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Wanting to upgrade the pickups on my guitar

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(@vanzant38)
Reputable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 308
 

Lion2,

You said you might be interested in a tube amp. You could look at the Epiphone Valve Junior($100). Your Speaker from your Marshall will probably work with it.

I've decided to also get the Valve Junior amp head. I saw pictures of the back and it has 4ohm, 8ohm and 16ohm outputs. The head of my microstack has 8ohms. It also has a warning saying "Do not use loudspeakers of less than 8ohms." Im assuming the speakers on my microstack are at least 8 ohms. So can I use them on the 4ohm slot of the valve junior? Since I have two speakers I would like to connect on the 8ohm slot one of the others. How dangerous is it to put a speaker of lower ohms than the amp?

I think that you are only suppose to hook one speaker cable at a time to that amp(EVJ). So hook up the 4ohm OR the 8ohm OR the 16ohm but not 2 or 3 at a time.

As for hooking up the 8 ohm speaker cab to the 4 ohm plug on the EVJ amp. I wouldn't do it, but I don't think it will damage the amp.

There are tons of knowledgable people that know a lot more than I do about this amp floating around this forum. Hopefully one of them will give you some more advice, and I hope I didn't steer you wrong.

My dad would always talk about retirement, and allude to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And I say all you've got at the end of the rainbow is death. You're riding the rainbow right now. - Mark Borchardt


   
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(@trguitar)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

Solid state amps are more forgiving than tube amps. Your microstack head says no lower than 8ohms cause you can plug in 2 speakers correct? They are no doubt in parallel for a total resistance of 4 ohms. Most solid state amps will handle loads from 4 ohms to 16 ohms without a problem. Tube amps on the other hand like the impedance to match, that's why there are the 3 jacks in the back of the Valve Junior Head. You should test your cab with a tester to make sure you know the impedance before you hook it up. If you want to hook up both cabs, you could rig a way to hook them together in paralell prior to plugging into the amp. If the cabs were each 8 ohms the two in parallel would be 4 ohms. Some speaker cabs have 2 jacks so you can chain them together. I don't know if this is the case with the Microstack cabs. I don't think I'd advise plugging into multiple jacks in the back of the Valve Junior Head at the same time. Maybe Ricochet will chime in. He really knows alot about this stuff.

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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(@lion2)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 33
Topic starter  

Ok, I went out and bought the valve junior and I just connected one speaker to the 8ohm slot and everything was working fine. I was practicing for about 2 hours and when I was done I noticed that the valve junior was pretty hot. I checked out the speakers from my micro cab, they have a whole in the back so I decided to look through it if I can see any more information on the speakers. I had to hold it up at a certain angle with a flashlight on it to be able to read anything and saw that they are actually 16ohm (Celestion Gold 25) speakers not 8ohm. Could that cause the excess heat? Im gonna take the advice on this thread and avoid connecting 2 speakers to the valve junior.


   
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(@guitbusy)
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Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 93
 

As TRGuitar said, if you have 16ohm speakers (2) that are wired in parallel, then you would plug them into the 8ohm socket on the valve junior. Here is a good site to explain some wiring schemes. http://colomar.com/Shavano/2x12wiring.html .

Does your microstack have 2 speakers in it? I am not familiar with that, I will have to google it. If it just has 1 then plug into the 16ohm socket on the valve junior and you are good to go.

I have heard great things on Guitarfetish from around the internet. I haven't had the opportunity to buy anything from them, but I will in the future. Search some message boards on them and I think you will hear a lot of good things on their price performance ration.

Good luck with the Valve Junior, I think you will like it. I really do, I have a couple. One stock and the other I am modding, it is a great amp for the price.

Older Newbie


   
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(@lion2)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 33
Topic starter  

The micro stack comes with 2 speakers (here's a pic of it: ). Each speaker uses its own individual cable to connect to the amp head, so I guess I'm just going to connect one speaker to the 16ohm slot (since I've confirmed that each speaker is 16ohm).

BTW I've ordered the pickups that teleplayer324 recommended( http://store.guitarfetish.com/jrestalprpis.html ). They seem like they'll give me the tone that I want. Also it will be a nice learning experience once I get into the guts of the guitar. The worst part is waiting. So what kind of equipment will I need in order to install the pickups. I want to be prepared before the pickups arrive. So far I would think I need a soldering iron and an appropriate screw driver. Anything else?
As TRGuitar said, if you have 16ohm speakers (2) that are wired in parallel, then you would plug them into the 8ohm socket on the valve junior. Here is a good site to explain some wiring schemes. http://colomar.com/Shavano/2x12wiring.html .

