SUNDRAGON AMPS

It’s not guaranteed that they'll make you sound like Jimmy Page, but Sundragon’s fastidiously accurate replicas of two of his favourite amps may well get you close

- Huw Price

There is a time in most guitarists’ development when they become fixated on replicating the tones of their favourite players. In pre-Internet times we might have searched for snippets of information about guitars, amplifiers and effects in magazine interviews or scrutinised grainy video footage for clues. This later evolved into sifting through interminable newsgroup discussions while trying to distinguish between nuggets and nonsense.

Those innocent times had an aura of mystery, and artists could often be evasive. Few bands could match Led Zeppelin’s mystique, and countless Zoso wannabes have tried to decipher Jimmy Page’s tone secrets. His favourite guitars are now well documented, the trick wiring in his Les Pauls has been unravelled, and his fuzz favourites have been analysed down to component level.

The only remaining bone of contention was his Zeppelin-era amplifiers, but it’s now widely known that two of Jimmy's most favoured amps were a 100-watt Marshall Super Bass and a Supro. Both were modified and, until relatively recently, there was uncertainty about which Supro model he used.

That changed in 2019 when Jimmy agreed to the amp, along with several guitars and stage gear, being included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ‘Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll’ exhibition. It was subsequently displayed at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and the mystery Supro turned out to be a modified 1959 Coronado 1690T.

Chasing The Dragon

Guitar collector, studio owner and vintage guitar mover and shaker Perry Margouleff was involved in curating the exhibition, and he happens to be friends with Jimmy Page. Naturally, he was keen for Jimmy’s 1959 Telecaster to be included because it was used for Zeppelin’s first album and featured in so many early concert clips.