Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall amps, dies at 88

[Bill, KD0HG]

Great story online:

"Ears still ringing from the 1960s? Jim Marshall might be to blame.

Marshall was the man behind "The" amplifier, the weapon of choice for guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend of The Who, and Eric Clapton — "The Marshall."

That was no accident. Marshall, who died Thursday at the age of 88, was not looking for precision when he and his sound engineers came up with the early Marshall amps in 1960. He said in a 2000 interview that what he wanted was raw, fuzzy power.

He said the rival Fender amp, tremendously popular at the time, produced an extremely clean sound that worked well with jazz and country and western but did not satisfy younger players searching for something different. He was looking for a rougher sound."

In the late 60s, I saw Hendrix at a smaller club in Chicago, maybe 250 people in the place. Easy enough to walk around the stage and look at the stacks of amps. Instead of using our American beam power tubes like Fender used, Marshall used Brit straight pentodes, pairs and quads of KT-66s and KT-88s. When Hendrix was playing, I saw a bright orange glow in back of the amps in sync with the guitar. I walked around the side and it was those Brit pentode screens lighting up like fireworks. Marshall whipped those tubes pretty well to get his signature sound.

Bill



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/05/international/i060752D77.DTL#ixzz1rDEbuBWE

[W7TFO]

Brit pentodes?  Only the EL34 was one.

The "KT" of KT88 et al meant 'kinkless tetrode'

Hmmm.

73DG

Nitpicking podium vacated.

RIP Mr. Marshall, I loved your sound!

[Bill, KD0HG]

Brit pentodes?  Only the EL34 was one.

The "KT" of KT88 et al meant 'kinkless tetrode'

Hmmm.

73DG

Nitpicking podium vacated.

RIP Mr. Marshall, I loved your sound!

Yes, you are correct- Marshall was using the pentode EL-34s, but for some reason switched to beam power tubes later on. Maybe 'cause the 34s wouldn't last when used as I described.

Bill

[Opcom]

RIP Mr. Marshall.

[N0WEK]

Back in about 1974, when I was still doing sound for bands, way too many of the local bar bands just had to have a 100W Marshall stack like their favorite bands, like Mott the Hoople. The problem was that they were playing small clubs and when they turned the amps up to get the sound they wanted it made people's ears bleed. Some folks built resistor banks to soak up the extra watts and turn down the sound level. I came up with a cleaner solution by adding a 7k, , if I remember correctly, wire wound pot in series with the existing screen resistor. I could run a signal through the amp with the pot turned all the way down and run it up to clipping level and then turn it down all the way down to about 10% of the power with the added pot without changing the waveform. This helped, although overdriving the speakers was part of the sound, and you couldn't do that without making the small bar patron's ears bleed.

This mod worked great on the 100 watt Marshalls, but not on the Fenders. I didn't pursue the fix with the Fenders at the time, since they didn't seem to have the problem of too large an amp for the venue. I probably could have made it work with them with some more experimentation.

I liked working on the SVT bass amps with the parallel push pull tubes too!

RIP Mr. Marshall!

[W7TFO]

I liked working on the SVT bass amps with the parallel push pull tubes too!

RIP Mr. Marshall!

I was in high school back in '69, and a local band was playing a dance.  The bass guy had an early SVT with 6146's.  Damn thing went up in flames that night, quite spectacular.

I made a mental note to never use them in an audio circuit...

73DG

[Opcom]

There was a 400W amp using eight 6550's.  I can't imagine being too close to that while in operation. Fender made a '430' but it only had six of the tubes IIRC.

[flintstone mop]

Nothing can beat that tube sound. Transistors WILL make your ears bleed..
There was a "dummy load" that was used in recording studios to get that amplifier distortion without actually 'hearing' the watts.

And playing back music through those amps was simply horrible. They were tailored for a certain instrumental sound.

fred

[KB1OKL]

I'm a bass player and had a Marshall Major 200W guitar head back around 1974-75, it was supposed to have KT-88's in it but it came with 6550's when I bought it, it was LOUD.

My next amp of which I bought my first one in 1977 and still use to this day is the Ampeg SVT, a 300 watt bass head and cab. 6 6550's, the matching cab is an 8 x 10 sealed bass cab, these are still the best sounding bass amps ever made. I have two 70's heads and cabs. These amps are extremely reliable, but are like lugging a boatanchor around every time you play.

Incidentally the last guy I played with who had a 100 watt Marshall turned it around to face the wall. I still think old original non-master volume Marshalls are the best sounding guitar amps.

[K6JEK]

I don't know about the Marshall amps but the Fender amps had a smell, at least the ones I used -- Super Reverb, Twin Reverb, and Showman. I suppose it was the tubes heating the Tolex covering.

This gives me an idea for an air freshener for men.

[N4LTA]

I met Jim Marshall at NAMM in Nashville a few years ago. Got an autographed T shirt that my son has on the wall at his house.

Another legend passed.

Pat
N4LTA

[Opcom]

If ever in the Czech republic or Slovakia, and see a 100W Marshall amp with EL34's, look real close. A Mr. Kopalek whom I know made many copies of a model of Marshall 100W amps behind the iron curtain in the 60-70's and very early 80's. From 3 FT away you can't tell. If you see a mixing board "Voijta" brand, it's one of his also. The Kopalek Marshall amp is highly prized, Czechs who can now afford/get a period Marshall may still prefer the Kopalek Marshall. After all, it is a Czech product and a trophy of the 'everymans' fight against the past regime. He used to make everything, knobs from epoxy, winding the transformers himself, etc. Hard to find tubes and the like were traded for. He had told me that he had some issues with EL34 sockets and that ceramic military ones were the only type available locally that would stand the 800V B+ without arcing during hard play.

pic of one of them..
http://www.muzikus.cz/pro-muzikanty-clanky/Rozdall-jak-vyrabi-zesilovace-Rudolf-Rozdalovsky~07~duben~2003/

can you read Czech..

[WD8BIL]

The coolest Marshall Stack!

http://technabob.com/blog/2012/03/22/marshall-fridge-amp/

[Opcom]

shades of VAXbar.