Jim Marshall, Founder of Marshall Amplifiers, Dead at 88

Jim Marshall, the founder of Marshall Amplification, has died at the age of 88.

Marshall created his first guitar amplifier, the JTM 45, in the early 1960's. The devotion to his products by rock musicians has led to Marshall becoming one of the most recognizable brands in music history.

Pete Townshend of The Who was among one of Marshall's early customers and convinced him to create the first 100-watt amplifier, which helped to define the band's enormous signature sound.

A stack of Marshall speaker cabinets and amplifiers has become an iconic image at rock concerts as the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC have been among the brand's most loyal users.

A statement regarding Marshall’s passing was posted on the company’s website. It’s eulogy-like in nature and read as follows:

It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall. While mourning the Guv’nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.

Jim’s ascent into the history books as ‘the Father of Loud’ and the man responsible for ‘the Sound of Rock’ is a true rags-to-riches tale. Cruelly robbed of his youth by tubercular bones, Jim rose to become one of the four forefathers responsible for creating the tools that allowed rock guitar as we know and love it today to be born. The ground breaking quartet also includes the late, great trio of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover – together with Jim, they truly are the cornerstones of all things rock.

In addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes.

While the entire Marshall Amplification family mourns Jim’s passing and will miss him tremendously, we all feel richer for having known him and are happy in the knowledge that he is now in a much better place which has just got a whole lot louder!

Thank you for everything Jim, Rest in Peace.