Jim Marshall; RIP

So today we learn of the passing of Jim Marshall. Marshall's amps have been, are, and always will be synonymous with the sound of rock n' roll as we know it. Marshall amps, or rather "that Marshall sound" is the most iconic of popular music since the sixties.

After much debate, and much research, here's how the story of Jim Marshall goes. Marshall was a drummer in England who opened up a music store where he'd sell guitars, amps, and drums. He found that the 1959 Fender Bassman was his preferred amp for guitar among the amps he was selling. The downside to these amps was that they cost a small fortune to purchase, as they had to be shipped from the US. Marshall decided to get into amp building, and built PA systems, and eventually took a crack at a guitar amp. He has said himself that he "...didn't have to re-invent the wheel." and decided to use the Fender 1959 Bassman as a platform for his amp. Now at this time, Fender was striving to make amps sound cleaner for country music, where as Marshall had the idea of making them sound dirtier. After about 6 attempts to get the sound that Marshall was looking for, his developers came up with what would be called the JTM45. When looking at the faceplates of the JTM45 and the 1959 Bassman (even in the re-issues), we can see the overwhelming influence. They have the same controls and switches. Even the number of tubes is the same. The primary difference is in the components and types of tubes.

Now Marshall himself wasn't sitting at a worktable tinkering away like Leo Fender did, but rather gave input. The main difference between the Bassman and the JTM45 was the sound. Marshall also came up with the idea of separating the amp (head) from the actual speaker cabinet, and rather than use Jensen 10" speakers, go with British-made Celestian 12" speakers. This was the first "half-stack" as we know of it today (Fender was separating heads from cabs around this time too, but these were refered to as "piggyback" designs, and utilized 2 12" Jensen speakers). The term "halfstack" was actually put into place later on. Marshall's idea was also to have the tubes extend upward from the chassis, rather than hang downward like Fender amps. This (whether or not intentional) aided in keeping the tubes cooler, thus lengthening their life.

Constantly evolving, at the request of Pete Townsend (one of Marshall's earliest customers), Marshall decided to make a more powerful amp. The JTM45 was rated at about 50 watts. The 1959, or "Plexi" as we call them today, was a 100 watt amp that first had a speaker cab with eight Celestian 12" speakers. As Marshall felt this was ridiculously large, he opted to use 2 separate cabinets with four speakers each. This is where the term "stack" comes from, and thus a stack with only one cab is called a "halfstack". Another idea Marshall had was to have the top cab be "slanted". The common thought was that this was to project the sound upward for better sound flow, but Marshall says he felt it looked better to slant the cab that the head would rest on. Marshall heads that are set on top of a straight cab do not quite look right to most of us (though it's been argued the straight cab has a fuller sound).

Admittedly, these are all vintage amps now. Many builders (including Marshall) try to revamp or emulate this sound. "The Marshall Sound" falls into an umbrella, as there are several Marshall designs that have been made, and some models are preferred by certain players over other. It's a general consensus that the "true" Marshalls were the ones with 6 knobs; 2 dedicated to volume, treble, middle, bass, and presence. The amps that many of us prefer are the JTM45, 1959 (Plexi), 1987, 2203 &2204 (JCM800 models), and the 1962 (also known the "Bluesbreaker", the only combo amp Marshall built that gets any credit). There has been an increase in popularity of the 4100 (JCM900) as well in recent years. Since the turn of the century, Marshall amps have been employing the use of multi-channel technology. It should be noted that the model numbers on Marshall amps (like 1959) ARE NOT the years they were developed. Marshall also built some bass amps, but their availability in the US has been limited, and as such, I have had limited experience with them.





Now I know what you're thinking, as a bass player, what stock do I take in Marshall sound. In actuality, in the earliest days of Wisconsin Beef Commission I was borrowing a Marshall 2204 (JCM800) reissue, which lead me to the sound that I use for the mock-guitar side of the overall sound. I am currently using Orange, which is a very similar sound. Marshall, Orange, and Hiwatt all fall into the same category of "Brittish" sound. Even the Sovtek Mig 60 I use has some Marshall influence in it, like the 12AX7 and EL34 tubes.

Bottom line, Jim Marshall didn't re-invent the wheel, but he made it a lot louder, and for this, we are truly greatful.

