# Crazy Rare 78 Marshall short stack



## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

I have a 1978 Marshall 50w master model MKII , in fawn tolex with matching original flat paneled 4/12 sized cab , the rare thing is that it is factory front loaded with a single 12 inch celestion 100 watt power cell speaker mounted in its center with a rectangle port above and below the speaker you can only see the ports in certain lighting and you can also see the aluminum speaker cone thru the grill cloth , it is in very clean original condition. I have never been able to find another one like it anywhere . Anybody seen one before ? Is there any way to post pictures on this thread ?

thanks
Stoptail


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy and post often...looking forward to the pics of your amp

Here is an admin thread re: posting pics.

http://www.guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=613

Cheers

Dave


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

Thanks Dave , 

I will check out the link , hope to have pics up soon .


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Try uploading your pic with this:
http://tinypic.com/

then you just paste in the code they give you for imbedding.


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

*Pictures are up*

Here are a couple of pics of my rig .

Stoptail









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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

i'd have to say that that is a beautiful amp!


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

Thanks for the kind comments man ,

I hope someone can shed some light on whether they have seen a cab like this one before , nobody on the Marshall amp forum had a clue either . It is definitely 100% original .I bought it from the original owner who never turned a screw on it .


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Unusual for sure. Never seen a cab like that one. There has to be an answer out there somewhere. Hopefully we can find it.


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

stoptail said:


> Here are a couple of pics of my rig .
> 
> Stoptail
> 
> ...


Holy C-R-A-P! I've never seen that before. Very cool score indeed!


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

New to me too. Wow, very, very nice. 

Peace, Mooh.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Gorgeous! Never seen one like it. 

Try emailing the pics to Marshall. If it's that rare, I doubt you'd find info on it anywhere better than from the source.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)




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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

That is Nice.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

stoptail said:


> Thanks for the kind comments man ,
> 
> I hope someone can shed some light on whether they have seen a cab like this one before , nobody on the Marshall amp forum had a clue either . It is definitely 100% original .I bought it from the original owner who never turned a screw on it .


check out paul's boutique in toronto...he uses his for a backdrop to sell guitars etc....send him an e-mail to get info about your amp...

http://paulsboutique.ca/index.php?id=20081209111803


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

Never seen the tolex color or the single 12 cab before... very cool!


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

jimihendrix said:


> check out paul's boutique in toronto...he uses his for a backdrop to sell guitars etc....send him an e-mail to get info about your amp...
> 
> http://paulsboutique.ca/index.php?id=20081209111803


That one appears to have the same tolex but not that center speaker that the OP's has.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Are you sure it's a single 12"? It looks like it takes up a lot of space in that cab. Maybe it's a 15"?


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

No delete on here for multiple posts


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

Measure that speaker when you get a chance. 

Here is a Marshall 1580 bass cab with a single 18"










It could be a variation of that. Other possibilities might be 1550(15" spkr) or 1520(12" spkr). No luck finding pics of those models though.


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

Its definitely a 12 inch speaker I just rechecked , it also has rectangle ports above and below the speaker and if you'll notice the Marshall crest is above the speaker and not in the center like 18 bass cab as well the bass cab appears to have a round port on its top left corner and lastly its rear loaded mine is front loaded . Also someone mentioned contacting Marshall , I did so with all details and pictures and they never replied back . I have seen a few marshall combos with this head and a single powercell speaker like this they look kinda like the size of an AC30 and they were Fawn colored Tolex like mine is .I think maybe Marshall tried a short stack version and this is one . The cabinet has a serial number but no model number . I have also seen single 12 fullsized Marshall keyboard cabinets but they have a beveled picture frame like surround and only a small amount of grillcloth area just big enough for the speaker , so far after tons of research and looking and have not found another one . Lots of dialogue going on here I hope we can get somewhere with the story behind it . Thanks to everyone so far for all the input .


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## krall (Apr 19, 2009)

Is it possible that someone modified it from a 4x12? All you'd need to do is change the baffle board to a 1x12..


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

I know that is not an uncommon and fairly easy modification to do but this cab is definitely unmodified , if you look at the pictures in my second post , you can see on the front it has screws all the way around the grill cloth unlike any Marshall I or probably you have ever seen , and if you look at the rear view picture , its totally sealed and obviously stock , this alone indicates the cabinet is very unusual , I also know the original owner who had it for 30 years and never opened the cabinet up , I have never touched it either as I kinda hate to start turning screws for no reason . When the original owner bought this amp new he told me he bought it because he was really wowed by the funky cabinet but he really couldn't remember much about it other than he was told that the cabinet was called a Marshall Powercell loaded with a single 12 100 watt celestion speaker. I did some looking and found that Celestion did make a 100 watt speaker in that era and the speaker itself is called a Powercell . The set was always a short stack and not a fullstack as indicated by the plastic Head rests (not cabinet rests) on the top of the cabinet and the factory original cast copper colored casters on the bottom . I know its kinda hard to believe but the speaker cabinet is 100% stock and unmodified .


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## stoptail (Sep 22, 2009)

Well I still have not worked up the courage to start unscrewing the cabinet , but I had a closer look and its without a doubt a 12 inch speaker , if I shine a flashlight through the grillcloth I can se the speaker is crewed to the backside of the baffle board and being that its a front loaded cab , the baffle board unscrews from the front and comes out to remove the speaker . I also shined the flashlight into the top and bottom ports and I see some factory penciled letters that looks like MFF . Anybody know what that might mean ? maybe nothing but I am clutching at straws here to ID this rig .


cheers
Stoptail


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

hey there...check here for marshall info...

http://www.drtube.com/marshall.htm#JMPSS


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## kruts (Apr 30, 2006)

You might get some questions answered in the following forums:

http://www.vintageamps.com/plexiboard/

http://forum.metroamp.com/

These forums are frequented by marshall 'experts'.

Good luck!


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## Curtis.Fagan (May 5, 2007)

Holy cow! That's cool man! I had an old Vox cab that had aluminum dust capped speakers in it, but they were 50 watts each... How does it sound? got any video or clips??

-Curtis


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