Marshall Superbass head

I could be wrong, but Lemmy and Chris Squire come to mind. I also think Bruce Foxton of the Jam used one for awhile and got some gnarly, very agressive tones from it. I'm not an expert on this head, but I believe it's of relatively low wattage (200w?), has very prominent mids (could be the Rickenbackers these players were using) and usually breaks up fairly early. It would certainly be a different tone than the ultra clean, full-frequency bass sound most players use these days. It might really make you stand out ina good way.

 

Had one!

 

The Superlead 100 had a far superior tone a "great" Fender tone. Lacking in bass though. So when I got the Bass head it had the muddled bass over the whole range like the way a bass control affects all the tone on a cheap car stereo.
I was using a real '57 Maple neck Precision and one or two 2-15 cabinets. Using Marshall cabinets of the day changes this equation as the 4x12s had their own characteristic sound. Had a Marshall Major but none really did it big like a Hiwatt(pure rich tone) or Sunn 2000s.

 

There was in the 60s and 70s opinion that British watts were double American watts. When the Jeff Beck Group was happening Ron Wood played bass. A great player, find "Beck Ola". He used two Majors. So did the bassist of Ten Years After. He slapped in a way that was really a slap not todays slap. See the Woodstock Movie you might catch a glance. Live album "Undead". You know Billy Cox used two Superbass 100s. Becasue of their power handling bassists often used cabs that said 100 on them. The standard was 50 watt. With a Rickenbacker they were very trebly and issued in an era of that sound. Noel Redding got a bassier sound. When he joined the Experience John Entwistle told him the going sound was Fender bass rotosounds and a Marshall 100 with two cabs. Originally their were Marshall cabs that were specifically bass and said bass in the left corner and would go lower then the guitar ones. Bass ones 1935a or b
slanted and straight. guitar 1960a or b and 100s were 1982 a or b.

 

There's a Marshall basshead on an ebay auction right now... but that's about all I know about them. This particular head has 400w of tube power. I wasn't even aware they still made them and assumed all marshall bass heads were vintage items.

Anyway, the thing looks massive and is far out of my price range and would be pure overkill for my uses (and I don't know what it sounds like).