I have a 2 x12 Marshall JCM 800 that I absolutely love and it weighs a fucking ton! In my youth this wouldn't have mattered to me but I'm old and feeble and it is just a pain to move around. Was thinking of putting casters on it. I don't think I've ever owned an amp with casters. Good idea? Totally stupid idea?

I had 'em on a Peavey 2x12 I was playing for a while and they were very appreciated. It weighed enough that it was still hard to accidentally nudge out of place or whatever. Of course, the casters don't help with stairs or loading into a trunk, or cracks in the sidewalk for that matter.

If you move it around a lot, absolutely put casters on it.

Not sure if this is obvious but I recommend getting the ones that you can pop on and off like these:

https://www.sweetwater.com/c771--Amp_Ac ... lsrc=aw.ds

Go for it. Just get at least 2 casters that lock.

Go for it! My older Fender combos have casters and it's so much easier to move them around. So much so that my wife's newer Twin sits on a furniture dolly (I keep meaning to strap it down so that it's semi permanent). The only amp on wheels I have that's awkward is my YBA 4 (1x15). It's tall and skinny and top heavy, so if you're rolling it front to back you have to be careful it doesn't tip. But that shouldn't be a problem for a 2x12.

if this is in any way "collectible" you may want to instead consider a road case that has casters, although that is obviously going to be a LOT more expensive.

The added benefit of a road case is having a platform to put it up on. That's not an insignificant bonus.

This just a bit of a side-journey and not pointed at anyone but a mistake I see from SO MANY guitar players, especially live, is they dial in the sound based on where their head is in relation to the cab. For those that don't know, each speaker has a cone of dispersion that roughly follows the angles of cones of the speaker. If your head/ears aren't within that cone, you're not going to accurately discern the sound that is beaming out to the audience (or the mic in the case of sound reinforcement/recording). Most of the information you will lose will be in the higher end of the audio spectrum. I see so many guitar players plop their amps on the floor, lean over or down to dial it in and end up with tones that are way more shrill, bright, & piercing than they (or the audience) might want but to them it might sound muddy. Put that fucker up on a chair OR...on the lid of your road case.

Tilt-back legs, also good for helping w/ this and lots cheaper than a road case, but unless you're playing a place that's micing up amps, you'll have a flipped effect where it might lose clarity in the audience but sounds balanced to you as the player.

The only casters issue I have had over the years is that the height is just a little bit awkward where you do have to kinda bend down a bit to push it. Some amps are little taller than others like VT-22 and work a bit better w/ casters for pushing around and yes as mentioned above, the amp could end up a little top heavy so if you install them, try to get the placement as wide as possible. I'd recommend the biggest wheels you can put on just to get the height up a little bit so it helps in this regard + you'll find it it'll roll a LOT easier than those little 2" hard plastic ones which can end up being just about useless if you have rocks in the driveway or whatever you end up lifting the amp anyway.

The other option as hinted at above is just have a dedicated furniture dolly. Those can be picked up at Harbor Freight for like $20. Or w/ a few 2x4s you can build your own and frame it exactly to the measurements of amp and then not feel weird about hitting your cabinet w/ a spade bit and screw gun to install pop-out casters if that's a concern at all.

pop out casters always seem to lose tension and drop a caster when you don't expect it.

Machine screws with t nuts inside or big fender washers and nyloc nuts. Wood screws just end up pulling out as soon as you hit some bumpy pavement.

I have threaded casters on a Marshall 1936. I was planning to install the EB pop-in ones, but the fronts were hitting the baffle. They are good quality, though. Don't buy Marshall casters. I got some heavy duty ones from Lowe's.

Nate Dort wrote: pop out casters always seem to lose tension and drop a caster when you don't expect it.

True!

We have to move amps at every practice so casters work great over here.
There's no gigs/touring so they don't have to go far.

I made a plywood skateboard/scooter with 4 casters and a piece of scrap that's basically flush with the amp's footprint so it doesn't take up any extra space on the floor, which is an issue with the moving dolly (which we also have). And it's non-invasive/reversible etc.
The 4x10 bass cabs all came with casters.

Let it roll, I say!

PS Garth your side journey should be printed and displayed in every jam space everywhere.

I keep my Gibson GA35 combo on an HF furniture dolly. I don't want to drill that one out.