Does your microstack have 2 speakers in it? I am not familiar with that, I will have to google it. If it just has 1 then plug into the 16ohm socket on the valve junior and you are good to go.

I have heard great things on Guitarfetish from around the internet. I haven't had the opportunity to buy anything from them, but I will in the future. Search some message boards on them and I think you will hear a lot of good things on their price performance ration.

Good luck with the Valve Junior, I think you will like it. I really do, I have a couple. One stock and the other I am modding, it is a great amp for the price.


   
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(@guitbusy)
Trusted Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 93
 

Is there only one output on the back of each of the mini cabs? If so then there is no way to run them both at the same time (in current configuration) with the valve junior. You can re-wire them like the first picture here (just envision 1 speaker) http://colomar.com/Shavano/2x12wiring.html (notice no period at the end)

and then daisy chain them together to run them in parallel. Let me know if that makes sense. If not I will attempt to explain it more clearly.

Soldering iron, solder, screw driver and I think you have a good start. Are you changing out your pots and 5 way switch at the same time? Might be a good idea if you are in there mucking around anyway to have top quality electronics.

Older Newbie


   
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(@lion2)
Trusted Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 33
Topic starter  

Is there only one output on the back of each of the mini cabs? If so then there is no way to run them both at the same time (in current configuration) with the valve junior. You can re-wire them like the first picture here (just envision 1 speaker) http://colomar.com/Shavano/2x12wiring.html (notice no period at the end)

and then daisy chain them together to run them in parallel. Let me know if that makes sense. If not I will attempt to explain it more clearly.

Soldering iron, solder, screw driver and I think you have a good start. Are you changing out your pots and 5 way switch at the same time? Might be a good idea if you are in there mucking around anyway to have top quality electronics.

Im gonna stick to the current configuration of just plugging in one of the mini cabs to the valve junior. I didn't think of replacing the pots and 5 way switch. Will that help with the tone as well? Like you said if Im already mucking around in there, might as well change those too.


   
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(@timezone)
Estimable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 205
 

Im gonna stick to the current configuration of just plugging in one of the mini cabs to the valve junior. I didn't think of replacing the pots and 5 way switch. Will that help with the tone as well? Like you said if Im already mucking around in there, might as well change those too.

If the pots and switch work well (no flaky connections, no scratchy pots), then there's not much to be gained tone-wise by switching them out. Though using some nice CTS or alpha pots and a better switch might improve long term reliability. Nobody has mentioned the tone cap to you yet! Soon enough you'll be replacing everything under the covers. ;) You shouldn't need anything more than soldering iron, solder, and screwdrivers. You should keep a wet sponge handy though, for cleaning the soldering iron tip.

TZ


   
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(@forrok_star)
Noble Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 2337
 

My thoughts would be looking into spending the money on a good all tube amp, equalizer, and attenuator. Then think about changing pickups.

Joe


   
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(@trguitar)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

Lion2, I don't think you did any harm. Tube amps get hot, even little ones. I think running through the 8 ohm jack with the 16 ohm speaker is not a big deal, just the amp likes it better if you run through the 16 ohm jack with it. I do think the higher resistance might have caused it top run a little hotter though. I just built a speaker cab for my Valve Junior Head that has a single 12 and it is a 4 ohm speaker. I wanted something more portable than my 4 X 12 I was using.

The big no no with a tube amp is NEVER EVER run it without a speker connected. It will fry your output transformer.

Do you want to use both speaker cabs? I have a simple solution. Build a little box with a single jack on one side connecting in parallel to two jacks on the other side. The two speakers plug into one side of the box, the other goes out to your amps 8 ohm jack. (Assuming they are both 16 ohm speakers) It wouldn't cost much. The 1/4" phono jacks are 2 for $3 at Radio Shack. Another option is you could make your own custom speaker cable in the shape of a "Y" .

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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(@guitbusy)
Trusted Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 93
 

Take the speakers out of the below picture and replace with a 1/4" jack and you have what TRGuitar is talking about. Pretty simple box to make, you don't have to mod your cabinets and you will get some more soldering practice. Use 14 guage speaker wire for the wiring.

Older Newbie


   
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