Marshall Super Bass Head

1972 Marshall Superbass.
SHarp searing tone.
Using a Marshalkl Shredmaster with it . Outside EQing is a waste . Simply put a Vintage LEs Paul / Les Paul or nice Strat with single/Double Coils that are HIgh End i.e. Hand Wound . I find the wcr Coil Company to put out some of the BEST PICKUPS ON THIS PLANET> A MUST LISTEN. I play the DArkburst which is their "EAT A PEACH" line/ Dwayne ALlman line" And they sound thick punchy, very organic and slightly overwound . THey run 8.2k / 8.9k respectively. If you wamt even a bit hotter yet the same type dewal go for Good Woods . They have come out with more models which I have listened to but still liking the Goodwood and Darkburst respectively.
1972 SUperbass Has an "ENG" tag so no changes internally for installation of some good NOS EL34s. YOur choice.

Sound Quality? If I have to answer this go somewhere else .OK, THick, RIch, Fat, Midrange , Organic, sweet or mean, growling , unforgiving if your not on your chops so if your not a pro player i would suggest a nice UBERSCHALL BOGNER TO MASK YOUR MISTKES EHEHEHEHE! Just Joking . ALthough the Uberschall actually with a Soladano Eminence cab sounds fantastic. Believe it. But still. NOT A VINTAGE MARSHALL. Sound of a SUperbass - Superlead - through to a JCM800 early 1980s. YOull be very happy. ACtually I suggest if your a first time Marshall cat BUy a JCM800 early circa yr pre 85' only IMHO with a nice GT75 cab same year and a good TUbe screamer modified or Boss VIntage OD1 or BOSS SD1 Modified by Analogman or KEeley. Youll be a rock n roll power house. I dont buy into all the new stuff. However I did at first . I owned a JCM800 2203X ...SOLD IT!!!! I owned a 1959X ....sounded good actully...sold it though and opted for a PCB 1977 JMP MKII MINTY WITH NOS TUBES THROUGHOUT and a matching cab after going thru three 1977 cabinets (They are NOT all the same ESPECIALLY IF THE CONES ARE NOT RIPPED> let no one tel yo iff. get a three day return policy on it and hurry your bum up and dial it in and check it out.

In the end it gets a 10 10 10

The 72' CIrca in particular is a MONETER THOUGH SO WATCH OUT. AFTER "2" on "VI" youll just unleash the moneter tones ven more . not really

Your dealing in VIntage Marshall. I would one OWN Point to Point "circa 68' to 73". PCB circa 74 to 77" and a JCM800 1981 only. Im a prima donna with those amps and they ha ve to have EXACTLY THE RIGHT FORMULAE.

For me, the 81 JCM800 which I will ALWAYS LOVE WHICH I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS ABOUT THERE BELOVED 1968 this or 1969 that WHich are great no less BUT, the 81 with a nice 100% outing of NOS TUBES i.e RFT SIEMENS EL34sare FINE.and NOS MULLARD 1960s Great BRitian 12AX7s. Then check the internals, the transformers, and everything out . If it all checks , then go buy the above pedals I mentioned .My favorite Is a modified Analogman 3403D 14 prong chip with push/pull Asymmetrical.symmetrical clipping which unfort. thry do not offer the clipping but still offer the chip mod. AWESOME ALL tube 100%. FOR a SUPERBASS I use a Marshall SHredmaster AND the MARSHALL BLUESBREAKER both 1st edition. youll hear the difff.in the 1st and 2nd ed.!
YOu need a DISTORTION STYLE PEDAL TO PUSH AND N.M.V VIntage Marshall or FORGET IT! wont work aswell IMHO unless your QUASI boosting but why the he** would or should you, Go attenuate it and blow your tubes LOL! na

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Remember ITs not the one of the WHole .ITs the WHole of the ONE . ait, Take that, turn it around and reverse it . Anotherwords , Start with your cab and head and guitar and the right pickups , getthe BEST TONE , then go from their, cones /spkrs, outboard fx are essential not to OVER DUE and get the good stuff dont chinch. on and on. take it one piece at a time. If all of a sudden your sound goes to the birds because you add a brand new whammy pedal . sump it. I have one and only use the octave up and octave down and single notes , thats all its good for but goosd enough for me or go buy the $1000 one for whatever you think that is worth. !

