The Dad

[DirtySteve]

I think it's awesome what you're doing for your kids. You Sir are an awesome Dad! My folks fought me all the way, there's no telling where I might be if I'd had that kind of support. I resent my parents for it, yours will have a special bond no matter what they decide to do in the end.

 

[Peaty]

^ Well, could be them fighting you only made you want it more and played harder just to show them?

My daughter (13) plays music because she really enjoys it and likes being in front of people (she also plays Bassoon at school), she's a very driven person. We don't push her by any means it's just the way she is. Straight A's, advanced math classes, great at sports all that stuff. Damed if I know where she gets it from, my wife I suppose. I'm not really concerned about her, whatever she decides to do in life she's going to excel at it. Right now she wants to be an engineer of some sort. Could just be because I work in an engineering group, my wife too.

My son (16) on the other hand is convinced he's going to be a rock star. More power to him, but I keep trying to convince him he needs a plan B. He's very smart but only does enough to get by in school (that, I know where he gets) All the stuff they play is original that he writes. I know it's part of being a teenager but I worry a lot more about him. His current plan B is to be a journalist, he likes writing.

I put a few random pics up here for fun.

Marshall Amp Forum - Peaty's Album: Stuff

 

[Peaty]

Well, I did get the advice I was looking for in another section regarding a cab for our amp. My son and I went last weekend and picked it up from a guy on craigs list. Actually it's in very nice shape, I have some pics here:

Marshall Amp Forum - Peaty's Album: New (to us) cab and new head

He's getting the amp for Christmas so I boxed that back up after he verified everything worked, so we have something to put under the tree for him. The cab has been sitting around so I decided to turn my daughter loose on it. When I took the back off to verify the speakers were the original ones, I thought the wire looked a little on the thin side. Maybe 20GA? Well I'm sure it will be just the placebo effect but I got some red and black 14GA wire and some new connectors. I'm having her solder the connections rather than just crimp them and even add some shrink tube. Also I'm having her make the wires to the Ohm switch box a little longer so I can secure them to the cabinet so the speakers connections don't get yanked on when removing the back and give more room to pull the back off. Anyway here is a quick shot of her making up the wires. Not your normal father and daughter quality time but it's what we enjoy

 

[tubes]

Good choice Peaty.

Good cab there - same as I have been using lately!
Very wise of you to check the wiring and connections too.

A while go I fried one of my Marshalls - I'm pretty sure it was because I plugged into an old cab with bad connections that I had never checked.

Now you probably know this already but...
When you plug an amp into the cabinet make sure you match the impedance setting on the back of the amp (e.g. 4 Ohms, 8 Ohms or 16 Ohms) to the same input/impedance-setting on the back of the speaker cabinet.

Valve amps are fussy about that.

If you have any uncertainty about that, just ask on the forum here.

 

[Peaty]

Thanks for the heads up about the impedance, I was a little confused at first. After I had the amp on the top of the cab I could see how to hook it up. The Amp is 16 Ohms so I slid the switch to 16 on the cab. I'm still a little confused why you'd go with a mono 8 for left and right, but that's' for another time I suppose. The Amp came with a cable hook up cable but it too was pretty cheapo, so I upgraded to these:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000068NZO/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00]Amazon.com: Hosa Cable SKJ205 12 Gauge Speaker Cable with 1/4 Inch Ends - 5 Foot: Musical Instruments[/ame]

Which I have to day are super beefy and work well

I'm confused why they don't use Speakon instead of the 1/4" plugs but I guess they like to be old school.

 

[tubes]

Hey Peaty,

"....why you'd go with a mono 8 for left and right?..."

I believe this option originated as a matter of convenience.

For one issue.... Rack gear is usually stereo, so a person might have a rack power amp with stereo Left and Right at 8 ohms each side.

Another issue: Marshall's combos usually can drive into 4 Ohms or 8 Ohms, but the heads usually drive into either 8 Ohms or 16 Ohms.

Consequently a "convenient" cab should include an 8 Ohm option: that way people can can plug in either their heads or their combos - and/or various other brands of amps - and combinations.

This is not a minor issue for those of us on a budget: for e.g. I bought an amp (head) a while back: but my only big cab (not a Marshall) was hard-wired at 4 Ohms.
But the amp did not want to plug into 4 Ohms.

Consequently I had to spend an entire evening re-wiring my old cab to 16 Ohms - just so I could try out my new amp.
____

Also... This is tempting to me but I'm trying to resist.... I could plug two different amps into the same Marshall cab (same model as your one). Because the cab is 'splittable' into two 8 Ohm 'sides'.
___

Meanwhile... your're definitely on the right track with the essentials if you're concerned about speaker cables being suitably heavy-duty and well-made.

On the other hand, beware of snake-oil: there is no magic in this area of speaker cables - despite what some retailers and vendors of gold-plated nonsense might tell you.
It's just common sense and no need to spend too much.

Your instincts are already correct: a speaker cable should be fairly 'heavy-duty' if it's going to carry a few volts - and if it's to be on stage and suffering the kind of abuse that might happen.

Also it needs to be well connected/soldered at the jacks: valve amps will likely die if they don't have a speaker load of the correct impedance attached to them.
_

Seems to me your childs are going to have some heavily robust, stage-ready gear thanks to you.

Actually I'm jealous: Now where's MY roadie/technical guy?
Or do I have to keep soldering up leads myself?

Best of luck Peaty.
Your childs probably will never know how lucky they are to have a very practical guy like you looking after them.
_____________________

Now, talking about "Not your normal father and daughter quality time but it's what we enjoy..."

Tell me about it! I have six daughters. Four are in the band.
One sings blues like she grew up on it. (Which I suppose she did.)
One plays bass like a pro: not a virtuoso but always locks in with drums and MOST reliable.
Some bands would pay gold for a bass player like that. People are already trying to steal her from us.
Two others daughters are stalwart back-up singers.

A part of me still thinks of them all as 'my wee girls'.
But I definitely have to accept that they are now grown-up adults with impressive skills that they have developed by their own personal effort.

Just thought I'd mention... I sense that you and I have something in common here - i.e. we're both trying to support our children as much as we can.
_____________

 

[Peaty]

Thanks for such a great reply, full of good info.

Another issue: Marshall's combos usually can drive into 4 Ohms or 8 Ohms, but the heads usually drive into either 8 Ohms or 16 Ohms.

Yes, I see this now, my son's Marshall combo is 4 Ohms and right now, since he does not have the new head yet, he's running that into the 1960 cab. Clever design on the cab, but I'm not too big a fan of the switch box setup. Seems to be pretty versatile though, I can understand why they did it.

Tell me about it! I have six daughters.

Yikes!, My daughter is 13 and I can only imagine what six girls in the house would be like, actually I can't. It must have been mayhem at times

Honestly, it's our job as parents to do what we can to cultivate and support our kids. Give them the tools if we can.

Below is a pic of my my daughters latest project, she's making a Wah pedal for her brother's Christmas present.

 

[DirtySteve]

I think Tubes pretty much nailed it...excellent post! I just learned something. :cool2:

 

[graydane]

kudos Peaty, for being such a supportive Dad and allowing your children to follow their dreams. So cool. dig the direction to your daughter to take tinkering and music and combine them.
really great work Dad!!!!!!

 

[StratoMarshall]

Welcome! It's good to see kids with an interest in something worthwhile that will actually benefit them in the future! Kudos bro!