Should I Get A Used Marshall 1960B 4x12 Cab?

Charvel1975 · Mar 1, 2012

I'm looking to probably sell my 1960A and get a used 1960B and load it with WGS speakers. Our band plays modern metal tuned to Drop B and were a 2 guitar band but I also play different styles like classic hard rock/metal so I'd like it to be a versatile cab. I'm probably getting a Peavey 5150 II/6505+ for main amp and using Mesa for a side band or just practices so I'd like the cab to be versatile to use with either head. Any suggestions on a good full tone set of WGS speakers? I was thinking 2 Vet30 and 2 ET-65. How will that sound in the neighborhood I'm looking to get in?

FYI: my other guitar player is running a Boss gt-6 thru b52 at-100 tube head thru his marshall 1960b cab but he's got all Madison speakers in his and even though I'm running my mesa he's still cutting thru more? The other guys can barely hear me let alone I can barely hear myself!! :doh:

D-Rock · Mar 1, 2012

If you are having a hard time hearing yourself while jamming with your buds, a straight bottom cab will only make that worse.
Keep your 1960A and buy two WGS Retro30's. Put them in the top of the cab and you will cut through much better. The GT75's in the bottom will handle the lows nicely and the cab will remain 300 watts with that setup.

dwizted · Mar 1, 2012

I have an 1960a cab an went with the WGS retros and 75s in a cross. It totally changed the sound of the cab in a very good way. The cleans are really bad ass and brings the brutes also. I had the b cab as well and did have a bit more lowend but with the WGS on the a there was a lot more clarity and the notes were more defined and doesnt fart out at all.

stratotone · Mar 1, 2012

Dial in more mids on your amp tone too.

petejt · Mar 1, 2012

stratotone":2377eb42 said:
Dial in more mids on your amp tone too.

this

sixstringking713 · Mar 1, 2012

petejt":1n1lab1t said:
stratotone":1n1lab1t said:

Dial in more mids on your amp tone too.

Click to expand...

this

yup, sounds like you should keep the cab, buy an EQ or put more mids to cut better

Laars · Mar 2, 2012

stratotone":3a8cvevq said:
Dial in more mids on your amp tone too.

This is probably why you can't hear yourself........ Guitar lives in the mid range. Take out too much mids, and the cymbals will eat you alive. Try adding more mids and see if that helps.

Charvel1975 · Mar 2, 2012

Laars":3kaph38k said:
stratotone":3kaph38k said:

Dial in more mids on your amp tone too.

Click to expand...

This is probably why you can't hear yourself........ Guitar lives in the mid range. Take out too much mids, and the cymbals will eat you alive. Try adding more mids and see if that helps.

Right now I've been using JJ 6L6GC's, Mesa labeled 5U4G rectifier tubes stock from 95 (I don't use the rectifier setting a lot so thats why I left the stock ones in) and then I'm pretty sure last I remember I'm running all Mesa labeled 12AX'7's except I might be running a Sovtek or Groove Tubes 12ax7 in V1? On the channel cloning I leave it set in the center to normal, I don't run any effects in the FX loop right now but I have the loop activated for both orange & red channels and I set my volumes for each channel and then use the black knob loop active master volume to control overall volume of amp, I discovered the 2 control knobs for the fx loop were turned all the way up (must have gotten bumped loading gear from one of our shows) and that was causing the top 2 speakers in the 1960a 4x12 to sound like crap but the bottom 2 sounded ok? The way I run the eq for both the orange set to clean & the red set to modern hi gain, the midrange is well past the 12 o' clock position like between 2 & 3 o' clock but the cleans still aren't all that clean and like I mentioned before overall I just don't feel like I'm cutting thru the mix, now as far as the guitars I'm using I have a custom super-strat, don't know what the body is made of, I was told it's either poplar or basswood body, single seymour duncan jb in bridge to 1 500k volume knob, all maple neck & board strung with ernie ball beefy slinkys .011-.054 & the other is an older (heavy as all get out!!) korean made epiphone les paul custom with the seymour duncan hot rodded pickup set jb & jazz, strung with the GHS Zakk Wylde .010-.060 and they're both tuned to drop b. My other guitarist I already mentioned his rig above but the guitar he's been using is a stock Dean Warbird strung with GHS Zakk Wylde .011-.070 and I will say I think the pickups in his warbird are way too high gain and he does get feedback issues and he just started using his dean dim-o-flame again and thats got the SD dimebucker in the bridge strung with same strings as warbird.

Charvel1975 · Mar 2, 2012

I've also heard of people using the JJ KT-77 power tubes too

marvcus · Mar 2, 2012

Have you tried rehearsing/jamming with the 2x12 tremoverb combo cab that has the Vintage 30s? Those speakers should
cut through just fine. I'd like to know how that goes vs. the 1960A cab.

What speakers are in your 1960 cab? G12T75s?

Looks like your mids settings are ok. On Rectos, the real place for them is around 2-4 oclock. Make sure you don't have your treble scaled too far back, too.

On cutting through in a mix: Vintage 30s > T75s

Charvel1975 · Mar 2, 2012

marvcus":3n9yfc79 said:
Have you tried rehearsing/jamming with the 2x12 tremoverb combo cab that has the Vintage 30s? Those speakers should
cut through just fine. I'd like to know how that goes vs. the 1960A cab.

What speakers are in your 1960 cab? G12T75s?

Looks like your mids settings are ok. On Rectos, the real place for them is around 2-4 oclock. Make sure you don't have your treble scaled too far back, too.