1969 Supeerbass 100 watts + rating on the meter
1972 Superbass 100 watts + rating on the meter
2 channels. Low and High. Jumping both channels is a popular option for mixing the treble middle and bass spectrum, etc
Features are everything I want . THe rest ill buy in 2009 !
Amp is used on tour , rehearsals ,gigging, etc.
Has too much power for most. But for 10,000 people or more it is fine cranking it to a confotable 65%-80%.
There is a point where each Marshall has its "SWEET" spot where you hear the tubes " IF they are NOS or dang good new ones ( Umm , Ok , NOS LOL! , youll hear that organic flow through your fingers.

I understand many cant afford a 1969,1972 Pt TO pt Marshall BUT WHY buya Mesa BOOGIE LOnestar or MKVat $2,000 when for the SAME MONEY you can snag a 1968 through q973 pt to pt Marshall Superlead. All the circuits of these amps are basically the same minus a few caps , etc.
Quad EL34 tubes
3 12AX7's

SOUND QUALITY:
This is where it gets good ! THe sound . TOme a Marshall will produce ANYTHING YOU WANT. Not just organic MId range chunk either. throw in some 6550's and 100 wattJBLs and let it rip you apart . ala / ZAKK WYLDE all the say to a cleaner Eric Johnson Vioiln liketone using four 1969 Superleads .
With this he uses nominal pedals i.e Dallas arbitor Fuzz, A B.K. Vutler vintage version 1980s/1970s ? Tube DIstortion. also a 1960s VOX Wah or similiar brimming with a proper inductor and correct phasels. circuitry.

TO me it is th epinnacle of tone. Cant afford $2,000. How bout half for a very very similar tone and a lot of cases people lke these secod type Marshalls EVEN MORE ! early 1981 thru 1983 Marshall 100 watt M.V.. I also own one of these and use a wide array of pedals .These amps are monsters when ran around again 60% or 70%+ and good ole G12T75s thast originally came with the amp. BUy the original aged G12T75s. New cones just make me buggy siting there breaking in the tone for hours. I mean I love to play but I dont like burnng up a $600 Quad of XF-2 Mullards !

In the end Marshall is it. Non MAster. Master , attenuated, dummy loaded, etc. Just listen to Eddie Van HAlen. EVEN IF YOU dont like that tone . You tell me . Why does Kerry King use one and even has his own hsvaed head version!! AWesome !

Just usual amp upkeeep i.e tubes, biasing, etc.

n/a

Overall, This is the pinnacle of tone, There is no better only other tastes from decades gone by. call me bias. Ive owned them all, Mesa Boogie, Diezal, Bogner (Sounds like a JCM800 with a TS9/ 4558 chip but at 4X the cost ! on and on! I come backto Marshall.

NOW FENDER BLACKFACE for clean tones and cetain blues tones i.e a nice 1966 or 1967 Pro reverb is super for those applications. There are exeptionsd to the rules. By an A-B/Y box and a U.A. your aset

A+++++

1969-1970 Super Bass
Obviously this thing is single channel and it's deffinatly got enough power for any gig on planet earth.

Im using this with a 1960a Angled cab loaded with Celestion T100's which are by far the best sounding modern celestion in my opinion and i've tried them all, closely followed by the G12H30 75hz version.

Im playing jazz, funk, blues, rock and hard rock through this thing and it covers the whole ground from fat warm clean tones on the normal channel to bright agressive hard rock on the bright channel when it's cranked.

Great overdrive sounds here a definate tone machine.

I started playing guitar in 1991 i've owned various Marshalls and boutique amps from Splawn, THD, Cornford, Matchless, Mesa, Peavey, Fender just to name a few.

