Originally built to handle bass but often favoured for guitar by artists like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, the Super Bass™ was Jim Marshall's first amp which used a solid state rectifier. As well as the solid state rectifiier, the Super Bass™ also features slightly higher filtering giving a more immediate and 'tighter' playing feel than the regular P50.
This reproduction is based on the legendary JMP Bass™ (Model 1986) built around 1968 which has influenced countless players and is heard on albums from the late 60's until today. Given the many variations in any Park or Marshall circuit over the years, the particular amp Park chose to reproduce was used and loved by the late, great Dan Achen of the band JunkHouse and was the go-to favorite house amp in the Catherine North Studios, Hamilton.
A great amp with a great Legacy.
Mitch Colby’s signature mods (now standard):
- Push-pull pot 1 - upper mid boost across both channels
- Push-pull pot 2 - applies separate value bright caps across both channels
- PPIMV.- Post Phase Inverter Master Volume now standard - overdrive the Park P50 at lower volume levels - or crank the Master Volume to effectively remove from the circuit as in the original Jim Marshall Park P50 design.
The PPIMV is a volume control after the signal is split by the phase inverter tube and just before it goes into the power section (tubes) of the amp. Because the PPIMV comes after the phase inverter tube it benefits from a little more added ‘overdrive’ when compared to the PrePIMV.
A neat trick with the PPIMV is that by cranking it you are essentially ‘taking it out of the circuit completely’ and hearing the amp without a Master Volume which only became available in later models.
- EL34 tubes = classic British tone
- 2 Channel / 4 Input (`Jump` the two channels for additional tonal range and tube saturation).
- 40 Watts clean, 70 Watts cranked.
- Solid state rectifier.
Wattage: 50W
Channels: 2
Inputs: Channel 1 High, Channel 1 Low, Channel 2 High, Channel 2 Low
Output: 2 x 1/4" Speaker Out
Impedance: Switchable using Impedance Selector on the rear panel — 4 Ω, 8 Ω, or 16 Ω
Preamp Valves: 3 x 12AX
Output Valves: 2 x EL34
Controls:
Channel 1 Volume, Channel 2 Volume
3-Band EQ shared by both channels — Bass, Treble, Middle
Brightness (Presence) shared by both channels