HOLY GRAIL Marshall Collection! | Iconic Amps

Transcription:

Hi folks! Uh, we have got one of the most incredible amp collections you're ever likely to see in your life, all under one roof! These boys are going to tell me all about it.

If you're looking at this, you're probably freaking out like we are. We've been freaking out for, like, a week because we got this unbelievable collection. Um, a single collector has been scouring the entire planet, um, for 40 years—around 40 years, he said—um, just amassing all of these things. And, uh, now it's time for them to find new owners, and he entrusted us to represent this collection and find new, happy owners of these incredible amplifiers.

We buy collections, we consign collections—small, large. We travel everywhere to pick these things up and bring them back. I want to share a little bit of what this experience was like because it was—it was very different from, um, most other ones. All of this stuff was—this in this incredible cabin. It's a beautiful place up in the mountains in Colorado.

Flew over there, got in a U-Haul, drove these winding gravel roads to get all the way up there. It was so tight that the last leg, the last switchback, we actually had to back the truck up a curvy mountainside! Wow, it was awesome.

The way to get back up to the truck was, you know, because this house was on a mountain, this stuff was in the basement, but the basement is at the ground level of the mountain—mountainside. So we had to walk out the back door and up a hill to where the U-Haul was parked. Two, three cabs in, I'm like, "Wow, I'm winded! I, what's going on? I'm—I'm not in great shape, but this is ridiculous!"

My colleague and I, Dan and I, um, totally forgot that this is happening at, literally, 7,000 ft in altitude compared to our usual Chicago, very, very grounded selves. And, uh, I was out of breath—breath—and my heart was, like, beating out of my chest, and I thought I was going to die. And, um, it was all worth it because, look at this!

So anyway, these are amazing amps. There's so many to talk about, there's so many details, we can't cover it all in one video. Um, and the truth be told, although I know a bit about these things, we have our resident Marshall—stop it—this guy right here, our resident Marshall expert, um, who obsesses over this stuff and knows more about this stuff than just about anybody I know. So, to talk about the details, here's Jonathan Urban and Nathaniel. And, fortunately, we have Nathaniel who can actually showcase what these things can do, because if I were playing music through them, no one would ever—you need that, uh, I think it's called "The Sound."

"Fraud?"

"Oh, for sure, for sure!"

There are going to be individual listings with details on every single one of these, and we're going to do videos with pretty much every single one, so you'll get to hear every single one. Uh, but on this video, do you want to just choose some of your favorites and some—some interesting ones to kind of talk about in detail, and I'll chime in with what—what little I know here and there?

"Yeah, there's some crazy ones here, um, some unicorns. Let's dive right in. Um, this head actually right here, to my knowledge, there's probably, like, 30 of these in existence. And this is a—this is a JTM 45/100, uh, serial number 7017, uh, it's a dual Vox vent, so it's got the tall, single transformer, uh, Vox vents at the top of the amp. Um, they only did this amp in this way for, like, six to eight months, maybe in that zone. Uh, like I said, there's about 30 of them in existence. I think ACDC has nine of them, so if that tells you anything how rare these are, um, really cool amp. This is known as, like, the Jimmy Hendrix, uh, early Clapton, Cream amp, for sure. It's—it's, uh, think of it as, like, if Marshall made a Twin, that's what this amp is. So this is their first 100-watt amp. It's actually more like 80 watts, uh, because it does, um, a little bit of an impedance thing and whatever. So it's a wonderful amp, though, super rare, um, really cool. And, uh, guess what? It's all original on the inside, too."

"So this is a—this is a baby."

"So, and I thought I was a nerd."

"Yeah, um, so the cabs, these are, um, uh, uh, matching cabs from '66, '67, so we'll have the notes on all that good business, um, but this full stack definitely goes together.

um, jumping over to this one, this is probably, um, the belle of the ball here. Um, this is, quite possibly, uh, one of the first purple Marshalls. Uh, notice how it's, like, actually a dark purple, uh, and just for reference, actually, if you—if you zoom over here, this is later, this is a '68, we'll come back to this one, but notice how much lighter this purple is. So I think they were probably experimenting with—with the colors, um, so, uh, yeah. And then notice, um, this is considered a Black Flag amplifier, so you'll notice on the faceplate, uh, it's got JTM in, uh, sort of this black flag logo, um, so this is a JTM 100 Super Lead, uh, they only made these in 1967, uh, and again, really hard to say if they were making purple amps before then, so this is, quite possibly, one of the first. We're looking into that, trying to—trying to see if we can somehow really be sure of that, right? Um, but a few people have actually told me that that was a possibility based on serial number, so it's more accurate to say it's one of the first, right? That's for sure. So, um, these cabs, okay, I open these up, these are super clean, uh, 1967 pinstripe cabs, so the perfect two cabinets to pair with this head.

over here, this is a, uh, uh, '68 JMP, uh, Super Bass 100-watt head. '68s are kind of known as, like, in terms of, like, gain and crunch and, like, when people think of, you know, a—a Super Lead or Super Bass amplifier, '68 is kind of that year that, like, you know, it's associated with Van Halen and, you know, uh, more like the Angus tone stuff with ACDC, uh, that's sort of this era of—of—of amplifier. So this is a really cool, uh, uh, pretty much all original, um, '68, uh, head, really fantastic. The cabs here, uh, this actually is a '69 cab, um, and it's got all original base cones in here, a little bit of a different flavor. You know who used bass cones? Was Paul Kossoff."

