Marshall Marshall Marshall*

(*Jan Brady intonation)

As a guitar player for the past 40 years, I have always been searching for the perfect sound. I have finally acquired the guitars I could only dream about in my high school days; A Stratocaster, a Rickenbacker 360-12, and a Les Paul Standard. The LP is my favorite, and definitely lives up to all the hype.

Sadly, the sound was still not perfect. I had collected many distortion type stomp boxes over the years (Turbo Distortion, Grunge Distortion, Death Metal Distortion), but they always came up bit weak. The distortion was there, but usually thin, fuzzy and lacking in fullness.

Recently while out and about, I happened to come upon a father and son guitar shop. I talked with Vinnie (the son) about finding a decent distortion affect. He said to bring in my guitar and amp and try out a few to find the best one. I did this and found one that wasn’t too bad.

As I was checking out, I asked Vinnie, “So, what’s the story on Marshall amps? Is it all hype?”

Vinnie gave me a big knowing grin and said, “You oughta try one sometime.” I had the LP with me so I said “I got time.”

The store had a Marshall stack in the front window. Vinnie asked me if I mind playing in front of people. I said not too much, but I’ll give it a go anyway. So we fired it up and Vinnie went through the controls and said go ahead and play for a while. So with the amp on overdrive, I rocked the store for 20 minutes with a medley of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Queen, etc. The volume was only on 3 and it shook the place. The distorted sound was perfect and full. It was the sound I had been searching for. Hallelujah!

Vinnie quoted me a good price on the half stack (head and one speaker cabinet). So, I said, “Let me run this by the wife.”

I called Annette and told her the story. She basically said, “Why are you asking? You never get anything for yourself. You should buy it. Actually, you HAVE TO buy it!” Not one to argue, I said “OK!” (Gotta love her.)

“Hey Vinnie”, I yelled across the store, “The wife says I have to buy it”.

As I was paying, another customer, who had overheard the conversation shook his head in disbelief. “Your wife said you had to buy a Marshall stack??!!” “My wife would have said “Buy some headphones and keep quiet!””

So now I have the perfect sound I had been looking for. All is well. But ya know… I know it’s totally impractical, unnecessary, and even frivolous… but… adding a bottom cabinet for a full stack would sure look cool.


Quote from Zakk Wylde, famous Marshall artist: “…if I’m laying down at night and turn off the TV, my ears are going weeeeeee.”