Impex loaded vintage

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Doc Holliday
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Impex loaded vintage

Post by Doc Holliday »

Watching Nick amaze us with his great eye and pretty fuk’n rad collection of vintage units as requested I’ve loaded up some pics I have of a old Marshall ( Sola ) vintage unit I used to own.
This unit now belongs to a good mate Kris in his very impressive collection of old and modern,

The story’s goes that I was at my amp repair mans house taking in the usual suspects ( Gibson amps ) for a service.

He turned to me and said “ you like fuzz don’t you”?
And I was like ... “err yeah”.
He said “wait here”. When he came down stairs with it and showed me my eyes nearly popped out my head.
He said “do you know anything about it”?
With my little knowledge I knew from the font it was early. Also the design and colour of the box.
I said “yeah.... have you any pics of the guts so I could confirm”.
My poker face was shit to be fair, my heart was racing too.
He said “hang on I’ve taken some pictures on my camera”.
As soon as I saw the guts I was like “ yep. It’s a early solasound pedal branded Marshall for Marshall amplification”. I said “how did you come across it”?
He said it had came in for a service. A old gentleman was ill and his wife was selling off his collection to a local guitar shop.
It still had its original battery snap so to make sure it worked it needed changing. Other than that both shop and him didn’t really know too much about it.
With me being a dick I told him exactly what he had haha. I had to. He’s been good to me with my amps and the shop have helped me modify guitars etc in the past.
I couldn’t do anyone over.
I phoned the shop told them I’d pay up. But to give me a few days to get the cash together.
When I arrived at the shop I asked to firstly see the guts in person. That little kidney bean iskra cap and those impex trannys,.. man. My favourite mk2 guts.
I plugged it in to a Cornell plexi type amp and through a 61 original SG with PAF’s. I didn’t like the neck on the SG but those pickups sounded great. My favourite setting was around 1 on the attack knob.
Had this great woman tone with the SG on the neck pickup and tone rolled off.
Very cream.
I had it for a few months and to this day am greatful to have been lucky enough to have it in my collection even for a small time and now it be in one of my pals evolving collections with other equally amazing stuff.

Some pics.
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Last edited by Doc Holliday on Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Doc Holliday
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Doc Holliday »

That last pic was me taking it home ha!
One of the best fuzz tones I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in person.
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The-kangass
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by The-kangass »

wow! that is some killer looking pedal inside out! :badlove:
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Nick
The Artist Formerly Known As nightraven
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Nick »

Heck yes! I didn't know the story - that's the sort of thing we all fantasise about but never actually experience :badteeth:
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daCod
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by daCod »

Nick wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:44 pm that's the sort of thing we all fantasise about but never actually experience :badteeth:
good old [gear] p0rn :hihi:
if you're ever in the shit, grab my tit
i like pedals when you know they're on
When I saw you with that lost look on your face saying you had just saw ET, I thought "uh oh, game over" - innerflight
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Doc Holliday
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Doc Holliday »

Guys it was literally completely right place right time.
Tbh I don’t think the shop owner was really impressed with it?!
Think he thought a lot of hype about nothing.
The great thing me and kris thought with this one is that when the attack dial goes passed 3 o clock it oscillates like a fuzz factory does. You can play through it with the chaos going on in the background but probably quite unusable if you were looking for Zep tones :badteeth:
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innerflight
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by innerflight »

Yes cool story man, there usually is a little story and luck being the theme when these things surface :party:
’brutish in character but not thug like’
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Doc Holliday
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Doc Holliday »

Yeah man I think sometimes the story can be almost as good as the score.

From what I know the gentleman bought it from new.
He had a band in the 70s I’m unsure of the name.
Should probably have asked.
Think it got put on a book shelf by the end of the 70s and wasn’t used since.
It’s pretty gainy. Bit of a monster if I remember correctly. Great use of the attack knob also.
A special unit. Would love for Jim to post his Sola version with the same guts!
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Doc Holliday
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Doc Holliday »

innerflight wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:25 pm Yes cool story man, there usually is a little story and luck being the theme when these things surface :party:
I’ve a wah here that out of the half dozen I had I kept as it was my favourite.
When I bought it the guy put it up for 99p or £500.00
I won it on eBay for something like £87.00
The battery snap was bust, one of the caps was dead Nd it looked like he had dug it up from his back garden.

When it arrived I messaged him like “are you kidding me”? He said it’s been working fine... I’ve been using it for trumpet.

Twat.
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Dullboy
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Re: Impex loaded vintage

Post by Dullboy »

That's quite a story Sean!
Not so possible here in Italy...lucky brits ehehe
Last edited by Dullboy on Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Sometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it."
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