Modding combo amp to allow speaker to be used with a seperate head.

[LonePhantom]

Hey all, I'm thinking of buying a Blackstar HT-5 head, and I would like to use it with my Kustom KGA65 combo amp as the speaker.

The speaker is hard wired as such to the amp itself. I wanted to cut this wire and hook up two speaker jacks to allow me to hook the Kustom or a seperate head to the speaker.

Will it be as simple as me wiring the speaker cable hot to the tip of the jacks, and cold to the ground point, or do I need to do any earthing, etc?

Thanks in advance.

[LonePhantom]

Can I get any confirmations from anyone? I'm sure someone on this site has made a mod like this before.

[buddroyce]

You could do it that way. Technically you just need one speaker jack as the two wires that your speakers connect to are a positive and a negative wire. You can just clip the wires and attach a female 1/4" jack to the speaker and also install a male 1/4" jack from the wires attached to your amp so that you can just plug the Kustom back in.

[cslabs]

I did this very thing with an old Custom Kraft 1x2 combo...

I used a 1/4 jack with a N.C. contact (normally closed); the speaker is wired to the ring (-) and tip (+) contacts and the amp to the ring (-) and N.C. contact (+). When there is nothing plugged in to the jack, the amp is connected to the speaker. When a jack is inserted, it breaks the contact between the amp and speaker so that whatever you plug in is driving the speaker.

Having two jacks (or jack and plug as another poster suggested) gives you more flexibility to connect the amp to a different speaker cab as well.

[LonePhantom]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking with regards to having the two jacks.

I've got two Neutrik mountable jack connectors (this sort - http://www.neutrik.com/fl/en/audio/2...-B_detail.aspx ) - these should be more than fine? + to the tip and - to the GR? See PDF on link. I don't need to use the third point for anything?

[cslabs]

Originally Posted by LonePhantom

I've got two Neutrik mountable jack connectors [...] these should be more than fine? + to the tip and - to the GR? [...] I don't need to use the third point for anything?

That's right. The RI is really for a stereo or balanced connection where there is a third conductor. For a mono unbalanced (2-conductor) plug such as a common speaker cable, the GR and RI terminals are going to be equivalent; the RI is going to touch the shaft of the plug a little closer to the barrel but it's all the same piece of metal. Still, I'd use the GR (-) and TIP (+)

[LonePhantom]

Thanks for that confirmation, I thought I was on the right track. Now to do this on the weekend, and then test out the Blackstar HT-5 at home before buying one.