THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND Behind every successful enterprise there is always a very human aspect. In the case of Marshall the Company's success is closely tied to the history of Jim Marshall himself. After a difficult childhood ruined by illness, Jim started work in 1936 at the age of 13 with no formal education. By the time he was 14 his interest in singing led to a part time evening job in a band. After a succession of day jobs with little or no prospects, Jim began a career in engineering as a toolmaker, largely on the strength of his own learning from books. His semi professional music career had blossomed into regular work playing the drums and by 1947 he began to study under Max Abrams - a highly respected drum teacher. Jim was so busy playing and teaching his own pupils by the early 50's, that he had to consider turning professional. He quickly became very successful as a sought after professional drummer and as a drum teacher, with up to 65 pupils a week attending his school. From the amount of retail business his drum school was generating it became obvious that he should open his own shop. In 1960 the first Marshall shop was opened. DRUMS TO AMPLIFIERS BY DEMAND Many of Jim's pupils became successful with their own bands and consequently began to bring their guitarists and bass players into the shop. Their demands for guitar products meant that Jim now had to stock guitars and amplification. In addition Jim soon realised that he could produce his own cabinets to cope with the louder volume levels and turned his garage into a workshop, building just two cabinets a week in 1961. By 1962 an amplifier was needed to provide something extra for the rapidly developing guitar players and Jim enlisted the help of Ken Bran, an electrical technician and former customer. After months of trials they finally settled on the design -The Marshall Sound was born. UNIQUE TONAL QUALITY The first amplifiers were totally hand built on aluminium chassis with 5881 valves (similar to 6L6's). Serial numbers started at 1000, though the first 3 or 4 were taken by prototypes. When demonstrated in the shop these early amps caused a sensation. The quality of the tone was something previously unheard and quite unique. Orders for 50 were taken from that first model. THE FIRST FACTORY The Marshall business was now highly successful and a second shop was opened virtually opposite the first. The original shop now became the amplifier manufacturing plant and the back of the second shop was the cabinet workshop. Output was still too low, so a small factory in Southall was set up to manufacture cabinets in 1963. Even this was not enough to cope with the demand created by the reputation of the Marshall sound and the growing list of endorsees. THE NEXT MOVE New premises had to be found and in 1964 a 5000 sq.ft. factory in Hayes, Middlesex was set up. Output now reached 20 to 30 amplifiers a week and 60 cabinets. As emerging bands such as The Who began to re-shape the presentation of music, demand grew quickly as other players wanted a piece of the "wild" Marshall sound. Pete Townshend was instrumental in the next major step. His wish to drive harder, accelerated the development of the first 100 Watt heads. He also asked for a special 8x12 cabinet. The impracticality of this cabinet led to a "stacked" version i.e. one 4x12 on top of another. The Marshall Stack was here!