A ‘Les Paul And Marshall’ Kind Of Guy
Above: ‘John Mayall Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton’ (1966)
Since the release of the JTM-45, Marshall were fast becoming a favourite of the new crop of British Rock musicians. However, Marshall’s next product would define a legendary combination in the guitar world – a Gibson Les Paul into a Marshall.
In 1964 a 19 year old Eric Clapton was a frequent visitor at Jim Marshall’s Uxbridge Road store. The soon to be guitar hero loved the JTM-45, but as a young working musician felt it was too cumbersome. The result of this dilemma, was Marshall first combo amp (a unit housing the amplifier and speaker cabinet together). As the story goes, Clapton asked for a JTM-45 in a portable unit that would fit into the trunk of a car.
Marshall’s brand would sky rocket due to this situation. The young Clapton found fame when he joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and recorded the 1966 album ‘John Mayall Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton’. This album not only marked Clapton’s status as one of the best guitar players around, but it was famed for the guitar sound he achieved.
The source of the sound? A Les Paul plugged into the Marshall combo running a full volume.
It’s worth mentioning that a Les Paul had been around for a while already, and it’s pairing with a Marshall did more for it’s credibility as a Rock instrument more than anything else. (It could even be argued that Gibson’s current image of being a premier Rock brand has been because of Marshall.
Just like that, the Les Paul / Marshall combination was established and has been the choice of tools for many famed guitarists since then.
As for Marshall’s combo amplifier, it was nicknamed ‘Bluesbreaker’.
Although Clapton would move on to play Marshall stack amps in his Cream days (due to the size of the audiences, and the fact that Clapton wasn’t a poor young working musician anymore), ‘Bluesbreaker’ will always be a milestone in history.
Below: Marshall ‘Bluesbreaker’
For those interested in Jim Marshall and the company he created, I highly recommend you buy:
Maloof, R. (2004) “Jim Marshall: The Father Of Loud”, San Francisco: Backbeat Books.
