Marshall 1959 Super Lead

hand built basic hi output demand for volume amp with normal and brite inputs

the sounds were diferent i have had a 66/67 transition 100 watt block logo a 68 super a 69 super P/A and a 72 super lead the best way to describe it is from dark to light tones.. the older the amp the darker the tone...no matter what your love of other amps are this is a canvas for your sound you will want to have!
although this section is dedicated to the super lead the circut is bout the same in all of them and only a marshall sounds like a marshall and just about no two marshalls sound alike ..go figure!
when i think of the aplication of this devise in its finest hour I think of the Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the sound is not "Brown" its Gold...its like playing liquid sunshine! loud yes but with the drumers ive had i needed it. its not the only amp ive ever owned "if its a classic ive had one" and it does not negate the beauty of the other amps but what it does it does quite excelent!
as for tone purests none of my heros ever liked just pluging strait in. they liked toys and more toys and that covers just about all the greats but as a stand alone it does very well and one of my fav sounds it makes is plain old clean. in the 70s guitarists would say "i had to buy 6 plexis before i found one that sounded good!"
that was always the case with marshalls and for that matter amps in general and guitars ect. these days hardly anyone says they dont like it and i feel that is much to do with myth legend and price.
it is an excelent amp that started out trying to be a fender
but wasnt clean at high volume and due to the creative aplication of its first users it opened up a new path in rock music and maby thats what it can teach all who either love or hate it.

very tough amps! but nothing is invincible and these are getting old!
if you blow a cap youll burn it up. just because it looks good doesnt mean it wasnt owned by droves of mad men. have it inspected.all mine go to the shop right after purchase

i owned droves of marshall goods there suport is pretty good but unless you live near the factory youll need a good tube man. find one that doesnt offer to do mods.

started in 78 and yes id buy another if lost.. i buy every amp that apeals to me they all do diferent things! all old marshalls including cabs are there own identity. all sound slightly diferent every diferent guitar will change the equation too.

I have a 1973 Super Lead 100. It was checked over and repaired as soon as I got it by Plexi Palace (Marshall specialists) in Apple Valley, CA. It was converted to use EL34 tubes by a previous owner. I have removed the capacitor on the number 1 volume pot to reduce treble which I found to be excessive. This a very basic amp without modern features - only presence, bass, mid, treble, volume 1 and volume 2. No channel switching or reverb, however the 4 inputs can be connected in different combinations to get volume 1 and 2 to interact.

This amp has a very good clean sound with nice harmonics and tone with the stratocasters and telecasters and Ibanez V that I use. I use pedals and fuzzboxes for other tones - I find that the clear tone of this amp interacts well with various distortion pedals for anything from a little overdrive to Big Muff fuzz. I like the midrange tone in this amp that tends to be missing from some of the high gain amps that are popular now (2004). With the cap removed from V1 pot and the guitar plugged into the upper V2 input, both volumes can be adjusted to get a nice sound without being too loud.

I have confidence in this amp after having it serviced at Plexi Palace. I've had no problems after a couple of years of moderate to heavy use.

I also have a 1981 Mesa Boogie MkIIb combo and a 1966 Ampeg Reverbrocket. I don't know if I could afford to replace this amp if it disappeared... I'm lucky to have gotten it from a friend for a bunch of recording time. Some of the new reissues from Marshall also sound good but it always cool to have the real thing...
Overall this is a cool amp and a good basis for developing a sound. Many people complain that this amp has only one sound but I think that if you listen to great players from any era you can identify them by their playing. Hendrix through one of these or on an acoustic guitar still sounds like Hendrix. Just a thought...

Features - simple.. Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble and preamp volume for both channels. Do yourself a favor however and get a Marshall Powerbrake!

What else does one need?

Classic amp. If you aren't lucky enough to be able to find a vintage Plexi at an affordable price and end up being a reissue, do yourself a favor and get it rebiased with some good KT66 tubes... Groove Tubes are the closest out there to the real thing, the Genelex Gold Lions. EL34s give you a Marshall tone as well, but not like the KT66s. However avoid 6L6, 6V6 and 6550s... not very Marshall sounding tubes. 6550s crank in Majors, but generally none of them crank like the Kt66/kt88/el34s do!

