Late 80s Marshall 1960a JCM800 cab

NelsonP · July 2023

What is the going rate for these, if in excellent condition,?

Winny_Pooh · July 2023

What speakers?

NelsonP · July 2023

It's 300 watt, so G12T-75s I'd guess

NelsonP · July 2023

NelsonP · July 2023

NelsonP · July 2023

@Bygone_Tones ;

NelsonP · July 2023

Anyone? Bueller?

GoldenEraGuitars · July 2023

Based on the condition I’d ballpark £250/300.

NelsonP · July 2023

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Based on the condition I’d ballpark £250/300.

Woah. Is that all? I mean JCM800, 1980s vintage etc.
It's basically identical to Kurt Cobains cab as used in the Nevermind era.

I know that's all a bit Essex recording studios, but my Zilla 1 x 12 cost more!

GoldenEraGuitars · July 2023

It pains me to offer this opinion (as a Marshall fanboy) but what you have is a stock 1960A speaker cabinet. It’ll likely have standard G12T 75 speakers in it, I don’t think saying it’s from the late 80s adds any value unfortunately. Although it seems to be a lovely condition.

Also worth noting that few people these days want large cabs. The booteek world we have found ourselves in prefers compact rigs.

I sold my 70s cab last year for around £500 and that was loaded with blackbacks and greenbacks (also signed by Jim).

NelsonP · July 2023

Wow, that makes me feel a bit sad. I bought mine directly from Marshall after a conversation with Jim at the guitarist show in 1988. I had a Mesa head, coincidentally very similar to Kurt cobains studio preamp and crown power amp setup and it needed an 8 ohm cab, so Jim said, "easy we'll custom build it for you". Never owned a DS1 though.

Maybe I should get one and join a nirvana covers band!

A mate of mine has a late 60s cab and has been offered thousands for it. It's almost identical, construction wise, but much more knackered.

NelsonP · July 2023

Johan thinks they are good....

ICBM · July 2023

I would say it’s worth more than that to the right buyer - which is someone with a JCM800 head in similar condition. A later cab is not the same even if technically the spec is very similar. That means it’s a very niche market, for sure - even more so than the small number of people who even want a 4x12” at all - but if you’re patient you should be able to find the right buyer. How much, I don’t actually know… but given that the ‘wrong’ model is about £700 new and they aren’t making genuine JCM800 cabs any more, I would say start at £500 and see if you get any interest. You can only sell it once.

GoldenEraGuitars · July 2023

I’m not sure when it was listed, but just for a general idea (I can’t screen shot their ad unfortunately).

https://richtonemusic.co.uk/marshall-jcm800-1960a-cabinet-collection-only-2nd-hand/

But as mentioned, stick it up for what you want for it and see what happens. If it’s not in your way and you’re not desperate for the cash then hold out for someone who wants a a cab for their music room/studio to go with their 800 head.

ICBM · July 2023

NelsonP said:

Johan thinks they are good....

Watched that now. One thing that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned in these comparisons is that the cabs are wired differently, and that changes the sound even with identical speakers.

The old 16-ohm-only cabs are parallel series, ie two series pairs in parallel. The new ones with the switching panel are series parallel in 16-ohm mode, ie two parallel pairs in series. (Because they need to be 8-ohm pairs for the stereo and 4-ohm settings.) This changes the speaker damping significantly, because two speakers in parallel damp each other much more heavily than in series, which makes the sound tighter and more scooped, vs looser and more midrangy for series.

You can actually test this by adding an extra wire to a parallel-series cab, linking the junction of each series pair - even via a switch if you want to do it in a closed cabinet.

I was also surprised to find that the non-vented-magnet 75s came in as early as 1986, I thought the vented ones lasted longer. (This also changes the sound.)

NelsonP · July 2023

ICBM said:

NelsonP said:

Johan thinks they are good....

Watched that now. One thing that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned in these comparisons is that the cabs are wired differently, and that changes the sound even with identical speakers.

The old 16-ohm-only cabs are parallel series, ie two series pairs in parallel. The new ones with the switching panel are series parallel in 16-ohm mode, ie two parallel pairs in series. (Because they need to be 8-ohm pairs for the stereo and 4-ohm settings.) This changes the speaker damping significantly, because two speakers in parallel damp each other much more heavily than in series, which makes the sound tighter and more scooped, vs looser and more midrangy for series.

You can actually test this by adding an extra wire to a parallel-series cab, linking the junction of each series pair - even via a switch if you want to do it in a closed cabinet.

I was also surprised to find that the non-vented-magnet 75s came in as early as 1986, I thought the vented ones lasted longer. (This also changes the sound.)

