Guitarsenal: Marshall Super Lead

For this Guitarsenal I want to cover another of Jimmy's ampifiers, his Marshall Super Lead.

Jimmy playing through his Marshall Super Lead Amp Head in 1969

The 1959 Marshall Super Lead amplifier was released in 1965; numbers do not denote years of production in Marshall Amps and was in production until it was replaced by the JCM-800 in 1981. The plexiglass panel on the amp lent gave birth to the nickname "plexi" which is how many people refer to this amp when discussing it. The amp came about when guitarist from The Who, Pete Townshend, went to Marshall and requested they build a 100 watt amp to enhance the power and volume at Who shows. Marshall obliged, and the Super Lead was born.

The amp itself is a 100 watts, with two channels, and four inputs. On the faceplate there are two volume controls, and a treble, bass, middle and presence knob, along with an on/off switch, a standby switch, and polarity switch. In 1969, Marshall replaced the Plexiglass panel with one of gold aluminum, and changed the tubes in the amp from KT66's to EL34's.

A closeup view of a 1971 Marshall Super Lead

Jimmy Page's Super Lead was manufactured in 1969 and made it's debut on stage in March of 1969. It has been speculated by some that the amp was once owned by Jimi Hendrix, but this has never been proven, and Page has said nothing about it himself. Jimmy shelved the amp in 1970, but it made a return to the stage in March of 1971 alongside his JP Hiwatts. Jimmy would switch to using Marshalls almost completely in 1972. In regards to use in the studio, Page has only verified he used them to record "Heartbreaker" and "Bring It On Home", any other use would only be speculation, but it can be assumed that he used them periodically.

Jimmy's main Super Lead was modified sometime around the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973, but then again as late as 1975, to be equipped for KT88's in order to increase the headroom and output of the amp. Marshall's would become almost completely identified with Jimmy Page as he used them as his main amps from 1972 to the present day in a variety of forms, but the first and most enigmatic, was the Super Lead.

Jimmy with the Super Lead in 1973