DesigneD To Deliver
Unveiled at NAMM 2019, the Studio series puts vintage valve tone in a low-watt, player-friendly modern format. Here’s how Marshall tore up the rules of valve tech…
Inspiration can strike anywhere. The Marshall Studio series made its world debut at the 2019 NAMM trade show in California, with Dan Hawkins of The Darkness spraying molten valve-driven riffage over an open-mouthed music press. The flashpoint for this small-but-mighty range of heads, combos and cabinets came two years earlier, at the Music China event in Shanghai.
Manning the Marshall booth, it wasn’t unusual for Product Director Luke Green to meet amp enthusiasts pitching ideas. But this one was different. “This guy came up to me,” remembers Green. “He was a musician, not an industry guy. And he asked if we could bring out a JCM800 that was only 20 watts. He said that he had two 100watt heads and stacks in his house, but they were too loud to play.”
At the dawn of his business in the 60s, Jim Marshall had created ever-larger amps for a gain-hungry clientele. Now, over a halfcentury later, the demand for a downsized product was a sign of the times – and the British firm was still listening intently to its customers. “Sometimes,” says Green, “a musician will say something they think is insignificant and you’ll realise it could be a fantastic amp. And that goes right back to Jim listening to the guys who came in the
shop and said, ‘I want this.’ But now, we’re not just developing for London – we’re doing it for the entire world.
“For pro players on big stages,” Green continues, “the 100-watt head will always have a place. But most musicians need smaller, lighter lower-wattage products now. They have less space; houses are getting smaller, volume levels are stricter. It’s forcing people to use lower-power amps. But, actually, that’s not a bad thing – as long as you can retain the performance and tone.
“So the Studio concept made perfect sense. There’s the older generation that used to be able to play loud and have retired their Super Lead. But there’s also the kids, who want that sound but haven’t got the space or money. So you get both ends of the spectrum.”
Marshall already had impressive form for downsizing its powerhouse valve products. In 2016, the British firm had expertly shrunk its iconic Silver Jubilee head, to widespread industry acclaim. “That 2525 Mini Jubilee head went down a storm,” reflects Marshall Managing Director Jon Ellery. “But then we waited. We wanted to release the CODE series to show that we could do digital amps. We released Origin to show that we could do a new product with an authentic sound and vibe. And that’s when we thought, ‘Now’s the time to do the Studio.’ It’s going back to our past, while giving people the tools to build the future with a lower-wattage product.”
The three amps in the frame for the Studio treatment were steeped in rock ’n’ roll mythology. Alongside the Jubilee, there was the 1959 Super Lead Plexi (whose trailblazing tone lit the fuse of the 60s rock movement) and the JCM800 2203 (whose 1981 debut was a watershed moment for hard-rock and metal). “Those amps all mark moments in time in the history of the Marshall brand,” reflects Ellery, “and they all gave guitarists what they needed at the time, whether that was master volume or something else. We still make the JCM800 2203 and Silver Jubilee models – and people still want those original Marshall amps. But we also need to look at what’s happening right now and be a part of it.”
Heritage and reputation come with pressure. With each of those original amps celebrated for their grit-and-honey roar, and global connoisseurs having pored over the internal mechanics for over half a century, one wrong move would see the new Studio series shot down as imposters. “It was so important for us to nail the tone,”
nods Luke Green. “At the end of the day, when you look at something like a JCM800 or a 1959 SLP, they’re such iconic amps, and people are so familiar with the way they sound, and have such high expectations of what that amp will do for them. So the Studio models just had to match up.
“When you bring a new amp out, there’s an element of subjectivity. But with the Studio amps, you just couldn’t have any deviation. People would have picked holes in them straight away.” Out of the blocks, the most intimidating mountain facing the design team at Marshall’s Milton Keynes HQ was to maintain that head-turning performance in the face of the reduced power figure. “When you’ve got something that is a notoriously loud, high-powered unit,” says Green, “it’s always going to be a difficult thing to translate as you come down in wattage. It’s the resonance, the feel of the amp; all of the elements that go into making the tone. The feeling that you get through your chest and hands when you perform through your guitar – they’re all a big part of it. So for our engineers, over everything else, it was about making sure that the tone, feel and everything else was the same at a lower volume.”
Just as demanding was walking the tightrope between the amp-building practices of the vintage and modern eras. “The very early 1959 amps were handwired and the component sizes were much larger,” says Green. “Obviously, there’s changes to the number of valves in there, because the power rating is different now. The tech has moved on and we’ve moved with it. But it’s still through-hole. There’s still elements of hand-soldering in there. The actual circuit design is the same. The components may have changed over the years, but getting the signal from point A to point B – the way that’s done hasn’t
“For our engineers, over everything else, it was about making sure that the tone, feel and everything else was the same at a lower volume”
changed. We’re dealing with tech that is 60 years old in some cases, but we’ve also got components from the modern day. Combining those things is an artform.”