Really interesting. Mine was wired fir 8 ohms at the factory. I've never opened it up, so not sure whether they used 8 ohm speakers with standard wiring, or, more likely just wired 4 x 16 ohm speakers up in such a way to achieve 8 ohms and 300 Watts.

ICBM · July 2023

NelsonP said:

Really interesting. Mine was wired fir 8 ohms at the factory. I've never opened it up, so not sure whether they used 8 ohm speakers with standard wiring, or, more likely just wired 4 x 16 ohm speakers up in such a way to achieve 8 ohms and 300 Watts.

It must have 8-ohm speakers, you can only get 16 or 4 ohms from four 16-ohm speakers. (Well, you can get other strange impedances if you wire the cab wrong! But none of them are 8 ohms.)

But I would check, just in case it’s been labelled wrongly - either have a look inside and see what the speakers are, or measure the resistance with a multimeter if you don’t want to open it up.

NelsonP · July 2023

It's definitely 8 ohm, that's how I ordered it. It's actually got a sticky 8 ohm label on the rating plate, presumably over the top of the std 16ohm one.

If I had more space, I'd probably just keep it.

cosmiccarrot · July 2023

I'd definitely open the back on the cab (in fact I think everyone should if your buying second hand). Not all cabs relate to the plate badge even more so if it was a request for 8ohm.

ICBM · July 2023

cosmiccarrot said:

I'd definitely open the back on the cab (in fact I think everyone should if your buying second hand).

You don’t always have to open the back - if you remove the jack cup (which you’ll probably need to do anyway if you want to get the back off, so you can put a hook into the hole and pull, to avoid trying to lever it out at the sides which chews the vinyl up) you can often see enough inside with a torch to read the label on one of the speakers.

Failing that, if the side handles are screwed rather than rivetted on - Marshall have done both, I forget which this will be - then you can take one of them off and use a torch and a mirror.

roberty · July 2023

ICBM said:

The old 16-ohm-only cabs are parallel series, ie two series pairs in parallel. The new ones with the switching panel are series parallel in 16-ohm mode, ie two parallel pairs in series. (Because they need to be 8-ohm pairs for the stereo and 4-ohm settings.) This changes the speaker damping significantly, because two speakers in parallel damp each other much more heavily than in series, which makes the sound tighter and more scooped, vs looser and more midrangy for series.

That's interesting. I can't work out which is more midrangey from your description, is it fixed or switching? Sounds like a very useful tweak

p90fool · July 2023

I'd open it up anyway, I recently bought a 1936 cab and the speaker connections were just hanging together, in fact one fell off when I gently wiggled it.

roberty · July 2023

p90fool said:

in fact one fell off when I gently wiggled it.

Sounds like you need a doctor rather than an amp tech

ICBM · July 2023

roberty said:

That's interesting. I can't work out which is more midrangey from your description, is it fixed or switching? Sounds like a very useful tweak

Parallel series - the old 16-ohm-only wiring - is more midrangy, loose and vibrant. Series parallel - the new switchable wiring - is tighter, bassier and buzzier. The difference is fairly obvious in the clip above.

I dislike the switchable wiring anyway because it contains a lot potential failure points in the switching and the PCB wiring which can leave the amp with no load if they fail, and as a result is a cause of blown output transformers - I prefer to remove the whole switching PCB and replace it with two standard panel-mount jacks wired in parallel (for backup and daisy-chaining) with the speaker wiring at 16 ohms. If you want you can also rewire the speaker pairs to series as well.

stonevibe · July 2023

I'd say the issue is not many people need a 4x12 in 2023.

I've see them up for sale for around £250/£300 and they often need to be collected, as too large to ship, etc

This limits the people that will buy them.

Great cabs for loud amp heads, and I have owned a few of them over the years.

ICBM · July 2023

stonevibe said:

I'd say the issue is not many people need a 4x12 in 2023.

I've see them up for sale for around £250/£300 and they often need to be collected, as too large to ship, etc

This limits the people that will buy them.

This is very true, but I think with something a bit rarer and harder to find than just any ordinary Marshall 4x12”, there will be a small number of buyers who will pay a premium for that - I think a near-perfect JCM800 falls into that market, the vast majority were gigged and are much rougher than this one. The trick is to find someone local enough…

PAL · August 2023

You should never ask " What the going rate is " especially another musician ! They will always suggest a very low price and
not a realistic price ! Just do some homework search the web as a buyer then see who much you would need to pay to buy
a cab like the one you have then take into account condition and you will be able to arrive at a price you feel is acceptable
to you. Just take your time and you will find a buy who will appreciate what you have. Good luck.

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Late 80s Marshall 1960a JCM800 cab

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