On 07/04/2012 02:41, Phil Allison wrote:
"Arfa Daily"

Sad to learn of the passing of Jim Marshall this week, after him not being
very well for some time now. He was 88 years old.

I know that we are sometimes less than kind on here about some of his
company's products, and certainly with some justification in many cases,
but the fact remains that over the years, his amplification products have
had a significant impact on the music business, and overall, have been up
there with the best.


** As a long time repairer of guitar amplifiers, I can safely state that at
no
time did the Marshall company ever show any sign of any expertise at either
design or manufacture of valve guitar amplifiers. This is still true today.

The original model was cobbled together by a two service techs under the
direction of a drummer ( Jim himself ) - a rough copy of a Fender Bassman -
it was pretty horrible.

Later models incorporated several changes, including the use of EL34s, that
made the design worse and very prone to self destruction.

Marshall's success in the marketplace was DESPITE the actual product, not
because of it. Endorsement from Jimi Hendrix and others was the main
reason for any sales success.

AFAIK, Jim Marshall never took any credit for the designs nor accepted any
blame for their many shortcomings either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal...cation#History


... Phil



Whilst your observations are true of some of their products, and I would
agree that this has been the case from the outset, I think it is maybe a
little harsh to condemn all of their many designs over the years. I too
have been repairing their products since the seventies, and met Jim on
several occasions in the early days through a mutual friend (their UK
factory is close to where I live). I always found him quite a
decent-seeming guy with what appeared to be a genuine passion for
producing a quality product that was different from the Fenders and Voxs
of the day.

Again, I think it is a little unfair to the company to say that they
have succceeded *despite* their designs. For sure, their case would have
been helped by testament from the likes of Hendrix, but their equipment
has been used and endorsed over the years by many famous top class and
long-lived musicians, and to say that they are effectively wrong to
provide such endorsements, and to continue to buy Marshall equipment, is
to call these people stupid, which I'm sure they are not.

Marshall Amplification has been in business for some 50 years, and I
don't care how much they have 'created' a name for themselves, if the
equipment was as poor as you believe, they would not have survived in
such a competitive and limited specialist market. Many other
manufacturers of similar amplification equipment, including some good
British names from the same era, have not survived, so Marshall must
have been doing something fundamentally right.

I know that we'll probably never agree on this Phil, but I have no axe
to grind here, nor any particular allegiance to the Marshall company,
other than that their products keep earning me a living - but then so do
Fender and Trashdown and Soldano and many others.

I just thought it appropriate to comment here amongst fellow engineers,
on the passing of someone who has been instrumental in keeping valve
technology alive in this equipment, and whose company has sought over
the years to stay at the leading edge of technology as it has become
available - with or without the level of success of others.

No matter what, it *is* the end of a bit of history, but I hope that the
rest of his family who work in the business now, have the heart and
business accumen, to keep it trading successfully for another 50 years ...

Arfa