As the Studio’s development gathered pace, the most respected ears in the ampbuilding business were listening. “With any project that we do here,” says Green, “there’s an awful lot of tweaking, playing, tweaking again. We sound-test an awful lot as we develop, and our engineers constantly make changes to capture whatever it is they want in the sound. A lot of the work they do is that kind of trial and error of adjusting a certain value a little bit, just to squeeze the tone. It’s almost like tuning a sports car. You can change one thing, but that might affect something else. You can distil the preamp and other elements into a lowerpowered amp, but you still have to tweak it constantly.” At times, adds Green, achieving a faithful performance meant sticking to the timehonoured blueprint of the original amps. “You can embrace digital technology to do a lot of tricks, but some things only work when you do it the way they were done before. The ECC83 valves are a big part of the Marshall sound. They always have been. It genuinely is a foundation – something people expect to hear from us.”
At other moments, he counters, getting the right result meant tearing up the conventional wisdom. “Speaker choice was so important. We deliberately chose to go with the 10-inch speaker in the Studio combos. For a lot of people, that would be counter-intuitive; they’d say a 12-inch speaker is going to sound better. But we did a lot of testing with different speakers and cabs – and actually, for a small combo at that power, that 10-inch speaker was so much more honest in its tone. So we went with that. That was a bit of a bold move, but it was a statement of our intent. And there may be other companies out there going, ‘Well, our product has a 12-inch speaker over your 10-inch speaker.’ But, for us, it’s about designing amps for people to use in real-world modern scenarios. It’s about delivering the best product possible.”
With prototyping complete, and as the Studio moved into full-scale production, the factory floor at Milton Keynes buzzed with activity. Each expert member of the 56-strong team rose to the challenge of crafting a modern valve amp to compete with the icons. “One of the things I’m really passionate about is continuing manufacturing in the UK,” says Jon Ellery of the process. “We’ve just upped the staff by 20 to help make the Studio range – because those amps are all made right here.”
Before you even plugged in, the Studio line-up was a mouthwatering prospect, offering the Studio Classic, Studio Vintage and 2525 – each one available in a portable combo format or as a head with corresponding 2x12 or 1x12 cab. But the
cosmetics and spec sheets only told half the story. The validation of the Studio concept came at NAMM, with the earth-shaking sets by Marshall’s demonstrating artists.
“One of the stages at NAMM was limiting the power of the amps allowed on stage,” says Luke Green. “King Creature – a band from our record label – were due to play, and the rule was that they couldn’t have anything over 50 watts on stage. King Creature’s guitarists usually play JCM800s and 100-watt JVMs. They’re a metal band; it’s all about being big and loud. But at NAMM, they played in front of thousands of people with the Studio, mic’d up and through the PA system. And they came off and went, ‘That’s perfect. Next time we go on tour, we could just do it with these amps.’ Which is really saying something.
“It goes back to the feel and tone being spot-on. I can see people having the Studio amps at home – but also playing clubs with them. And using them in the studio, too, as the name suggests.”
Post-NAMM, the word is spreading across the roster of Marshall artists. “The Studio is already so popular with our younger bands,” says Artist Liaison Manager Joel Manan. “We did a video with Lee Malia from Bring Me The Horizon, and he’s a big JCM800 fan, so when we showed him the Studio Classic, he told us he wouldn’t shoot a video with it unless it really was a good amp. And he absolutely loved it, because it sounded exactly like his original 800. Younger bands are going to love them, because the JCM800 and Plexi are such famous heads, and it’s so useful for them to have a 20-watt version where you can actually crank it up over halfway.”
But you don’t have to be a professional musician to be hooked by the Studio. “We only launched these amps at the 2019 NAMM show,” says Green, “and already it’s been massively popular. Our international demonstrator came in and told us that in every shop he’d been to, they’d sold out already. Which just goes to show there’s that appetite out there for a smaller, lighterweight, lower-powered guitar amp – as long as it can nail the tone and performance of those traditional, well-known models. I think we’ve really hit that with the Studio.
“To all intents and purposes, they’re the same products as their big brothers. It’s one of those unarguable things – the engineers just seem to have managed to replicate those classic amps exactly as planned. We’ve not had one person say that they don’t feel or sound like the originals.”
But don’t just take the global rock scene’s word for it. Flick the power switch on a Studio series amp. Hit a powerchord. Despite the size, there’s no denying that you’re hearing the same Marshall roar that has echoed through the ages. “It’s just that feeling,” smiles Jon Ellery, “of having that speaker and amplifier and feedback behind you. It’s something you can’t get from anything else but a Marshall amp. It’s a living, breathing thing…”
“It’s just that feeling of having that speaker and amplifier and feedback behind you. It’s something you can’t get from anything else but a Marshall amp”