This thing kills them all, what most people don't know about the early Super Bass (pre jcm800) is the circuit is identical to the 1967 Marshall Super Lead, bar the bright cap across the volume pot.
(the later super leads changed various other components making the amps gainer and brighter, but even so the circuits are still quite similar)

Now when u dime a Marshall Super Lead to 10 the bright cap it bypassed so the circuit difference between a 67 super lead and a super bass on 10 is 0%.

Although transformers have changed through the years these amps are a great way to get that very early Marshall tone.

Malcom Young uses a 69/70 Super Bass to great effect in Ac/Dc.

anyway more to the point, u hear people talk about that great thick plexi tone? well this is it ladies and gents. pick up a Super Bass from 69 to 73 and u've essentially got yourself a 67 Plexi Super Lead a whole lot cheaper.

Pure unadulterated awesome tone.

this is basically a 1959 Marshall with a better EQ. It's a bass head but sounds incredible on guitar too

once you turn these amps up,will blow your socks off. The distortion is classic Marshall tone at it's best. With a good guitar you can really get out amazing tone

been playing for about 16 years. Had a load of amps,both american and british,but when it comes to rock,old Marshall amps are very hard to beat

My father bought this new in 1972, and from the serial number I have found out it's a '71. I use this amp only for guitar, in my stoner-band (like Kyuss, Queens of the Stoneage) with a standard Gibson SG, and I also play in a country band with a strat. Sovtek EL34. I use the amp for both rehersals and gigs. No mods except for a new power supply.

The tone is very warm, but still punchy. I don't know why, but I find suitable for almost every kind of music. For the distortion I use a Fulltone ocd, and this is the perfect match. It just overdrives my sound without coloring the amps tone. The only drawback is the volume it produces. This amp is loud! When I changed the power supply the amp was measured to 198 watt at 18 % distortion, and I'm afraid to blow my speakers.

It is stable now, but its old, I always keep a backup at important gigs.

Except for the high volume this is the perfect amp for me. Live, at rehearsal, and in studio (a 57 in front, and thats it).

I bought this amp in 2000 for #500 Irish Punts, with a much newer Marshall cab at the time about #400 new, so I got a good deal.
The features are limited but do the job, if you want more, buy a different amp. The mains power selection switch cover is missing but someones has soldered ths to 220V, and the speaker output selection switch is complete but has been soldered to 8Ohm output. No master volume knob mod that most of the reviewers have had fitted. Treb/mid/bass/pres/v1/v2 what more do you need.

I haven't been able to the amp much in the time I've had it. My own guitars, which I pulled out of a bin!, I've used with it are cheap rubbish, however other people have used it with a varity of Fender's and Gibson's and it gets a thumbs up. Also the volume resricts where and when I can use it, I must get a Hotplate or something like that. The valves do need replacing, can someone suggest a set? The valves in it are cheap no-name crap.
I do know that when I use my Vox Wha with it, stand in a perticular spot in the house, I can pickup French radio!!

Apart from some dirty pots, to be expected after 30 years, which I still haven't got around to cleaning, it's just kept going.

I've never actually had the amp service or had major trouble with it but anytime I've had a querry Marshall have been very helpfull and fast with their response

No complaints. Fantastic amp at a great price, for me anyway.

Right I have just recently bought a 100w MK 2 Marshall superbass (1979) head for my new indie band and I made this descision based mainly on the reputation and afordability of Marshall and as I was upgrading from a transistor so I thought logically Marshall. I have been playing bass for a number of years now and I've never been able to get my tone right where I want it with my old transistor head I kinew I had just bought a true marshall head. However to be completely honest I can see why other players may not rate the superbass due to its scarse features (3 band EQ) and I must say that as far as versatiliy goes were are talking very limited and I would deffinately not recommend the superbass for heavy music as It just can't cut through high gain amps.

