Educate me about Crate cabs (possible deal)

[PowerTube]

I have an old mid-80's KMD 4x12 cabinet, as seen in this picture:



It has Celestions, but they're front-mounted which I always thought was a bit retarded. It's also very clumsy to remove them. The cabinet is also made of particle board, which is even more retarded. Plus, it's just so damned UGLY!

A local pawn shop has two Crate 4x12's, a straight and a slant, both at a decent price (these were probably never used together, since they're different styles). The slant looks somewhat like this:



So my questions are:

How is the construction on these? Are they plywood or particle board?

Typically, what is the impedence of a Crate? The KMD is 8 ohms wired series/parallel.

What brand of speakers does this probably have? I don't know if they'll let me open the back.

And now the most important question: will this cab actually have better acoustics than the KMD? I always disliked the fact that the KMD has a straight front. Won't that hurt the projection somewhat?

Worst case scenario, if you guys tell me that the Crate is...a. more solidly built, and...b. has better acoustics, I'll go and buy it today. I can always remove the speakers if I don't like them and mount the Celestions from the KMD.

All help is appreciated!

[nhspike]

Can't help you much on the cab question.
Just wanted to say nice focus!
I have it's twin

[PowerTube]

Can't help you much on the cab question.
Just wanted to say nice focus!
I have it's twin

Thanks. I bought that new in 1986 at Lightning Music in Austin for $480.00. It's stock except for the pickup, which is a DiMarzio Double Whammy in red.

[Cygnus X1]

Not really sure.
I'd not trust a Crate cab anyways.

Keep looking-great cabs are going for dirt cheap these days.

[PowerTube]

Not really sure.
I'd not trust a Crate cab anyways.

Keep looking-great cabs are going for dirt cheap these days.

I went back and checked it out. It's only 120 watts total. I'm now thinking about trying one of the 400-watt Behringers.

[horns666]

Nahh dude. Save up and get a standard, used Marshall 1960 cab..you'll love it and it'll look titties!

[RacerX]

"Life is too short to play through cheap crap"

-RacerX

[triplehold]

Yeah- find a used Marshall cab. You've got a Marshall head, why run it through a cheap bottom.

[nhspike]

"Life is too short to play through cheap crap"

-RacerX

hehe

[nhspike]

Yeah- find a used Marshall cab. You've got a Marshall head, why run it through a cheap bottom.

I've had a few cheap bottoms that were excellent.
Oh, wait, we're talking guitar stuff... nevermind.

[PowerTube]

Nahh dude. Save up and get a standard, used Marshall 1960 cab..you'll love it and it'll look titties!

But isn't the 1960 a 16-ohm cab? If that's the case, I can't use it in stereo with my other cab on the Vetta.

EDIT: I just checked the specs:

Impedance: 8 ohms in stereo mode; 16 or 4 ohms in mono mode

I understand how impedence works, but not the exact wiring on this cabinet. To get 8 ohms, I'll have to run an 8 ohm amp into each input jack simultaneously, right? Or am I missing something?

[Cleveland Metal]

Nahh dude. Save up and get a standard, used Marshall 1960 cab..you'll love it and it'll look titties!

"Life is too short to play through cheap crap"-RacerX

Yeah- find a used Marshall cab. You've got a Marshall head, why run it through a cheap bottom.

Exactly....

Impedance: 8 ohms in stereo mode; 16 or 4 ohms in mono mode

I understand how impedence works, but not the exact wiring on this cabinet. To get 8 ohms, I'll have to run an 8 ohm amp into each input jack simultaneously, right? Or am I missing something?

In that 8 ohm mode, if you use one jack, only two of the speakers will work... You don't "have" to run both jacks at the same time. One jack will switch to 8 ohm wiring that works with two speakers. Or, plugging a stereo 8 ohm output into the two jacks will make all four speakers work, in stereo.

Usually those cabs have three inputs and a switch and switching jacks to switch amongst the modes.

[PowerTube]

Exactly....

In that 8 ohm mode, if you use one jack, only two of the speakers will work... You don't "have" to run both jacks at the same time.

Usually those cabs have three inputs and a switch and switching jacks to switch amongst the modes.

I see. Yeah, that's what I thought; 8 ohms per side in stereo. Believe me, I would love nothing more than to get the used 1960 I saw yesterday at a great price, but if I can't use it.....

Marshall cabs do indeed sound good. A friend years ago had an awesome sounding 4x12. He got some great transparency but I'm not sure if that was the amp or cab.

[Cleveland Metal]

Vetta is 8 ohms stereo out?

[JACKSONFREAK]

Most Crate cabs are 8ohms mono. Except for the Blue voodoo cabs which are 16ohms and some are loaded with vintage 30's. crate uses a custom made eminence speaker. The full size cabs have a 5ply void free plywood construction. Which i think is birch just like marshalls. The smaller XT cabs are also 8ohms but are made with particle board and assembled in china. But do use emenence speakers. I had a full sized crate cab that had stereo option switching that i compared to a JCM900 Vintage cab. And ctually liked the bass response of the crate better. It was tighter and less rumble. Plus had better clearity. And yes i used my own head to test both cabs side by side. The added bass respose could be due to the crate cab being 8ohms instead of the 16 of the marshall. But why buy a marshall cab to only use 2 of the 4 speakers? If ya want a crate cab look for the full sized ones with the crate logo in chrome or gold thats not in framed tag. like the one in the pic above. B52 cabs are nice and very cost effective. Also Peavey cabs are pretty good too. But are really heavy.
Gil