RANT - WHY MARSHALL WILL FAIL

The problem is that no company is satisfied anymore with just making good products for a fair price and employing great people at a competitive wage. Every company now must always be growing, which is why we have the shittification of everything.

Best memory of my life: telephoning the Bletchley factory in the 1980s and asking if I could come and see the factory. Expected a polite refusal, of course. But no, and they gave me a date! I drove down and Jim's son Terry gave me a two hour detailed tour of the whole factory, and at the end he took me to Jim's office where Jim chatted away to me (even though he was obviously busy working at the time). Then he told Terry to fetch a load of items for me to take home, including a signed copy of the Marshall book, which I still cherish. A gentleman through and through and a great man.

I'm seeing this disturbing trend in companies being bought by private equity firms which then drive the company into the dirt and make some kind of short-sell profit. These private equity firms, of course, have NOTHING to do with the companies they acquire and aren't serious about the company succeeding because of what they intend to do. This almost sounds like what you're describing.

Imagine if these highly paid business people were good at business.

I might be biased on this, and even if I'm not it's probably already too late for them - but if Marshall can't immediately get connecting with online influencers in the guitar space, work towards building community interest and repairing the poor reputation they now have with guitarists, then anything else they do is a nonstarter. They need to very swiftly get a strategy together that will bring them in line with their competition, not just on modernising their product line, but on how they promote and build interest around it. Paying the magazines to gush about legacy is only reaching the old and nostalgia blinded at this stage. They NEED to be courting the people who are actively influencing the purchase of equipment that young bands use.

Marshall Amplification died with Jim...

The crow perching on the balcony railing is listening very attentively.

Ironically, the piece of Marshall gear that could do well today is the JMP-1. The Friedman IR-X is more or less a modern version of it. The JMP-1, updated a bit soundwise, with Two Notes technology and an editor would still sell, I think. The state of Marshall is sad. I remember the Musikmesses, when Jim Marshall surrounded himself with the greatest players.

And… Like ToneKing, build an attenuator into your 50w or 100w amps… work with ToneKing or Fryette…. And go back to sourcing English parts! It’s why we still have Marshall amps from the 60’s that work ( with a capacitor change … ) but the big stuff ( output transformer!) in those were 100% quality.

"Control the prices in the US" first thing I thought when I heard that was "Yeah, and control the prices in the EU, Mesa/Boogie"

Marshall already cooperates with Softube, their Marshall suite is exellent, probably one of the best VST I've tried. However, in my opinion, Marshall needs to make a line of UK made, modern two channels high gain amp with scaleable power, something in between SC20 and JVM, kind of modified plexi/jcm800 tone but with decent clean channel. DSL20 is a cool amp, especialy for the money, but lacks in many regards. And really, Marshall should call their former empoyees from Blackstar and ask for advice :)

"Friedman is a good Marshall". 100% Spot on!

As a guitar teacher to teenagers (or I was, pre-long covid, ugh) I can tell you most of them initially don't know Marshall is an amplifier brand rather than headphones. "Oh they make amplifiers too?" And yes, I agree, Marshall competing against established modeling companies seems crazy.

Now everyone wants a Marshall fridge, but not everyone wants a Marshall amp. And nobody wants a Marshall modeller, because there are modellers, and they are good modellers, and they are not Marshall.

I really appreciate these industry insight vlogs. Keep em coming!

My dear Henning, indeed, I am an old fart, love my Studio Series Heads (Plexi and JCM800) more than any other amp I ever played. Unfortunately, I totally agree ... I wish this new CEO would see your vid .... he should listen carefully, because your thoughts are the thoughts of the Marshall players, no Marshall modeler needed - thank you ❤ And, btw: you understand JUST A LOT about business, about developing business 👌

Something like this happened before with Marshall, only Jim Marshall was still alive to sort the problem out by putting new Amp's out under the Park brand until he could get the name back, We can only hope that someone will take notice and do the same again.

I agree with every word (not the hoodie) As a Marshall lover and a rock guitar lover, the new company should stay away from modelling amps entirely. If you want the Vox sound, get a Vox, if you want the Fender sound, get a Fender. There is a huge, huge difference between the sound of a modelling amp and the actual real amp when played in the room. I have a great Roland Cube which has a Marshall setting and I love it. But there is no comparison to the sound of a real Marshall with EL34 valves. Why sell an amp to sound like another brand of amp when you are already the World leader in amp sound and design? OK, they started with an RCA designed circuit and built from there, but they had the best R&D team imaginable, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend etc. Every other amp and speaker cabinet company from Ampeg to Zilla copied the Marshall Head and Cab design, and tried to copy the sound performance, but not successfully. In some cases like Freidman, they copied the colours scheme and finish and look also. Its a bit like Rolex selling a watch, which comes with Tag, Timex and Seiko faces, so it can look like any other brand. Why would you want to sound like anyone else, when everyone else is trying to sound like you? Long Live Marshall .... 🙂

You make a lot of sense! Hope Marshall listens to this!!

I stand by your side. It’s time for companies to make a slight change and roll in the right direction. Standing still isn’t moving.