industry amplification musical instrument manufacturing founded london england 1962 ; 54 years ago 1962 1 founder jim marshall headquarters bletchley milton keynes england area served united kingdom united states australia owner marshall amplification plc website marshallamps.com a 3 6 stack of marshall modefour guitar cabinets on the main stage of tuska open air metal festival in 2008 . this setup belonged to jeff hanneman of slayer . marshall amplification is an english company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers speaker cabinets brands personal headphones earphones 2 and having acquired natal drums drums and bongos . it was founded by drum shop owner and drummer jim marshall and is now based in bletchley milton keynes . marshall s guitar amplifiers are among the most recognised in the world . they are known for their marshall crunch . this signature sound was conceived by marshall after guitarists such as pete townshend visiting marshall s drum shop complained that the guitar amplifiers then on the market didn t have the right sound or enough volume . 3 after gaining a lot of publicity marshall guitar amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets were sought by guitarists for this new sound and increased volume . citation needed many of the current and reissue marshall guitar amplifiers continue to use vacuum tubes as is common in this market sector . marshall also manufactures less expensive solid state hybrid valve and solid state and modelling amplifiers . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 first amplifiers birth of the jtm 45 1.3 distribution deal 1.4 park amplification 1.5 other marshall brand names 2 early amp models 2.1 the bluesbreaker 2.2 the plexi and the marshall stack 2.3 another valve change 3 mid 1970s and 1980s models 3.1 mv 3.2 jcm 800 3.3 the jubilee 4 mid 1980s and 1990s models 4.1 competition from american amplifier companies 4.2 the 1990s 4.2.1 jcm 900 4.2.2 30th anniversary 6100 series 5 current models 5.1 modern series 5.2 vintage series 5.3 solid state amplifiers 5.4 bass series 5.5 code series 5.6 model number confusion 6 the marshall legacy 7 sport sponsorships 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit origins edit site of jim marshall s first shop now a men s barber . after a successful career as a drummer and teacher of drum technique jim marshall first went into business in 1962 with a small shop in hanwell london selling drums cymbals and drum related accessories ; marshall himself also gave drum lessons . according to jim ritchie blackmore big jim sullivan and pete townshend were the three main guitarists who often came into the shop and pushed marshall to make guitar amplifiers and told him the sound and design they wanted . 4 marshall ltd. then expanded hired designers and started making guitar amplifiers to compete with existing amplifiers the most notable of which at the time were the fender amplifiers imported from america . these were very popular with guitarists and bass players but were very expensive . the three guitarists were among the first customers of the first 23 marshall amplifiers made . first amplifiers birth of the jtm 45 edit main article marshall jtm 45 jim marshall thought he could produce a cheaper alternative to american made guitar amplifiers but as he had limited electrical engineering experience he enlisted the help of his shop repairman ken bran an emi technician dudley craven and ken underwood . they most liked the sound of the 4x10 fender bassman and made several prototypes using the fender bassman amplifier as a model . the sixth prototype produced in jim s words the marshall sound . 5 the original idea was talked about late one night in early 1963 in a wimpy bar in ealing in west london . the first six production units were assembled in the garden sheds of ken bran dudley craven and ken underwood in the same year in heston hanwell and hayes all in west london . they were almost copies of the bassman circuit with american military surplus 5881 power valves a relative of the 6l6 . few speakers were then able to handle more than 15 watts citation needed which meant that an amplifier approaching 50 watts had to use four speakers . for their bassman fender used four jensen speakers in the same cabinet as the amplifier but marshall chose to separate the amplifier from the speakers and placed four 12 inch celestion speakers in a separate closed back cabinet instead of the four 10 inch jensens in an open back combo . other crucial differences included the use of higher gain ecc83 valves throughout the preamp and the introduction of a capacitor resistor filter after the volume control . these circuit changes gave the amp more gain so that it broke into overdrive sooner on the volume control than the bassman and boosted the treble frequencies . this new amplifier tentatively called the mark ii was eventually named the jtm 45 after jim and his son terry marshall and the maximum wattage of the amplifier . distribution deal edit marshall entered into a 15 year distribution deal with british company rose morris during 1965 which gave him the capital to expand his manufacturing operations though it would prove to be costly . in retrospect marshall admitted the rose morris deal was the biggest mistake i ever made . rose morris hadn t a clue really . for export they added 55 % onto my price which pretty much priced us out of the world market for a long time . 6 park amplification edit the new contract had disenfranchised several of marshall s former distributors among them his old friend johnny jones . marshall s contract did not prevent him from building amplifiers outside the company and so marshall launched the park brand name inspired by the maiden name of jones s wife . 