Jim Marshall: the Father of Loud
No one would ever have guessed that the sickly kid in a London hospital would become a pioneer in rock and roll and work with such legends as Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix.
Yet Jim Marshall would grow up to found the amplifier company that bore his name and defined the sound of rock for generations.
Growing up sick
James Charles Marshall was born in London in the early 1920s. Much of his childhood was spent in a hospital bed, as he suffered from tuberculosis in his bones.
While he eventually overcame this disease, it was still enough to exempt him from service as a young man in WWII. Instead, Jim began a career as an electrical engineer and moonlighted as a musician.
Combining engineering and music
Initially, he was a singer for a local band, but in 1942 the band’s drummer was called into active service. As a result, Jim started playing the drum set to cover — while still maintaining his singing duties.
This led to a problem, though. Marshall had a quiet singing voice that was difficult to hear above his own drumming. With his background as an engineer, he started building his own portable PA systems to amplify his voice.
