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RIP, Electric Amplifier Inventor Jim Marshall, 'Father of Loud'
asavin writes "The founder of Marshall Amplification, Jim Marshall OBE, has died at the age of 88. A tribute to the man known as the Father of Loud was posted on his official website, praising the man whose name became iconic for electric guitarists." Reader LizardKing points to the Guardian's coverage of Marshall's passing, and adds : "A former drummer, Jim Marshall initially became involved with guitar amplification as an importer of Fender equipment, until he eventually decided to branch out and make his own amps. The trademark Marshall sound evolved alongside the requirements of such luminaries as Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton. The Marshall stack has since become a ubiquitous symbol of live rock music in particular — so much so that some bands perform in front of veritable walls of Marshall branded speakers. In addition to his lead guitar amplifiers, Jim will also be remembered for his great bass amps (as used by Lemmy Kilmister in particular) and the much sought after Guv'nor distortion pedal."
Never met a Marshall amp I didn't like. Met many I couldn't afford, but none that I didn't like.
I'm not sure "Rest In Peace" is appropriate here ;-)
Some marshal stacks are big enough one COULD be buried in one..... just sayin'
Should've used Gamemaker. For shame...
What does it mean?
Well, he owned a music store and was selling Fender amps from America. He took them apart and inspected them and figured he could make them cheaper and sell them for a better profit in England than he could by importing them from America. He used British variations of tubes that gave his amps a different sound than Fender amps. He happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right product.
...and playing "Too Rolling Stoned" all the way through.
Rock on, Jim...rock on.
They weren't talking about the loudness war in the raw data of the file, but rather in the final output. Anyway, just saying..
By the end of the 1960s, rock amps had achieved enough power to reach the threshold of pain. From then on, much of the "wall of amps" thing was fake. You just didn't need that much speaker area to hit the threshold of pain.
A friend of mine was a roadie for metal groups years ago, and she discovered this when setting up for Metallica. Most of the "amps" were empty boxes. At least they were enclosed boxes. In the picture above, the low-budget metal band just used fake fronts.
In my opinion, loudness was the worst thing that ever happened to music.
Pretty much destroyed all good music, and retroactively made many recordings of old music worse. Now that is not all this man's fault and music had to be digital eventually (and with digital comes a volume control). But he seems like the first step in a staircase of inept musical decisions.
This is completely irrelevant to this discussion. We're not talking about the loudness war here, we're talking about rock music you twit.
Huh? No mention of Hendrix? Seriously Sad.
So... electric guitars bad? What, you think if it's not written for harpsichord it's not music?
Amazing that one would even attempt to attribute the travesties of the Loudness Wars to one of the pioneers of modern music... I assume you exhibit a similar disdain for the late Les Paul?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Can anybody tell me what the "Marshall Sound" was, and how this would compare to a guitar played through something like a Yamaha?
I hate these media "rags to riches" stories. They make it sound like the guy went to Radio Shack (when it was for hobbyists), locked himself in his garage, and popped out a millionaire.
Well, that was a long time ago, and analog amplification isn't exactly rocket science.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
So, was he an innovator or a Steve Jobs?
Chill out bro. Keep tryin' to b a millionaire. Now you didn't say what you did or what your angle on the market was .. but it's been always well known that hard work alone isn't enough -- you need good ideas, a marketing strategy that works, and smart practices. If wealth was based solely on how much hard work you do, people working at a fast food place or on a farm would be earning double what a CEO makes.
Anyway, ..according to wikipedia .. this guy owned a record store .. he understood music .. and people had told him there was a need for a decent amp .. so he formed a company .. hired some engineers .. and produced one.
Btw, most of the time.. by the time the Chinese copy your invention .. you'd have presumably made a chunk of money already (or how else would they know your invention even exists .. let alone that its worth manufacturing).
