Frank Zappa's VINTAGE MARSHALL COMBO AMPLIFIERS

Hi guys, I have been searching through every Google Picture result and Marshall forum, still I can not find the model names of the left two vintage Marshall combo amps that Frank Zappa used. Can you please find out the model names and post them here? Thanks. :-)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d8/e1/fb/d8e1fbc0df335bc591a1cfadeefef380.jpg

I'm not sure those are actually franks amps and guitars, the whole picture looks photoshopped together from this shot of just the amps thatI think appeared in an issue of Vintage Guitar and belong to a writer or reader if I am not mistaken. I found a few shots without Zapa, some with and some without the SGs, but none of them link right. Just look around the web, you'll find that the guitars, amps and frank are all different pictures and this is a collage.

but the combo amps pictured are a great question that deserves an answer:

in the middle the brown one is a 90s acoustic model, the one next to that with the brown cloth could be 6 or 7 different models. I think its a late JMP based on the top-load, but the grille when coupled to the plastic corner protectors scream 800 series, which is weird. Its most likely a late 70s master volume combo of some kind. So it could be a 100 watt mk1 master volume with the 2 channels and split cathodes but a global master (like the ones Neil Giraldo uses), or it could be the proto-800 with cascaded stages in either 50 or 100. THose came in combos. If the brownish grille is original it is most certainly a 50 or 100 watt proto-JCM combo. If its replaced? then it could be a 1st gen, 2 channel amster amp. It might even be an Artiste keyboard amp, although I've never seen one with that grille and those corner protectors. The combos on the sides are some sort of early solid state amp probably. At first I thought they were the marshall mercury 5 watt amp from the early 70s, but a quick google search reminded me of how dumb they looked and these little guys are rather attractive... most of the 1st gen solid state amps have fender-slanty faceplates like the Mercury and these don't look like that. Nor are they 800 cosmetic! They have non-slanted front panels with early JMP cosmetics. Very peculiar amps. My guess is that they're very, very early Master Lead solid state amps. The master lead stuck around a long time, basically 'til valve state showed up. This might be the earliest version. We don't see a lot of 70s marshall solid state amps surviving so maybe I've just enver seen this one.

That said, these probably aren't Zappa's amps.

And the poodle is a Marshall CODE.

if you look on the left there's a rare (and kinda shitty in my humble oppinion) super-trem (1959T)... the rest of the heads are JTM45s, JTM50s JMP50s, superleads or superbasses... but those trem ehad are real oddballs and very rare.

I did a little research on these fantastic amps again, and it seems like this was taken at Frank Zappa's home. If you will search for the amp room on the internet (besides the FZ Studio and Video/Interview and mixing rooms), you will find a room, painted just like shown in the picture from Pinterest. Before Gaga bought the property. There are no Marshalls in it however.

However, if you have a look at JuliensLive auctions and look at BOTH FZ auctions. "Property from the estate of Gail and Frank Zappa", you will find nearly all those pictured Marshall heads for sale. I appreciated your patience and your good research, but I came across two models which I think are the ones that Zappa owned, given that they really were at his villa.

• 1979 Marshall JMP 2104 50W 2x12 Combo https://reverb.com/de/price-guide/guide/20238-marshall-jmp-2104-50w-2x12-combo-1979-black

• 1978 Marshall Club & Country 4140 Combo https://reverb.com/item/25199-marshall-vintage-4140-original-brown-1978

Do you guys agree?

those links don't work....

Wow, the brown one just might be a club and country. No one likes the club and country or artiste, they're anemic amps for guitar, although both make fabulous keybaord amps and I was once tempted by a very reasonable artiste back when i owned a mk1 Rhodes. Dont see a lot of these anymore. If I recall the CnC is supposed to be an answer to the twin and has the topology of Leo's Music Man amps with solid state preamps and hefty tube power amps. Basically a really clean transister preamp stapled to a superlead power amp.

The JMP 2104 is the aforementioned 50 watt 2x12 MV amp, Julian. As I said, it will look virtually identical to every other 2x12 combo made between about '72 and '79/80. That amp in the picture could be all manner of amps, although if the grillecloth is original it narrows a few models out, because I don't think brownish grille cloth came in until the late 70s and it went out by the late 80s. They briefly had a tan grillecloth in the 60s too, but that amp doesn't have a valance, so its not one of those... also, staring at the hazy picture I am not sure if that's a yellowed salt and peper grille or the brown weave I thought it was at first. If its Hiwatt-style salt n pepper then it culd be almost any 2x12 model of the 70s. You see those salt n pepper grilles on everything the whole decade. It could even be a late period Artiste.

I am still questioning the provenance of ownership though. Whatever you wanna do though. I'm not a big enough Zappa fan to care. And are you saying Lady Gaga bought Zappa's personal studio? That's odd.