Green Day did not play for long during their Super Bowl LX performance but it was just long enough to set the internet ablaze – just what were those guitar amps behind Billie Joe Armstrong?
No, not the over-sized ones. They were just for show. We are talking about the blue Marshall 1959 Super Leads that all but confirm that – and some might say, at last – we have a new signature BJA amp, and upon closer inspection, these look like they will ship straight from the factory in Milton Keynes with the legendary Dookie mod.
These amps haven’t shown up with retailers, they are not on the official Marshall site, but the British amp brand isn’t keeping them a secret either, posting some more detailed pictures on its Instagram account, and even giving us a look, albeit a blurry look, at the back of them.
The brass plate on the front tells us that these are the Dookie 1959 / BJA Super Lead signature models incoming, with the Green Day frontman’s signature on the plating. The power-blue Tolex will pair nicely with his Fernandes S-style, aka Blue, i.e. the heavily stickered, heavily modded electric guitar that he has had since the start. It certainly pairs nicely with that fawn grille cloth, with white piping finishing the amp off.
As one Instagram commentator noted, ““Ah man I’m so ready to go broke. When are these launching?”
That, we do not know. But judging by the broadcast footage, they certainly sound ready. What we do know is that the Dookie mod is going to get the Green Day tonehounds all hot under the collar. It’s a BFD.
While the original Marshall Super Leads did not have a master volume, Armstrong’s Dookie mod, performed by the late Martin Golub, retroactively gave him one, repurposing his Super Lead’s High Treble volume for the master control, and turning the Normal Volume into the gain.
From the pics posted by Marshall, these mods are helpfully emblazoned in red above the original knobs.
Some might know it as the Crunch Mod, because that’s what you get from those cascading gain stages; and it’s the sound you hear on Dookie.
While tube amp mods are absolutely, 100 per cent best left to a qualified tech – the risk of electrocution is real – these kinds of mods for the NMV Marshall in your life are available on the market. There is no shortage of talented amp technicians out there, e.g. Chicago Amp Mods will do this for you, with prices ranging from $220 to $250.
Some modded Marshalls have entered the realm of legend, such as anything that the late José Arredondo worked on. Arredondo’s was friends with Eddie Van Halen, modded amps for Steve Vai and George Lynch. And James Hetfield used Arredondo-modded Marshall Super Lead from the late ‘60s, early 70s during the sessions for Metallica’s latest studio album, 72 Seasons.
But modded Marshalls straight from the factory? You have to be Billie Joe Armstrong for that. The question is when will we see his Dookie amp in stores?
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