As for "little guys who made it work" .. there are plenty of millionaires that made smartphone apps -- individuals who had good ideas, implemented them the correct way, and worked hard -- with almost no money or capital investment. Also your cloning theory is false. How come twitter clones didnt make it? Twitter is a fairly simple website that wouldn't have been difficult for any of the big boys to duplicate .. same thing with youtube. Anyway .. just cause you failed 3 times doesn't mean you should give up.. many people failed a lot more times than that before they made it.
What does it mean?
Well, he owned a music store and was selling Fender amps from America. He took them apart and inspected them and figured he could make them cheaper and sell them for a better profit in England than he could by importing them from America. He used British variations of tubes that gave his amps a different sound than Fender amps. He happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right product.
And that's in a time before someone who had never made an amplifier in their life would turn up with a patent for "amplification giving a pleasing sound" and taking both fender and Marshall to court.
...and don't get me started on equal temperament!
Yes but they are absolutely related. Different techniques that both similarly diminished the art-form of music by making it louder.
You haven't got the faintest idea what you're talking about. The criticism of the loudness war is concerned with clipping and a lack of dynamic variation thanks to over use of compression, not increased volume per se.
What it means is that the Marshall 1959 schematic looks identical to the schematic for a Fender '59 bassman...just sayin'
He finally went up to 11..
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
Wrong loudness.
The "loudness war" is really a "compression" war. And not data compression, but dynamic range compression (the difference between loudest and softest).
A good amplifier should have a huge dynamic range - it can make your ears strain to hear that soft tap, and a split second later blow them out when someone plays a riff. (The usual limiter is the noise floor).
The loudness war is basically taking soft sounds making them louder to compete with the loudest sounds, so it's all one level. (Some older albums may have you twidding the volume knob because of this).
Digital compression techniques like MP3 and AAC will reduce the dynamic range out of necessity (it takes a LOT of bits to have a wide dynamic range and still record soft and loud sounds accurately).
And none of it has anything to do with an amplifier. Heck, distortion effects often need wider dynamic range, especially in solid-state amps. A tube amp will distort when overdriven, which generates many harmonics that are often nicer on the ear. A transistor, when overdriven, clips and that generates nasty harmonics that ound terrible and grate the ear. Digital signal processing can emulate tube distortion and sond like many classic amps, but they have to avoid clipping which requires that the input amp and ADC stay below clipping even when applying heavy overdrive.
Fix the title please. Jim Marshall based his designs on Fender amps (basically "hotrodding" them). He didn't invent them. Having said that, I have no wish to diminish the impact of the Marshall amps, much the contrary. Music wouldn't be the same today without him/them.
Actually, making an analog guitar amplifier sound "right" is probably more difficult than building a rocket. I have a (digital and somewhat modern) VAMP3 and it's not possible to make it sound anything like a real Marshall stack with tubes.
"Did you want a list of all the eleven gazillion people who ever used a Marshall amp? "
Only those who used one which goes to eleven.
Making a good analog amp isn't especially difficult. What is difficult is doing it a cost that allows it to be retailed profitably. There are tons of absolutely killer boutique amp builders out there making great stuff that'll blow away pretty much anything mass-market (including marshall), but your're paying $4k+ for that sort of thing.
TODO: Something witty here...
...And then some adenoidal typists from Birmingham with flabby white legs and diarrhoea trying to pick up hairy bandy-legged wop waiters called Manuel and once a week there's an excursion to the local Roman Remains to buy cherryade and melted ice cream and bleeding Watney's Red Barrel and one evening you visit the so called typical restaurant with local colour and atmosphere and you sit next to a party from Rhyl who keep singing "Torremolinos, torremolinos" and complaining about the food - "It's so greasy isn't it?" - and you get cornered by some drunken greengrocer from Luton with an Instamatic camera and Dr. Scholl sandals and last Tuesday's Daily Express and he drones on and on about how Mr. Smith should be running this country and how many languages Enoch Pow ell can speak and then he throws up over the Cuba Libres.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I think it had to be a little more than just the tubes. I'm well aware tubes definitely affect the sound having experimented with them myself, but the difference between a Marshall Plexi (or even a combo) and say, a Fender Deluxe Reverb is more significant -or at least, quickly become so.
