Project Studio: How much guitar cabinet is too much?

Ok, I admit it.  I bought the Marshall 1960a because - 1) it was on Craigslist for a good price, 2) it was in brand new condition, 3) and it just looks cool in my pictures.  However, I also have to admit that it's really too much speaker and it loads up my iso-booth with too much bottom end.
 
This cabinet will never come out for gigs so there is no reason why I should keep it because, if a guitarist wants a 4x12 sound, I bet he already has one and it's probably better than mine or I just don't care.
 
So I'm thinking 1x12s or 1 x 10s with or with out backs.  Even my beloved 2x12 Lopo with Celestion Blues could be modified.  I'm thinking a 12" Greenback, maybe a Jensen and some other speakers in separate cabinets to experiment with.

Chuck,
I'm talking about studio use only.  I think that anything over a Deluxe Reverb is over kill in a small studio.  Right now, I'm diming a Marshal 5 watt and a Fender Pro Jr to get the distortion going and I think that even that is too much amp for a distorted guitar sound.  I'm thinking a 2 watt amp like the Microbaby would be cool to own for Rock tones.  Maybe a Deluxe Reverb for clean. 

Well I can understand that I suppose under the circumstances you are both facing.  For me, I've had no issues with a 57 on my 4x12 cab driven by either my mesa dual rec. (before I sold it), or being pushed by my 100w Peavey transtube head and using a Line 6 xt live pedal to shape all my tones and effects.  I didn't notice the reverb on those amps because I didn't (and wouldn't) use them anyway.  I asked the soundtech to just give me a nice warm clean tone out of the amp & I'd take it from there with my pedals.  It worked great for me.  Though I am generally on stage (albeit mic'd up) where I can use some volume, in my studio practicing where I need to be loud enough to compete with the drums anyway, or recording where I wind it up enough to start to engage the sonic qualities of the speaker cabinets and get that 4x12 chunk thing happening...  So those issues aren't as much a concern for me in my situation.

Ok, well I just figured I'd throw that out there because I was impressed with em'.  I liked the recognizable "fender clean" and yet it had that just breaking up tube warmth thing going on too.  When I kicked up distortion it screamed.  JMO. 

Check out the Line6 HDs.  You can go direct in, program them to any sound (There forum also has a Preset Sharing site) and you can play through it with just headphones and it'll knock your head off.  They are real nice units and have had friends record professionally direct in and you really cant tell a difference and most of the time get a cleaner signal.  Just something to think about and a great idea if you are short on floor space.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/line-6-pod-hd500-guitar-multi-effects-processor

I recently built a custom cabinet for my home made amp.

It is 21.5" x 27.5" x 12" outside dimensions with a sealed 3.15 cubic foot internal volume.

I am running a custom assembled Weber Legacy speaker in it. It has the 50oz ceramic magnet, the 55Hz cone, and the 65 watt rating.

I've been using it to get growling bass distortion tones out of the single speaker with my low wattage amplifier.


I have many other speaker cabinets and a lot of cool speakers, but I especially wanted something that accentuated bass tones to compliment the limited bass capability of the low power amp.


best regards,
mike

I recently picked up a Blackheart BH1H Killer Ant head. Well under 1 watt (uses 2 12AX7s, one preamp one power, so probably around 0.25watts). May not sound much, but remember, a 5W amp is only half as loud as a 50W if run into the same speaker.

An SG starts to overdrive it well at 3 out of 10, and by 5/10 it's actually pretty loud (too loud for home playing), above that it  doesn't get much louder but very distorted - and the design means you're getting power amp distorition, not pre-amp so none of the pre-amp buzzy-ness.

Running into a single 10" Greenback in a closed cab it's very convincing Marshall substitute indeed.