7 to comply with his contract stipulations these amplifiers had minor circuit changes compared to the regular marshalls and minor changes to the appearance . for instance often the parks had silver or black front panels instead of the marshall s gold ones some of the enclosures were taller or shaped differently and controls were laid out and labeled differently . 8 starting in early 1965 park produced a number of amplifiers including a 45 watt head . most of these had marshall layout and components though some unusual amplifiers were made such as a 75 watt keyboard amplifier with kt88 tubes . a 2 12 combo had the option of sending the first channel into the second probably inspired by marshall users doing the same trick with a jumper cable . 7 the 1972 park 75 put out about 100 watts by way of two kt88s whereas the comparable 50 watt model 1987 of that time used 2 el34 tubes . 8 in 1982 park came to an end though marshall later revived the brand for some transistor amplifiers made in asia . 7 the parks made from the mid 1960s to around 1974 the golden years with point to point wiring rumoured to be a little hotter than regular marshalls fetch higher prices than comparable real marshalls from the same period . 8 other marshall brand names edit wall of marshall fridge refrigerator products using marshall brand . 9 other brand names marshall amplification had used for various business reasons included big m for the then west german market kitchen marshall for the kitchen music retail chain in north london narb ken bran s surname spelled backwards and cmi cleartone musical instruments . amplifiers sold under these brand names are quite rare and sell to collectors at high prices . 10 early amp models edit the bluesbreaker edit main article marshall bluesbreaker to reduce costs marshall started sourcing parts from the uk . this led to the use of dagnall and drake made transformers and a switch to the kt66 valve instead of the 6l6 tube commonly used in the united states . the changes gave marshall amplifiers a more aggressive voice which quickly found favour with players such as eric clapton who would sit in jim s shop practicing . clapton asked jim marshall to produce a combo amp with tremolo which would fit in the boot of his car and one of the most famous marshall amps was born the bluesbreaker amp . 4 this is the amplifier in tandem with his 1960 gibson les paul standard the beano and a dallas rangemaster treble booster citation needed that gave clapton that famous tone on the john mayall & the bluesbreakers beano 1966 album . the plexi and the marshall stack edit main article marshall 1959 marshall jmp half stack in red tolex other early customers included pete townshend and john entwistle of the who whose search for extra volume led marshall to design the classic 100 watt valve amplifier . 11 ken bran and dudley craven marshall s developers doubled the number of output valves added a larger power transformer and an extra output transformer . four of these amplifiers were built and delivered to pete townshend and the marshall super lead model 1959 the original plexi was born in 1965 . at the request of pete townshend marshall produced an 8 12 cabinet soon replaced by a pair of 4 12 cabinets on top of which the 1959 amplifier head was placed giving rise to the marshall stack an iconic image for rock and roll . 12 13 the size of the wall of marshall stacks soon became an indicator of the band s status even when rendered obsolete by improved pa systems ; indeed many of the ridiculously huge arrays of heads and cabs included dummies . still most 100 watt heads made today even though they often contain many more features or different tubes such as the more american sounding 6l6 tubes have their roots in marshall s groundbreaking design . 14 another valve change edit rare 1971 200 watt marshall major . at this time the kt66 valve was becoming more expensive as the m ov company faced greater competition from mullard . hence another valve change was made with marshall starting to use european made mullard el34 power stage valves . 15 these have a different overdrive character than the kt66s which gave marshalls a more aggressive voice still . in 1966 a young jimi hendrix was in jim s shop trying the amplifiers and guitars . jim marshall expected hendrix to be another american wanting something for nothing but to his surprise hendrix offered to buy the amplifiers at retail price if jim would provide him with support for them around the world . 4 jim marshall agreed and several of hendrix s road crew were trained in the repair and maintenance of the marshall amps through the years . the amplifiers from this era are easily identifiable by their acrylic glass a.k.a. plexiglas front panel which earned them the nickname plexi . in 1967 marshall released a 50 watt version of the 100 watt superlead known as the 1987 model . in 1969 the plexiglass panel was replaced by a brushed metal front panel . after 1973 to streamline production labour intensive handwiring was discontinued and marshall valve amplifiers were switched to printed circuit board pcbs . much of the debate about the difference in tone between the plexi and aluminium panel marshall amps originates from 1974 when marshall s us distributor had them change all the amps sold in the us and japan to the much more rugged tung sol 6550 instead of the el34 output tube with a different sound . citation needed mid 1970s and 1980s models edit mv edit in the mid 1970s marshall introduced the master volume mv series which was initially called the jmp jim marshall products . this was in response to the demand for yet more distortion and many techs who had been modifying the amps for years by