Jim Marshall, founder of the legendary Marshall Amplification company, passed away today, April 5, 2012, at aged 88.
Name any band rock or metal band over the last 50 years and you can almost guarantee they plug their guitars into the same amplifiers. These same bands will all have a similar live set-up: walls of black squares adorned with the famous white signature of their creator: Marshall.
Jim Marshall was born in London, England on July 29, 1923. Due to poor health as a child he was excused military service and found his way into music first as a singer then a drummer. Later, he ran a music shop in West London and through conversations with his guitar playing customers – which included such esteemed talents as Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) and Pete Townshend (The Who) – founded his namesake company in 1962.
His powerful amps were one of the key components in the creation of rock music and he became affectionately known as the Father of Loud. I think today should be a celebration of loud and proud music. After all, that is why we love Marshall amps. So grab your guitar, crank up your amp and salute the creator of the rock sound, the Father of Loud, the one and only Jim Marshall OBE.
Here’s the official statement on Marshall’s site:
It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall. While mourning the Guv’nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.
Marshall’s ascent into the history books as “˜the Father of Loud’ and the man responsible for “˜the Sound of Rock’ is a true rags-to-riches tale. Cruelly robbed of his youth by tubercular bones, Jim rose to become one of the four forefathers responsible for creating the tools that allowed rock guitar as we know and love it today to be born. The ground breaking quartet also includes the late, great trio of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover – together with Jim, they truly are the cornerstones of all things rock.
In addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes.
While the entire Marshall Amplification family mourns Jim’s passing and will miss him tremendously, we all feel richer for having known him and are happy in the knowledge that he is now in a much better place which has just got a whole lot louder!
Rest in Peace & thank you Jim.
Your memory; the music and joy your amps have brought to countless millions for the past five decades; and that world-famous, omnipresent script logo that proudly bears your name will always live on.
RIP, Jim, from all of us at Geeks of Doom.
Jim Marshall
July 29, 1923 – April 5, 2012
[Source: Jim Marshall Official Site]
I was 15 years old and I was saving up all of my money for a
Mesa Boogie guitar amplifier. Any guitar player from back in the day knows the
Mesa Boogie catalogs were a work of art and the stuff dreams were made of. The
beautiful full color pictures and descriptive copy made you salivate. I poured
over those pages, dreaming of the day when one of those beauties would be mine,
and I was almost there… I had $700 saved.
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And then I walked into Wayne Music. There sitting along the
hallway wall was a 100-watt JMP Marshall top and matching 4×12 cabinet with
25-watt black back Celestion speakers. I lost my mind. “MOM!! MOM!! This
is what I want. This is it!!! I gotta have it!!.’ My Mom tried to talk me in
from the ledge ‘But Den, you’ve been saving for the Mesa-Boogie amp, you almost
have enough money.’ ‘Yeah, I know Mom but this is a Marshall!’. They wanted
$750 so my Mom gave me the difference and we left the store with it, me wedging
it into the back seat of my Mom’s maroon Ford Fairmount.
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I remember the next day I had my friend over to show him the
amp, my Mom and her friend Fran were in the kitchen, about 15 feet away from
where this EL-34 powered behemoth sat in our TEENY TINY living room. I asked,
“Hey Mom, I can I just show this to Anthony for a second? I promise I
won’t play it long.”. She of course said it was fine. That’s the kind of
Mom she was. So….. I grabbed my 1965 Gibson SG Jr and plugged in. Turning the
amp on, even with the guitar volume down you could hear how incredibly loud it
was just idling. I turned my guitar’s volume knob up and ELECTRICITY filled the
shoebox sized room. I took my pick and with my left hand muting all of the
strings I simply ‘chunked’ on the strings. It was like a freight train came
barreling through. It seemed as if every one of the NUMEROUS knick knacks on
the piano, television and shelves (my Mom had a thing for tchotchkes) bounced
in the air. My Mom’s friend Fran who was an elderly woman (or just always
seemed that way) looked as if she was ELECTROCUTED!! She was lifted out of her
seat, twitching. I swear I saw her beauty shop hairdo have lift off.
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Thus began my love affair with Marshall amps. Thanks Jim
Marshall, you were a force to be reckoned with and made all of my childhood
dreams come true.
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R.I.P.
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Comment by Dennis Rambo — April 5, 2012 @ 4:02 pm