16 replies to this topic

[Giordano]

On stage you often see the man using to full marshall stacks (setup in his own personal way)
why did he use two stacks?

The third one was for the Theremin. The other two must have been for the guitar.

Was there one as a backup or did he link them together?
Does anyone know?

[joey1985]

Befor there were good PA's if bands wanted to play louder they needed bigger amps and cabintes, so john and pete from the who asked Jim Marshall to help them which created the "stack". A lot of people still prefer to use stacks even after the advancement of PA technology. Here is a link below.

http://www.thewho.ne...shallstack.html

[Giordano]

I meant; Page has TWO stacks on stage.
I know about the absence of PA's.

Did he link the two stacks together with a splitter or did use one as backup or for a different sound

so three amps in total...one for the theremin and two for guitar. why the two?

[joey1985]

you can jump old marshall and fender heads together or with marshalls and I think Hiwatt too you can jump one with itself and slave it into the other head. It's just louder that's all. By 71 Jimmy was only using 3 marshall 4x12's on his side with the one orange head and 2 orange cabinets. I've always wanted to know why 3 cabinets and 2 heads, maybe the marshall cabinet on Jone's side is the 4th cabinet from Jimmy's set up. You might have better luck on a marshall forum.

[joey1985]

Everything before 71 was simple, 2 heads 4 cabinets. Like royal Albert hall for example, two heads and 4 cabinets. But about the same time he went to 3 Marshalls cabinets seems to be about the same time a Marshall cabinet shows up on Jone's side. I have seen pictures where both Marshall heads had both (2) speaker inputs plugged in, so each cabinet has one input, so 2 heads with two inputs each equals 4 total speaker cables which means 4 cabintes, but only 3 cabinets are present on Jimmy's side in the same picture?? Your guess is good as any

[joey1985]

Also, part way into 73 at some point his orange cabinets were redone in black tolex, don't mistake those for marshalls, they were for the theremin.

[f2walsh]

Good thread - thanks.

[Giordano]

It would make sense to have a cabinet on the other side of the drumskit.
For himself whenever he felt like making a strole to other side of the stage (with no monitoring you'd have some trouble hearing yoirself pleasently)
and for Jones and Plant.
slaving them sounds plausibel as well. no monitors but also no house PA. So all you's hear in the back of the hall, would be what's coming from the actual amp itself.
It's a wonder they maintained any hearing at all.

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

What ye

Everything before 71 was simple, 2 heads 4 cabinets. Like royal Albert hall for example, two heads and 4 cabinets. But about the same time he went to 3 Marshalls cabinets seems to be about the same time a Marshall cabinet shows up on Jone's side. I have seen pictures where both Marshall heads had both (2) speaker inputs plugged in, so each cabinet has one input, so 2 heads with two inputs each equals 4 total speaker cables which means 4 cabintes, but only 3 cabinets are present on Jimmy's side in the same picture?? Your guess is good as any

ars are we taking about? Because by 1972, he had only one full stack on stage and three half stacks.

What years are we taking about? Because by 1972, he had only one full stack on stage and three half stacks: Marshall full stack, Marshall half stack, and two Orange half stacks. One with a Marshall amp head and one was for the theremin with an Orange amp head.

Sydney, Australia 2/27/1972


Dundee, Scotland 1/27/1973


San Antonio, Texas 5/22/1973


Inglewood, California 6/3/1973


Later in 1973, he painted the Orange cabinets black. He ripped the Orange label off the front of the amp as he did with the Marshalls and replaced the Orange amp heads with Marshalls. There are more photo's from 1975 that show it.

Chicago, Illinois 1/21/1975


US Tour 1975


Chicago, Illinois 1/20/1975


US Tour 1975



By 1977, he got rid of the Orange amps and had all Marshall's.

Landover, Maryland 5/28/77



That Marshall cab could have possibly been Jones'. He put all of his beers and shit on it. Maybe it was just there.

Edited by JimmyPageZoSo56, 17 May 2012 - 01:31 PM.

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

Sorry, I can't find anymore good examples of '77.

Edited by JimmyPageZoSo56, 17 May 2012 - 01:32 PM.

