We’ve all seen big stages where drum kits are flanked by walls of cabs, full stacks lined up as if to create a musical Stonehenge where we can worship the gods of rock. But is there any point to a 4x12 in today’s musical world? Does it just look cool? Has its time been and gone?
By now, you should have noticed that the size and weight of equipment, especially amps and speaker cabs, has been decreasing, and although some compromises have been made along the way, it’s largely true that we’re getting great sounds in much more practical packages today. I’ll hold my hands up now: my first cab was a white model 1984A Marshall 4x12. I used it with a Marshall JCM800 head (non-master volume) and although it was massively impractical, it sounded great and, at least in my mind, got me one step closer to my heroes in Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and all-time greats like Jimi Hendrix. It wasn’t just arena rock bands, though. I’ll never forget the first time I opened Blur’s 1997 self-titled album (featuring Song 2) and saw a picture of Graham Coxon sat next to two Marshall half-stacks. I thought that setup looked so beautifully elegant. The width to height and depth, along with the lines and profiled edges of these cabs, looked as powerful as it must have felt to be stood in front of them.