The irony is how much we now pay in America for his British amps! Ouch.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Yes it is. You need to talk to Carver to figure out how. It's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing.
Pedantic, much?
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
A Steve Jobs, but humble.
Mod waaaaay up!
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
The guitar player in my band just got this:
http://www.prsguitars.com/se50/
A 50 watt PRS amp that is amazing. He had played Marshalls and Mesas for years, but this PRS is incredible.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
British Amps, British Rockers.
I feel almost ashamed to say that as a 30 year old man, music teacher, and classically trained musician, it wasn't until just last weekend that I heard REAL live guitar amps, performed in a hall by expert musicians, without any other sound reinforcement.
I had been to many, many rock concerts, but they all fed the sound through the PA system, and though it sounded good, it was nothing like I heard in the hall last weekend. Just two small floor guitar amps, one on each side of the hall. The stereo effect was amazing. The bass player had his own amp. Otherwise the drums were un-mic'd, and only the vocal mics were fed through the PA system.
Speaking about just the tone quality, I'd rate every other rock concert as being about 60%-80% of last weekend's tone. It absolutely blew my mind.
The only thing I can compare it to is standing in front of a really good drum corps.
Even recordings I thought sounded awesome can't touch the live sound I heard last weekend. I'm afraid I'm addicted, and I don't even know where I'm going to find more performances like that. Even in the smaller clubs here, most bands feed through a PA system.
It is something I think every person should experience. No PA; just the amps, live in a good hall, expertly performed. If anyone cares, it was the wonderful Christina Courtin and her band.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
His amps weren't just about being louder. The tone of Marshall amps is stellar.
But in his defense, Pete Townsend of The Who is the one who demanded louder amps for their concerts. Most amplification systems at concert halls back then were seriously lacking for rock n roll, so you had to have a loud amp. Pete begged Jim to make a louder amp, and he came up with the 100-watt Marshall. Then of course every band wanted one, and I guess you could say there was a concert loudness war for a while (parodied by Spinal Tap's moniker "England's Loudest Band"), but as others have said that had nothing to do with the loudness war of the recorded music (which was indeed detrimental to the music itself).
Interesting. A lot of guitarists liked to play their guitars through the Fender Bassman (Surf bands in particular).
http://www.acetonestudio.com
I play the pedal steel guitar, one of the few electrics that doesn't sound better through a Marshall. Steel guitarists mostly rely on Peaveys like the Nashville, Session, and Vegas models. Peavey is a privately owned company, and Hartley, its founder, is now in his 70s. Maybe because he's a Mississippi boy, his company has produced amps for us since the '60s, even though we're very much a niche market.
When he's gone, I will mourn Hartley Peavey as much as I do Les Paul, Leo Fender, and Jim Marshall.
Dad? Is that you? I didn't know you had a computer! Gees, I'm 60 and have been listening to rock and roll since the '60s. If it ain't loud, it ain't rock. If it's too loud, you're too old.
Have you ever been to a Mozart concert? Have you ever heard Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, with cannons? have you never in your life been to a parade? Loud music has been around for centuries. GOOD loud music. A live acoustic guitar playing with a live drumset is subaudible. Most non-amplified musical instruments, especially horns and drums, are DAMNED loud.
Hell, try listening to Zepplin's "Immigrant Song" at low volume, it's like drinking watered down beer. You've been listening to WAY too much canned music and WAY too little live music.
Free Martian Whores!
wisnoskij complained:
There is no comparison to the modern day rock and role singer (some smuck of the street who is willing to scream until he vomits blood) and a professionally trained opera singer who can actually control his voice.
Which is to say that you love opera, and rock music is not opera.
Well, duh.
Check out my novel.
When the most important aspect of a singers voice is how loud they can scream, when they sound like you put a bag or gravel in a food possessor, that is a bag thing.
