Marshall 50W Speakers-Old Hands Advice Please

[azatplayer]

Awesome David, nothing quite like the marshall tones! I recently modded my 71' SL/A to what it should have had factory. The .68 cap on V2a. Mine didnt have it. Brilliant! Sounds so much richer, oddly not brighter like i might have expected.
I picked up a very well gigged silver jubilee quad about a year and half ago. I only bought it cos i could see in the pics that it had pre rolas in it.
I asked the seller if i could demo it, did so and made him an offer which he refused.. i ended up being the higher bidder for less coin..hahahaha
Anyways all that to say, the closest thing ive found to true pre rola greenback love was a pair of warehouse ET-65's in a 2x12 avatar bigbox.
really really good tone. 65's are a terrific speaker for these amps. I have a heritage G12-65 in a single cab, two tubes pulled on the superlead into that cab, sounds huge, and right. Gees i love that amp!

[David Root]

Mine has (used) long plate mC1 Mullards in V1 and V3 and a short plate I63 in V2, power tubes are an odd couple, an Xf1 and and Xf2 at 31.5mA each, also used. Who knows how long they'll stay matched!

Those 55Hz cones in the vintage style Avatar cabs really WORK! It's like time travel, close your eyes and you're THERE, in '77!

[kgreene]

I'm not going to bother reading everyone's response to your question in this thread - I'm getting on board late, so please forgive me if I'm repeating or some other way off track. However, I do have something to say on the subject: I think you're barking up the wrong tree if you don't try matching the amp output closely to the speaker's power rating. In other words, a pair of 20 - 30 W speakers. There are quite a few options to consider. I traveled with a band carrying a blackface Fender Vibrolux Reverb as my main amp, then started using a '71 smallbox Marshall 50W head for some of the gigs, setting on top of the Vibrolux, from which I unplugged the speakers and into the Marshall. It sounded great!! Also used the Marshall 50W with old Vox Celestion speakers, one blue and one silver in a 2x12 Vox cabinet. That sounded good too. Whenever I used spkrs with higher power ratings, the sound suffered. If you want too get the really bitchin' Marshall clean sound, you need the 100W version anyway, but using a 50W with lower power-rating speakers is the best way to get that sound otherwise.

[selloutrr]

I'm not going to bother reading everyone's response to your question in this thread - I'm getting on board late, so please forgive me if I'm repeating or some other way off track. However, I do have something to say on the subject: I think you're barking up the wrong tree if you don't try matching the amp output closely to the speaker's power rating. In other words, a pair of 20 - 30 W speakers. There are quite a few options to consider. I traveled with a band carrying a blackface Fender Vibrolux Reverb as my main amp, then started using a '71 smallbox Marshall 50W head for some of the gigs, setting on top of the Vibrolux, from which I unplugged the speakers and into the Marshall. It sounded great!! Also used the Marshall 50W with old Vox Celestion speakers, one blue and one silver in a 2x12 Vox cabinet. That sounded good too. Whenever I used spkrs with higher power ratings, the sound suffered. If you want too get the really bitchin' Marshall clean sound, you need the 100W version anyway, but using a 50W with lower power-rating speakers is the best way to get that sound otherwise.

You have a good point to consider the power of the amp versus the speakers ability to handle the power. You want the most out of the speaker with out starving it or over powering it to far.

Example.

100watt amp would blow up a 25 watt speaker

15watt amp would starve a 100 speaker (weird tone with accented mid range and probably a rather dark and harsh tone)

50watt amp into a 65 watt or 75 watt speaker pretty awesome

100 watt amp into a 100 speaker - Game on.

It still has a lot to do with the build of the speaker, magnet size, and freq response. for voicing but the power matching is important.

It's not as common in guitar amps most amps don't exceed 100watts, but in bass amps in order to achive a solid note in the low register (foundation) you need to over power the speakers which gives them the energy to move and recover. I run 1200watts from a crown K2 power amp per Ampeg 810e cab. I run the power amp volume at about 100% and preamp master volume dictate actual volume. 1200watts would kill the cab in one solid low note but having the power on reserve much like a filter cap keeps the speaker moving at the top of it's ability.

OK wordy - sorry

[kgreene]

Wordy? No way. Nice observations to add. Good to feel like somebody understood my point. You are so right to point out those other considerations. But, I'll tell you, I like to put a little bit of stress on my speakers. If it's not there, the sound isn't the same.

[selloutrr]

I'm 100% down for breaking the rules to get tone.
I just feel like I have to keep things safe and only present safe ideas for posts.

Everything you do positive or negatively will have an effect on the over all tone.

circuit, tubes, speakers, box volume, and player all go into the final tone.

[David Root]

Thank you gents. I can try power matching simply by disconnecting one 2x12 cab and changing the OT impedance switch from 4 ohms to 8.

I am uneasy about cranking it out like that because those old blackbacks cost me mucho deneiro and they are closely matched, all built within 2 weeks of each other.