On cutting through in a mix: Vintage 30s > T75s

Glad you brought that up! Yes my Marshall 1060A is completely stock G12T75s and yes I've tried just running the leftover part of the tremoverb combo with the stock vintage 30's and it's waay too Ice Picky and all highs, like no low end and it gets fartey and I've also tried running the 1960a with the tremoverb 2x12 combo cab and it didn't sound all that great, actually heard the vintage 30's more than the 1960a?! I know it says in my Mesa manual that the 2 Celestion Vintage 30's 16 ohm speakers are wired in parallel producing an 8 ohm load so with the Marshall's factory Celestion g12t-75's being 16 ohm I would think it would be safe to take the vintage 30's outta the combo and x-pattern them in the 1960a, so if I did that the only thing I've read from other people is saying that combination might not handle drop B too well and might flub out?

Lord Toneking · Mar 2, 2012

Slap an EQ in the loop :thumbsup:

Charvel1975 · Mar 2, 2012

Lord Toneking":1bh5p9w1 said:
Slap an EQ in the loop

Yea I might either get one of the newer used MXR 6 or 10 Band footswitchable EQ pedals, don't know which one I should go with, the 6 or 10? I need to play thru your Splawn Quickrod again, I'm starting to get GAS again for either a Quickrod or Nitro or maybe a Peavey 5150/5150 II or 6505+!! :m17:

BeZo · Mar 2, 2012

I have a 1960B in great shape right now that I just rewired for a client. He is selling it for $450. It is clean, and only has a few minor scuffs. If you wanna throw an offer at him, let me know.

I had to take the mono/stereo switch out of it because it shorted out. I always reccomend taking out the PC board in the Marshall cabs and putting in a regular jack. Plus, while I was in there, I sealed the whole cab up so there is no air movement in or out. This makes the cab tighter. Just throwing that out there.

As for the Vintage 30 T75 cross, I think it's one of the better speaker crosses I've heard. I'm actually debating switching that combo into my VHT FB cab and taking out the H30s. However, changing speakers might not be the best choice. I would try the EQ first. Lost in the mix is usually a lack of mids. The T75s are kinda scoopy to begin with, so no mids is even worse. The WGS 30s may balance things out though.

Charvel1975 · Mar 3, 2012

D-Rock":2zs7xbud said:
If you are having a hard time hearing yourself while jamming with your buds, a straight bottom cab will only make that worse.
Keep your 1960A and buy two WGS Retro30's. Put them in the top of the cab and you will cut through much better. The GT75's in the bottom will handle the lows nicely and the cab will remain 300 watts with that setup.

I haven't opened up the back of my 1960A as I've never changed speakers out before, The Celestion G12T-75's in my cab I was trying to look info up are they 16 Ohms a speaker and what is the SPL on the celestions? I was on WGS's site looking at the Retro 30's and it says they're SPL is 100 db, if I get 2 of them to put in the top of the 1960a are they going to be louder than the bottom 2 g12t-75's? I might call WGS today and order 2 Retro 30's I just need to know if I need to get the 16 Ohm ones

Charvel1975 · Mar 3, 2012

Charvel1975":3i4faolw said:
D-Rock":3i4faolw said:

If you are having a hard time hearing yourself while jamming with your buds, a straight bottom cab will only make that worse.
Keep your 1960A and buy two WGS Retro30's. Put them in the top of the cab and you will cut through much better. The GT75's in the bottom will handle the lows nicely and the cab will remain 300 watts with that setup.

Click to expand...

I haven't opened up the back of my 1960A as I've never changed speakers out before, The Celestion G12T-75's in my cab I was trying to look info up are they 16 Ohms a speaker and what is the SPL on the celestions? I was on WGS's site looking at the Retro 30's and it says they're SPL is 100 db, if I get 2 of them to put in the top of the 1960a are they going to be louder than the bottom 2 g12t-75's? I might call WGS today and order 2 Retro 30's I just need to know if I need to get the 16 Ohm ones

If I get a Peavey 5150 to run with my 1960a with the 2 WGS Retro 30's on top and stock celestions on the bottom will it sound good? I'm probably gonna get a peavey 5150 for our live shows & practices to use with the 1960a and use the mesa tremoverb head as backup or for a side band, dunno yet

D-Rock · Mar 3, 2012

The GT75's you have are 16 ohms each and the SPL on them is 97db I believe. You should definitely hear yourself better with Retro 30's in the top. Especially considering the cab has a slanted top half. The Retros are a little louder than the GT75's. But most of what you hear are the top speakers anyway when playing loudly with a slant 4x12. They don't drown out the GT75s or anything like that.
But also try the speakers in the X formation if you want. I did that in my 1960A too and it sounded much better then having all 75's. They balance each other out and sound great.

Charvel1975 · Mar 3, 2012

D-Rock":28k1i5j7 said:
The GT75's you have are 16 ohms each and the SPL on them is 97db I believe. You should definitely hear yourself better with Retro 30's in the top. Especially considering the cab has a slanted top half. The Retros are a little louder than the GT75's. But most of what you hear are the top speakers anyway when playing loudly with a slant 4x12. They don't drown out the GT75s or anything like that.
But also try the speakers in the X formation if you want. I did that in my 1960A too and it sounded much better then having all 75's. They balance each other out and sound great.

Do you think I should try the Retro 30's on top 1st or do the x pattern with them, looking at front of cab top left, bottom right? I'm also looking at getting either a Peavey 5150 or 5150 II/6505+ head too to use with the 1960a for our shows and at practices but I'm wondering if the cab will sound great if I use either head, the mesa tremoverb or Peavey 5150?