Marshall JTM-45 Mk II Lead Tube Amplifier (1965)
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Item # 11663
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Marshall JTM-45 Mk II Lead Model Tube Amplifier (1965), made in London, England, serial # 5005, black vinyl covering finish.
This is one of the rarest and most sought after pieces in the British amplifier canon, a "Pre-Plexi" Marshall JTM-45 head. When this amp was made in 1964 or early 1965 "Marshall" was not yet a famous name even in the UK, but simply a well-liked music shop in northwest London building and supplying house-branded amps to their clientele. That included up-and-coming north London act the Who, and through interaction with them and other like minded musicians craving more power and impact a new class of amplifier was born. "The Marshall Stack" became the ubiquitous hard rock amplifier of the late '60s and '70s, but this is an early part of the story.
Design and assembly was by Jim Marshall's assistant Ken Bran; Marshall himself was a drummer before delving into retail. Prototypes were put together in late 1962; by the time this amp was built the design was established, if still essentially a "boutique" product. Early Marshalls are far closer to the Fender 5F6-A Bassman circuit they were based on than the later evolved Plexi amps. Like the 5F6-A, they featured dual 5881 power tubes, a treble, middle and bass tone stack driven by a DC-coupled cathode follower with a very hot bias and a long-tailed-pair phase inverter; key elements to what's widely considered this "holy grail" of guitar amplifiers. Other than slight adaptation to European components and the differing form (head and a closed-back 4x12" cabinet), the circuits are nearly identical. The story goes Jim Marshall was presented with three prototypes derived from the Bassman and chose the one that had a most "bold and punchy" sound.
Although none of the initial amps were officially labelled "Mk I"; shortly after the initial release Marshall adopted a wider input jack spacing and eliminated a Bassman-style polarity switch. The new front panel (constructed of aluminum or white plastic) was branded "JTM 45 MK II" in reference to Jim and his son Terry, and the amp's power rating.
The hand-made amps evolved fairly rapidly; the earliest versions had white fabric fronts and red-on-silver capitalized Marshall-logo metal "coffin badges" sourced from a funeral hardware merchant! This changed to two-tone black-and-white in 1963; the next year Jim and the team settled upon the classic Marshall all-black covering. This example has cosmetic features dating between mid-1964 and mid-1965, probably on the earlier side. These include the rare engraved white plastic front control panel below the black on gold "block" logo, white piping combined with a gold center strip and the early leather handle.
According to available information, amps made in this timeframe almost exclusively used KT66 power tubes due to problems with the supply of American tubes. This amp is fitted with 6L6GC tubes which are likely a later substitution. As is common the light aluminum chassis has a bit of a dip due to the weight of the transformers, hence space for the larger KT66 tubes is fairly tight.
These very early Marshall amps are extremely rare, especially here in the US. Many players have only seen them in early photos of the Who! Survivors are often heavily worn from use or modified over time; this nearly 60 year old example is spectacular find for the British tone connoisseur.
Height is 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.), 26 in. (66 cm.) width, and 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) deep.
Cosmetically, the amp is in remarkably well-preserved condition, with only minor-to-moderate wear to the fairly thin black covering. The black-on-gold "block" logo plate is fully intact and the white control panel shows hardly any notable wear, with all original knobs present and fully intact. The leather handle has separated from its metal insert but the leather portion is still intact and the handle fully functional, even after nearly 60 years!
Electrically, this amp remains largely original. All pots appear original; the power, choke and output transformers are original or at least peroid with the power transformer bearing the stamped code 1202 118. The OT was supplanted by another for a time but has been neatly re-installed, according to the previous owner. The amp was modified long ago with an external impedance selector on the back panel, labeled for 4, 8 and 16 ohms.
This unit has seen our typical maintenance and servicing, including replacement of electrolytic capacitors, a grounded 3-prong power cable (detachable via the original Bulgin plug), all sockets, pots and jacks cleaned and biased to spec. The amp is serviced to run on US 120V and includes a bag of all original components that were replaced. The sound is simply spectacular with practically any instrument, and through the correct 4X10 cabinet this truly proffers the sound of the Gods, 1960s style. Overall Excellent - Condition.
