Badams Messages: 2 Registered: July 2008 Location: Birmingham Alabama
Junior Member
I just purchased a K200B Head and Speaker cabinet with 3 verticle 15s at a flea market. The head works great but two of the speakers are bad and the wiring is missing. The original working speaker is a Jensen 16 ohm but the other two are dead with no readings. So I don't know the impedence or the wiring configuration. I'm a little confused on how to wire 3 speakers...I'm from Alabama.
I have ordered two vintage 15C Jensens 16 ohn. My intent is to wire one in parallel the other two in series. My question is am I headed in the right direction with all this?
Thanks
Bob
rodak Messages: 511 Registered: October 2001 Location: Georgia
Senior Member
Congrats on a nice flea market find! What color is it? Mind if I ask how much you paid?
The original wiring was all three speakers in parallel, giving a total cabinet impedance of a something over 5 ohms (i can never remember the formula). Wiring two 16-ohm speakers in series, and a third in parallel wouldn't be a good idea. The one in parallel would be a lot louder than the other two.
Optyk Messages: 125 Registered: August 2006 Location: Texas
Senior Member
I have the same cabinet as yours, the 3-15 rig. The one I bought also had only one good speaker in it, a CTS 16 ohm. I bought a couple 15's that were 16 ohms and wired the three in parallel which gave me an impedence of 5.33.
Unfortunately, all 3 speakers were bass speakers and my trebles suffered for it, obviously. I had a couple Electrovoice 8's laying around here, so I took the CTS speaker out, leaving the two matching 15's in the cab. I wired the two 8 ohm 8's in series with each other, giving me a 16 ohm load across them, Then I wired that combo in parallel with the two 15's, which theoretically should have put me back to my 5.33 ohm impedence for the cabinet. I checked it with my volt meter and I'm actually getting about 3.6 to 3.7 depending on which day I check it. I've had it like this for about 6 weeks and have watched for my head overheating in any manner and everything seems fine, so I'm gonna run with it. The trebles will cut glass out of that rig now and the bass off those two 15's really gives a great bottom end to my guitar sound.
It's not official Kustom fare, I know. But, as they say, it's all about the sound. And the sound is the best I've had off any amp and I've been playing for 40+ years.
By the way, I mounted those 8's in that cabinet without making any changes at all to the cabinet.
If you want to see how to wire any speaker combination, here's the best site I've seen on the 'net"
rodak Messages: 511 Registered: October 2001 Location: Georgia
Senior Member
Nice idea with the 8" speakers. That's a real common bass speaker setup these days - one or two large speakers, and a couple of small ones. I've got two 10" EVs and a 15" Eminence - sounds great.
The reason you only got 3.6ohms with a multimeter is that the "ohms" ratings for speakers are for impedance, which is a combination of DC resistance (what you're measuring) and AC inductive reactance, which varies with the frequency of the signal being reproduced. An ohmmeter is good for knowing if you've got a dead short or open condition, and to know if you're in the ballpark (the DC resistance will be close to one of the standard impedance numbers of 4, 8 or 16 ohms)
Badams Messages: 2 Registered: July 2008 Location: Birmingham Alabama
Junior Member
Rodak
Thanks for the help. I purchased the head and speaker cabinet for $200.00 and the color is gold. The head is in excellent shape and speaker cabinet in ok for the age and what it takes to carry it anywhere.
stevem Messages: 4733 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Do not discard those original blown C15L drivers, as they are truly the best and most expensive guitar driver Jensen ever made as indicated by the L diget, and you can always get them reconed.
The new Jensen company does not offer this driver any more so I hope you ordered the C15K or C15N model, as thses are the cloesest to a match, but the orignal L model will still be a hair louder as it is still more efficent.Wire all three in parallel for a 5.3 ohm load.
Math.
R times R diveded by R + R. IE
16x16=256,
16 +16=32
256/32=8
8x16=128
8+16=24
128/24=5.3 Final impeadance.