In the early 1960s, British drummer Jim Marshall, started off with a small shop in London selling percussion instruments. In response to some of his customers who were looking for guitar equipment he expanded his business to include guitars and amplifiers. Initially he imported Fender amplifiers from the United States, but the high cost set Marshall on a search to create a cheaper alternative. Marshall built a prototype based on the Fender Bassman amp with the help of a couple of technicians.
After working on variations, they decided to launch the sixth prototype. Jim Marshall recalled in an interview that on the first day he put the amp in the shop he took orders for 23, although at the time they could only build one or two a week. This amp was eventually called the JTM45: the initials were for Jim and his son Terry Marshall, and the amp's wattage was 45. At the time, most speakers couldn't handle more than 15 watts, so Marshall crucially separated the amp from the speakers, putting four Celestion speakers in a separate closed-back cabinet. He also used a type of valve that boosted the treble frequencies.
The Marshall stack of amplifiers is one of the enduring features of rock concerts. Like Marshall's original amp, much of the company's product development was a response to requests from working musicians. Marshall developed the Bluesbreaker amp at the request of Eric Clapton, who wanted a combo amp with tremolo that fitted in the boot of his car. Clapton used the amp -- along with his Gibson Les Paul guitar -- on the "Beano" album with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. The band gave the amp its name. Another guitarist, Pete Townshend, wanted more amplification and Marshall designed a 100-watt valve amp and doubled the number of valves to create the Marshall Super Lead Model 1959, known as the Plexi. Townshend asked Marshall to build a cabinet for the Plexi to sit on, and the "Marshall Stack" was born.
During the 1970s, in response to requests for more distortion, Marshall introduced the Master Volume (MV) amps. The introduction of dual volume control created an edgy sound popular with guitarists such as Slash from Guns N' Roses. The MV amps were then repackaged as the JCM 800 series. In the 1990s, Marshall launched its JCM 900 amps that combined guitarists' favorite features of the JCM 800 series but added more distortion to meet the needs of a new generation of guitarists.