Do I really need to describe the sound? This thing has compresssion, which is a term these Mesa Boogie people do not understand. Bands with amps with good compression have a massive tone, while bands without either end up sounding solid state (aka like shit) or just thin! Crank your Mesa to 4, and it is comprable to your Marshall on 4. Crank your Mesa past that, and you don't gain much for tone. Crank your Marshall to 10, and hear what tube compression is supposed to sound like!

Hey these things survived 35 years, so they withstood the test of time!

I have a good amp tech

Nothing beats a Les Paul through a Marshall. If you don't believe me, go play one and find out for yourself!

I have a 1972 100w marshall superlead and Although it's a great amp and it deserves high marks I had to write a review here because of the idiots who automatically put down other amps and amp makers because they love their marshall superlead. This doesn't make any sense. John, who posted a review before me understands that you have to crank this amp to ridiculous volumes to get the goods but puts down Mesa amps because of their pre-amp distortion and master volume. Um.. John, did you know that if you crank those amps you can also get power amp distortion just like your Marshall? The difference is that those other amps give you great options and sounds at reasonable volumes. The only reason the Marshall doesn't is that the geniuses at Marshall thought that guitar players wanted clean headroom without distortion when in fact they were playing these amps for exactly the opposite reason. Marshall still to this day refuses to suit players needs and give them seperate EQ's for the clean or dirty channels. If you want less options and sounds that's fine but why do player's put down other amps for accomodating them. "Marshall Kills Mesa Six Ways" is bullshit. There getting their ass kicked and created that Nu-metal ripoff Mode four amp, which atleast,finally has some options.

yup it sounds great if you want to be the next Eddie Van Halen or have an somewhat unoriginal sound. I'm not trying to put the thing down but it isn't versatile enough for me at all. It's basically a clean sounding amp with a lot of punch. The only way to get overdrive at reasonable levels it a power soak and they eat your tubes like crazy.TO be honest I have a Mesa Tremoverb that blows this out of the water, not only for versatility but for tone over all four settings that the amp allows. That's right four settings and reverb and tremolo in one amp.

It's still here and it was built in '72. Still looks great too.

What? There too busy waiting for the new trend to emerge than to field your questions about the good old days when they made decent amps.

Love the amp for what it can do. Not a be all end all amp for me. It isn't versatile,but some people take that one great sound it delivers and there happy. My quess is there creating music that has already seen it's day and is now gone the way of the dinosaurs. I would need to A/B it with atleast two or three others amps and that isn't really an option. Everything I need is in one amp.

My Super Lead is my single favorite material possession. It was built in 1969, the first year of the aluminum faceplates. I was born in 1968, so I love it like a little brother. I bought it in 1992 in Cambridge, Massachusetts from my tube amp tech for $500.

You don't buy one of these amps for versatility. It simply has the best hotwired, brain-frying, brown British rock sound ANYWHERE, but little else. Seriously, who needs an effects loop and some gay switching system when you have THE BEST GUITAR SOUND IN THE WORLD?

A couple ways I've found to get a lot more out of this amp:

1) Use a VOLUME PEDAL. I turn everything up to 11, yes, but I also have a plastic BOSS stereo volume pedal (this particular pedal is made cheesily but doesn't F*** with my tone), the kind with a variable zero. That is, there's a little knob on the side you can turn so that when the pedal is in the all the way "off" position, it's actually letting through however much signal you tell it to. I set the knob so that with the pedal in the all the way backed off position, I get a semi-dirty tone.. the kind that cleans up when you back off the strings a little bit. Then, everything between all the way backed off and full throttle is just more and more cream, more and more gain and distortion. This amp has an INSANE amount of gain! Whoever tells you differently has never played one in good condition.

2) Use a HOT PLATE. It's a power soak that goes in between the amp and the speaker cab. My amp puts out about 130 watts. It is LOUD AS ALL BILLY HELL. Until I bought a hot plate, there was no versatility in the volume I was putting out at all. It was either full throttle or I went home. This amp's full glory is incredibly satisfying in a macho sort of way, but ultimately it's stupid. See, I like girls. But the girls don't like me when I hurt their ears. The hot plate allows you to play the amp flat out, but at any volume.. great for shows in small venues, as well as recording.

