Marshall

Marshall's story begins in 1962 in Hanwell, West London, when drummer, drum teacher, and shop owner Jim Marshall opened a small musical instrument store selling drums and giving lessons. When guitarists including a young Pete Townshend of The Who complained that the amplifiers of the day simply weren't loud or powerful enough, Marshall — working with shop repairman Ken Bran and EMI apprentice Dudley Craven — set out to build something better, using the Fender Bassman as a starting reference and refining it through six prototypes until they found what would become known as the "Marshall Sound."

The result, the JTM45 (named for Jim and his son Terry Marshall), launched in 1963 and quickly became the amplifier of choice for the era's most influential guitarists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. The Plexi series that followed, named for its Plexiglas control panels, and later landmark amps like the JCM800, cemented Marshall's amplifiers as the literal sound of rock music for generations of musicians.

Now based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Marshall has expanded well beyond guitar amps into a full lifestyle audio range of headphones and speakers that carry the same bold, rock-and-roll design language into everyday listening — proof that the "Marshall Sound" Jim Marshall chased in a small West London drum shop became one of the most recognisable sounds, and looks, in music history.