March 31st Battle fo the Bands

Some of you may have noticed that we've been shying away from the results of last Saturday's "Break Into The Big Gig" contest at the Up & Under, sponsored by 102.1 FM. There is good reason for this... THE CONTEST WAS BULLSHIT!!

We tied for second place with a great band called Billy Dreamer who were PHENOMENAL. The winning band however, was a Kings of Leon wannabe band from New Berlin that was still in high school. Brodie (Up & Under owner) informed me that the drummer was only 14!! Some "fans" (2 parents and a bunch of teenagers with fake ID's) were seen buying multiple ballots. They beat us and Billy Dreamer by 20 votes, and there was no way IN HELL they had 20 more people than we did. Here's an email I sent to 102.1 FM concerning this issue:

"Greetings,

Last Saturday (March 31, 2012), my band was part of the battle of the bands competition that was connected to 102.1 at Up & Under on Brady Street, with a chance to win a spot on a main stage at Summerfest this year. I have been involved in this contest with 2 different bands over the last 3 years. Generally each one has gone as expected and we've enjoyed participating, with the exception of last Saturday.

2 out of the 3 bands (including the one I'm in) tied for second place, and are bands that have been a part of the music community in Milwaukee for years (13 in my case), but the winning band was a high school band from New Berlin that none of us had ever heard of. This band consisted of musicians that were not old enough to drink, and the owner of Up & Under informed us the drummer was only 14. This seems concerning, in that persons of no less than 18 years of age are allowed to work in a drinking establishment (playing in a band falls under this umbrella), and patrons of that establishment are to be no less than 21 years of age (and their "fans" were definitely not). The situation was highly uncomfortable for those of us of legal drinking age, not to mention that we were informed that the parents of these children were buying multiple ballots. Their vote total at the end of the night was 34, and in a venue the size of Up & Under, 34 people that were not the regular non-voting patrons or fans of the other 2 bands would be highly noticeable in means of the place being filled beyond capacity.

In the future, if you want to open up a contest like this to children, you may want to consider using an all-ages venue, and not a legal drinking establishment.

Thanks for your time,
David Wiese"

What I didn't rant about in the email was the overall appearance  of this band. They were a Kings of Leon wanna-be band and reeked of every stereotype of trust fund baby band. The band consisted of 2 guitarists that had 7 guitars on stage with them consisting of Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, and a few others (none of which were less than $500 in value). The bass player had a '61 reissue Fender Jazz Bass (at least a $1700 bass) as well as a Ric 4003 (also over a grand). One guitarist had a Vox AC-30, and the other had a tweed I couldn't make out. One of their moms was even carrying guitars for them as they were leaving. They couldn't stick around for the ballot count because it was apparently PAST THEIR CURFEW!!

So with all this bullshit, we have decided not to attach anything to this contest as a band.

Recording, 4-2-2012

Well, we've finished up the drum and bass tracks for the premier album. We started on the vocals, but have quite a bit of work to do. The instrumental tracks are coming along great even before editing, and the sound is even better than I was hoping for.

The drums were recorded in one night, using your average kit micing, as well as strategically placed room mics; 2 in the room, 2 in the hallway. Mike used his usual Lidwig kit with most of the same cymbals he's been using live, but has added some replacements to the cracked ones. All cymbals being Zildjian A Customs.

The bass tracks (up to 4 in some songs) were recorded in a semi-similar fashion. The "bass" sound is my '95 American Standard Precision bass or my Fender Hoppus bass (used mainly because it had fresher sounding strings towards the end) running through my Ampeg SVTII, and SVT810E cab. I used my modded TS-9DX on a few tracks, and my vintage Rat pedal was used for "BFA". These were recorded with 2 mics on the SVT810E, 2 room mics, as well as the DI from my SVTII.

The first "guitar" track, was the '95 Precission run into the Sovtek Mig 60 with my custom made 6x10 cab (with 6 Jensen C10Q's). This is the amp I used live until about 2 months ago. The last track(s) was (were) done with my '92 American Standard Fender Jazz Bass (with EMG J's) through my Orange Tiny Terror and Orange PPC112 cab. This gave a great higher tone with a nasally chunch that holds the mix together.

One track on the album has my modded Gretsch G5120 running through the Orange in the chorus' rhythm, otherwise the album is all bass, drums, and vocals. We're running right on schedule with this project, and hope to have a CD release party before mid-June.