Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've never seen a Marshall bass amp for sale in my area in my 30 years of playing.

If I ever did I'd probably buy it just because of that.

Hey John-found the caps @ Mouser Electronics.

They're 2 650MFD x 350V.

lotta voltage in there;

Now we know what Jared might look like!

That pic would have been funnier if it had been Geordi La Forge, considering the history of the blackout bars...

Glad you found some, Jared

What, a cross between Geordi and Worf?

Capacitance is futile

He'd be playing that black 8-stringer, wouldn't he?

I've had an old Superbass 100, a 2001, and a DBS 200. IMHO the Superbass sounded very good as long as you didn't put it through Marshall 4x12s(I HATE those cabs, they don't work for me at all), the 2001 sucked big time (sounded great in the shop and poor everywhere else), and the DBS was average; unfortunately nowhere near as good as my old Trace and about as good as the Ampeg SVP + poweramp combo I used prior to buying it (I didn't much like that either). Of the bunch, I'd choose the Superbass every time with a Ric.

My personal favorite top is the Marshall 3540 (lighter and versatile than the SVT-IV) together with an Ampeg 8-10 box. However the Ampeg B3-158 combo, one of the biggest combos is soundwise very close to it. The regular 4-12 stack boxes of Marshall I only like in the guitar version (of course for guitar), the bass versions never convinced me.

The Superbass is great for that filthy valve sound and its great for recording but onstage it needs help with projecting the bottom end. Thats harking back to the 70s when Squire would run the Marshall plus the Sunn amps for the bottom end.These days he still uses the Superbass along with his Ampeg.I think I will email Jim Marshall and tell him to get busy designing some rackmount bass heads to compete with the (Chinese) SVT range!..Shawn you were right thats the UMIST.(University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology...where the first computer was developed and where splitting the atom was developed so its all our fault)Mind you I wonder if they could develop an 8x10 that folds up into the size of a mobile phone?

I used to use a Superbass through a 2x15 cab and never had any problem with bottom to be honest, but then I don't have a really bottom-endy sound on stage anyway; I tend to take a lot of the bottom off. Plus I'm not exactly playing huge venues. But even when I played the Marquee I only used a 150W amp through 2 4x10s and never got it past 3; I'm never loud on stage.

So did Marshall ever stop making bass amps for any amount of time? I was under the impression that they hadn't made any for a long time since nobody really talked about them and I never saw them in stores or catalogues. Seems like some of you guys have been using them all along though...?

I've been using an old one, the Major, for awhile. The Super Bass 100 and the newer JCM 800 Super Bass are somewhere...

Changed one of the JCM's to EL34's, now THAT's a dirty sound!

Here's mine, got it new 10 years ago, perfect studio bass amp, but I have also used it and an Ampeg Rocket Bass combo in a 2-amp live set-up which sounded amazing.

"I wonder if they could develop an 8x10 that folds up into the size of a mobile phone?"

Or at least small and light enough to throw in the trunk (boot).