I am currently using a fender jazz bass and a jcm 800 4x12 bass series cab these really complement the sound perfectly for my style (think Mani/Andy bell) with alot of punchy highs and nice bass roll-off from the celestions in the 4x12. I have however just upgraded my cab from a 15" peavey tour series that I used with my transistor head and that wasn't too pretty with the super bass. for starters I found that the 15" has no clarity at all and made my tones very messy and the sound became distorted at quite low volumes; it had to go... Also there was the issue of looks; you simply can't spend hundreds on a beautiful head and have balanced on the top of and little ugly cab can you' it's just no fair at all so I seriously suggest buying a matching cab for the superbass head apart from sorting your looks it does wonders for your tone. As you can probably guess I do not use any fx in my playing style but I have been known to tinker with the overdrive pedal a bit and to be completely honest fx are pretty much a no go area when it comes to tube amps and besides why spoil that great rich sound with an envelope filter?

The superbass has not been with me for very long but as far as tube amps go I would always take at least spare fuses and tubes when gigging if not my old transistor head just in case. But to be honest many people I know who own marshalls have said that they are extremely reliable; that is until one day your power tubes go and then it's a nightmare until you replace them all completely. However this has not been a problem for me yet. One thing I would worry about is neglect but from others at gigs due to the easily adjusted voltage and ohm selectors and of course the general sensitivity of a tube amp so I'm saying get your head flightcased ASAP and keep her safe

All though I have not had to deal with marshall I have found that information on the superbass is none existant on the marshall site. This is the case with loads of vintage and discontinued marshall amps and when you need to know why your amp keeps dying a blank page is not very useful at all.

I must say in the years I have been playing bass I have never been so enthusiastic to be using a piece of gear like this one and as soon as I got it I cast aside my fx pedals and submitted. I was actually very lucky; as I managed to pick my head up for a little over ?300/$600 on an online auction site (the guide price on a 26 year old valve head is around the $1200 mark). Now I simply couldn't justify spending thousands on that ampeg or orange setup when all I need is right here in my superbass. I agree that this amp is not one for the tech heads and metallers out there and is really reserved for rock indie and mowtown players really but if you're looking for that little extra something to boost your love of playing get yourself down to the music store and dont come back untill you've got a superbass!

50watt 1963 Marshall Super-Bass. This relic pre-dates the 'plexi' era Marshalls and the serial # dates it as the 574th Marshall amp EVER made! So old in fact, that it still runs a tube-rectifier.

Feature wise, it's your typical 4-input non-Master volume Marshall head. treb/mid/bass/pres/v1/v2. Bare-bones but it works.

Spectacular. With bass, it's absolutly huge. Compresses nicely when pushed with an incredible 'thump' to the attack. The sag from the tube-rectifier adds a great compression to it when you start to drive the amp and despite the low wattage, this keeps pace with a couple of 100+watt guitar half-stacks any day.

With guitar, the amp is golden. Sounds like a tweed-bassman on steriods... not suprising as the circuitry is almost identical. Single-coils shimmer cleanly and have a great punch when hit hard. Humbuckers drive the amp into a great classic-rock distortion. However, my one complaint here is that when the channels are jumpered, the sag from the rectifier can become a bit annoying (guitar only) as you tend to lose a bit of balls on the attack.

Well - this amp has survived a house-fire and lived to play again. Like all old point-to-point amps, fixes are cheap and easy.

My main rig is a JMP-1 based rack system. I love the Super Bass but it's simply not a practical gigging amp for guitar (my main instrument). This amp is simply irreplacable and i'd never put it in a situation where it could be lost or stolen. It's a great peice of history that is a great tool in the studio.

First review here, so Ill follow your guidelines.......
This amp is a 1985 JCM800 Bass Series Super Bass 100W head, model 1992. It has a very simplistic design with 2 inputs, one for lo-gain and one for hi-gain, and pots for slope, bass, treble, mid, mid shift, and volume. It also has a DI output on the back which comes in handy when playing a gig or recording, and a mains switch that eliminates any buzz you may get due to lighting or other factors. This amp is as versatile as it gets, relative to the simplicity of its design. I use it for bass and play a combination of fast and slow hardcore/metal, and the sound fits what I am doing, the way a Marshall should. It has BALLS like no other amp I have owned and when run through a full stack, could crumble a building.

