Picture of Marshall Bluesbreaker Combo Amp
By Mark Grove
Back in 62' when Jim Marshall came out with the first Marshall Amps I should note first of all it wasn't Jim who actually built and designed the amp head of his to be famous Marshall amps. Jim had someone who did amplifier repairs named Ken Bran who recommended a lad name Dudley Craven, who was a whiz at electronics, and Jim himself had no real experience with audio electronics.
Where Jim's real talents lied were in cabinet design and building bass cabinets as well. So Marshall,Bran and Craven's combined specialties helped to come out with the first Marshall amp in late 62'.
It is said that the first Marshall amp is based on the(Fender Bassman5F6A). Whether or not that's true would be based on amp head electronics at the time and the speaker/cab design and eventual audio output with mainly Fender or Gibson guitars. Various numbers of speakers were placed separated from one another inside Jim's cabinets and closed backs, were put on each cabinet to out put and hold tones that much more efficiently than having opened back cabs behind the speakers.
At that point the amps had 4 12 inchers and were only 25 watts only.In 64'the tubes were changed and the amp was up to 45 watts per speaker.
Eric Clapton takes The Marshall Sound to further Innovation:
Little did Eric Clapton realize back in 65'he would be an innovator all because he wanted his amp slightly changed. Clapton bought a JTM 45 from Marshall's shop but he had a problem fitting it into the trunk of his car. The JTM normally came with 4/12's,but with Eric's situation he customized his JTM by cutting out two speakers
from the cab enclosures.
This amp was the one Clapton used at the time with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers as well as combining the JTM with a Les Paul. This was the perfect amp and guitar duo for John Mayall's blues influence. One thing about Marshall's is and always has been is that they tend to be loud even at 50 watts which is great for metal players and their beefier toned chord structuring. This amp with the two 12's,in essence became the (Marshall Bluesbreaker).
Along with this at the time there tended to be the need for variances in the amount of spacing between the JTM and mic, whether in the studio or playing live.
This became the era of longer distance miking techniques especially in the studio. Close miking with Marshall amps was taking a back seat to more ambient and creative recordings as well as live sound miking techniques that took The Marshall sound into the stratosphere.
According to a lot of the top players Clapton knew how to play very inventive blues leads better than most with the Gibson-Marshall
combo sound.
Eventually Eric switched to Marshall 100 watt amps when he played with (Cream). One thing about Marshall amps since day one because of the electronics and industrial type tubes when you're playing with a 40 or 50 watt head the tones are fatter and sound like 80 to watts or more. So you can play a Marshall at a low level and still feel you are getting the sound you want. I would also assume that Marshall's would be more suited to playing live than in the studio because of the amp head electronics and speaker cab setup.
More boutique amps or modelling amps from Fender,Vox or Rivera were not meant so much for the stage but for studio session players while Marshall's keep on pumping out the iron on stage and to a lesser degree in the studio. Music industry icon's Marshall Amps and Eric Clapton have given musicians the blues and rock sound that inginited generations of top level musicians and fans for the last 40 years.
Mark Grove-CGP
May 2004
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