It is indeed. It's not my bag, it's not your bag, but it's clearly somebody's. Maybe it's my father's; he's just bought one from the shop -- it's brand new, you know.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Well I have never listened to a single opera. I respect the dedication to improving a skill and professionals who strive to perfect a skill. And I understand that to be a good singer you need to have control of your voice.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
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.
And then I walked into Wayne Music. There sitting along the hallway wall was a 100-watt JMP Marshall top and matching 4x12 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.
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 coiffure have lift off.
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.
R.I.P.
Classical music has to be loud, at least sometimes. What makes it difference is that is equality loud and quiet. The classical song writers understood the significance and beauty of a whisper as much as that of the bang of the cannon. Modern music is the exact opposite, it is 1 volume (loud).
And considering that you where alive, let alone going to concerts in the 60s you are orders of magnitude older then I am. Good taste is ageless.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Are you talking about Bob Carver?
What seems easy for him is inconceivable to an average engineer.
Why does it seem like he keeps getting screwed by his business partners?
No brain, no pain.
Shows how much you know. Not much.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Classically trained singers are bloody loud too. That's part of the training. Stop now, will you?
http://www.acetonestudio.com
No, I was just talking in general terms about any number of boutique/hand wired amps, ranging from relatively high-volume companies like Soldano to super-exclusive stuff like Dumble, where it's one guy making maybe one amp a month.
TODO: Something witty here...
There is nothing wrong with loudness in its place. I never said anything over X db is bad.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
He didn't invent anything. But his company made great amps. He did a good thing. He's dead now. RIP.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Indeed, you are correct. If you look at the signals on an oscilloscope, an overdriven solid state amp will have a square wave with sharp corners, while the corners of a tube amp's distortion (clipped and overdriven) are rounded. This is what people mean when they say it sounds "warmer".
Many guitar players will play through a low power tube amp with a microphone in front of the tube amp that feeds a high power, not overdriven solid state amp. You get the sound of the tube amp without the higher cost of a Marshall that way.
Free Martian Whores!
Most people don't realise that to double the db you have to increase the amp's power by 10x. A 100 watt amp is twice as loud as a 10 watt amp, all other things being equal. A high efficiency speaker being driven by a 50 watt amp is louder than a low efficiency speaker being driven by a 100 watt amp. The amp output impedance and speaker impedance matter, too. Because of impedance mismatches, you can easily blow a solid state amp by running several speakers in series from it. You might even see the magic smoke.
Free Martian Whores!
I have a Line6 Pod 2 which sounds really damn close to a Marshal stack, specially through headphones. The Line6 stuff usually does a much better job at emulating analog gear than Beringher, whose products i always found way to sterile sounding.
I suspect that if you turn an amplifier up a lot you will also get distortion, which is what the OP is probably trying to say. But bands could easily avoid this, they would spend more money on more expensive amplifiers (such as made by Marshall) and thus get the desired loudness with less distortion.
For the CD "loudness wars" it is too late. You can't improve the result by buying a more expensive CD player. That is a big difference.
No, it isn't more difficult then building a rocket..assume you want the rocket to do somewhere and do something.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"It's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing."
No shit.
Is there anything that isn't easy for you know what your doing?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yeah, the Who, Stones, Clapton...their loudness just ruined music~
At least we have idiots like you to tell us what music is, and apparently you have defined art. Well done.
Moron.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Everything about your post is provable wrong, or based on a stupid fallacy.
Just the point that you compare anyone who 'sing rock' to a professionally train opera singer show you're inability to think logically.
I can pull out the top best rock and roll singers, and that would have better voice control that some yahoo singing opera in the shower.
Put together a logical argument...but I suspect you can't think clearly enough to put a logical argument together.
-
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
stop, he is a troll.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Don't, he is a troll. He complain about 'loudness', and when direct confronted he changes the subject slightly. I mean, think abiout this: the crux of his argument* is that loud equals bad music.
He clearly doesn't understand distortion, or compression artifacts, or any technical aspect. Of course in spite of the clear evidence of hios ignorance, he gfoes on as if he know what he is talking about..
