Do Marshall make a decent cab?

Nerine

Ok, it's a bit subjective of course, but I can't say I've ever heard a Marshall cab that I thought sounded good.

Admittedly, I haven't tried the Handwired, tall vintage one, or the 1960a/bx.

But everything else I've heard, in its stock form just sounds pony to me?

Is it just me that suffers from this?

What cabs do Marshall make that sound good and are built well?

If anyone says 1960A, then I can't take you seriously, hehe.

ThePrettyDamned

The 1936 is alright.  But I don't know that I would retrict my choices by a badge...

For example, Blackstar have some great cabs, and if i wanted a 2x12, I'd get a Harley Benton over the 1936.

fretfinder

2061CX from the handwired series, brilliant 2x12 cab.

gjonesy

Theres some love for the MF400 cab by the metal fraternity. Then there mixing speakers V30s with t75s etc (probably a different topic)

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

The 1936 is alright. 

The current 1936 seems to be made from ply again, but the ones made from the early 90s to a couple of years ago are MDF. Some people don't mind that, but I think it makes them sound poor.

The best cabs Marshall make are definitely the Handwired series - although watch out, because the 2061CX 2x12" a friend of mine had had a factory fault (cold solder joint) in the hand wiring… hmmmm. I thought 'hand wired' was supposed to be better.

The big problem with the standard 1960 and 1936 etc cabs is that they insist on filling them with G12T-75s, which aren't too bad a speaker when used in combination with something else, but can sound quite hollow and buzzy on their own. The 1960 versions with V30s or G12M-25s (or G12Cs, which may or may not be the same thing with a different label) sound much better.

Another problem with the standard modern 4x12" is the switching panel - it's sometimes useful to be able to select 4 or 16 ohms, or stereo, but doing it with a crappy PCB unit using the switching contacts in the jacks themselves is asking for trouble. It's very poor practice - when the jacks or their PCB pin connections get a bit old or stressed by tugging on the cables, the contacts can fail and in the worst case leave the amp with no load. (Which may be one reason why JCM900s and DSL/TSLs seem to suffer more blown output transformers than other amps, since they're most commonly used with these cabs.) I prefer to remove the whole thing and hardwire the cab to whatever impedance you need. Even the 1936 isn't ideal, although at least if the jack contacts fail you still have one speaker connected.

digitalscream

The 1936 used to be the default cheap cab, but there are a lot of good alternatives on the market now. As ICBM said, the whole G12T-75 thing is a bit of a problem too.

Given that nowadays you can get the excellent Jet City JCA24S for £125 (albeit with speakers you'll want to replace, but still better on their own than the G12T) or an empty Montage 2x12" for £130, the 1936 seems a lot less appealing.

Brize

fretfinder said:

2061CX from the handwired series, brilliant 2x12 cab.

This. I had one custom made with Heritage Greenbacks and checkerboard cloth - looks and sounds killer.

AlexHunter

I liked a mid-80s JCM800 4X12 cab that my old rehearsal room used to have as stock. It either had G12 65s or G12 80s in.

Bidley

As mentioned, the MF400 is a brilliant oversized, Mesa-style cab.

Cirrus

The only marshall cab I've owned was this bad boy from the '90s;

Note that's a full sized ac30 head shell. It was pretty huge sounding, but then it was pretty huge.

1nten5e

I've got the 1960av with V30's and I like it.....haven't A/B 'd it next to any other brands though