Randall 212.

LiveeviL2000

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Going to go look at a Randall 212 tomorrow.
The guy is selling it for $200 but I won’t be able to test it since meeting him at a CVS parking lot.

He assures me it works great.
Is there anything I can do or look for when I go check it out. Or am I going to have to go by trusting what the guy is telling me that “it works great”
51C87263-8B47-4618-8964-C1CFD235C60E.jpeg
 
Speaker cabs and amps in general are tough to inspect when you can't test drive it. But, there's ways to give it a good brief check over.

With a metal grille like this: You can check for any cracks or tears on the speakers themselves, make sure the cones look intact and not pushed in or torn and then give it a look over cosmetically for any tolex tears or beat in spots on the cabinet

Don't know if it's open back or not, but if you can feel around the rear speaker magnets, check to see if they are magnetizing with something metal.
 
Going to go look at a Randall 212 tomorrow.
The guy is selling it for $200 but I won’t be able to test it since meeting him at a CVS parking lot.

He assures me it works great.
Is there anything I can do or look for when I go check it out. Or am I going to have to go by trusting what the guy is telling me that “it works great”
View attachment 88824
Sweet! Any ideas as to the possibilities of it matching well with the other 2x12 that you recently acquired?
 
Speaker cabs and amps in general are tough to inspect when you can't test drive it. But, there's ways to give it a good brief check over.

With a metal grille like this: You can check for any cracks or tears on the speakers themselves, make sure the cones look intact and not pushed in or torn and then give it a look over cosmetically for any tolex tears or beat in spots on the cabinet

Don't know if it's open back or not, but if you can feel around the rear speaker magnets, check to see if they are magnetizing with something metal.
According to him. It’s got some bruises. Which means it’s dinged up.
For $200 I’m not expecting brand new. But if it’s cosmetic. I could attempt refurbishing with new tolex.
I believe it’s close back.

It’s got a mono/stereo switch in the back.
23F62448-FA73-4BE1-A42C-0DD7994DE8F9.jpeg
 
According to him. It’s got some bruises. Which means it’s dinged up.
For $200 I’m not expecting brand new. But if it’s cosmetic. I could attempt refurbishing with new tolex.
I believe it’s close back.

It’s got a mono/stereo switch in the back.
View attachment 88828
Well that's not a deal breaker.

This would be the Diavlo 2x12 , correct? It came with a pair of 80w Randall custom designed speakers, which from what I read are really close to Celestion V30s but with a lil more bottom end.

Going rate is about $350-425 for mint condition so for $200, I think you're doing fine here. I would highly doubt there's anything wrong with the speakers from a physical standpoint.

That could actually work well for you and the Carvin you have then: if you ran each in mono, you'd have a 4x12 with each cab acting differently in response ( this giving more bottom end than the Carvin cab which has Eminence GT12s I believe? So that's more mid range, top responsive). Good mixmatch
 
Well that's not a deal breaker.

This would be the Diavlo 2x12 , correct? It came with a pair of 80w Randall custom designed speakers, which from what I read are really close to Celestion V30s but with a lil more bottom end.

Going rate is about $350-425 for mint condition so for $200, I think you're doing fine here. I would highly doubt there's anything wrong with the speakers from a physical standpoint.

That could actually work well for you and the Carvin you have then: if you ran each in mono, you'd have a 4x12 with each cab acting differently in response ( this giving more bottom end than the Carvin cab which has Eminence GT12s I believe? So that's more mid range, top responsive). Good mixmatch
I know I went through this on another thread somewhat.
If I did hook both 212 cabs to my amp and they are both rated at 8ohm, then I set my amp to 4ohm?
 
I know I went through this on another thread somewhat.
If I did hook both 212 cabs to my amp and they are both rated at 8ohm, then I set my amp to 4ohm
@Thatbastarddon got it before me lol but here's a quick reminder for most setups


  • Two 4 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present a 2 ohm load
  • Two 8 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present a 4 ohm load
  • Two 16 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present an 8ohm load
If you have two cabs of the same impedance value, remember a quick formula

impedance of single cab / number of cabs = total impedance
In your case? This is the formula and you're 100% correct

If you find yourself one day with a mixmatch setup of impedances and cabs, it's not going to blow up your amp as long as you get your math right. In that case it's sometimes refered to as a "safe-mismatch".

That formula is:

(impedance of cab 1 X impedance of cab 2) / (impedance of cab 1 + impedance of cab 2)

I use this setup myself with the JCM2000 DSL 50
As the MF400B cab on the bottom is 8ohm and the JCM900 1960A cab on top is set at 16 ohm. This works out as 16x8=128
16+8=24
128/24=5.333ohms

So using the 4ohm switch setting, that means I have 1.333 ohms OVER than the rating of each output, which is considered "safe" as long as you don't go UNDER the rating. This protects your valves, transformers and grid resistors as it's not sending excessive current back rather extra resistance. In that case, all that happens is you aren't working the speakers as hard as they should and will suffer some volume loss but you won't endanger the amplifier itself.

NEVER go UNDER the rating though because that's a recipe for disaster and will fry your amp. Fast way to come up with this one would be like having an 8ohm cab and a 4 ohm cab which produces about 2.667 ohms. It is extremely rare to have an amp that can handle less than 4ohms

Sorry this was so long winded, but I hope it helps!
 
@Thatbastarddon got it before me lol but here's a quick reminder for most setups


  • Two 4 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present a 2 ohm load
  • Two 8 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present a 4 ohm load
  • Two 16 ohm cabs connected to your amp will present an 8ohm load
If you have two cabs of the same impedance value, remember a quick formula

impedance of single cab / number of cabs = total impedance
In your case? This is the formula and you're 100% correct

If you find yourself one day with a mixmatch setup of impedances and cabs, it's not going to blow up your amp as long as you get your math right. In that case it's sometimes refered to as a "safe-mismatch".

That formula is:

(impedance of cab 1 X impedance of cab 2) / (impedance of cab 1 + impedance of cab 2)

I use this setup myself with the JCM2000 DSL 50
As the MF400B cab on the bottom is 8ohm and the JCM900 1960A cab on top is set at 16 ohm. This works out as 16x8=128
16+8=24
128/24=5.333ohms

So using the 4ohm switch setting, that means I have 1.333 ohms OVER than the rating of each output, which is considered "safe" as long as you don't go UNDER the rating. This protects your valves, transformers and grid resistors as it's not sending excessive current back rather extra resistance. In that case, all that happens is you aren't working the speakers as hard as they should and will suffer some volume loss but you won't endanger the amplifier itself.

NEVER go UNDER the rating though because that's a recipe for disaster and will fry your amp. Fast way to come up with this one would be like having an 8ohm cab and a 4 ohm cab which produces about 2.667 ohms. It is extremely rare to have an amp that can handle less than 4ohms

Sorry this was so long winded, but I hope it helps!
I feel I should start studying for the midterms. When is the quiz?
 
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