SO he is a troll.
*I use that term very loosely regarding his stupid statements.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
He's a troll. Ignore him.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes he did. He invented an amplifier to get a specific sound musicians.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes because the loudness war (the movement that reduced the complexity of music by making it all 1 volume level) is provably a good thing?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Actually there's a Universe of Bagpipes. Most every nation in Europe had or has an indigenous variety or varieties. Some of these are loud as hell, yes - Scottish (specifically Great Highland, the stuff you hear in parades), Breton, Galician. Others aren't any louder than an acoustic guitar, like the Irish pipes I play.
And curiously enough just this Tuesday I was talking to a friend about the Basie Band's guitarist, Freddy Green, who stuck to using a non-amplified archtop his whole career. Those things can really project, it seems.
In my opinion, loudness was the worst thing that ever happened to music.
Orchestras are loud.
Big grand pianos, the type used in concerts, not little polite "baby" grands, are loud.
Pipe organs are loud. Probably the single loudest instrument ever built.
Point is, Loud has been with us for a few hundred years now, if not more. All the electric guitar and its amps did was bring Loud to the guitar.
Perhaps you're thinking of dymamic range compression? IMO, that truly is the most evil thing ever foisted on musicians and listeners alike. It's sole purpose is to render music playable by the lowest common denominator. Truly an abominable, despicable creation. It sucks all the life, all the soul, out of the music.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Yeah, but that Porsche was the son of the son of the founder of the company.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Making a good analog amp isn't especially difficult. What is difficult is doing it a cost that allows it to be retailed profitably. There are tons of absolutely killer boutique amp builders out there making great stuff that'll blow away pretty much anything mass-market (including marshall), but your're paying $4k+ for that sort of thing.
There are a lot of people building their own amps these days, from "boutique" amp builders that charge exorbitant prices and use exotic/specialty and select "new old-stock" original parts & tubes, to fairly average guitarists that want a quality hand-built tube amp but lack the money to afford a Marshall or a boutique amp.
I've been playing for ~40 years, and my favorite, best-sounding amps are the ones I've built.
Cathode-Biased KT66s, Parallel-Triode preamp, ~30 watts: http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/stratman_el84/Testament%2030/
Cathode-Biased EL84s, Unique SRPP ( http://valvewizard1.webs.com/srpp.html ) Preamp Design, ~20 Watts: http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/stratman_el84/Testament%20MK%20I/
Both amps sound fantastic, and they cost a fraction of what anything comparable commercially costs.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
No it doesn't. A JTM45 on the other hand... Selmer also did a pretty much perfect clone of the bassman, again with different (UK) valves.
? He adapted existing amp designs to make an amp that did something different than what was available at the time and I and many people think that was something better. But he didn't invent, did he? Maybe you are misunderstanding me. I love Marshall amps. He was an innovator and a very important one who deserves a huge amount of credit - and perhaps really actually got the satisfaction in his lifetime that people loved and revered his contributions - I hope he felt it.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
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Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
Check this. Horrible recording. An unrehearsed jam. I'm not a hot shit guitar player but I still get a kick from listening to this: http://www.acetonestudio.com/ACEtoneAudio/OthersAudio/Rising%20Gorge%2012-9-05/PlanetMongoReEQ.mp3 (give it 35 seconds for the guitar to kick in!) Relevance: The Marshall amp in question (unfortunately I don't own it and not sure which model it is) can cut through drums bass and everything - and it is not just about loud - it's getting the tones and sounds through all of that 'noise'. I've played Fenders and they don't have it (for me anyway). I would love to own the amp this tune is played on but I have to make do with an old Line 6 that approximates those kinds of sounds. And it's not just the sounds. At the right levels I have found myself playing beyond my limited ability. This may be a feature of the intensity of the jam, but it is never the same with a different amp. I was at a rehearsal studio a couple of years ago - they had all of the boutique amps and none of them did it for me. A difference between turning it up and turning it on. That Marshall turns me on as a player. Nice work Mr. Marshall.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Let me get this right: building a good analog amp is hard because you can't make a digital one sound like an analog one?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Really? You seem to be generating plenty.
