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Jimmy Page Marshall


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The Marshall Tubes were KT66s. Besides the Marshall cranked a major key is that in the 70s, amps were running at a lower power voltage from the wall. Just like your home, tvs etc. So running your Vintage marshall now at 120watts from the wall DOES sound different than in the past when they were only drawing 95 to 110 watts. Another element are 2 wire split coil pickups. You can NAIL Jimmys tone from 73-75 with my Les Pauls.

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I believe Jimmy had the Marshalls modified to add more watts. (Similar to Ritchie Blackmore's Marshalls from 100 to 200 watts)

The most well known and debated is the heads being fitted with KT88s boosting the output to 200 watts. That all stems from a 1977 Guitar Player interview with Page where he was asked about his stage gear, he replys by saying "Marshall 100's which are customized by Tony Franks in New York (he customized Hendrix's amps too actually) so they're about 200 watts, KL88s or whatever they call them." Those were his exact words, he even said KL88s not KT88s, I think it's clear he meant KT88s though. Other mods ranging from simple tonestack tweaks, to the preamp being wired for more gain have been suggested over the years. It's often argued the change over to cleaner tones in '75 was the result of the KT88s. Others argue KT88s were there as early as the '73 US tour explaining the tones from that tour and most notably the Garden shows (TSRTS performance). It's hard to say what the cause some of the tonal changes are, simple volume/eq changes, recording gear, different speakers, etc... so many possibilities, there were definitely some slight tonal changes on stage though over the years. In a Guitar World, May 1986 article, guitar technician Tim Marten said that the Marshall recently returned from the factory in England where new transformers were installed and the amp was boosted from its original 100 watts.

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I believe Jimmy had the Marshalls modified to add more watts. (Similar to Ritchie Blackmore's Marshalls from 100 to 200 watts)

The most well known and debated is the heads being fitted with KT88s boosting the output to 200 watts. That all stems from a 1977 Guitar Player interview with Page where he was asked about his stage gear, he replys by saying "Marshall 100's which are customized by Tony Franks in New York (he customized Hendrix's amps too actually) so they're about 200 watts, KL88s or whatever they call them." Those were his exact words, he even said KL88s not KT88s, I think it's clear he meant KT88s though. Other mods ranging from simple tonestack tweaks, to the preamp being wired for more gain have been suggested over the years. It's often argued the change over to cleaner tones in '75 was the result of the KT88s. Others argue KT88s were there as early as the '73 US tour explaining the tones from that tour and most notably the Garden shows (TSRTS performance). It's hard to say what the cause some of the tonal changes are, simple volume/eq changes, recording gear, different speakers, etc... so many possibilities, there were definitely some slight tonal changes on stage though over the years. In a Guitar World, May 1986 article, guitar technician Tim Marten said that the Marshall recently returned from the factory in England where new transformers were installed and the amp was boosted from its original 100 watts.

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The most well known and debated is the heads being fitted with KT88s boosting the output to 200 watts. That all stems from a 1977 Guitar Player interview with Page where he was asked about his stage gear, he replys by saying "Marshall 100's which are customized by Tony Franks in New York (he customized Hendrix's amps too actually) so they're about 200 watts, KL88s or whatever they call them." Those were his exact words, he even said KL88s not KT88s, I think it's clear he meant KT88s though. Other mods ranging from simple tonestack tweaks, to the preamp being wired for more gain have been suggested over the years. It's often argued the change over to cleaner tones in '75 was the result of the KT88s. Others argue KT88s were there as early as the '73 US tour explaining the tones from that tour and most notably the Garden shows (TSRTS performance). It's hard to say what the cause some of the tonal changes are, simple volume/eq changes, recording gear, different speakers, etc... so many possibilities, there were definitely some slight tonal changes on stage though over the years. In a Guitar World, May 1986 article, guitar technician Tim Marten said that the Marshall recently returned from the factory in England where new transformers were installed and the amp was boosted from its original 100 watts.

I own a Marshall 1959 amp and cabinet (similar to what Page used but 100 watts) and love that amp. If you get the opportunity, listen to Sick Again from the second night at Copenhagen from 1979 and you can hear the power that amp had. I also saw Blackmore in concert with Deep Purple and it was by far the loudest concert I ever went to. They didn't need a PA system.

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