The Marshall legend: why these amplifiers are so iconic

Marshall is arguably the best-known amplifier brand in the world, and that’s no coincidence. A drummer with a music shop listened carefully to what guitarists were missing, and the answer, more volume and a rawer edge, became the sound of rock. It started with a handful of prototypes built outside the shop and ended up as a wall of cabinets on every major stage.

A drummer behind the counter

Jim Marshall didn’t start his musical life with a soldering iron but with drumsticks. He was a drummer and gave drum lessons, and in July 1960 he opened a music shop in West London: Jim Marshall & Son. Naturally enough, the focus was initially on drums and percussion. Guitars and amplifiers only came later, largely imported.

That guitar department soon attracted a remarkable crowd. Among the regulars were Pete Townshend, Ritchie Blackmore and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan. They weren’t yet names in the history books, just young guitarists with very clear ideas about what they wanted. And those ideas always boiled down to the same thing.

They wanted a Fender, but cheaper and with more guts. The American amps were expensive, hard to get hold of and not powerful enough for the British clubs. That was the gap in the market. A shopkeeper who hears every day what his customers are missing effectively has a front-row seat to fill it.

» View all Marshall guitar amplifiers and cabinets

Six prototypes, but not in the shop

The idea of building their own amplifiers came from Ken Bran, the technician who handled repairs in the shop. Together with Dudley Craven, he became the technical designer behind the first Marshall. Richard ‘Dick’ Findlay was also involved in the early development. Meanwhile, son Terry, the ‘Son’ in the shop’s name, and shop assistant Mick Borer were pushing hard for an amp of their own.

There was no room for that in the shop itself, so the first prototypes were built at the technicians’ homes. Hardly a glamorous start for a future global brand. There were six in total, and only the sixth prototype became the final version. That’s five trips back to the workbench before it sounded the way it should.

In 1962 the first prototype went on display in the shop, and what happened next speaks volumes. A stream of orders came in straight away, roughly twenty or more. Not a bad result for a drum shop that had only just unveiled its very first amp. A bare prototype chassis now sits in the Marshall museum.

The JTM45: a Bassman with a British accent

The result of all that tinkering was the JTM45, the first Marshall. It was based on the Fender Bassman, which isn’t so surprising given what the customers were asking for. The name is less mysterious than it sounds: JTM stands for Jim & Terry Marshall, and 45 for an output of around 45 watts. Later it became JMP, for Jim Marshall Products.

Even so, the JTM45 didn’t sound like a clone. Its sound was more aggressive and rawer than Fender’s, with punchy mids. That became the foundation of what would later be called the Marshall crunch or British crunch. Exactly where the difference comes from is an endless topic of debate among enthusiasts. That it’s there, you’ll hear after just a few chords.

Pete Townshend wanted it louder

How much guts is enough? For Pete Townshend of The Who, at any rate, not 45 watts. He felt Marshall wasn’t loud enough and asked for more power, and in 1965 the first 100-watt Marshall arrived. Around 1966 Marshall struck a distribution deal with Rose-Morris, and through that route the 100-watt head reportedly got the model number 1959: the Super Lead.

More power calls for more speaker. First, a cabinet with eight 12-inch speakers was built, but that beast proved too big and too heavy. The solution was refreshingly practical: split it into two 4×12 cabs stacked on top of each other. And so the Marshall stack was born, the image that still springs to mind for many people the moment the word rock is mentioned.

That split, by the way, has a practical side that’s still relevant today. If you hook two cabinets up to one head, you need to think about impedance, otherwise you’re asking your amp to do something it wasn’t built for. A quick calculation before you plug in is certainly no unnecessary luxury.

» Speakers and amplifiers: the difference between 2, 4, 8 and 16 ohms

Plexi, crunch and the dial turned right up

The Super Lead soon earned a nickname: Plexi, after its Plexiglas control panel. The name is mainly associated with this model, although the material didn’t last long. Sometime in 1969 it made way for brushed aluminium. So anyone talking about a Plexi today is really referring to a fairly short period.

A Super Lead had no master volume, but it did have regular volume controls: Loudness I and II. So you could practise quietly without any trouble, but the amp would then sound completely clean. The famous crunch only appeared once the power valves started to overdrive, and for that the amp had to be extremely loud. A gentle crunch for the box room was out of the question, and the neighbours knew exactly when you were practising.

It was precisely that sound, a head pushed right to the edge, that made Marshall the choice of Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Later, Slash of Guns N’ Roses joined that list too.

The 1970s brought models with a master volume, so you could get that overdrive at lower volumes as well. The early 1980s saw the arrival of the JCM800, aimed at hard rock and metal. In 1987 Marshall celebrated its 25th anniversary with the Silver Jubilee, which reportedly became one of Slash’s favourites.

» View all amplifier valves

The Father of Loud and his legacy

Jim Marshall earned the nickname Father of Loud, sometimes also Lord of Loud. The current factory is in Bletchley, and the company won the Queen’s Award for Export several times. Not bad for someone who started out giving drum lessons. He passed away in April 2012.

A lot changed after that. In 2023, after more than sixty years of family ownership, Marshall Amplification passed into the hands of Swedish company Zound Industries, and together they now continue as the Marshall Group. The headquarters is in Stockholm; Milton Keynes remains the home of Marshall Amplification. In January 2025, funds managed by HongShan Capital (HSG) signed up for a majority stake, at a valuation of around €1.1 billion.

The group also includes Natal Drums and Marshall Records, so drums have found their way back into the story. The circle is complete. What remains is a sound that never came from a marketing plan, but from the answer to a question asked at the counter: can’t it go a bit louder?