box switcher with speaker cable, couldn't you have a secondary load in speaker output 2? That way even a momentary switching your head still sees a load?