[joey1985]

are you fuckig serious dude, everything you just said I already said, and it was 75 when he switched his orange amp for another super lead head

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

you can jump old marshall and fender heads together or with marshalls and I think Hiwatt too you can jump one with itself and slave it into the other head. It's just louder that's all. By 71 Jimmy was only using 3 marshall 4x12's on his side with the one orange head and 2 orange cabinets. I've always wanted to know why 3 cabinets and 2 heads, maybe the marshall cabinet on Jone's side is the 4th cabinet from Jimmy's set up. You might have better luck on a marshall forum.

Uh...no. Mmmmm. Those look like Hiwatts to me and its 1971. And he is clearly using more Marshall's than just three.

Southampton 3/11/71


Newcastle-upon-Trye 3/18/71


Milan 7/5/71


Berkeley 9/14/71


By this point he had Hiwatts, Marshalls, and Orange amps. However, it was not the set up he used from 1972-1975.

Tokyo 9/23/71



You can see the Hiwatts and Marshalls on stage left, Jimmy's side and Orange on stage right, probably Jimmy's, on stage left, Jones' side. And he had TWO Orange amp heads and TWO Orange cab.

By the Fall U.K. tour, he had the exact same set up as he did in the U.S. and Japan.

London(specific date undetermined) 1971



It was not until 1972 that I did indeed say that the amp set up changed to what you claim happened in 1971.

Melbourne 2/20/72

are you fuckig serious dude, everything you just said I already said, and it was 75 when he switched his orange amp for another super lead head

So no I didn't repeat you.



But I do admit I was wrong about the switching of the amp head in 1973.

Edited by JimmyPageZoSo56, 24 May 2012 - 04:13 PM.

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

Edit* Jones' side was stage right.

The U.S. 1972 tour he slightly changed his amp set up from what he had in Australia. He had three Marshall cabs, two Marshall amp heads, and two Univox cabs. The Univox amps were most likely for the theremin.

San Bernardino 6/22/72


San Diego 6/23/72


Inglewood 6/25/72


In Japan and Montreux, he officially switched to the Marshall for guitars and Orange for theremin set-up that he had in Australia; however, he had three Marshall heads, not two at this time.

Osaka 10/9/72


Montreux(specific date is undetermined) 1972 (supposedly 10/28/72)


Montreux(specific date is undetermined) 1972 (supposedly 10/29/72)


When Led Zeppelin did the Fall U.K. tour in 1972, he had the same exact set-up as he did in Australia and got rid of the third Marshall head on the full stack. This was his amp set up until the end of the U.S. 1973 tour.

Aberdeen 1/27/72]

Edited by JimmyPageZoSo56, 25 May 2012 - 12:44 PM.

[joey1985]

Your right it was 72 and I honestly knew that but was not paying attention to detail as I wrote all of the above., That last picture is the same set up he used all the way till the last zeppelin show, however he switched the orange head for another super lead and had the orange cabinets redone in black tolex. His amp set up has always been very strange at times, i'e seen pictures with two hiwatt heads, 4 marshall cabinets and two WEM speakers. Also I believe all of 71 he used the JP hiwatt dr103's with one or two super leads

[Giordano]

I thought this thread was about the reason for having multiple amps (apart from the theremin one) on stage....

I come back from a holiday and it has turned into a pissing contest about who has had the most wanking sessions while analyzing Zep photographs. :-)

hahaha.
seriously. I know, it's fun to categorize all these insignificant facts.

Does anyone know what picks he used during the 76 -Eurasian tour?

[joey1985]

well the reason for multiple amps is to run multiple cabinets, only 2 cabinets can be ran off one amp, at least on the super leads and i'm sure the hiwatts were the same. basically for volume, unless you set one amp different from the other and split the signal or slave them into one another, you can mix up tones, but most those guys like clapton with cream, pete otwnshend, hendrix and page did it to get more volume. in fact volume was the whole reason for the need for a 100 watt head and an 8x12 cabinet ( later split in half to two 4x12 cabinets) that john and pete frpm the who asked jim marshall to build. more volume means more cabinets which means more amps. i have played out of two vintage 100 watt tube heads at the same time with ear plugs and it made my hair vibrate!

[JesseNoah]

Jimmy's older Marshall superleads where capable of running four 16 ohm cabs at once. My bet is that the 4x12 on Jonsey's side was Pagey's guitar, Page had 3 cabs on his side of guitar, plus 2 cabs running theremin


As loud as Bonham was, stage volume had to be maxed out to hear anything besides drums!

Edited by JesseNoah, 01 November 2012 - 01:22 AM.