Surprisingly, this is old news for anyone who is an avid follower of SoloDallas. http://www.solodallas.com/the-vintage-marshall-guide/ Anyway, on Fil's website, JaiminhoPagina made an article explaining all the different models of vintage marshalls and the company's history with them. In said article, he reveals several tasty tidbits about the amp Slash used to record Appetite for Destruction. It doesn't disclose the current wherabouts though. You'll have to search a bit to find the correct section, but it's there.
Apparantly the head was a 1959 super lead tremolo that was modded by the rental company that owned it.
Tim Caswelll was the guy who did the modded Marshall Super Tremolo 100 watt amp head for Slash and George Lynch when he was working at SIR Studios in L.A. He also designed the Soldano X-99 preamp with the motorized knobs. Here's his website and he still does killer Marshall amp mods: http://caswellamps.studioelectronics.com/products.html Guitar George
Any chance you could ask them for a copy that we could post over here with their copyright detailing the material is theirs? It just save a few hundred members who are interested in having sign up to a whole new site. Not that this is too hard to register, there just a limit on how many sites do we need to clutter with our details. Anyway an idea. If it doesn't pan out, I'll register up, but if you could the admin for us that would be appreciated. Cheers
Register? No, I don't think so. Shameless plug is right. I'm not signing up to some goober's website just to watch a video/read an article.
From the site... Marshall Super Tremolo. Note: 8 knobs instead of 6 These amps had an extra 12ax7 tube for the “tremolo” effect. They are easy to tell apart because the two extra knobs (“speed” and “intensity” on the front panel. These amps weren’t much popular and were discontinued in 1973. On a side note, a faulty Marshall Super Lead #1959T was modified by Tim Caswell (he used the extra 12ax7 as another gain stage on the pre-amp), and it became the legendary #39 of SIR studios in California, USA. The amp was desired by every musician that rented it. SIR studios declined all the offers they received for it. Then, this amp was used on the rehearsal sessions of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Appettite for Destruction album. Because of rumors that Slash was going to steal the amp (and legend says he did it!), SIR studios switched amps, and Slash ended up “renting” #36 instead: a late 70′s JMP, also modified like #39 (He didn’t notice the difference?). AFD was recorded with this amp. Then, a misinformed roadie returned it a year later (and was probably fired afterwards). Both amps never were seen again. (Creepy, huh? XD)
This is old news, though still quite cool... a similar account is posted here: http://www.slashsworld.com/equipment/amps/the-appetite-amp-story/sweet-marshall-o-mine/ W.