Getting a 1960AX - What to look for?

[levon]

I can get an older Marshall 1960AX cab with G12M25 speakers. Not sure which year, I'll have to find out. I'll look at it next Friday, but I won't be able to testdrive it, the guy is selling everything and he's got no amp left. I'll obviously check the speakers for tears, but what else do I have to look out for? Any tips?

 

[damienbeale]

Yeah. Take an amp and test it. Not worth the gamble. I'd slash the price at least in half if untested.

 

[metromutt]

I agree take an amp you need to crank the volume to hear any buzzes or rattles, if he's a little sensitive to cranking the amp in his house a couple of clean loud plucks on the low E and the odd bend on the high E shouldn't ruffle his feathers, you'll usually hear if you have problems by then, plus put your ear to each speaker in turn.
Important you take the back off to check all the speakers are what they are.
You can date the cab quickly by the plate on the back it should have a barcode and part of the numbers are the date, if it's low between '98 to 2001 maybe 2 it will have the desirable 6402 paper cones, these were celestions first greenback copies which a lot of people prefer over the later paper cone that replaced them usually ID'd with the part number 1777.

Best of luck

 

[dptone5]

A shortcut to check the speakers if you don't want to take the back off:

Remove one of the handles and take a small mirror and flashlight. You'll be able to check all speakers quickly.

DP

 

[soundboy57]

Although Celestion says the 6402/1777 cones are identical, the 6402 cones are more desirable with nutbags like me, and will help with resale. They were in every cab from 1989 to about 2000, when they switched to the 1777 cone stamp.

I know I would pay $100 more for a 90's cab over a 2000's cab with 1777 stamps, just me.

They are built exactly the same as a standard cab, other than tolex and grill cloth.

VERY nice sounding cabs with any head.

 

[metromutt]

Although Celestion says the 6402/1777 cones are identical,

I can't find the links now but I trawled into this a bit further sometime ago and found info that the first cone with the 6402 stamp was a different cone, the mix was altered for some reason (or could of been supplier) and the following cones number stamped to 1777 to reflect this. Sorry if I had more time I'd try and get the links to where I read this from.

Either way I personally found a marginal difference with the 6402, but there again there's a big difference in a well broken in speaker compared to new or a 30 year old speaker compared to 10 maybe it's easier to just use the 'it sounds good to me' principle

 

[Marshallmadness]

I have two pairs. One pair is 6402 cones and the other is the 1777. They are all 8 ohm and sonically I can't hear even a minute difference. The cones texture of the paper look exact between each other too. I even shined a flashlight in the dustcap and they all have the same brown varnished paper voice coil which I thought was pretty cool. The ones I have are the same but there could have been changes or overlap. Anything is possible. I came across some of the same stuff a while back too and I think my 6402 cones are later when they became the same as the 1777.

 

[levon]

Good tips guys, thanks for the advice. I guess I'll have to take my Marshall with me for a testdrive. I'll also check the cones, it shouldn't be a problem to take the back off either.