Just because there are four speaker jacks on your amp,
that doesn't automatically mean that you can plug in four speaker cabinets.
There is a definite right way and a WRONG way to connect speakers and cabinets.

Speakers (and cabinets) are generally rated at 4, 8, or 16 ohms. This is called their 'impedance'.
The term 'ohms' (impedance) is used to describe the 'load' that a given speaker will put on the amplifier.
When you add more than one speaker or cabinet, there is a mathematical formula to find the 'safe load'.
(And some of you thought you'd never need 'math' to play music! Surprise!!)
I'll give you some shortcuts, though. No strained brains, please.

Let's say you just bought an amp with a 4 ohm 'minimum load' rating.
That means you can connect speakers to a total of 4 ohms to it. "How can I do that?"
Glad you asked. The formula for multiple speaker connections is as follows.

Divide the impedance (ohms) of the speakers by the number of speakers that you want to use.

I think I sense some strained brains already. Okay, here's the shortcut . . .
You have two 8 ohm speakers. 8 divided by 2 = 4. So, what is the speaker load on the amp?
That's right, 4 ohms. Congratulations! Here's your star . . .

"Yeah, but I wanna run four cabinets."Okay, let's see . . . four 8 ohm cabinets.
Ah ha! 8 divided by 4 = 2. Uh, oh. 2 ohms? "But the amp says 4 Ohm minimum load! Now what?"
Well, here's where you need a technican. Ask him for a 4-way breakout box.
This is a device that internally connects four speakers (or cabinets) in such a way so as to ' fool ' the amp into thinking there is just one 8 ohm load on it.

Here are some more shortcuts . . .

Notice that in the above examples, all of the speakers have the same impedance (ohms) !
These examples WILL NOT WORK if the speakers are of different values . . . .!
For instance, two 4 ohm speakers and two 16 ohm speakers, connected to the same amp.
What now? Off to the tech for a breakout box.

If any of you would like to have a chart to make this even easier,
send me an e-Mail and I'll send one out.

And, of course, if you don't pay attention to this,
well, you know what'll happen, right?    

Click here for a diagram of the various speaker wiring schemes.

Gain vs. Volume

For the cleanest guitar / keyboard amp sounds,
run the Master (or volume) control somewhere between 75-90%.
Increase the control until you hear hissing or hum increase a lot. That's the 'background noise' level.
Lower the control until the noise just goes away.
This is especially important in P.A. and recording situations.
(Although it's a little more involved with P.A. and recording work.)
Many 'engineers' run their masters well down and crank up the channels.
Not only does this give a distorted output . . .
it also strains the master section circuits by overloading them.
And when you overload a circuit long enough and hard enough,

well, guess what happens?        'nuff said?