Bonhams 1793 : 1984 Marshall JCM-800 amplifiers and speaker cabinets A pair of JCM 800 Lead series 50W MKII amps: Serial No.s SO3314 and SO3293; and a pair of JCM 800 Lead series 100W MKII Super Lead: Serial No.s SI5384 and SI5385;7

1984 Marshall JCM-800 amplifiers and speaker cabinets A pair of JCM 800 Lead series 50W MKII amps: Serial No.s SO3314 and SO3293; and a pair of JCM 800 Lead series 100W MKII Super Lead: Serial No.s SI5384 and SI5385;7

9 Mar 2011 13:00 EST New York
The Eric Clapton sale of Guitars and Amps in aid of the Crossroads Centre
Back to auction 19226

1984 Marshall JCM-800 amplifiers and speaker cabinets

A pair of JCM 800 Lead series 50W MKII amps: Serial No.s SO3314 and SO3293; and a pair of JCM 800 Lead series 100W MKII Super Lead: Serial No.s SI5384 and SI5385;
each amp in a front control casing in black tolex covering, gray front cloth, large white Marshall logo, brushed gold control panel with six rotary controls, two rocker switches, four jack inputs, multi-voltage models, [back panels missing on 50W amps]; and black flight case to transport all four heads together with THE DUCK BROS. stencil on lid and number 5 on the side, with various stickers; and two 4x12 JCM 800 Lead speaker cabinets, top serial no. 15816, bottom serial no. 9387, in black tolex covering, black grille cloth, both with Cannon plug inputs on back [cabinets lacking speakers] (7)

Sold for US$ 9,150 inc. premium

Footnotes

In his interview with Dan Forte in Guitar Player magazine in1985, Clapton explained that he has recently gone back to Marshall amps from the Music Man amps that he had been using.

Mike Hill, formerly a director of Marshall Amplification recently recalled that, in 1984, he was contacted by Clapton's guitar technician and visited him at Shepperton or Bray Studios where he was rehearsing for Roger Waters' tour and personally delivered Marshall 1959 Super Lead and 1987 Lead 50 amplifiers and 1960 speaker cabinets.

Clapton's guitar technician commented to Dan Forte that having tried the 50W amplifiers brought by Mike Hill, Clapton loved it and bought two of the 50W (1987) and 100W (1959) models, which are the amplifiers in this lot.

Clapton went on to use these amplifiers for the 1984 Roger Waters Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking Tour as well as Clapton's subsequent tours from 1985 to 1987 including his appearance at The Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium on 13 July 1985.

Photo: a) One of the JCM-800 amps in this lot, or one similar, is seen behind Clapton at rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall Cream Reunion concerts, April 2005. Clapton is reputed to have tried using Marshall amps and a Gibson Les Paul to evoke the Cream era during the rehearsals but reverted to using Fenders content to leave a plastic Marshall mini-amp placed on top of his Twin Amps on a specially built amp rack in Lot 137 to give something like a stacked height. Photograph courtesy of Jill Furmanovsky/Rockarchive.com
Photo: b) One of the amplifiers in this lot returned to power Clapton's favourite Leslie cabinet on stage in the early 2000s as pictured here in 2001. Cover art courtesy of Where's Eric!

Further background information about this lot is available by using the condition report facility at www.bonhams.com or by contacting the department.