Rory Gallagher’s Marshall 2104 JMP MKII 50-watt Combo Amp

This amp was used by Rory during the early 80s, together with Rory’s Vox AC30.

At the moment, I’m using an AC30 and a Marshall 50 watt combo together. I plug the guitar into a junction box because a splitter lead or a V chord tends to put the amps out of phase with each other so you can never be sure of the sound you’re getting.

However, the setup wasn’t necessarily consistent, and Rory did experiments with a few different amps – including a 100-watt Marshall bass head.

When it comes to amps I tend to vary things about every six months. I started with a Vox AC30 combo, and that model is still in my set-up, but I go through different phases when it comes to the other amps I use. At the moment, though, I’m still using my Vox AC30 with a Vox 50-watt combo as my third amp. My second amp is a 4 x 12 Marshall speaker cabinet with a converted 100-watt bass amp, on loan from Gerry McAvoy (Rory’s longstanding bass player). I really only use the Marshall to give my sound some body because I usually hear myself through the Vox for the most part.

POWER TOOLS SOUND ADVISE PURE GENIUS… by Phil Alexander

I still use an AC30 with a treble booster, plug into the Normal channel, I also have a 100W Marshall with 4 by 12 and a 50W Marshall combo. The Vox counteracts the harshness of the Marshall sound.

John Perry for International Musician & Recording World – February 1989

Towards the 90s, it seems that the Marshall was gone and Rory turned to use a 4×10 Fender Bassman instead.