The difference in cabs!

timmysoft

So I've just completed a two week uk tour where I was using someone else's cab..... Never again! I thought the loaned cab would be ok as it was a Marshall 1960a, my usual cab is a jcm900 412. The newer 1960 sounded horrible every night, thin, lacking punch and clarity. Is there really that much difference between his cab and my cab?

Cirrus

Sure there is.

Try playing through a speaker that isn't in a cab - just wire it up sitting on a table or something. Listen to how bright, thin and scratchy naked speakers actually are. All the thick low end resonance is a direct result of attaching them to a baffle and placing them in a wooden box.

So the shape, build and quality of that box is bound to make a HUGE difference to what the low end actually does.

Of course, in your case you weren't comparing the boxes with the same speakers.

Phil_aka_Pip

Is a new 1960A made of MDF instead of birch ply?

ICBM

No, they should both be ply.

What speakers are in your cab? The standard 1960 comes with G12T-75s, but there have been other versions, most commonly with V30s.

In my opinion G12T-75s vary a bit as well, the earliest vented-magnet ones in particular sound quite different (although this is well before the JCM900 period so they shouldn't be those, only earlier JCM800 cabs had them), but I think there may be a difference between the 90s ones and the current models too.

timmysoft

My 900 cab is all original, so much better than the current 1960.

guitarfishbay

Well speaker variance is a thing - even in the same cab all the speakers seem to sound a bit different to each other.  I wonder if that cab was an unlucky cab and had four speakers that were all below average sounding?

ICBM

timmysoft said:

My 900 cab is all original, so much better than the current 1960.

Yes, but which speakers does yours have? They came original with V30s in some versions.

guitarfishbay said:

Well speaker variance is a thing - even in the same cab all the speakers seem to sound a bit different to each other.

Not *that* much that you would notice a huge difference in the sound of the cab though.

cosmiccarrot

Your cab is the same, the only difference is the wood used. For a long time marshall used poor quality wood for their cabs but they've now gone back to birch which imo is the best, verified by a lot of other high end amp builders as the wood to use.
It will be down to the speakers. As a rough guide a 1960a have 75's, 1960ax have g12m's and a 1960av have V30's. It would be worth checking what speakers you have in you're cab, more than likely to be 75's unless someone has changed them. Was the hired one new? new speakers can be horrible until they are broken in some can take a long time before they sound nice and warm imo.

timmysoft

The bad cab belonged to another band on the tour package, the guy who owned it said he had bought it new in 2009, they've been touring the cab for a while. My cab has 75s, although they're uk built ones as opposed to the newer Chinese units. My cab is warmer, louder and delivers more punch, I just find it odd that the "industry standard" cab can vary that much!

ecc83

The permutations are endless... It is notoriously difficult to get consistent paper pulp cones. If you flip pink noise thru the drive units of a 4x12 the differences leap out at you.

Then some amplifiers use a bit of negative feedback, others don't and that will have an effect on the cone's damping (a fact exploited by the "resonance" control on some "cough" well appointed amps!)

If you have a pair of ear defenders it is instructive to wear them whilst giving a 4x12 the full monte. You will hear all the creaks and groans of the cabinet!

Dave.

ChrisMusic

It would be interesting to get @Clarky 's point of view on this.

I believe the reason for using 2 Marshall 4x12s with his AxeFx2 rig is for consistency of sound when hiring for tour or fly dates.

They give a consistent baseline, as far as possible.  They are easily available globally and are unlikely to be substituted.

It seems like an excellent rationale to me.

I agree with ecc83 about the inevitable within type variability of the low tech transducer we call a speaker.

Clarky

Chris.. yup totally...

I use a pair of stock 1960b cabs... I dial my tone into them.. when I tour I ask for these cabs on my tech rider.. when I arrive at the venue sometimes I get what I ask for, sometimes I don't.. most common is getting a pair of 1960a cabs..

sure there are differences, but to may ears they're not "huge".. nothing that a squirt of EQ couldn't deal with.. that said, when I've been provided with 1960a cabs, I've not bothered making changes to the EQ and been perfectly happy.. even though some are a little brighter, some a little bassier.. my point is I guess that the differences have not seemed so great to me that I've felt the need to do something about it..