Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplification, died this morning at the age of eighty-eight.
Marshall, often called the “The Father of Loud,” was born in West London in 1923. As a small child he was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bones and spent a large portion of his childhood in and out of London’s hospitals, his body encapsulated in plaster casts. Exempted from military service due to his sickly adolescence, Marshall became a civilian musician after developing a keen interest in drumming. Around this time, Marshall began applying his knowledge of engineering (then his day job) to developing his own personal voice amplifiers, so that his soft, crooning voice could be heard over his thunderous drumming. Continue reading