Vintage Marshall Impedance Selector and Wiring - Need Help

Cap217

Active member
I am struggling to find a way to know what colors are for each output impedance. I don’t want to take for granted that old amps are wired properly. Not only that, I have a 72 and a 73 that have the same color wires but one impedance selector has been messed with I think. Id like to learn how to tell and look at all my amps.

This will be for the vintage push selector for impedance. I will eventually get into the switch but not yet.



The amps in discussion will be a 1972 100w super lead that has been modded with by Abrahams with the mod 5. It looks like the selector where it shows the ohms is original but the wires on the selector were soldered at some point. The writing where it shows the ohms also has 1-2-3 where 1 is 4 ohm, 2 is 8 ohm, and 3 is 16. I am assuming that the wires are soldered back at the stock spots. This amp has NFB off the speaker jack.

The next amp is a 1973 100w super lead that seems to be mostly untouched. It is a handwired that had work done by Plexi Palace years ago. There are some cap changes and I was told its because the old mustards didn’t test to the right value. Besides that it seems original. The selector where it shows the ohms has an 8 ohm that looks original but I see a larger 4 and a larger 6 (I assume this is 16). The wiring seems untouched on the back of the switch. Like the 72 I do see a number, but only number 3 that is next to the large 4. This amp has NFB off the black wire.

Why I am questioning this is because looking at the wiring inside the amp, they are identical (minus NFB purple) but the selector switch on the 1973 has obviously been altered. I can just go off the 1972 numbering or I can find a way to be 100% sure what is correct.

Attached is a drawing I did of both. They are both with the chassis upside down so keep that in mind. I am also assuming how the selector with the pins work. Center is common and wherever the other pin is connected, that lines up with a wire color on the inside of the selector.

I am showing amp upside down from the inside, then amp from the back while its upside down and how the wires connect, then how it lines up for each ohm upside down. Hope this makes sense.



What I see is on the 72 it looks like yellow=8, black=4, green=16 and that lines up with most everything I find online.

But on the 73 its different because it looks like someone put old stickers and swapped 4 and 16 ohm. Yellow=8, black=16, green=4.

Is there a way to be positive of what ohm is what? I have read that you can use an ohm meter and the selector on 4 ohm, the lowest reading is the 4 ohm. If on 16 ohm, the lowest reading is on 16 ohm. Im not sure if this is real or not.

I am going to post pics from my phone in the next post.
 

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Pics of the 72
 

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Pics of the 73
 

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You can still see the little 3 that is next to the large 4 on the 73. That 3 lines up to 16ohm on the 72. Also, the 3 on the back of the switch inside the amp on the 73 is the green wire and 1 is black.

I dont know why someone would have swapped or changed those markings. So before I assume, Id like to learn a way to be sure.
 
I went by the color codes you found online - likely the same google results I found - for my 1974. It has been messed with and I never bothered to check it until one day I did. The online results seem right. The true way to test an OT tap is as a voltage step up transformer with a 9V battery quickly connecting and disconnecting the secondary while recording the voltage on the primary. The problem is that it is very very dangerous and the OT needs completely removed. Another safer method is just measuring resistance on the secondary but you’ll need all secondaries and negative feedback unsoldered from one another and you’ll need a chart to go by as the resistances are the same on a few of the taps from memory.

There’s no easy way to really know without an LCR meter basically. If you do the 9V then be stupid careful as you can get hurt. I’d go by the online results if both are dagnalls. That’s what I did and all is well.
 
I went by the color codes you found online - likely the same google results I found - for my 1974. It has been messed with and I never bothered to check it until one day I did. The online results seem right. The true way to test an OT tap is as a voltage step up transformer with a 9V battery quickly connecting and disconnecting the secondary while recording the voltage on the primary. The problem is that it is very very dangerous and the OT needs completely removed. Another safer method is just measuring resistance on the secondary but you’ll need all secondaries and negative feedback unsoldered from one another and you’ll need a chart to go by as the resistances are the same on a few of the taps from memory.

There’s no easy way to really know without an LCR meter basically. If you do the 9V then be stupid careful as you can get hurt. I’d go by the online results if both are dagnalls. That’s what I did and all is well.

So your 74 is 16 green. 8 yellow. 4 black?

Does your 74 have the push style selector?
 
So your 74 is 16 green. 8 yellow. 4 black?

Does your 74 have the push style selector?
Yes correct, that’s how mine is wired now.

It was wired green 4, black 8, yellow 16 with a push style selector when I modernized it to a standard coin selector style. There’s a build thread in the tech forum. After it was working I suspected something was wrong because the amp had been preamp board swapped and changing from 16 to 8 ohms made a huge difference in the tone and it should change a bit but not much.

I kind of scratched my head on this too like you are now, and just decided to go with what everyone else was saying is correct.

Maybe they were wiring them wrong from the factory?
 
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