I see this from time to time. A new player, or maybe just one who’s not much of a gear head, wants to pair a 115 cab with a 410 cab. The most recent example is a fellow trying to choose between two cab situations. Either he will get a 610 cab, or he will get a 115 cab and a 410 cab. I told him that, given those choices, I would take the 610 all day long.

The problem in his case is typical. The 115 cab he is looking at is rated for 200 watts. He didn’t specify the exact model of 410, but I’m going to guess that it’s rated for at least triple that. And the power of the amp is going to be divided equally between these two cabs. See the problem?

As you turn the volume up and up, which one will blow a speaker first? Of course it’s the 115. It’s only got one speaker in it while the 410 has four. And even though they are smaller it doesn’t make up for the difference. You’re either going to blow the 115 or you’re going to baby your 115 and never get your money’s worth out of the 410.

Why do people want to do this? I think it’s because of stereo speakers. They tend to have small tweeters on top of large woofers. Bass players not in the know might think their bass cabs will work the same way. But generally speaking they do not. In most cases, both cabs are going to receive the full range of your signal: the bass, the mids and the highs. (The exception would be using a crossover to send low frequencies to one cab and high ones to another–not typical.)

And anyway, just knowing the size of the speaker in the cab doesn’t reliably tell you what it is going to sound like. There are limitations to this principle, but in bass world when your’e talking about 10, 12 or 15″ speakers, the most common sizes, you can’t know which will produce more lows or more highs just based on the speaker dimensions. I once had a pair of 115 cabs. I flipped them because they lacked low end. I replaced them with a pair of 112 cabs, smaller speakers, that had a big fat low end response. A lot depends on the design of the enclosure, not just the speaker size.

Word to the wise. In most cases it is better to use matched cabs. If not the same make and model, at least the same speaker configuration and similar power handling. You can mismatch. God isn’t going to smite you with a bolt of lightning. But if you do, be cognizant of the risks, and try to keep the mismatch not too out of whack. I mean a 212 cab paired with a 210 cab probably isn’t going to spell disaster because they’re not that dissimilar.