Oh, another thing about recording.. I use this amp exclusively in rehearsals and for shows. And for recording loud distorted guitar, nothing else compares. But for recording clean tones, I will usually use some kind of vintage Fender amp, like my Pro Reverb. Fender clean sounds just have a bit more "bulb" and dimension than the Marshall does. It's because of their tone section, and it's also a 6L6 vs. EL34 kind of thing.

I play my Super Lead through a reissue Marshall 1960TV cabinet with 75watt Celestions instead of the Greenbacks. This amp will destroy Greenbacks in approximately 7 minutes. Ask me how I know! The TV cab is awesome because, with more wood to move (it's a few inches taller than a normal Marshall 4x12), it pushes some serious bass.

I used to use the same celestion speakers in a front-mounted Fender cab. That cab got me much less bass, and just no life. So do yourself a favor and NEVER use front-mounted 4x12 cabs.. they suck. Manufacturers just build them because it's easier that way, or because they're deaf. Lame.

Mostly I play Fender Jazzmaster guitars - one with Seymour Duncan vintage repro pickups and the other with Seymour Duncan "Hot" pickups. For rhythm sounds, I prefer the vintage sounding guitar, while for leads and noise, I prefer the hot one. I like the Jazzmaster because of the wide string spacing, the chimey length of string between the bridge and tailpiece, and the unique and very cool not-quite-a-humbucker-but-louder-and-more-fried-than-a-single-coil pickups.

This amp provides the sound I want - loud, compressed, dynamic, breathy, dimensional, creamy, "British" and sweet - to a tee. I just love it so much!! Yeah, the amp is noisy. It hums a bit. I don't fucking care. You have a problem with a little hum? Buy a sissy amp.

The distortion is really thick and brutal. But because it's mainly power tube distortion (unlike a master volume-equipped amp), it offers a phenomenal amount of detail even at full throttle. I play chords with all sorts of tensions in them.. flat 9, 11th, 6, 13, whatever and I play a lot of melody over the top of the chords and bass notes that I'm playing. You can hear all that.. it's a beautiful feel thing that just doesn't work for me with other kinds of amps. Especially overengineered modeling or master volume amps. God, those are pointless. Well, I guess they're fine just for people who bang power chords and do little else.

At full volume, the amp feedsback right away, as soon as I take my hands off the strings. Or if I hold a note, it's going to feedback. But it's a nice controllable kind of feedback. So sweet. It's at my command.

I searched around for just the right distortion box to use with it.. one that would have basically the same sound as the amp but with a crazy amount of gain, so I could get insane feedback, noise, and ultracompressed leads. That's the MXR distortion plus, with both knobs turned all the way up. I use it to push the already raging amp into the stratosphere.

If you'd like to hear recordings of my amp, please check out the mp3s at http://www.richardbitch.com

You must maintain it. Think of it like a race car. I certainly don't baby mine.. it's always at full throttle. But I do maintain the hell out of it. New tubes at least once a year, biased and checked out by someone I trust. The amp has broken, but only when I've done something stupid, like plugging it into a mismatched cab (wrong ohms).

What? Find a skilled and reverant (must LOVE Marshalls) tube amp tech, and you'll be fine. Also, make sure to get GOOD TUBES. Not mesa boogie tubes, not Chinese tubes, okay? At least use Sovteks. If you can afford NOS vintage, do it. The difference is huge.

I'm 35 and I've been playing guitar since I was 8. I've been playing electric guitar since I was 11. I started out with a Fender Champ (cool little tube amp), then got the Fender Pro Reverb that I still have. But then in 1990 I saw Sonic Youth and right then I knew I needed a Marshall. If this amp were stolen, I would find another just-barely-post-plexi Super Lead (1969 to 1972) and put it into the same kind of gnat's-ass shape as mine. These Marshalls are a fantastic value because so far they don't engender the same nonsense collectible hype as the plexis do, but they sound just as good. In fact, depending on the transformer, they may have more power and more gain than a plexi.

I just love the sound. And I admit it, the cachet of seeing that beautiful scarred old thing on stage behind me.. that does something too.

