Europe guitarist John Norum has revealed the purchase of his “dream amp,” having outbid other gear sleuths in an auction last year.
The amp in question is a Marshall Super Bass 100 from 1972, and it was his guitar hero’s tube amp of choice for nearly a decade.
Used extensively by Irish blues rock god Gary Moore between 1980 and ‘89, it can be heard on tracks including Run for Cover, Wild Frontiers, and After the War, and it also featured across “hundreds of live gigs” by Norum’s count, including performances at Rockpalast 1982 and Donington ‘84.
It was also Moore’s tonal powerhouse for a headline show in Tokyo in 1983, which became the Irish guitar legend’s live album, Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan.
The amp was sold as part of Bonhams’ Gary Moore Collection in London last November – a sale which saw his famous red Strat go for approx. $266,000 (£200,000).
Norum, meanwhile, snagged a relative bargain – parting with a comparatively modest £4,480 (approx. $6,000) for the Marshall amp, which pales in comparison to the £19,200 (approx. $25,100) Joe Bonamassa paid for Moore's Still Got the Blues Soldano SLO-100.
“Got my dream amp!” Norum exclaims via his official site. “This was Gary's main Marshall amp from 1980-1989.”
He goes on to quote Moore talking about the “really good” amp, in which he reveals that, “it used to be purple, but someone painted it black. You can still see the purple vinyl inside.”
The sale of this vintage Marshall was one of the more unassuming lots of the auction, and it’s a fair price to pay for a slice of your hero’s history.
It’s quite a fitting new home, too, given that – as former Guitarist editor Neville Marten explained at the time of the sale – many of Moore’s gear picks were informed by his own icons.
“Everyone wants the guitar that your first heroes played,” said Marten. “He got the Les Paul because of Eric Clapton and Peter Green [and would go on to own his prestigious Greeny Les Paul].
“He also got the 335 because of Eric, who in turn had got the 335 because of Chuck Berry, B.B. King, and Freddie King.”
Elsewhere, Gary Moore’s shredding exploits are subject to a new Guitar World lesson, and while a statue of the guitarist is currently being sculpted, it needs crowdfunding support to get it over the line.
