Marshall 1959HW Super Lead reissue head

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arshall’s famous 1959 ‘Plexi’ is

arguably the most famous amp of

all time. From its genesis in the

late-sixties, a Super Lead 100 sat atop

two 4 x 12 Celestion-loaded cabinets is

still for many players the deﬁ nitive rock

guitar rig. Hendrix, Clapton, Kossoff,

Beck, Page and Van Halen, to name just

a few, have all used this amp at one time

or another and created history with it,

recording some of the most inﬂ uential

tracks ever committed to tape. For

some time now Marshall has offered a

printed circuit board ‘Plexi’ reissue, but

following the introduction of its Hand-

Wired series 1974 and 2061 amps, the

question everyone’s been asking is,

“when is the hand-wired 1959 going to

be made?” Well, the wait is ﬁ nally over:

the ‘Plexi’ is now available in the

original format that was used for only a

few years before Marshall switched to

PCB manufacture, turning the hand-

wired ‘Plexi’ into the holy grail of guitar

ampliﬁ ers.

Cosmetically, this is as close as you

can get to an original with a stout

plywood cabinet made to the correct

dimensions and covered with the

earlier small-grain vinyl. Other details,

like the smaller gold-faced logo and

gold-painted Plexiglas control panels

(which gave this model its nickname)

are exactly spot-on too.

A lot of mythology, often from dealers

looking to jack up the price, has grown

up around this ampliﬁ er. However,

underneath the skin, the 1959 is a

simple circuit with roughly 60 small

components on a neatly-wired turret

board. This particular version is typical

of those made towards the end of the

‘Plexi’ era, with the ﬁ lter caps sitting on

top of a steel, as opposed to aluminium,

chassis. Marshall has gone to great

trouble to ensure the components are

as correct as possible, with the all-

important transformers and choke

made by Dagnall to the earlier C1998

speciﬁ cation. The standard of wiring

and soldering is exceptionally high,

Marshall 1959HW Super

Lead reissue head

£1,399

Marshall’s original ﬂ agship joins its new Hand-Wired range. The original ‘Plexi’ sound that

launched rock guitar is better than ever – and even louder than we remember!

by Nick Guppy

130 JUNE 2005

PHOTOGRAPHY GAVIN ROBERTS

GIT264.marshall 130GIT264.marshall 130 29/4/05 11:49:31 am29/4/05 11:49:31 am

Summary of content (3 pages)

PAGE 1
PHOTOGRAPHY GAVIN ROBERTS Marshall 1959HW Super Lead reissue head £1,399 Marshall’s original flagship joins its new Hand-Wired range. The original ‘Plexi’ sound that launched rock guitar is better than ever – and even louder than we remember! by Nick Guppy M arshall’s famous 1959 ‘Plexi’ is arguably the most famous amp of all time. From its genesis in the late-sixties, a Super Lead 100 sat atop two 4 x 12 Celestion-loaded cabinets is still for many players the definitive rock guitar rig.
PAGE 2
MARSHALL 1959HW SUPER LEAD REISSUE HEAD £1,399 GUITAR AMPS To get the ultimate ‘Plexi’ sound, run the jumper lead from bottom left input to top right – then plug your guitar into the top left Using a small jumper lead to combine both channels is the secret for real ‘Plexi’ tone. You get a thicker sound which can be ﬁne-tuned by balancing one volume control against the other with neat lacing around the main bundles of cable and twisted heater leads pushed into the chassis corner to reduce hum.
PAGE 3
MARSHALL 1959HW SUPER LEAD REISSUE HEAD £1,399 GUITAR AMPS MARSHALL 1959HW SUPER LEAD REISSUE HEAD PRICE: £1,399 ORIGIN: UK TYPE: All-valve singlechannel Class AB head with solid-state rectification OUTPUT: 100W RMS VALVES: Three ECC83/ 12AX7 preamp, four selected JJ EL34 power amp DIMENSIONS: 250 (h) x 640 (w) x 240mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 21/44 CABINET: Birch ply CHANNELS: Two, nonswitching.