"Oh, Free. He's a big bass cone guy."

"So, um, I think he used medium magnets, but, uh, anyway these are heavy magnet bass cones, all heavy."

"And medium magnets. And there's—there's actually small magnet, too, which is not in this collection really, but, uh, those sound kind of puny, right? So this is all medium magnet and heavy magnet. This one's a 1968, and this one has lead cones. Um, so 1968, 1969, this is probably late 1968, right? Because they stopped the pinstripe mid-1968 thereabouts. So that's why this whole stack's kind of paired together because it—it all fits. Just want to mention one thing. Since you said that all of these pieces, except for one which we haven't talked about, are being sold individually, so somebody wants to buy this cab but not the whole thing, that's fine. Of course, we encourage people to buy full stacks. Look at them; forget about it. They sound incredible; forget about it.

we understand that, of course, somebody may want to buy this head and not this whole thing, or somebody may already have this but wants this. I mean, it's—it's all going to be individually, uh, for sale except for one thing which we'll eventually talk about, right?"

"Really cool amp here, talking about Black Flags again, 1967. Uh, this is a JTM 50, uh, so they—couple changes from the JTM 45. This is the first amp, uh, or one of the first amps where they switched to EL34s. Um, they were doing those in JTM 45s for a little bit, but then, uh, obviously went to this logo. Um, so this is actually a, um, uh, a tube rectified JTM 50 Black Flag. That's the official kind of, as it's known. So really cool amp. This allegedly was the amp that was on, like, uh, "Highway to Hell," "Back in Black," "For Those About to Rock." Uh, probably a ton of other records, but those are the ones that, you know, I know about. So cut two, full band Friday."

"Yeah, exactly. Yep."

"These two cabs underneath here, um, these are black logo cabs, probably from 1968. We know it's got, um, Rola re-cones, which is actually Rola was own—Seles. Um, so it was a factory re-cone on these speakers, I believe, in 1967, so it's got, like, some later speakers in it. This one's nuts. This has the original Alnikos, which actually Seles just, uh, reissued the speaker, so that's really cool to, uh, to have that and see it in person. Um, and, uh, yeah, cracking open this cabinet was kind of, like, whoa, is it safe to breathe this air? Like, this probably hasn't been opened in a while. So, um, anyway, really cool cabs there."

"Couple of early block logos. This one's a little bit earlier. Um, this one's had some stuff changed to it. You'll—you'll see that. So the price is, you know, reflected on that one. Um, this one's, uh, I believe, basically all original. So, and this is a later, uh, 1965 block logo, both JTM 45s. So, uh, this one has updated Transformers, so it's, uh, it's running EL34s currently, but, um, if you wanted to restore it, you totally could. There was, um, an invoice that suggested that this amp may have belonged to Billy Gibbons at some point. Um, in fact, it really suggests that, but he's—he wants to be very careful about that, because again, we—we can't prove anything. Yeah, but the point—the reason why I'm bringing that up is because the difference between those two amps is that the one on top was used a lot. It was probably toured. It was probably—so that's why it's been updated or upgraded or whatever. The—the modifications are there probably because it got used a lot. For sure."

"Okay, over here, uh, some really cool stuff. This is a 1968 50-watt lead, really cool amp. And then the one underneath it, this is a, uh, either 1969 or 1970, but, uh, it's a two-switcher. These both are. So that's, uh, means it was UK, you know, it wasn't a US import amp. Anytime you see the three switches, that's a US import. Two-switchers have a lay down transformer. So in terms of, they say, sound or collectibility and value, for sure, you definitely want the two-switcher. So that's what these are. This cabinet's, um, all original. This one also has base cones from 1970, 1971. Um, and that's consistent with, you know, mid-70s. Uh, they started using the checker cloth, you know, 1971 for sure. So, uh, that's what—that's what's going on here."