I use this amp with either of my 2 Gibson Basses, either my 74 Ripper or my EB. I use a distorted sound, so I play through a RAT distortion pedal with the volume and dist on the rat both on 10 directly into the HI input on the amp. I never have to put the volume on the amp above 2 or 3. My speaker cab is an 80s Mesa/Boogie 2x15 cab. Sometimes I will also use a 4x12 guitar cab if I want the full stack but its not necessary. The sound I get with just the 2x15 is just indescribable. Huge and fat, tons of sustain, balls the size of an elephant, not gritty or tinny, tons of bottom end. When played clean,
you can get any sound you would ever need, from slappy highs, to muddy 70s lo end, to punchy Geddy Lee ish midrange. The amp is generally not noisy, and again any buzz you may get from outside sources can be eliminated by switching the mains selector on the back of the amp. My guitarist also used this amp when his was having problems and although this is not a master volume model, when used with a Blues Driver it delivers an insane fat distortion that any metal guitarist would love. There is just nothing bad I can say about this amp, it is a true monster!!

I have owned the amp since 1996 or so and bought it used. I am not sure whether or not the original tubes are still in there, but it has never broken down on me with the exception of the ohmage selector which I had to replace about 2 years ago. It has gigged quite a bit and so far(knock on wood)it is solid as a frickin rock.

Never dealt directly w/Marshall but these amps are very servicible by any decent repairman, from what I understand.

I bought this amp for $199 from a foolish music dealer who just didnt realize what they had. If this amp ever died I would certainly look for another. If you are looking for a bass(or guitar) head that delivers insane volume, fat tube sound whether distorted or clean, and reliability, you should seek out one of these. I played a Peavey mkII(?)80s-ish bass head before this one and although that amp sounded good for a solid state amp, it just doesnt compare to this monster. Thes amps were used by, Hendrix, Townsend, Jack Bruce, etc. etc. you get the picture. Best amp EVER!!!!!

Built in 1974. Still has the Original Tung-Sol 6550s (that's gotta be worth a point in and of itself) characteristic of "American" marshalls. Although this thing was made in Bletchley, England, it lacks the line current selector (hardwired to American 120v), which is a head-scratcher for Marshall. Aside from that, it has all of the standard features of a 4-input, non-master volume Marshall amp from that period, and it's ALL good.

Ooh......heh heh heh.Yup. Sounds like a Marshall should, and that is WONDERFUL! Put a Les Paul in front of it, and just listen to to the floodgates of tone open. A little more tweaking of the EQ is required for a strat, but cut the treble and mids a bit, and it is completely worthy. Is it as smile-inducing as plugging my Strat into my Tweed Princeton? No, but then again, nothing is. The Princeton was designed to sound great with a Strat. But this Marshall is infinitely more giggable, and it still sounds pretty damn good. Who needs reverb? with a sound this good (and this loud) too much reverb will just make the sound muddy. Why drown out your own sound? Drown out the lazy bassist instead :P

Well, it's lasted this long....Besides, it's a Marshall: 90% of all techs around today are VERY familiar with these amps. I know Jim Marshall isn't too hot on the 6550's his old American distributor put into his amps-he hates 'em. But they don't detract from the reliability or the sound too much, and modding it back isn't that difficult. Besides, schematics of this thing are available if you know where to look, so it really shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Never had to deal with them.

Question: How much is sounding like all of your guitar heroes worth? I mean YOWZA!!! What a great amp! Plug in, turn on, turn up and WOW! I can sound like Jimmy Page! I can sound like Eric Clapton, Mick Ralphs, Mick Ronson, Johnny Ramone, Joe Perry, the Scorpions, Paul Kossoff, Pete Townshend-Randy Rhoads, for crying out loud! What's that worth? Was it worth the price I paid? Hell Yeah!