Which is nothing at all to do with amplifiers.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
wisnoskij insisted:
Well I have never listened to a single opera. I respect the dedication to improving a skill and professionals who strive to perfect a skill. And I understand that to be a good singer you need to have control of your voice.
And yet you cite opera singing as somehow artistically superior to rock vocals.
Are you familiar with the logical error known as "appeal to authority"? Because you just indulged in it.
As for your contention that:
There is no comparison to the modern day rock and role singer (some smuck of the street who is willing to scream until he vomits blood) and a professionally trained opera singer who can actually control his voice.
I recommend you hunt up the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and listen closely to "Gethsemane". The guy singing it is Ian Gillian, the original lead singer of Deep Purple, and thus one of the originators (with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin) of hard rock/heavy metal vocals. Hands down, it is the premiere interpretation of the part. His voice soars, pleads, agonizes, and, yes, at times screams. And the emotional impact is devastating. I defy you to criticize it - it is simply one of the best rock vocal performances ever recorded.
Better yet, listen to Murray Head's performance as Judas, singing "Superstar (I Only Want To Know)". Holy freakin' shit, Batman!
Check out my novel.
Same thing happened in Canada, Peter Traynor was an amp repairman in Toronto who essentially copied the Fender Bassman design (much like Jim Marshall did) with just enough mods to keep from being sued, but while adding some innovations of durability. The Traynor Dyna-bass, later renamed the Bassmaster, was designed and tested so it could survive being thrown off the roof of the original 3-storey Long & McQuade music store building, and still work by just replacing the tubes.
While Marshall innovated on tone moreso than Fender did (IMO) the original Fender Bassman is the blueprint from which most amps that use EL34 tubes are designed. Most of them from the 60's and 70's can be modified to each other's specs just by changing low-level resistors and capacitors, the expensive components are functionally identical from different manufacturers. I own 1968 and 1970 Traynor Bassmasters, one is modified to Marshall "plexi" JCM1 specs, the other is modded as a Bassman. Neither a JCM1 nor a Bassman can undergo a 3-storey drop and be expected to operate with replaced tubes, but my Traynors can. Each is sonically and electronically identical to their respective partners.
Nowadays, Marshall is a household name for guitarists, as is Yorkville for sound techs. Yorkville is essentially a co-venture of Traynor and Long & McQuade, and carries Pete Traynor's influence of being indestructible while providing the sonic characteristics to get the job done time and time again on a budget. I was pleasantly surprised that the two festivals I attended in Tennessee and Florida recently were using Yorkville speakers, and that the techs knew how to make them sound good. They're more tough than they are sweet-sounding, but dial them in and nobody complains, and they'll never ever let you down.
Sorry for the Can-con segway, Jim Marshall's impact on the music industry will never go unnoticed, much less forgotten.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
BTW most Marshall and Fender guitar amps are now built in China, much like all other brands. All Traynor guitar amps are made in Canada. Same goes for Yorkville PA speakers.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Writing bug-free software, perhaps?
I am not really here right now.
Your typing is pretty good for a 6 year old or a 6 month old. Or some order of magnitude younger than 60 years anyway.
But the subject was amplification, not dynamics. It isn't Marshall's fault that today's sound engineers seem to all be less than competent.
Free Martian Whores!
So you have a _digital_ modeling/effects processor which doesn't sound like a _tube stack_ and somehow that fact means that it's more difficult to make a tube amp than a rocket? Are you high?
You forgot to end your rant with 'Get off my lawn!' :)
That's the big ingredient that always gets left out in those stories. The hard work, keen sense of what's hot, and a strong business sense will all make the big success more likely, but then you need a whopping big dose of luck.The luck is the only absolutely indispensable element.
One thing is for sure, calling it a "compression" war is dead wrong. More like an "expansion" or "removal of headroom" war.
I come here for the love