1971 Marshall Popular Combo (England, 10 Watts)

From the listing

Seller's description

The elusive and rare Marshall Popular. The Popular was a ten-watt amplifier that was produced by Marshall from '67 to '73, and allegedly only available via mail order. Yep, I know, it looks like the Marshall model 1974, but the Popular has less wattage and uses the ECL86 valves rather than the EL84's (in the case of this amp..it has a set of old 6GW8 labeled Australian-made Miniwatt valves.  The power transformer has been replaced in this amp, and another allegedly with the Popular was that it was made for the  European market only, which might explain why the PT has been changed to 240V. A couple of capacitors have been replaced too, as you'd expect for an amp of this age. It has the original Celestion 12" speaker which dates to 1971..and yep, this is the somewhat harder to find  1 x 12" model,  not the 2 x 10" version. OK, that gets all the boring stuff out the way, how does it sound?  Pretty much like you would expect...a lower-watt 1974..that is way more raggedy. The tremolo is to die for too. There is a well-known mod to convert these to 18-watt spec..and indeed the holes are already in the chassis as Marshall tooled these up to suit both the Popular and the 1974 model...but I dunno why you would...this amp sounds cool as is.  Made In ye olde England, in MCMLXXI