Just read the sad news that Jim Marshall has died. It’s a name that anyone who has some rock n roll in there lives knows well, the Marshall script logo has been seen behind countless guitarists (and Lemmy) worldwide since the 60’s on amplifiers and speaker cabinets, sometimes in six foot high rows from one side of the stage to the other with a drumkit squeezed into the middle.
Rock music owes a whole lot to Marshall for allowing it to evolve and grow into the monster in became. My youth would have been rubbish without Marshall, thanks Jim.
I’ve had many Marshall amps over the years, some vintage stuff I wish I’d never sold and my old live rig from the 90’s which is still in storage. Below is my first Marshall amp, a 30 watt Master Lead Combo from 1984. It’s solid state, no valves, and with a little work at the settings it sounds fantastic. I still use it most days, that photie was taken an hour ago, and in its life all it’s ever needed is the volume pot changed. A sonic comfort blanket in black tolex.
That’s a quote from The Comic Strip Presents… More Bad News in the post title, it’s when a Marshall amp is found in the studio where the band are setting up to record their first single and they start to fight over it. It always brings a smile and kinda shows just what Marshall meant to metalheads at the time.
Another great name in Rock gone. The end of an era? At risk of sounding a right tw*t Rock on Jim, and thanks for the Amps.
Amps for the memory. .. (bah dum tisch) Got a signed poster I need to dig out.
Pete , I also like the bit in the Spinal Tap film, where the guitarist says that the reason he uses Marshall is that “they go up to 11 on the dial – all other amps have 10 – where do you go when you are 10 on your volume control on your guitar and 10 on your amp and you want louder? – with Marshall you can go to 11″or words to that effect – Classic
Marshall – nothing was more rock and roll and part of my youth :)
Nice one PTC,and RIP Jim.
It’s all too easy to fixate on the guitars and their players but Leo and Jim changed everything with their amps and I’ve loved both those guys for the last 30 odd years. Jim might have based his first amps on one of Fenders circuits but he managed to turn it into something entirely different. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, says ROCK more than that beautiful curly signature. If you know, you know, but one of life’s truly AWESOME experiences is hitting your first terrifying 100w power chord and feeling that 4×12 sledgehammer to the chest. Nobody properly prepares you for it but once you’re over the fear and provided you haven’t soiled yourself you’ll be grinning for…well, 30 odd years.
Thanks Jim.
It was nice to see the piece on the news, in a lot of ways it feels like Marshall is “ours”, but that the man’s impact on our culture was so great that his passing is a headline is really rather cool.