I have played through plexis, VOX AC30TB, Gibson, Magnavox, Selmer, Ampeg and all kinds of vintage Fenders. But I've never played a Hiwatt or an Orange, so I can't say definitively that my amp is "better" than those. It's definitely a better value than a plexi, and it simply does beautiful things that a Fender can't even think about. I tried Mesa Boogies too. What a waste those are. I just don't like getting distortion from preamp alone. Marshall KILLS Mesa six different ways.. just not in versatility I'd guess. Modeling and transistor amps aren't even worth discussion.

I wouldn't change anything about it. I guess an original purple or orange one might be cool, but mine's black and I'm keeping it!

I picked up an superlead mk2 - 1974 cert - from the serial 73 of ebay for about 650$ The amp was modded by someone who didn't know what the hell they were doing. I downloaded the schematic and unmodded the thing in a day - replaced a few resistors and she was good to go.

The amp has (2) channels although they don't serve any modern day purpose - I always bridge the two - the channels have a slightly different tone to them - one brighter - one darker but both go through the same eq and preamp tubes.

The tone on this this is LIMITED so I gave it a 1 because it only delivers ONE TONE - THE MOST INCREDIBLE TONE/BROWNSOUND DISTORTION YOU WILL FIND!!!

Seriously there is only one way to play this amp - everything at 10!

There is only one brown sound! - all the plexi and super lead heads were very similar under the hood aside from a few caps and the mk1-el34 and mk2-6550 versions. Mine was a rebiased mk-2 which essentially is the mk1 superlead - aside from a cap or three in the preamp. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THIS AMP ONLY HAS ONE SETTING - EVERYTHING AT 10! - use a variac otherwise you will blow your 4*12 cab - Seriously everything at ten. The head is not a high gain amp and the only way you will get any distortion and that incredible tone is turning everything all the way up. I usually keep the amp at 50v or so via my variac (you can get decent new variacs of ebay for 100$ I wouldn't mess with the older ones- I reccommend a clean reliable new one - after all voltage is voltage)to play in my bedroom or for routing synths and other stuff through it.

I wish I could describe why this head sounds so danm good but I can't these marshalls have some kind of magic in the mids that is a serious mind --ck. It has charecter and is VERY VERY responsive. If you use your high output EMG's the thing will shoot back every extra bit of voltage you throw into it in richer balanced distortion. As a matter of fact if I could have one wish I would whish that this amp could go higher - more of that distortion and incredible tone.

This is not a mesa sounding amp - the distortion is more silky like a 5150 not chunky like a mesa but you will never find an amp with better mids! - Yes the lows are not incredibly tight but if you set the amp up like edward did with a proper load to use the head as an preamp you can eq the thing however you want -

NOISY! lots of noise - get the head away from the cabinet and it will quit whining! The amp is sensitive enough that the field from the speakers will start looping through parts of the head and cause that high pitched whinning sound - again get tha amp away from the speakers.

If you are in love with VH1 and that incredible guitar sound you might as well put yourself out of your own misery and actually save the 700$ or so quid to pick up a superlead and understand for yourself the tone christened "Brown".

The amp is old and I had to unmod lots of stuff. If you can find a truley vintage UNMODDED one of these they are bound to be worth double! These things always seem to get tha mastervolume or some other "Mod" to make them sound better. I don't see any reason to screw with perfection. If someone wanted to mod the amp in the first place maby they should go buy one of those digiwizzy Line6 pieces of crap. Take out your tweaking elctronerdness on that not a vintage Marshall!

The amp is solid but but made of wood and only has 4 screws to connect the chassis to the wooden enclosure. Strong but I wouldn't want to set it on it's side or let it get thrown around.

The inside is point to point wiring and there is a marshall circuitboard to mount the components to. Again it is sturdy but it's old sturdy - 70s sturdy not 2000+ surdy - not reinforced.

I give it a 9 because the amp is older than me - 74! I'm 24 the amp is
still sounding incredible! BUT, it's old - and amps back then were hand made not like they are nowdays - off assemblylines - so if you are not carefull you could easily break a knob or switch or spill beer into the chassis via the large vent on top and be in a bad situation.

