I picked up this one over the weekend. It has a cool little story, and also some odd little details worthy of discussion.
I got my first Marshall amp back in 1993, a Bluesbreaker reissue. Around 2000 I got my first vintage Marshall, a ‘71 50w tremolo. Over the next few years I got several early 70s metal panel amps - a ‘71 50W Bass, a ‘72 Super Lead and a ‘73 Super Bass. They were all great, but of course I would have preferred a Plexi. Somehow those always eluded me. I probably wasn’t looking too hard as they were already considerably more expensive than metal panels, but in retrospect I could probably have done very well back then with some effort.
Then in early 2006 I decided to do my first amp build which was a Metroamp JTM45. It sounded great and I was completely hooked. Over the next five years I built probably 12 different amps, going ever deeper in detail level. The ones I kept were the most accurate ones using mostly NOS parts and Merren transformers.
I was so taken with this hobby that I completely stopped looking for vintage Marshalls. Why do that when you can build your own, with modern reliability, to the exact specs you want? I built pretty much every iteration of Plexi era Marshall, so every major variation in the 100w and 50w lines. Lots of fun, great sounds and great looks.
Around 2006 I also remember a fellow Marshall friend telling me a story about a kid who just found a ‘67 100W Plexi tucked away in a cupboard in a church. I seem to remember he even asked if I was interested in buying it, so the finder might have looked to sell it. I passed, as I thought I could just build my own.
Over the years though I’ve just come to the realisation that as good as clones are, there’s no substitute for the real thing. Putting them side by side, an accurate clone will come very, very close, and in certain respects I might even prefer the clone, but with vintage tone as the benchmark, the vintage amp will win the shootout every time.
So, slightly reluctantly, I’ve started to replace at least some of my clones with originals. I’ve scored a ‘66 JTM45 and a ‘68 50w Bass over the last couple of years, both through friends, but a 100W has proven very hard to find. Prices are generally also horrific.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. I’ve had an auto-search going with the major Norwegian classifieds site for a loooing time. Frankly, I was getting tired of umpteen alerts per day for Marshall Bluetooth speakers and broken Valvestate amps. And after some more little tweaking, I had pretty much decided just to be content with my very decked out clones. I was going to delete the auto-search, but was too busy that day.
Then bam, an alert comes up for a ‘67 Marshall JMP Super Bass 100W Plexi. One glance at the photos reveals that this is, in all likelihood, virtually all original and almost untouched. Price is good (as in really good). This is when I start to get dizzy and palms sweaty. I can almost not hit the right numbers on the phone to dial, and I have to work really hard to contain my excitement on the phone, but a deal is secured, I put a deposit down and the guy takes down the ad (lesson learned long ago!).
When I went to pick it up I asked him if he knew the history of the amp. Pre-68 Plexis are really scarce in Norway, so it’s fun to trace the history of each and every one. He didn’t know much about the previous history, but he found it in a cupboard in a local church back in 2006 when he was still in his teens, and got it for free! So finally, 16 years later I buy the amp I was offered back then via a friend.
Stay tuned for photos as we go over it. I haven’t had a chance to plug it in yet and am away on travel until next weekend, so I can’t tell you yet how it sounds, but it’s looking really promising.
I got my first Marshall amp back in 1993, a Bluesbreaker reissue. Around 2000 I got my first vintage Marshall, a ‘71 50w tremolo. Over the next few years I got several early 70s metal panel amps - a ‘71 50W Bass, a ‘72 Super Lead and a ‘73 Super Bass. They were all great, but of course I would have preferred a Plexi. Somehow those always eluded me. I probably wasn’t looking too hard as they were already considerably more expensive than metal panels, but in retrospect I could probably have done very well back then with some effort.
Then in early 2006 I decided to do my first amp build which was a Metroamp JTM45. It sounded great and I was completely hooked. Over the next five years I built probably 12 different amps, going ever deeper in detail level. The ones I kept were the most accurate ones using mostly NOS parts and Merren transformers.
I was so taken with this hobby that I completely stopped looking for vintage Marshalls. Why do that when you can build your own, with modern reliability, to the exact specs you want? I built pretty much every iteration of Plexi era Marshall, so every major variation in the 100w and 50w lines. Lots of fun, great sounds and great looks.
Around 2006 I also remember a fellow Marshall friend telling me a story about a kid who just found a ‘67 100W Plexi tucked away in a cupboard in a church. I seem to remember he even asked if I was interested in buying it, so the finder might have looked to sell it. I passed, as I thought I could just build my own.
Over the years though I’ve just come to the realisation that as good as clones are, there’s no substitute for the real thing. Putting them side by side, an accurate clone will come very, very close, and in certain respects I might even prefer the clone, but with vintage tone as the benchmark, the vintage amp will win the shootout every time.
So, slightly reluctantly, I’ve started to replace at least some of my clones with originals. I’ve scored a ‘66 JTM45 and a ‘68 50w Bass over the last couple of years, both through friends, but a 100W has proven very hard to find. Prices are generally also horrific.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. I’ve had an auto-search going with the major Norwegian classifieds site for a loooing time. Frankly, I was getting tired of umpteen alerts per day for Marshall Bluetooth speakers and broken Valvestate amps. And after some more little tweaking, I had pretty much decided just to be content with my very decked out clones. I was going to delete the auto-search, but was too busy that day.
Then bam, an alert comes up for a ‘67 Marshall JMP Super Bass 100W Plexi. One glance at the photos reveals that this is, in all likelihood, virtually all original and almost untouched. Price is good (as in really good). This is when I start to get dizzy and palms sweaty. I can almost not hit the right numbers on the phone to dial, and I have to work really hard to contain my excitement on the phone, but a deal is secured, I put a deposit down and the guy takes down the ad (lesson learned long ago!).
When I went to pick it up I asked him if he knew the history of the amp. Pre-68 Plexis are really scarce in Norway, so it’s fun to trace the history of each and every one. He didn’t know much about the previous history, but he found it in a cupboard in a local church back in 2006 when he was still in his teens, and got it for free! So finally, 16 years later I buy the amp I was offered back then via a friend.
Stay tuned for photos as we go over it. I haven’t had a chance to plug it in yet and am away on travel until next weekend, so I can’t tell you yet how it sounds, but it’s looking really promising.
