D*A*M Forum

Successfully intercepted this one after the owner threatened to take it to a dealer

I noticed in the seller's initial photo, from the type of knobs, and the silkscreening, that this was a relatively early Sola-Supa, but it was only as I pulled it out of the box, that it became evident that this Supa is finished in the puke-grey MK1.5 colour, rather than the standard blue-ish/grey finish

I guess these were amongst the first Supas that were built after the 'Olivetti' enclosure was updated. I'm aware of two other 'mossy-rock' Supas that belong to (ex-)forumites - one MKI; the other MKII - and they all have that funky yellow sleeving on the cabling that appears to have been a rather limited thing. The two (presumably) youngest Supa MKI's also have a bonus 25uF power filter cap, which is absent from the 8(!) known surviving 'narrow knobs' Supa MKI's, but which was being used on the MKII's at the same time.

This one sounded a little questionable right off the bat, but it's settled in a bit more. It's perhaps a little 'overbiased'(?) compared with my earlier Supa MKI. There's some subtle 'chirping' audible on the tail-end of sustained notes/chords, which I've experienced before on the standard MKI when the attack is set too high. This can be dialled out pretty easily by simply backing off the filter knob a little. There's less gating with this unit, which makes it easier to play with single coils (although the lack of the sneaky input resistor may play a role in that), but there's perhaps a little less fuckedupness too. They're generally very similar-sounding though - both do the distinctive Supa MKI note-bloom and 'squawk'.





























Bonus pr0n (spot the differences):

Shit hot man, congrats on that one, looks awesome

good looking out! awesome pics

Awesome man and those guts look

Absolutely great shots, Nick. Loving the gut shots and the side-by-sides!

Thanks Nick - it's taken my brain a while to process these pics! re the diff versions of the enclosure - this the first time I've been able to see these clearly. No way of knowing how many of the first iteration there were, but the fact that they were still using the mk1 circuit in the 2nd version of the enclosure and with wide knob spacing (and extra cap) is news to me, and arguably suggests there are more Mk1 Supas than previously thought, or at least there is an overlap with the early MkIIs. Interesting!

"This one sounded a little questionable right off the bat, but it's settled in a bit more..." - maybe because of the hot weather?

My Supa enclosure appears to be from a more worn mould and has a sort of dimple in one side, but the inside lines are almost as sharp and distinct as on the yellowy-grey one.

simonm wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:27 am Thanks Nick - it's taken my brain a while to process these pics! re the diff versions of the enclosure - this the first time I've been able to see these clearly. No way of knowing how many of the first iteration there were, but the fact that they were still using the mk1 circuit in the 2nd version of the enclosure and with wide knob spacing (and extra cap) is news to me, and arguably suggests there are more Mk1 Supas than previously thought, or at least there is an overlap with the early MkIIs. Interesting!

"This one sounded a little questionable right off the bat, but it's settled in a bit more..." - maybe because of the hot weather?

My Supa enclosure appears to be from a more worn mould and has a sort of dimple in one side, but the inside lines are almost as sharp and distinct as on the yellowy-grey one.

Yeah, we're at 10 surviving Supa MKI's so far (+1 secret ultra-funky pedal). Of the 8 in the 'narrow knobs' enclosure, four are unbranded, and four Marshall-branded. The other two are in the newer enclosure.
I'm not sure why they would have changed to a different casting process, but for whatever reason, Sola Sound updated the Tone Bender and Rotosound enclosures right around the same time as well (c. mid/late 1966?).

so. damn. gnarly. great pictures as always.

nightraven's fuzz posts - helping to make mondays suck a little less

So what was the story Nick? What dealer was he going to, Pedalprawn?

Niice!