Cabinet basics

[zZzZombie]

Finally got my amp paid off yesterday had some unfortunate stitches and broke a car door drunk ( 2 different days) so it took a month longer than thought, but good news i now have a steady pay check no more farm work.
I need to figure out a cab and the sooner the better so i can get it around the same time as my amp and not just stare at the damn thing. I know little to nothing about cabs i have really only had an ac4tv all my guitar playing years. My amp will be a 20 watt model T and i plan on adding another 20 or 30 watt to it. So for now id like to start with a 4x12 (i already got some advice on what to stay away from) and i think im going to make one threw the guy making my amp. What i need to know is the basics for when i end up adding another cab to it or another amp i dont want to put speakers in it that will need to come out later if i chain 2 20 watts. Also im under the impression if i want to link 2 4x12's in the future the ohms would have to be 4 or 8 cause it doubles when connected to another amp? Any suggestions on what would be about right or what is just plain overkill to steer away from i really dont see myself going past 40 or 50 watts so 2 amps total and i do live in a house in the mountains so i can blast it at reasonable hours. I do plan on getting green backs put in but when its comes to ohms and wattage i am completely lost, also not looking for crazy doom tones or anything i currently use a ditto looper cosmic chorus v3 and a crayon (which i found needs the cosmi in front of it) may add a fuzz, delay and wah in the future.

[indianDYsummer]

Firstly, you can't usually daisy chain amps into the same cabinet. If you do this, you will probably blow them both up. If you want to use a SINGLE 4x12, for 2 different amps, it will need to be wired for stereo use. In this configuration, you will use 2 speakers independently wired to 2 different jacks. Some cabinets (marshall comes to mind) have a switch to go between mono and stereo operation for a 4x12 or 2 2x12s. I don't like these, since it's "easy" to accidentally have the wrong setting.

The ohmage doesn't matter for tube heads, provided you match your amp to the cabinet (ie. 8 ohms into 8 ohms). Different amps have different output options, but most modern amps have taps for 4/8/16 ohms. In a 4x12, the total ohmage is usally the same as the individual speaker. In a 2x12, it is 2x or 1/2. For example, 4 8ohm speakers in a 4x12 are wired to give total of 8ohms for the cab. In a 2x12, 2 8ohm speakers will be wired to give 16 ohms or 4 ohms, depending on series/parallel. If you buy a switching stereo cabinet, you will need to pay close attention to stereo/mono setting and make sure you are always matching.

Also, a rule of thumb is to have 2x speaker rating compared to the amp. For example, for a 30 watt amp, you'd be very safe with a 60 watt speaker load. In a 4x12 config, or 2 2x12s, you'll be hard pressed to find speakers that have too low of power handling.

EDIT: reading that you wanna use greenbacks, you'd certainly be OK with 4 of them (100W handling), and probably still be fine with a 20 or 30 watt amp through 2 of them (50W handling). I would just be careful with the amount of bass, but i'd not personally be too concerned as long as you're not hammering the speakers with sludgy bass-heavy doom guitar riffs for hours on end. If you really wanna use 2 amps, i would probably just buy two 2x12s, one now and one later. There are also companies that make higher wattage greenback type speakers (WGS, scumback). If you want to shoot for 100W handling in a 2x12.