How bad of an idea is it to run a head into a cab with a non-speaker cable?

[cpeck]

And will it **** up the head or blow the cab?

My bass player forgot his speaker cable and he's using my V-4 as a bass amp

[StevenO]

Well I wouldn't suggest it. Normal cables aren't meant to handle that much load and if the cable breaks, it will be just as though your head was running into nothing. Then it will cause damage to your amp. So yeah, TELL HIM TO GET A SPEAKER CABLE, AND QUICK! sorry, for yelling.

[NoFi]

It's also a matter of impedance.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... ic=48779.0

[pullover]

It's also a matter of impedance.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... ic=48779.0

How many times have you had a guitar cord either short out on you or start buzzing and making weird noises, to an amps transformer this is like a kick in the balls.
I do the same thing people said in the link, I cut up two wire extension cords and make speaker cords out of them. I take the connectors off my old guitar cords that have already been replaced and solder two wire extension cord to them. Now I only do this with solid state amps which aren't as temperamental as tube amps, I always pull on the connectors a bit and move them around to make sure they are soldered good, and I always ohm the cables out after to make sure the connections are good, and not reversed. Braided wire is not meant to handle the abuse that speaker cords use, it's too easy to make a proper speaker cord out of a guitar cord to risk messing something up.

[flatfiver]

The output of the amp will probably melt/fry the guitar cable, which will result in no load for your amp's output tranny, which may in turn kill the transformer.  This isn't good.

[mezcalhead]

Yeah, what everyone else said. I wouldn't let anyone plug one of my amp heads through a guitar cable, not at all, not even for a quick second to check how things sound and certainly not for a whole gig just because they forgot their speaker cable.

Just ask Zhivago what happens to a tube amp with no load - he fried his Tremolux a couple of weeks back when the speaker cable became disconnected from the speaker.

I can't think how it could damage the speakers though .. I think it's just (!) the amp that's at risk.

[zhivago]

Just ask Zhivago what happens to a tube amp with no load - he fried his Tremolux a couple of weeks back when the speaker cable became disconnected from the speaker.

that's true...still haven't managed to get it fixed

[i love sharin foo]

to an amps transformer this is like a kick in the balls.

That is a geat analogy! I love it!



Justin

[momunist]

ditto on what those guys said.  it's one of those things people will do because they see people do it and get away with and you will sometimes, but i've also seen it fry a number of cool amps, most recently a really cool old silvertone that belonged to a pal of mine.  aside from the problems mentioned above,  proper speaker cables are made with unshielded two conductor cable.  instrument cables are single conductor with a shield (usually braid or foil) that acts as the ground.  this can cause a number of problems when acting as speaker cable.  any time you have two conductive surfaces separtated by a dielectric(non conductor such as air, rubber, etc) it forms a capacitor.  in an instrument cable, the single conductor with insulation around it then braid around that is no different.  therefore, shielded cable is capacitive by nature.  and we all know what capacitors do in audio circuits (think tone circuit on your guitar),  or at least suffice it say that there's not supposed to be one between your head and your cab (this can make output transfos die).  also the purpose of the shielding in an instrument cable is to prevent stray electromagnetic interference from showing up in your audio.  this works in an instrument lead because noise hits the shield and is shunted off to ground before it gets to your conductor and messes with your low level high impedance signal.  when you use instrument cables in a speaker cable situation, any of that noise picked by the shield that should go to ground goes through the speaker instead and shows up as amplified noise (think spinal tap at the military base).  it can be anything from simple hiss to radio stations to horrid awful squealing.  but worst of all, as they mentioned above, it's much easier for a braided single conductor cable to become shorted than heavy guage two conductor (think of the crackling you hear when you flex an old guitar cable.  when this happens, this also makes output transfos die.  sorry if that was long winded or a little off for some of the super techs.  but as one of the guys who fixes these things i will simply say yes this is bad and please don't do it.