What's Up With Expensive Cabs?

[Floyd Eye]

My favorite cab is a piece of shit. Grill cloth is held on with a pair of drywall screws.

Sounds killer.

 

[Devin]

It's retarded

My Sound City 4x12 was fuckin $1200

It is an awesome cab but that price is ridiculous in my opinion

 

[stratjacket]

I think the time it takes to make them comes into play on the prices too, probably time consuming. But $3k is too much. Seems like they would get cheaper since they compete with all the Reactive Load options.

I have a Bogner UberKab and a Diezel FL cab that I never use any more. I’d love to sell them.

 

[7704A]

Seems like they would get cheaper since they compete with all the Reactive Load options.

How much do they actually compete though? I would think they are for separate purposes, mostly. Plus if you're trying to replace a cab with a load box, you'll also need some sorta PA to be heard through, which will add to the cost. If you're planning to just go into the FOH with an IR, well then that's a different purpose than actually using a cab to project sound in my book.

 

[vultures]

This is where I'm at now. Any cabs I want I'm just going to build myself. It's not overly expensive to build the box. You can generally do it cheaper the buying & shipping a used or unloaded one. Speakers are where the bulk of the cost comes from. At least by building I can start with the speakers I want instead of having to swap out generic ones that came in the used cab.

Also the cabs I want aren't exactly readily available anywhere. I want to do my version of the Butterslax 412/15 and a Lemmy style 415.

I didn't know about the 412/15. Interesting combo. What does the speaker layout look like? I have a coworker who's asked me to build a 2x10 with a 15. Maybe I'll convince him to do a 412/15 style instead. This one looks too much like Mickey Mouse, even if it'll be covered with grille cloth.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I didn't know about the 412/15. Interesting combo. What does the speaker layout look like? I have a coworker who's asked me to build a 2x10 with a 15. Maybe I'll convince him to do a 412/15 style instead. This one looks too much like Mickey Mouse, even if it'll be covered with grille cloth.

The 412/15 is laid out like a 412, with 2 15's on the bottom and 2 12's on the top. Friedman uses Fullback and G12H30's. When I do mine I want to use Weber speakers; Blue Dog 15's and Grey Wolfs.

I built a 212/115 cab with that speaker combo so I know I like it. I'm just upping the game when I do the 412/15. That one is laid out like mickey mouse ears. Once the grill cloth is on it looks like a regular 412.

 

[Anje]

Vintage Marshall cabs, esp from the 60s will command big prices since they’re highly collectible. Tolex/ no tolex, doesn’t matter. A 1968 cab beat to hell but has original speakers will still get 4K, maybe 6K. If you buy one, and re tolex it, you just lost money. Just the way it is, They aren’t making any more, same with the Pulsonic speakers.
The vintage Marshall cab/speaker market is just as intense as the vintage Marshall amp market…maybe more so since 60s cabs with original speakers, wiring loom, tolex, grill are fewer in number than the 60s amps.
I’d put the Marshall cab market like this:
86-1990 800 cabs, 600$
81-85 800 cabs, 6-1000 depending on speakers
74-1980 JMP, 1200-1500
71-73- 2K or more
66-1970-3K on up to 10k if the M20s are in a 1966-67 cab and it has og tolex, grill

The vintage market is a whole different animal vs reselling a modern built cab

Fully agree on that;
that doesn't really address the OP point about new cabs though, especially when those use new standard OEM readily available speakers.

That being said, overall the cab & speakers are to me one of the most important "components" in the whole signal chain that can impact sound & feel drastically. Often way underestimated IMHO, especially VS a guitar or amp change for instance.