A Marshall 1982A JCM800 Lead Series cabinet from 1983 with somewhat rare 16-ohm Rola Celestion G12-80 speakers. According to Michael Doyle's book "The History of Marshall" these high-powered cabinets (both 1982A and 1982B) came with these speakers only in 1981 and 1982.
This cabinet actually came to me with the original 8-ohm G12-80 speakers dating from 1983. However, later on I found a "Bass Series" cabinet from the same era with similar speakers, just with 16 ohm impedance. My bassist friend really likes the G12-80's and he was looking for an 8-ohm set, so I thought I could just as well swap the speakers. Now I have a "Lead Series" cabinet with 16-ohm G12-80's and he has a "Bass Series" cabinet with 8-ohm ones. 16 ohm is nicer for guitar anyway, and 8 ohm on the other hand suits most bass amps better, so I think it was a win/win situation.
The newly-installed 16-ohm G12-80 speakers have very rare low resonance Kurt Mueller SP1105 cones, which I haven't seen anywhere else. The main difference to the more common 1777 lead and 444 bass cones, according to Dr. Decibel from Celestion, is that they are a bit thicker and thus may sound a bit more neutral. He also pointed out that the 1105 cone was usually used in combination with a "tweeter cone" to increase the bandwidth. As these speakers came from a Marshall bass cabinet, though, there definitely weren't any tweeter cones, as Marshall never used them. All I know for sure is that these speaker sound great with a Marshall and pretty much everything else as well!
The G12-80 speaker model has been discontinued since the late 80's. The speaker went on to become Classic Lead 80, but these Rola period G12-80 speakers shouldn't be confused with the current-production Classic Lead 80 speakers as they sound different - and according to many, better. The G12-80 speaker uses the same low resonance cone that was eventually chosen for the popular Celestion Vintage 30. However, the G12-80 has a lot of edge treatment so it's not particularly a low resonance speaker. Other parts of the G12-80 are the same as in the current Classic Lead speaker. The G12-80 uses a big heavy magnet, so it was one of the more expensive speakers when it was available. According to Dr. Decibel from Celestion, the Rola G12-80 has the same performance specification as the Classic Lead.
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