"Over on this side, a couple other really cool amps. This is a, uh, 1973. It's not handwired, but it's still super cool. So this is a circuit board, uh, first year the circuit board amps, but this is a factory red tolex, uh, 100-watt Super Lead. The one underneath it, this is really cool, actually. We'd have to look at the circuit, because I don't remember, uh, what's under here. But it says "Super Lead" on the back, but actually it has the, uh, window serial number. So that may suggest—again, we'd have to look at the circuit—it may suggest that it actually has a black flag circuit similar to the—the purple one, uh, but we'd have to crack it open to know for sure, because this is a, uh, a late 1967. So by that era, they had done away with the black flag that you saw on the other Hunter. And, uh, that's what's going on here. So really cool amp. Sounds awesome. Probably my third, uh, favorite amp in the whole collection."

"Isn't one of these—this one or this one—is in one of these books, right? It's kind of a big deal that it's in the Doyle book, for sure."

"Yeah, I forgot to mention that. So this, uh, JTM45 is actually featured in, I think, the 100th page of the first—do the page. I don't know, you can find it, but, um, yeah, it's—it's very clearly pictured in that book."

"So, this book is awesome. Kitchen Marshall. Yeah, that was all the spare parts. We've seen one of those before, have I? Yeah, in a very special place up in the hills of Hollywood."

"Oh, yeah. I'm not going to see anything. You should just walk in there."

"Oh, there it is. That's awesome. Oh, I don't want to bend this book. It's precious. That's the head. Oh, so that's which one's that one? Yep, that's so cool. That's it. Very nice. Well, you can see that that has, like, a little nick right there in the tolex, and that's it right there. And somebody just kind of use a Sharpie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that you wouldn't see wood. What was your favorite?"

"Listen, I'll be honest. I—I'd take any of them. I'll take any of them. But if I—I did have to choose, it'd be any three of these. Maybe the one in the middle, really. I think this sounds good, right? You know what's funny is that when Nathaniel started here at CME, he would—I would have to go walk up to, like, whenever he was doing videos. I'd like, "Dude, you have to turn the amp up. You have to turn it up for the amp to come alive, to push air." And he, you know, of course, this guy makes anything sound good at any volume. But, and now he walks into this room, and he's like, "I have to—you have to honestly, like, you just put that all the way up there." So, I mean, it'd be between that. I did, however, really like this. I remember at the time when we were filming, like, [ __ ] H, that sounds good. Um, that was incredible. And out for the red, you like the red one? Yeah, I did like the red one as well. But if I had to choose one—all right, you've all got to choose just one. I'll go with this, my man."

"Yes! Oh, you, my man. It's ridiculous. So good it is. That full stack is ridiculous."

"So for me, if I had to choose one, uh, and I'm not just doing this because we haven't talked about it, but we should talk about this amp a little bit. The only one that we're selling as a set, um, is this Hiwatt right here, this head and this Cal. And if you look on the side here, you can see why this is important. Um, this was Ron Wood's amp, uh, in Small Faces.

It's a documented amp that, um, has been written about in magazines. Uh, there's a great article on it in Vintage Guitar magazine. I can't remember when it came out, but we'll link to that if we can. But this amp sounds amazing. It—it truly is awesome. Original Fane speakers are on the cabinet. This has a half-power switch in the back that was apparently put there because the band requested it, but, uh, it just sounds glorious. It sounds awesome.

And on that note, this Hiwatt is a super early, very rare, not documented yet, although people who know a lot more about this than any of us are pretty convinced this is the first 100-watt amp, uh, that was made. Um, again, we will know more as things progress, but this collection also includes some pretty amazing, you know, Hiwatts, a Sound City Half Stack, and a whole bunch of other combos that were not part of this. This is obviously the, you know, the big British, you know, yeah, um, gang over here.

So, a huge honor to be playing through amps like these amps. You kind of only dream of as a kid, really, uh, and thanks to both of these guys for giving me all of the information about them. Uh, come get them. They're going to be selling pretty quick. And if you have a collection for sale, let me know. And I got to give a shout-out to, uh, my pal Greg. When Alec, uh, he's the head of our, uh, processing guy, uh, processing team, um, when we were going through all these cabs, I think I had Greg on FaceTime speed dial, like, 12 times. Um, hey, there's one more thing I wanted to mention, too, on this purple, oh yeah, H 100-watt. Get out. So, um, I mention again, my—my buddy Greg. Thank you again, Greg, for all the support, uh, you've given us on identifying this stuff. Funny thing, I was actually talking with Greg the other night. He goes, "Yeah, I definitely worked on that amp a few years back. It has my brand type, uh, bias supply caps, cathode bypass cap, and indicator lamp." So, basically, this amp, in other words, has been serviced by Greg. It sounds like it's been serviced by Greg. That's probably why it sounds, you know, the best of the bunch. So any, like, artist or player that's looking to go right into the studio with this thing, or if you want to take it out on a tour, I think it's road-ready, so 'cause it's ready to rock. So very cool.