This is one of the rarest and most sought after pieces in the British amplifier canon, a "Pre-Plexi" Marshall JTM-45 head. When this amp was made in 1964 or early 1965 "Marshall" was not yet a famous name even in the UK, but simply a well-liked music shop in northwest London building and supplying house-branded amps to their clientele. That included up-and-coming north London act the Who, and through interaction with them and other like minded musicians craving more power and impact a new class of amplifier was born. "The Marshall Stack" became the ubiquitous hard rock amplifier of the late '60s and '70s, but this is an early part of the story.
Design and assembly was by Jim Marshall's assistant Ken Bran; Marshall himself was a drummer before delving into retail. Prototypes were put together in late 1962; by the time this amp was built the design was established, if still essentially a "boutique" product. Early Marshalls are far closer to the Fender 5F6-A Bassman circuit they were based on than the later evolved Plexi amps. Like the 5F6-A, they featured dual 5881 power tubes, a treble, middle and bass tone stack driven by a DC-coupled cathode follower with a very hot bias and a long-tailed-pair phase inverter; key elements to what's widely considered this "holy grail" of guitar amplifiers. Other than slight adaptation to European components and the differing form (head and a closed-back 4x12" cabinet), the circuits are nearly identical. The story goes Jim Marshall was presented with three prototypes derived from the Bassman and chose the one that had a most "bold and punchy" sound.
Although none of the initial amps were officially labelled "Mk I"; shortly after the initial release Marshall adopted a wider input jack spacing and eliminated a Bassman-style polarity switch. The new front panel (constructed of aluminum or white plastic) was branded "JTM 45 MK II" in reference to Jim and his son Terry, and the amp's power rating.
The hand-made amps evolved fairly rapidly; the earliest versions had white fabric fronts and red-on-silver capitalized Marshall-logo metal "coffin badges" sourced from a funeral hardware merchant! This changed to two-tone black-and-white in 1963; the next year Jim and the team settled upon the classic Marshall all-black covering. This example has cosmetic features dating between mid-1964 and mid-1965, probably on the earlier side. These include the rare engraved white plastic front control panel below the black on gold "block" logo, white piping combined with a gold center strip and the early leather handle.
According to available information, amps made in this timeframe almost exclusively used KT66 power tubes due to problems with the supply of American tubes. This amp is fitted with 6L6GC tubes which are likely a later substitution. As is common the light aluminum chassis has a bit of a dip due to the weight of the transformers, hence space for the larger KT66 tubes is fairly tight.
These very early Marshall amps are extremely rare, especially here in the US. Many players have only seen them in early photos of the Who! Survivors are often heavily worn from use or modified over time; this nearly 60 year old example is spectacular find for the British tone connoisseur.
Height is 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.), 26 in. (66 cm.) width, and 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) deep.
Cosmetically, the amp is in remarkably well-preserved condition, with only minor-to-moderate wear to the fairly thin black covering. The black-on-gold "block" logo plate is fully intact and the white control panel shows hardly any notable wear, with all original knobs present and fully intact. The leather handle has separated from its metal insert but the leather portion is still intact and the handle fully functional, even after nearly 60 years!
Electrically, this amp remains largely original. All pots appear original; the power, choke and output transformers are original or at least peroid with the power transformer bearing the stamped code 1202 118. The OT was supplanted by another for a time but has been neatly re-installed, according to the previous owner. The amp was modified long ago with an external impedance selector on the back panel, labeled for 4, 8 and 16 ohms.
This unit has seen our typical maintenance and servicing, including replacement of electrolytic capacitors, a grounded 3-prong power cable (detachable via the original Bulgin plug), all sockets, pots and jacks cleaned and biased to spec. The amp is serviced to run on US 120V and includes a bag of all original components that were replaced. The sound is simply spectacular with practically any instrument, and through the correct 4X10 cabinet this truly proffers the sound of the Gods, 1960s style. Overall Excellent - Condition.