First, it will be useful to you to understand the following five terms in order to choose the correct chart for dating your amp: refers to the two-tone woven fabric that covered many early amplifiers.
On early amps, this material was varnished to make it a more durable covering.
This is the reason why Marshalls of this early era (up to 1968) are known as “Plexis”.
Before starting, I must warn you that acquiring vintage gear can be really risky.
You can end up buying something that is not what you expected or even something that is damaged or modded beyond repair.
Several different types, in vertical and diagonal weaves, were used.
Please note that it’s quite difficult to precisely determine the production date of early Fender amps.
Post a link of the desired amp on the “Ebay Watch Post”, so we can help analyzing it. I’ll concentrate on “how they sound”, “how they look like” and also “how to tell them apart”. It was made as a head and as a combo (known as the “Bluesbreaker” combo).
In this article, I’ll try to cover the more “desirable” Marshall amps that were built since 1962 up to the JCM800 series, wich most consider to be the “last” great Marshalls produced (That until Marshall released the Vintage Modern series. I will also try to give examples of where they were used.. I hope you like it These are just a few of the thousands of codes that Marshall came up with for their amps. There were many cosmetic changes on the first years until it finally got the “Classic Marshall Look” by 1964.Soon, however, the Model 2210 appeared on the market.Initially, users complained that the amplifiers (used with the standard Marshall cabinets) sounded flat compared to the older Marshalls, until it was discovered (by accident) that the fault was with the speakers: The new cabs had been equipped with a new kind of Celestion speakers. The JCM800 is considered a "hot" amplifier because it has more gain stages than comparable amplifiers, and in "lead" mode (in the "high" input), an extra triode provides extra gain to the pre-amplifier, which "made for one hot rock amp".Dating early Fender amplifiers is sometimes quite challenging.While dating Fender amps made before 1994 by serial number is all but impossible (as records of these numbers were never kept), all hope is not lost—the charts below should prove helpful in dating your Fender amp.In the early 1960s Jim Marshall was a drum/percussion retailer in Hanwell, London. Fender amps were popular but expensive and Jim thought he could produce them at a better price. The main difference was he used four 12 inch Celestions in a closed back cabinet vs the Bassman’s four 10 inch Jensen speakers with an open back.