James Charles Marshall

James Charles "Jim" Marshall known as The Father of Loud or The Lord of Loud, was an English businessman, and pioneer of guitar amplification. His company, Marshall Amplification, has created kit used by some of the biggest names in rock, producing amplifiers with an iconic status. Marshall has been listed as one of the four forefathers of rock music equipment along with Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover.

Marshall was born in Acton, West London, in 1923, into a family which included boxers and music hall artists. As child he was diagnosed with tubercular bones, and spent many years in the hospital. His formal education suffered as a consequence.

During WWII he was exempt from military service due to his poor health. He became a singer, and then, due to the shortage of available civilian musicians, doubled as a drummer. In his day job as electrical engineer he built a portable amplification system so his light, crooning vocals could be heard over his drums. "I was making 10 shillings (£0.50 / $0.75) a night and because it was wartime, we didn't have any petrol for cars, so I would ride my bicycle with a trailer behind it to carry my drum kit and the PA cabinets which I had made! I then left the orchestra to be with a 7 piece band and in 1942 the drummer leader was called into the forces and I took over on drums."

In order to become more proficient on the drums and to better emulate his idol, Gene Krupa, from 1946-48 Marshall took weekly lessons from Max Abrams. In 1949 Jim started teaching other drummers, including Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), Micky Burt (Chas and Dave), Mickey Waller (Little Richard) and Micky Underwood (Ritchie Blackmore).

"I used to teach about 65 pupils a week and what with playing as well, I was earning in the early 1950s somewhere in the region of £5,000 a year (eqv. 2012 to £108,000/$170,000), which was how I first saved money to go into business."

From 1960, Marshall owned a moderately successful music store in Hanwell selling drums and then branching out into guitars. His many guitar playing customers (including Ritchie Blackmore, Jim Sullivan and Pete Townshend) spoke of the need for a particular kind of amplifier and Marshall saw the opportunity. He recruited an 18-year-old electronics apprentice, Dudley Craven, who was previously working for EMI and, with his help, began producing prototype amplifiers, resulting in the foundation of Marshall Amplification, in 1962. It took Marshall six attempts to create an amp he was happy with, creating what later became known as "the Marshall sound". As the company grew, Marshall expanded his products, and unveiled the Master Volume Marshall amps and the classic JCM800 split channel amps. Soon after he started production, musicians including Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton were using his equipment.

In 1984 Marshall was awarded the "Queens Award for Export", an honour bestowed by the Queen of the United Kingdom in recognition of Marshall Amplification's outstanding export achievement over a three-year period.

Jim Marshall died on 5 April 2012. Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash commented; "The news of Jim Marshall passing is deeply saddening. R & R will never be the same w/out him. But, his amps will live on FOREVER!". Marshall has been named as one of the four forefathers of rock music equipment along with Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover.

Musicradar.com, Wikipedia