Identify the 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 4 12 Speaker Cabs 1960A 1960B ? HELP!

[Springfield Scooter]

Can anyone tell me the EXACT differences between early 1980's 1960A and 1960B speaker cabinets?
What speakers for what years (1980 to 1984).
I realize how to date a celestion, but what Celestion was in these early 1980's cabinets?
Grill cloth fabric options ?
Cable input piece? Photos??
Was there a gold badge showing the model of cab?

What EXACTLY should a original 4 x 12 Marshall cabinet look like from the early 1980's?
My head is spinning!
Thanks in advance.

 

[Rotorcraft230]

We have. Full stack JCM 800 cabinet. We bought them empty but from the label the wattage says 260w, which would have been G12-65s Too bad they were empty. Anyway those speakers would cave been used till late 82ish. The next speaker was not liked so it didn’t last long. It was the G12-70. The next speaker was in there for 2 ish years it was the G12T-75 vent back. They were just like the 65s only they had kapton voice coils vs paper. We managed to get 4 of the 75 vent back ones. The also changed the casters at some point but I don’t know when that happened , maybe mid 80s. The casters before the change were made of cast metal I can’t remember the Mfg though.(not at home to look) the guy we bought them from removed all the Tolex, stained and refinished them. The bottom cab had V30s

 

[Matthews Guitars]

That's a lot of territory to cover. The 1960A/B cabinets were made in many variations over the years.

Pinstripe era, non-pinstripe (modern) era, mono or later stereo jackplate, a bunch of different speaker options and a bunch of different grill cloth options.

You could write a small book, or at least a few chapters, trying to cover every variant of 1960 cabinet that ever came out of the Marshall cabinet shop.

Personally I like them with Greenbacks and with mono deep cup jacks. I prefer the pinstripe era specs for cosmetic purposes but don't mind the JCM800/900 era cabinet cosmetics, either.

Based on what I've seen, it appears that 1973 was the transitional year between pinstripe and plastic corner cosmetics. Some 1973 cabinets have both pinstripes and corners.

 

[Fernieite]

I'm only going by memory here, but didn't the pinstripe cloth get changed to basket weave (Salt N Pepper) in 1968, and then large check (checkerboard) in 1972 or so?

Edit: Oh, sorry. The OP is talking about the 1980s. Carry on. I'll go back to drinking my beer.

 

[charlie wisser]

I believe 1980 was the last year of the small checkerd grill cloth before Black , also the last round badge before the gold JCM800 badge

 

[Hot Pretzles]

all cabs from 1980 - 1984 have: black grill cloth, plastic corners, riveted plastic handles without Marshall logo, black homa casters
But there are some differences:

1980: still the Rose Morris JMP era. no gold badge on the front. round metal type label on the back with 100 watts lettering but there are 65s inside, small (42 mm diameter) plastic jack plate

from march 1981: JCM800 era, gold front badge (JCM800 Lead Series), rectangular metal type label lettering 260 watts, 65s inside, small jack plate

1982: same as above

sometime in 1983: large jack cup, speakers changed to M70s, Type label still says 260 watts until '84 or even '85 when the 75s came. I've had dozends 80s cabs and I'm quite sure that they changed over to the large jack cups only a few weeks before the M70s came. So if your 80s cab has a small jack plate it very likely has 65s inside.

I know this is no EXAKT information but that's what I can recall at the moment. Let me know if you have questions about a particular cab/badge/serial number or whatever. Maybe I can help. Still have six early 80s cabs here...

 

[Beccaio]

I have two B cabs (JCM 800 LEAD SERIES and JCM 800 LEAD 1960 badges). One has G12-65s, one has G12-80). Both cabs have a single jack in the back unlike later cabs with the dual switchable jack. Black grill cloth.

Also have a slant 4x12 (badged “1982” model cab which predates the “1960” cabinet) from 1978-79 that came with black backs. Black/white checked grill cloth.

Does this help?

 

[charlie wisser]

So tell me , does this mean the 1982A cabinet I have with small checkered grill cloth and 65's dated 1980 is not a 1980 cabinet but earlier
? Solder looks untouched . I believe the badge should have read 1960A . We all know buy now Marshall was pretty relaxed about the badges .

 

[Matthews Guitars]

Marshall would and will put many different badges on identical cabinets. I've seen so many variants on just the 1960 badge alone....JCM800 Lead Series, JCM900 Lead Series, 1960 Classic, several more I'm not sure I recall accurately at the moment...so the badge is about the last thing I'd look at when trying to date a cabinet.

Personally I don't think the exact age of a cabinet should be of any concern. It's not like the amp itself, where there's some good reason to assign a different valuation based on when the amp was made.

Once the 1960 cabinet lost its pinstripes in 1972 and gained its corners around the same time, along with the cups and trays added to the tops of the A and B cabinets to hold the cabinet/amp above it in place better. Other than that, the only changes worth mentioning to it in all the years since that have been some grill cloth changes, and the changeover from the single jack deep cup mono wiring to the dual jack stereo jackplate. And the speakers inside.

Really, the cabinet is just a box. It's the same stupid box whether it was made in 1973 or 2022, aside from those three items. Take off the back board and remove the baffle and what's left is the same box it's been for 50 years. Don't get worked up over trying to nail that plywood box's date of manufacture to a specific year.
The basic 1960 cabinet is as generic a product as Marshall makes. Change the grille cloth, change the speaker type, match it up to a new amp model or series. Very cost effective and the effort required to make the new version is trivival.

I have JCM800, JCM900, and very recent (just a few years old) 1960 A and B cabinets. The newest and the oldest are the same thing once you take out the speakers and overlook the grill cloth difference. Their condition affects their value. Not their age.

 

[charlie wisser]

For me it's was a fun callenge to match my 1980 JMP head to it's correct JMP cabinets / casters .

 

[Gene Ballzz]

@Matthews Guitars
You seem a bit confused in the use of the term "pinstripe" when referring to cabinets. When dating stuff, the terminology and/or nomenclature can sometimes be crucial. The term "pinstripe" is usually used to denote an early style grill cloth, while the feature that you refer to as "pinstripe" is most often referred to as "piping." The pic below shows both "pinstripe" style grill cloth AND gold "piping." Although the white rib surrounding the grill cloth opening is also referred to as "piping."
Just Sayin'
Gene




And another great example from Metropoulos with an included "100" badge: