What cabinet is this supposed to be?

[swarfrat]

I've been pondering 2x12 quarter stack type cabs lately. I ran across this Small Box sized vertical 212 cabinet at http://www.thevintagesound.com. The cabinet appears to be sized to fit a JTM45 Small Box head (26" Wide), but I can't seem to find a real Marshall cabinet number that matches this.  It's quite possible that it's just a niche they decided to fill (small box sized cabinets).  I'm contemplating building such a beast and loading it with Private Jack's or Green Berets, along with a head for my project amp either in SmallBox head size or 20w head size. The amp going on it is itself a bastardized creature that never really existed (15w JCM 800).

I'm mostly curious - did such a beast ever exist, are they common, and whats the number?  I'm also interested in discussion on 212 arrangements. I started down this path contemplating a pair of 112's, so I could pick and choose what I wanted to lug, but I've always loved the vertical 2x12 slant format. (Had a buddy's 50w Jubilee in my room for about three months, and couldn't scrape together the what would now be paltry sum to buy it (but seemed like a lot of money to a college student selling his instruments to pay the rent)

Looking for a raucous boxy midrange raunch but without giving up thump in the process.

 

[pabloman]

Marshall 1966a :headbang1:

 

[swarfrat]

1966A is diagonal, not vertical 2x12, and it's only about 24" across I believe. I think a smallbox size head hangs off either side.

 

[OzziePete]

Marshall 2061CX?

The specs show them only 643mm wide - which is about 24 inches or so....

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productCode=2061X&pageType=OVERVIEW

 

[swarfrat]

Ding ding we have a winner. Unfortunately they don't appear to be all that common.

Still I think I wants one, so fire up the table saw.

 

[OzziePete]

Ding ding we have a winner. Unfortunately they don't appear to be all that common.

Still I think I wants one, so fire up the table saw.

Have you considered modding the original specs and loading that sort of box up with 4 x 10"? Seems to me, that a lot of the Marshall sound is the interaction between the amp & the speakers, and especially the sound of 4 speakers coming out of a quad box. :dontknow:

 

[swarfrat]

So now it comes around to the real root question.. What do I want from this?

I have considered a 4x10, and I'm quite confident that you could make a good guitar 10 voiced like a broad variety of  guitar speaker, but.... The practical side is, almost all guitar 10's are Jensenish things, except for a few hen's teeth Celestion has done. Good luck finding the stuff. The choices for 12's are truly bewildering.

The 2061CX sized 212 is nearly the size of a 412. So on the one hand you might as well be dragging a 412 around. OTOH, those few inches can make a real difference getting it in the  car. Then there's the efficiency thing. (103db 1w/1m vs 106 1w/1m). And also it's effectively a 'detuned' cabinet (which in actuality is "slightly less detuned than people are used to listening to"), so you're trading a couple db on the hump for a broader hump and more bass extension.  I'm hypothesizing that a vertical 212 will have better dispersion than a 4x12 or horizontal 2x12. And weight, and driver cost...  I actually started down this route looking at the old Mesa 212 halfbacks, but with my driver choices I don't think I want anything open. Maybe a closed Greenback, and a ported something else, or just one big closed cab.