Marshall Super 100JH

Who’s It For?
Well-heeled players and collectors who want the closest thing to the first Marshalls used by Hendrix.
Kudos
A stunning replica of the 1966 Super 100. If
you really want to sound like Jimi, this is the amp you need.
Concerns
Vintage-style leather strap handles on the speaker cabinets make you see why Marshall switched to inset side handles.
Price
$8,000 retail (full stack)/ street price N/A
Contact
Marshall Amplification, (631) 390-8737;
www.marshallamps.com

• Two channels (Normal and High Treble)
• Dual input jacks for each channel
• Normal and High Treble Loudness controls
• Shared Presence, Bass, Middle, and Treble controls
• Three Marshall-labeled JJ 12AX7 (ECC83) preamp tubes
• Four Marshall-labeled Golden Dragon KT66 power tubes
• Handwired circuitry
• Impedance selector (100-volt line, 8, 16 ohms)
• Voltage selector (100, 120, 230 volts)
• 100 watts
• 46.5 lbs (actual)
• Speaker cabinets: 1982AJH (angled front) and 1982BJH (straight front); both cabinets feature four Celestion G12C 25-watt speakers

No image of Jimi Hendrix in concert is complete without a wall of Marshall stacks in the background. Hendrix pretty much showed the world what could be done with an amp of the Super 100’s magnitude, and the story of how Jimi came to use Marshall amplifiers is best told by the man who was destined to cross paths with Hendrix at a moment when all the guitarist needed was the right amplifier to make it all happen. That man, of course, was Jim Marshall, and here, in his own words, he recalls how Hendrix and he formed one of the most mutually beneficial alliances in rock history.
“During the mid 1960s, a lot of up-and-coming and famous guitarists came to see me at my shop in Hanwell in West London,” remembers Marshall, “but there’s one particular visitor I’ll never forget. One Saturday in the autumn of 1966, a tall, lanky American chap walked in with Johnny Mitchell—or ‘Mitch,’ as most people know him. The bloke’s name was James Marshall Hendrix, and he quickly became the greatest ambassador my amplifiers have ever had.
“When he was a teenager, Mitch used to work at my shop as a ‘Saturday boy,’ and also take drum lessons from me. He was a very talented lad, and he quickly became one of my top students. When Jimi came over to England in 1966, Mitch auditioned for his band and got the drumming job. Jimi had heard Marshall amplifiers being played by other musicians, and got his first real taste of them when he jammed with Cream [on October 1, 1966 at Regent Polytechnic College in London], and got to play through one of Eric Clapton’s Super 100 stacks. A few days later, Jimi played at Ronnie Scott’s club in Soho, and ended up using the Marshall stacks that were on stage. Pete Townshend also loaned one of his Super 100 stacks to Jimi.
“I’m delighted to say that Jimi fell in love with the Marshall sound straight away, and knowing that Mitch knew me, he said, ‘I’ve just got to have this Marshall amplification. Can I meet up with this character who has my name—James Marshall?’ Mitch said, ‘Well, Jim is always so busy. I’ll doubt he’ll have time to come out and see you, but I can take you to his shop and you can talk to him there.’
“When Mitch brought Jimi to my shop, the very first words he said to me were, ‘I’ve just got to have this Marshall stuff!’ I thought to myself, ‘Oh crickey, that’s all I need—another American guitarist coming over here thinking I was going to sponsor him.’ But then, in virtually his next breath, Jimi said, ‘I don’t want anything given to me. I want to pay full retail price for whatever I order.’ That impressed me greatly, and then he added, ‘But I’m going to need service wherever I am in the world.’ My first thought was, ‘Oh Christ, he’s going to expect me to send an engineer all over the place every time a valve needs replacing.’ As that wasn’t exactly practical, I suggested we teach his roadie how to change and bias valves and other basic amplifier servicing skills. Jimi liked the idea, and his roadie must’ve been a good learner, because we were never called out at all.
“Despite his somewhat wild appearance and his incredible, larger-than-life on-stage persona, Jimi was a very soft spoken and extremely polite young man with an unbelievable sense of humor. We hit it off right away, and we remained good friends right up to his unfortunate and untimely death. Sadly, because we both had such busy schedules, I only got to see him perform three or four times. But on those occasions, I’d always go back stage for a chat and a laugh with him. Jimi really was a lovely man.” —AT

The reference amplifier used as a basis for the Super 100JH is a vintage Super 100 (pictured above) owned by Rich Dickinson of England. Dickinson bought it in 1971 from Nottingham’s Carlsboro Sound, which had advertised it as being previously owned by Hendrix. A worker in the store reportedly told Dickinson the amp was sold to them by one of Hendrix’s roadies, and the “J.H. Exp” stenciled on the top would seem to confirm that story. However, a key feature that strongly indicates that this amp—serial number 7026—could have been one of Jimi’s is a small change to its tone circuitry, which consisted of replacing a 56k ohm resistor with a 33k ohm resistor, and a 250 pf capacitor with a 500 pf cap. This gave the amp a moderate treble boost, along with an increase in bottom end and low mids. According to Marshall’s research—which included talking to Jimi’s techs and also people at Marshall who actually worked on his amps—all of the Super 100s from 1966 that Hendrix used probably featured this mod. Hendrix definitely requested a bit more drive and cut from his Marshalls, and apparently other players did, too, as this modification eventually became standard in all Marshall preamp circuits.
Another interesting aspect of the original Super 100 is that its high-voltage DC supply was less capable of delivering the current demanded from the power stage under load than that of the post-1968 100-watt models. This produced a slight sag or compression in the response that is characteristic of the early 100-watt amps. This same high-voltage DC filtering circuit and period-correct smoothing capacitor is incorporated into the Super 100JH in order to accurately replicate the original’s softer dynamic response. A final nod to the JH’s vintage authenticity comes in the form of the hum it produces when in standby mode. According to Marshall’s Steve Dawson, who was the head engineer on the JH project, this is caused by the power transformer inducing 60Hz hum into the output transformer—and therefore into the speakers. Modern amps typically have their transformers at opposite ends of the chassis to prevent this type of proximity hum. —AT