Marshall is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones and earphones, drums and bongos. The company also owns a record label called Marshall Records. It was founded in London by drum shop owner and drummer, Jim Marshall, and is now based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, England. Marshall's guitar amplifiers are among the most recognised in the world. Their signature sound characterised by sizzling distortion and "crunch" was conceived after guitarists, such as Pete Townshend, visited Marshall's drum shop complaining that the guitar amplifiers then on the market did not have the right sound or enough volume. After gaining publicity, Marshall guitar amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets were sought by guitarists for this new sound and increased volume. Many of the current and reissue Marshall guitar amplifiers continue to use valves, as is common in this market sector. Marshall also manufactures less expensive solid-state, hybrid (vacuum tube and solid state) and modelling amplifiers. History Origins After a successful career as a drummer and teacher of drum technique, Jim Marshall first went into business in 1962 with a small shop in Hanwell, London, selling drums, cymbals and drum-related accessories; Marshall himself also gave drum lessons. According to Jim, Ritchie Blackmore, Big Jim Sullivan and Pete Townshend were the three main guitarists who often came into the shop and pushed Marshall to make guitar amplifiers and told him the sound and design they wanted. Marshall Limited then expanded, hired designers and started making guitar amplifiers to compete with existing amplifiers, the most notable of which at the time were the Fender amplifiers imported from the United States. These were very popular with guitarists and bass players, but were very expensive. Blackmore, Sullivan and Townshend were among the first customers of the first 23 Marshall amplifiers made. First amplifiers: birth of the JTM45 Jim Marshall wanted someone to produce a cheaper alternative to American-made guitar amplifiers, but as he had limited electrical-engineering experience he enlisted the help of his shop repairman, Ken Bran, a Pan American Airways technician and Dudley Craven, an EMI apprentice. They most liked the sound of the 4×10-inch Fender Bassman and made several prototypes using the Fender Bassman amplifier as a model. The sixth prototype produced, in Marshall's words, the "Marshall Sound", although at this time the only involvement Marshall had was to sell the amplifiers on a commission basis in his shop. As