A tour round the Marshall factory

Danny1969

Spent a very happy hour or so in the Marshall factory today in MK. I thought they only made the hand wired stuff in there these days so was quite impressed to see the process of loads of different amps being made from raw rolled metal to punched and bent chassis, PCB's loaded with TH components, wired up and then put into the wooden boxs also made there and hand covered in tolex. They make a lot more in house than I ever thought they did, even the plastic dishs for the speaker jacks are made in the factory

A few pics  

The gallery of amps over the years



First ever Marshall amp made .... Gary Moore tried to buy it but Jim wouldn't sell



This room was originally Jims private room for his beloved Ball room dancing, now a showcase room for demo's trying out new ideas and putting on gigs 

lustycourtier

Great isn't it. I had one of those very early 45s a good few years ago. Tone to die for, but selling it bought a car. 

ICBM

I want that red flared 1x18" bass cab in the top pic. At least I think that's what it is!

Marshall did some seriously weird cabs back in those days, some of them seemed like a project to rid the world of excess plywood .

thermionic

That's some demo room.

I almost applied to a job advertisement at Marshall a few years ago. I worked in microelectronics for a few years, so not really the right experience, but biasing a valve is similar to biasing an integrated circuit MOSFET. It was only because of the slim chance of being invited there for an interview really!

John_P

Looks like a nice day out

Years since I had a tour but I remember being very impressed when they let me test my jubilee and handed me a Les Paul and turned up flat out.  Glad to hear they are still as accommodating. 

Danny1969

For @ICBM ;

Danny1969

ICBM

Hmmm…. maybe not 1x18", the square doesn't seem big enough. 1x15"? Although some of the flared PA columns had baffle cut-outs smaller than the speakers. I wish I'd kept the couple of pairs I've had, now - I bought them for the speakers, and re-loaded one set with modern high-power drivers for a Zep tribute band, so they looked the part but would handle a modern PA amp - though still stupidly heavy and awkward to carry compared to modern PA cabs. The other pair were bought by someone who wanted them for the vinyl and piping .

Sassafras

I wondered where I'd seen the Friedman logo before. He uses exactly the same font as early Marshall block logo.
Apologies if that's old news but I've only just noticed it.

RiftAmps

Sod the JTMs, the best amp in the museum is the #1958 with ECC83 drive/recovery Spring Reverb - they usually used an ECL86 for the reverb (which are rare anyway) so to see one of these is unheard of.

Jalapeno

Wow'd

Another on the bucket-list. 

Done Martin factory, Sadowsky workshop.

To-do: PRS factory, Benedetto workshop, Mesa Boogie and Marshall.

John_A

I had a factory tour a few years ago, it really was a great day out!  All you need do is give them a call and say you would like a tour and they'll give you a date.  The chap that showed us round really knew his stuff, and it was a no rush tour with as many stops, photos and questions as you liked, fantastic that a company will do this.

Bygone_Tones

The red cab is from the powercell series I think. Model 2054. It is a 15" speaker:

http://www.adverts.ie/keyboards-and-piano-accessories/marshall-2054-1x15-lead-organ-flare-cabinet/790069

They made some really ugly stuff in the mid 70's.

Adam_MD

John_A said:

I had a factory tour a few years ago, it really was a great day out!  All you need do is give them a call and say you would like a tour and they'll give you a date.  The chap that showed us round really knew his stuff, and it was a no rush tour with as many stops, photos and questions as you liked, fantastic that a company will do this.

Wow I'm definitely doing that I only live 30 miles away and would love to see the factory.

ICBM

Bygone_Tones said:

They made some really ugly stuff in the mid 70's.

That's not ugly, it's cool as anything!

The PA cabs I had were like this -

http://nialltodd.com/MarshallCabs/mar.jpg

They did three different sizes, a 'short' 1x12"+1x10" about half that height, a 'medium' 1x12"+1x10" and these 'tall' 2x12"+2x10"s. I had the medium ones - when I refitted them as modern PA cabs I put circular blanking plates over the 10" holes and fitted them with horn tweeters, with high-powered 12"s. They sounded quite good, although not very hi-fi really. And they still weighed about 75lb each...

Bygone_Tones

Yeah I've had a few of those in various sizes. Nice speakers in them usually.

The massive 2x10, 2x12 cabs sound insane (in a good way). Closed back too, and all plywood, they weigh a tonne.

Danny1969

I saw some 8 X 12 cabs but forgot to take pics  I was looking at them and imagining having to lug em up stairs !!

My tour came about because a mate brought a little Code amp. There were some bugs between the amp and his phone so Marshall sorted it out and as a thanks for reporting the bugs invited him and a friend up for a tour. 

Can you imagine travelling back in time 20 years and telling Jim there would be a problem between a Marshall amp and a phone ..... he would think you were some kind of idiot  But that's the world we live in now !!

dindude

Cool, let's organise a Fretboard trip, Marshall factory, then onto the new Gordon Smith workshop not far up the road.