Ohms for BW in Session 400 LTD?

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

What kind of resistance are the black widows in the discontinued Session 400 LTDs?

Is their any risk/downside in putting a tube head on the amp, and running the tube head into the speaker? It's good to have backup... but something with a little more personality would be nice.

Jon Light (deceased) · From: Saugerties, NY

I thought it was 8 ohm?---my VOM is messed up and I can't take a reading.
There is no reason you can't drive the speaker with an external head. If it is a Fender then you don't even need to worry much about the impedance of the speaker--4 or 8 ohm, a Fender head will do ok either way, whether it's got a 4 ohm output or an 8. The worst mismatch you'd have will be within what the Fender trwnsformer can handle (100% mismatch).

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

4 ohms,look where the speaker plugs into the back,it should be marked.

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Bill Ford

[This message was edited by Bill Ford on 02 March 2004 at 03:57 PM.]

Ken Fox · From: Nashville GA USA

Same cabinet size as a Fender Twin, I do believe (width, that is). Maybe that would be a nice fit. The Twin likes a 4 ohm load!!

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

Actually, I wasn't being clear... I don't want to take the chassis out and put a new head unit into the cabinet. I just wanted to use an additional head, that is in a separate cabinet, and use the out jack to run that speaker into, unless and until I get a separate cabinet.

I don't think the head would come near fitting into the space I have, or possibly even into the Fender chassis space. Plus, the advantage of the separate head is that I could actually lift the thing. I'm toying with getting an Ampeg V4 head, which is a pretty powerful piece of kit (100 Watts, 7027 tubes blah blah blah), but it's around 70 lbs. I just want to use it until I get to shop around for a separate speaker... thought I'd see if there's was any problem with using the S4LTD speak to play it through. The V4 has an ohm selector on it, as far as I know.

David Doggett · Posted 3 Mar 2004 9:40 am

Nicholas, I don't know anything about that Ampeg head, but it seems overly heavy for 100 watts. A Dual Showman Reverb head (or a Twin chassis in a Dual head cabinet) is 100 watts and weighs only 35-40 lbs.

I definetly think separate heads and speaker cabs. are the way to go with the big tube amps. Unfortunately, Dual heads are hard to find these days. But Twins are very common, especially silver faces, which work well for pedal steel. I nice trick I have found is to take the chassis from a Twin and put it in a Dual head cabinet (either bought, homemade, or newly made by Mojo and other cabinet makers). Then you put a closed back on the speaker in the old Twin combo cabinet, and the slot where the chassis was acts as a reflex slot. So you get better sound than the original combo, and two relatively light packages. I also like it that you can set the amp head beside your steel for easy tweaking, and have the speaker cab. at the back of the stage where the rest of the band can hear you better, and it is easier to mix your volume right with the rest of the group. The Black Widow in the Peavey combo cabinet should work well for this.

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

Ampegs are always really really heavy. The advantage to that is that they were incredibly overengineered, and are surprisingly durable... down to the tubes: ampeg guitar gear used a kind of tube which was an extra heavy duty 6L6 (I think...) that was built for them... for years they were unavailable, but I think are now reissued. they were 7027 tubes... result being, for instance, that a friend of mine with an ampeg bass amp that's not much under thirty years old, still has the original tubes, and they test out as well within tolerances. He plays a 35 watt head, pushed pretty hard for his gig size spaces, and it still is going strong after about 8 years of heavy use by him.

They have that peavey-ish "fell off the back of the truck and worked" quality to them as far as you can get it in tube amps... heavier duty transformers as well. So I've heard from more than a couple of people that these heads are closing in on sixty pounds, if not over that.

David Doggett · Posted 3 Mar 2004 5:01 pm

Well, then, for that weight it would have to sound a lot better than a Fender 100 watt tube head (Dual, Twin, Vibrasonic). Does it?

Jerry Hedge · From: Norwood Ohio U.S.A.

Smiley Roberts could tell you about this amp. He had an endorsement deal with Ampeg in those days. I think he used the combo version,the V.T.22.

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

It certainly looks like its cheaper, and more durable, and easier to find than the Dual Showman reverb heads. A little more versatility in the preamp, as well. Adjustable input gain sensitivity, adjustable mid frequencies on a rocker switch and a few other tricks... also adjustable ohm load for the speakers...

What does a dual showman reverb weigh, just the head???

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

The Session 400 Limited requires a 4 ohm load for full output power(210 watts). However, all solid state and some Peavey tube amps can operate without a speaker load attached at all.

Mike Brown
Peavey Electronics Corporation

David Doggett · Posted 4 Mar 2004 10:00 am

A Dual Showman Reverb head weighs about 40 lbs. Duals are hard to find. But there are lots of Twins out there. You can take the chassis out and put it in a head cabinet. Occassionally you can find a Dual cabinet, but if not, Mojo and others sell new head cabinets for around $200 or less. Or you can make your own for a lot less. This is the way to go for me from now on. I can leave my forklift at home.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 04 March 2004 at 10:04 AM.]

Nicholas Dedring · From: Beacon, New York, USA

Thanks Mike. What I was basically trying to figure out was whether it would be okay to bring the session 400LTD, have the solid state section as a backup, or a different flavor depending on things, and just run the speaker cable out to a different, tube head. I assume that would be okay... I was just trying to figure out what load the black widow in the amp was, and it sounds like its 4 ohms from what I see above.

Thanks all.

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