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Smashing equipment



Hey, here is an except from an article in the magazine CANADIAN =
MUSICIAN,
Volume XIX no. 5 (Oct. 1997). The article is titled "An Interview with =
Jim Marshall"
On page 26. The article is in the column 'guitar', by Peter Murray
"
Question
How involved were artists like Townshend and Hendrix?
Answer
They were not. JH didn't come along until 1965-6,...and there's this =
rubbish
been written about PT designing the stack! No way, I did! First of all, =
I designed the=20
2X12 cabinet. And although we were only producing a 45W amplifier at the =
time, and
these speakers were supposed to carry 25 watts each comfortably, we blew =
every one. Then the only thing I could think of was putting four 12" =
speakers in a cabinet.
There was nothing smart about designing the cabinet, because all Iooked =
at was
The sort of transport the lads had, and I designed the cabinet as small =
as I possibly
Could to put four 12" speakers in it! And that's why it's that size-for =
no other reason.=20
But I hit upon the right size.

Question
At some point PT said he needed more power.
Answer
Initially, he bought just the standard amplifiers we produced. But then =
in about '66, he said he wanted 100 watts instead of 50 watts. So we =
built him the first three 100W=20
amps.

Question
Did he go on to destroy these amps, like he did so many?
Answer
He didn't destroy amplifiers. People thought that he destroyed a lot of =
guitars and
Speaker cabinets. No. He was too clever for that. As a matter of fact, =
his father and I=20
thought the kid had gone stark-raving mad when he first started that. =
But it paid off, it=20
was a new form of showmanship that his father and I did not understand. =
We thought
it was stupid. But he was right in what he was doing. And his =
Rickenbackers, you see,
he did destroy two, which he used to bring back to me and I used to glue =
them back=20
together again, and they were the ones that he used to break - not the =
new ones!
So he was not as destructive as everybody thought. Over the years he =
probably
destroyed no more than two, when he got excited on stage and used the =
wrong one.
But, other than that, he just damaged the speaker frame, which we used =
to redo
for him on a fairly regular basis, so he could do it all over again. But =
he never caused
much damage to anything."