Marshall 1960A or Line 6 4x12S speaker cab?

[Uladine]

I have a POD pro running through a power amp into a cheapo ampeg 4x12. I have $600 bucks and its time to upgrade.

I'm looking at the tried and true Marshall 1960A Cab, but all the sales reps keep telling me "ah, but the line 6 cab was specially designed for the amp models in the POD and the speakers have a flatter frequency response."

The thing is I'm not sure I want a flat frequency response. Is the 1960A not the cab that has toured around the world for years and years and the cab that has been captured on countless metal recordings? I understand that maybe the Line 6 colors the sound a little less, but maybe the marshall adds some nice color?

What do you guys think? Should I get the marshall or listen to the sales dudes and get line 6? From my in-store testing they both sound good, but the line 6 seems a little brighter, and I'm afraid that that brightness may turn to harshness when I crank it to band practice level. I'm not looking for a versatile cab, I'm looking for a cab that will give me a good, thick crunchy metal tone and an occassional clear clean tone. I'm almost sold on the marshall by its reputation and seemingly warmer tone but I'd like to try to get a few more opinions if I can.

 

[charger]

It depends on whether you like the sound of the 1960A cabinet.

Here's the deal: the Line 6 cabinet is designed to work more like a PA cabinet. It doesn't do the same things to guitar tone that a guitar cab does. Guitar speakers roll off high frequencies, and produce a distinctive effect on the tone coming from a guitar amp, to create the sound of guitar that we all know and love. The Marshall cabinet, designed to amplify a guitar amp, does all the right things to a guitar tone. The Line 6 cabinet instead acts like a full-response speaker cabinet, more like a PA.

So, here's the rule:

If you use the Line6 cabinet, you can use it with the speaker simulations available in the Pod to create--more or less--the sound that you hear on the direct outs of the Pod.

If you use the Marshall cabinet, first you should turn off the speaker simulations on all of your Pod sounds... set them all to No Cab. The end result of this is that you will effectively be running the simulated amps through the 1960A cabinet. This is the way I used my Pod live, through a power amp and through a 4x12 guitar cab, with all the sounds set to No Cab, and if you like the sound of the your guitar cab, it's definitely the way to go. I also think a real guitar cab interacts with the guitar better than the simulations.

So in the end, if you like the way your Pod sounds sound through the 1960A cab (a pretty nice cab, by the way), with the cab simulations turned off, then go with that.

If you like the way your sounds sound through the Line6 cab, with the speaker cab emulations on, then go with that.