I have mixed feelings on this issue but since you can download a superlead schematic on line and if you understand how resistors - caps - transformers and have an ohm/voltage meter you can literally test each component by yourself and replace whatever you need to in one day! A very very basic design! how ironic one of the most sought after tones! But if you are an idiot you WILL kill yourself - those big blue caps can put you in the hospital! KNOW what you are doing if you are going to service the amp! - You can't get that many parts for the amps that are the original specs - however you can swap out everything with new ones no prob - I've never had it serviced but there really isn't any need to. The only reason I can see you would need to service the amp is to either get it re biased for different tubes or to replace the output transformer if you mismatched the cabinets to the amp. But I feel that the people you could trust to work on the amp are few and far and it will be pricey.

This is a one tone amp - actually you really might consider it like the best distortion pedal you will ever find EVER! Again one tone everything at 10 - use a variac! Very Very responsive to your playing - very very unique tone and incredible compression distortion. Very touchy to what you send into it - a response that you will not find on todays pre-amp conglomerated tone amps. The secret is in the power tubes I don't know how marshall was able to achieve such a heavenly tone but at 650$ you will never want another distortion - again you will have to have a seperate poweramp and use the superlead as a preamp if you want to have the kind of output bite say a mesa or 5150 delivers because at full voltage the head will simply over push most 4-12 cabs causing a muffeled sort of rocket engine type distortion instead of the amps tone getting through.

Finally this amp delivers TONE! not thuddy bang like the new in metal sound where everything is in synk kickdrums and dropped dropped power chords.(5ths)

If you actually know how to do a guitar solo - or can play an melody or an arpeggio and prefer cream - van halen - ledzepplen - jimihendrix - Steve Rav Vaughan over Korn, this amp undoubtedly delivers tone and you know what I'm talking about!

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My new amp is a Marshall 1959 Super Lead Mk II, all tube, made in 1976. On the front of the amp - 4 inputs, presence-bass-middle-treble-volI-volII
To the rear - a three stage impedence selector, mains voltage selector, 2 speaker outs.
It is effectivily a two channel amp with a volume for each. The 4 inputs allow you to daisy-chain the two channels together with a patch lead, so that both are heard at the same time when you play - in my opinion the only way to use this amp. Ony channel then controls the bass tone and the other the treble tone. This allow you to 'mix' your sound to precision.
No FX loop, runs on 4 EL34 power tubes and 3 ECC83 valves. My amp came with revalved with 'PM' valves which certainly to do the business.
I can report it's in pristeen condition, no scuffs or scratches.
I give the rating a seven because todays Marshall models offer many more features, so I must be subjective.

Hendrix used it, Page used it and many more. If, like me, you have been buying pedals and amps over the years to make you sound like either of these two legends BUT NEVER ACHEIVED IT.... then sell all your amp gear and go and buy one of these.
The only way I ever achieved a bedroom Hendrix sound was by chaining a few distortions together, which gave the sustain but no clarity. I never knew that it was going to be one of these heads that would spin my guitar sound around.
Running a guitar without effects into it is so outrageously tonal; sheer power and drive without that fake fuzz box 'thickness'. Clamp a distortion on to it as well and it can be little too much. For the first time, the volume pots on my Epiphone Les Paul could be used to control the amps drive without losing clarity; 10 for a solo, 5 for rhythm, just like the Jimmy Page live sound from 'Song Remains the Same'. Sustain is so satisfying, and this amp delivers it with such class.
BUT....all this comes at the cost of wearing industrial ear defenders!! It is way too loud for the house, even the street! Like me, you will have to be thinking about a Hot Plate or a Power Brake to tame that volume. These units sit in line between the amp and the speaker, to cut the volume down to a safe and neighbour friendly level. You would seriously damage your precious hearing without one. I don't have one as yet but that has now become a top priorety buy, because the Marshall 1959 Super Lead MkII will be responsible for your hearing loss in old age. No thanks - BE SENSIBLE AND GET ONE OF THESE! Only idiots wreck themselves over music.
In a nutshell, it's sound is the mutts nuts! Never going back to any other amp.

Only just bought it, so I can't comment. The guy who sold it to me has never had any problems with it, had it revalved and serviced during the years he owned it, with no apparent troubles at all. It's 25 years old, and working well... far more reliable than some gear I have had.

Never had to get in touch with Marshall for any reason; even though I have owned a JMP1 Midi preamp for the last 5 years it has never gone wrong so I can't comment.

