Marshall Cab Question??????

[paultelestrat]

Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: long island, ny
Age: 40
Posts: 21


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marshall cabinet question???
i recently acquired a 1982 JCM 800 50 watt head(from 59paul) Now i'm looking for a 4x12 cab.many have 75 watt speakers loaded in them.is this not practical with a 50 watt head???should i be concentrating on a cab with 4 25watt speakers??? a good friend said look at the 1960 a/b's.any feedback is welcome.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

The wattage needs not to be practical sometimes...as an example Zack Wylde used 100 Watts heads through 2 cabs...each cab used 4 200 watt EV speakers making the cab rated at 800 watts and he used 2 cabs per head...thats a 100 watt head and 1600 watts worth of cab!

If you wanted to push the speakers a little harder you could use lower power speakers but it's all a matter of taset...you have to think about the tone. I do not care for the 75 watt Celestions myself, some guys swear by them, you have to decide what tone you want.

 

[paultelestrat]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

so............. a 50 watt head into a 300 watt cabinet might be a good thing?.thanks for replying.

 

[greendy123]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

As long as the cabinet rated above 50 watts that should be okay, but I would want some barrier to the max as the 50 watt heads can go beyond 50 watts. So something like 75 watts minimum for the 50 watt head to give room for possible excess watt, this will prevent your speakers from blowing.

 

[Stevo]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

With that head, I do not like the celestion 75 watt speakers that come standard with the 1960 cabinets. The midrange response is weak. I recommend 25-30 watt speakers. I like celestion greenbacks and weber blue dogs with that setup. The 1960b cabinet has a little more bass response than the 1960a.

 

[paultelestrat]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

yeah ,i was thinking 100 watt cab,4 25 watt speakers ,so a 50 watt head wouldn't be under powering a 300 watt cab?(thats what i am hearing here) there's a lot more 300 watt cab out there,ebay and such..........

 

[Stevo]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

so a 50 watt head wouldn't be under powering a 300 watt cab?

No - that's not a problem. The rating represents maximum wattage.

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

the wattage rating of a cabinet only represents how much power those speakers can handle from an amplifier. you could plug a 30 watt amp into a 300 watt cabinet, and it wouldn't be any worse of an idea than plugging it into a 40 or 50 watt speaker. as long as the wattage of the speaker is equal or higher than the wattage of the amp, then you're in good shape.

with that said, i own a marshall 1960A 4x12, and i love the sound i'm getting out of it. i'd recommend looking into that or the 1960V (or is it 1960AV?), which is the same cabinet but it's loaded with vintage 30's instead. of course it's ultimately up to what your ears like, so your best bet would be to plug into different cabinets and see what sounds best to you.

 

[paultelestrat]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

thanks for replying MCR.I UNDERSTAND SPEAKER RATINGS,I GUESS WHAT I really am looking for is"is a 50 watt head enough to "drive" a 300 watt cabinet(4x75 watts)"wiil effect tone (low wattage head)?"am i underpowering a cab rated @300w.i already have a 50 watt head coming.would i be better off witha 4x25watt cab,marshall,of course!?????(although 4x25 cabs are harder to find.)(on ebay,that is).

 

[Bludave]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

John, it depends on the sound you are looking for. The 25 watt greenbacks are a great spekaer. They break up and distort at a low volume on there own, so they add a character to the OD that other speakers don't have. If you want to keep the sound a little cleaner a 75 watt speaker might be better. I would wait a little bit before you decide. Lets take your head to a few shops and plug in to a few different style cabinets. This is a link directly to Marshalls specs on the speaker cabinets they offer. Check them out.

http://marshallamps.com/product.asp?productCode=ExtCabs&pagetype=SPECS&pageNumber=2

 

[RW James]

Re: Marshall Cab Question??????

thanks for replying MCR.I UNDERSTAND SPEAKER RATINGS,I GUESS WHAT I really am looking for is"is a 50 watt head enough to "drive" a 300 watt cabinet(4x75 watts)"wiil effect tone (low wattage head)?"am i underpowering a cab rated @300w.i already have a 50 watt head coming.would i be better off witha 4x25watt cab,marshall,of course!?????(although 4x25 cabs are harder to find.)(on ebay,that is).

I understand what you are saying and I'm curious about this as well... I can't address the specific issues regarding Marshall cabs... but I did have a situation of too small an amp trying to drive a high wattage speaker. It just didn't have the power I had hoped for - it was weak sounding. So I am surprised to hear people saying that it doesn't matter how high the speaker rating is - as long as it is high enough. I would want to go for as close a match as possible. But again - my experience is limited.