Classic Gear
Jim Marshall’s musical instrument shop in Hanwell became a hub for electric guitarists soon after opening its doors in July 1960. Responding to customer requests for a new powerful amp design and in an effort to create a more affordable homegrown alternative to expensive US imports, by September 1962, the firm had prototyped its own edgiersounding take on Fender’s 5F6A Bassman. It featured a pair of war-surplus 5881 power valves, three ECC83 preamp valves and a GZ34 rectifier valve.
Production commenced from the end of 1962 as the team – consisting of electronics engineers Ken Bran, Dudley Craven and Ken Underwood – fulfilled a steady stream of orders for Lead, Bass and PA versions of its new amplifier, which was soon being fitted with a pair of British-made KT66 power valves. Although none of these germinal Marshalls were labelled as ‘MK I’, shortly after the amp’s initial release, a move to wider-input jack spacing and the elimination of a Bassman-style polarity switch on its front panel (constructed of aluminium or white plastic) saw them branded ‘JTM 45 MK II’ in reference to Jim and his son Terry, along with the amp’s ambitious 45 watts RMS power rating.
Several cosmetic permutations of the amp emerged over time, but the earliest versions can generally be distinguished by
their white fabric fronts and red-on-silver capitalised Marshall-logo metal badges (known as ‘coffin badges’ on account of them being sourced from a funeral hardware merchant). The first few of these seminal examples feature an offset chassis and all-white front, although the amp soon adopted its more familiar symmetrical appearance with a centralised front panel and logo. For a brief period thereafter, they continued to appear with an all-white front before changing to a two-tone black-andwhite design in 1963 (referred to as the ‘sandwich front’) and, in 1964, Jim and co finally settled upon the classic Marshall all-black livery.
The earliest versions can be distinguished by their white fabric fronts and red-onsilver Marshall logo
With orders increasing exponentially, in June 1964, Marshall opened its first factory operation in Hayes, Middlesex – initially enabling the company to quadruple its output to around 20 units per week – and, over the following months, the JTM 45 MK II continued to evolve. Gold Plexiglas front panels appeared and the logo changed twice – first to a larger red-on-silver, then black-on-gold, Plexiglas design in block letters. This was followed, in late 1965, by the introduction of Marshall’s now iconic script logo set in white plastic (at this time embellished with either gold or silver plating). The distinctive Marshall look was now complete.
In 1965, the JTM 45 MK II received separate model number designations for each available application, including the PA (1985), Bass (1986) and Lead (1987) units, and a fourth version – the Organ amplifier (1989) – was added to the range. However, in early 1966, a new breed of 50-watt designs featuring EL34 power valves and solid-state rectification signalled the beginning of the end for Marshall’s inaugural JTM 45 MK II range and it was soon phased out as the new era of hard rock began to take shape. [RB] would like to thank Vintage ’n’ RareGuitars(vintageandrareguitars.com)