It's the business! Do you want to be transported back in time? Do you want that 'tone' the 70's rock greats unleashed, that clear yet so expressive psychedelic experience you dreamed of from the likes of Zep and Hendrix.... THEN LOOK NO FURTHER! Get a power brake and it could be yours in your bedroom! I wish I had been told about this amp years ago, I would have stopped wasting my money on pedals!
It's the best they ever made - but it will deafen you unless your wise.
Simply incredible.

My one bears the serial # A4800, what means it's build somewhere in 1970. Controls are presence, bass, mids, treble and two volume control, one for the lead high/low and one for the normal high/low inputs. It's one with the aluminium panels and an upstanding transformer. On the rear there are two speaker output jacks, the impedance control switch and the voltage control switch as well as the power supply jack. No DI, no FX-Loop, no Master Vol. or other alterations. Tubes and filter caps had been changed recently. It' a pure Rock'n Roll amp containing 100 W from four EL 34 power tubes.

The best sounding amp I own. It's enough power to play even bigger venues. Usually I use it half-stack like with an old ('71) 4x12" Marshall bass cabinet. Mainly I use the normal input, but turn the volume of the lead input to the 3 o'clock position. Due to the interaction of the inputs the signal adds some highs. My one is not noisy but you half to turn it at least half way up, to get those distorted powertube saturation. In combination with a Procon RAT or an old Ibanez Sonic Distortion SD 1 I got the best results containing vintage sounds. Using the lead channel is not possible in most normal situations, it's too loud and you got a feeling like your teeth will be pulled right out of your jaw. Anyway, you could also bridge the normalo and lead channel or daisy chain two or more amps (like Hendrix did), so it's much more versatile as you might think in the first moment.

Never had trouble.

Never used on.

As I mentioned, it's my main amp. I play Rock since 1968, own Gibson, Fender, PRS, Music Man and other guitars. In the meantime I bought and sold a Twin Reverb, an AC 30, a Reussenzehn, a Koch, a WEM, a Triaxis, a Peavy 50/50, a JCM 2000 Triple SL and lots of other stuff. Thats the one amp, I'd never ever sell.

My amp was a 1975, I had been using a Selmer for some time but had dreamed of a Marshall, in comparison the amps were both very basic two channel machines, though the marshall was extremely thin & weak on both channels. Power was non existant in comparison & it only survived two practices and one gig (it ate valves) as did a colleagues.

I was using it with a Watkins Rapier 44 & the amp had no bottom end, just a thin weedy sound that was no use whatsoever.
I played in a local club 150 capacity and the amp even when turned up full needed to be miked up.
as to the number of sounds it can make, two thin & crackly

When I bought the amp it had just been serviced by a reputable engineer and re valved, in the space of one week I replaced the output valves three times & the pre amps once (thankfully at no cost to me).
It could not run for more than a couple of hours without needing to be re valved

I understand Marshalls to give excellent service, however I'll never own another of their amps to find out.

I've played guitar for ten years, I hated this amp & will never touch Marshall again, Selmer are a far better buy and have awesome sound.

My particular copy happens to be a 1972 100 watt Super Lead That has been modified to use EL34 tubes. Other than that it's bone stock.
No features to speak of, espeacially not compared to what's available today. The other reviews cover this so I won't. It's a very basic amp but that's the way I like it.

This amp is pure '70s Rock and nothing else. I play Peavey Wolfgang Standards (both maple topped and basswood models). If you want AC/DC, Foghat, Led Zepplin, Nazarath, Black Sabbath, and early Rush this is your amp. With 4 inputs there is some sonic variety but mainly just variations on a theme. Daisy chain the inputs together and the amp is simply brutal. For my ears there is no heavier sound.

I play this head through the speakers in my 5150 combo (2x12" Sheffields). Other reviews have said this thing is loud. My 5150 is loud. This thing will make you sterile. I can't say it enough, this amp will piss off your neighbors neighbors!

So far so good.

Can't say.

I've been playiny for 20+ years. I've played through Peaveys, Randalls, Parks, EMCs, Ampegs and Fenders. Nothing has that classic hard rock sound like this Marshall. This is the tone of the Gods.

You should not buy one however, If you find a good deal on one, call me and I'll buy it.

If you do buy one remember to put a power brake into the budget. This thing is louder than an amp should be allowed to be.