Jim Marshall built his first guitar amplifier in 1962. At the time he had a music store in
England and one of the products he sold there was Fender amps. Jim Marshall liked Fenders but thought they were too expensive. He began to experiment with making the amplifierss inexpensive by limiting the features. The outcome was an amplifier with a single speaker and very basic controls. This was the first
Marshall amp.
Being located in
Great Britain it was logical that some of the well known guitar pickers from
England tried and liked his amplifierss. Guitarists such as Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore are some of the better known guitarists who used
Marshall amps. You can imagine that with a group like that playing and in some cases, inadvertently endorsing
Marshalls, people were knocking the doors down to get their own. Marshall amplifiers continue to be top dog in many of today's guitar idols rock arsenal.
