Once upon a time, in an amplifier kingdom, not very far from here, peace reigned over the land. The most powerful of the amplifier lords (we’ll call them Fender, Marshall and Peavey) presided over their territories, there were few conflicts and the lords prospered. Occasionally, an interloper from outside would attempt to grab part of the kingdom for themselves but they were always eventually repulsed and things would go back to the way they had always been. This era of relative peace and prosperity went on for many years but eventually things began to change. The amplifier lords grew older and less attentive to the needs of their people. While all of this transpired gradually, the subjects also were changing and demanding new and better things from their amp lords. Eventually, new amplifier lords(we’ll call them Line 6 and Roland), gained favor with the people and the old amp lord’s hold on the territory became more tenuous every day. A terrible war ensued and it continues to this day.
Okay, maybe that was a little over the top, but while Fender, Marshall and Peavey really did control the Daddy’s amplifier kingdom for most of the ‘70’s, ‘80’s and ‘90’s now they are facing serious challenges from Line 6 and Roland, who have effectively packaged sophisticated amp modeling into inexpensive amp formats. According to MISalestrak, an industry research group, of the top ten most popular models, just the total number of Line 6 Spider III 15s and Roland Micro Cubes sold in October 2008 practically equal the total number of sold units of the rest of the top ten. . At the same time, Line 6 is currently the American distributor of the Chinese made Bogner Alchemist line of amps, another challenge to Marshall’s hold on the high end tube market. In the 36 year that Daddy’s has existed, I don’t believe we have ever seen the Big Three challenged as much as they have been over the past few years. We’ve had to wait awhile for these companies to respond to the challenge of the new amps but now Peavey has released the Vyper line of modeling amplifiers and Marshall has summoned us and other members of AIMM (Alliance of Independent Music Merchants) to their headquarters on Long Island to view the ’09 line of amplifiers. Will they be able to answer the new challangers?
The invitation to preview the 2009 Marshall and Vox amps at Korg USA headquarters (Korg USA is the American distributor of Marshall amps and Vox amps and the its company, Korg Japan owns the rights to the Vox name) in Millville, NY on Long Island was greeted by sighs and rolling of the eyes. Early November is always a bad time in retail, the final and most important managers’ meeting of the year, making sure that all the holiday guitars and amps are ordered in proper quantities and not to mention the post Halloween chocolate haze that permeates all that we do, there’s not much time for anything else. However, we were tempted by several factors. We would be the first retailers in the United States to see the new amps, reported to be some of the best these companies have ever made and we would get the chance to see, hear and play through Mitch Colby’s (Executive Vice President of Korg USA) world-class collection of rare Marshall and Vox amplifiers. There was also the promise of a big dinner at the end of the day with Korg picking up the tab. That clinched the deal, we booked passage on the Bridgeport to Port Jefferson ferry across Long Island Sound to avoid the NYC traffic and we were on our way.
Once we arrived at the Korg Headquarters, we were quickly ushered into a large studio and immediately signed non-disclosure documents so I can’t tell you anything about the new Marshall and Vox amps. I’m sure that word on these amps will be leaked out well in advance of their official debut at the NAMM Winter Show in mid January so keep an eye open on the internet for news. It’s probably okay to tell you that the product we saw sounded great, and had new features and price points that will appeal to a lot of guitar and bass players. You should be able to see much of this product by the first quarter of 2009.
What I can also tell you is that in that studio we were greeted by a wall of old and incredibly valuable Marshall and Vox amps, the promised Mitch Colby collection.
Mitch Colby with a few of his amplifiers. Here’s a quick sampling of these machines. This 1971 Marshall Bluesbreaker, a one of a kind custom amp. Originally a 4×10, it had been retrofitted with 2×12 Celestion “greenbacks” and completely done over with new tolex, grill cloth and white piping. It looked and sounded incredible. (insert #4). This 200w 1969 Marshall Major was owned by Ritchie Blackmore, a founding member of Deep Purple. The amp had been modified by the legendary John “Dawk” Stillwell of Dawk Sound Limited. As part of the purchase agreement for this amp, the modification was removed so it could not be duplicated but by all accounts it was probably an extra gain stage that gave it that famous sound. We heard the amp and it was very, very loud, even without the mod.
The Park amplifier carries a large part of the Marshall lore with it. In 1966, Jim Marshall signed a 15-year world-wide distribution agreement with the Rose-Morris Agency. He soon found, much to his chagrin, that Rose-Morris was selling his amps to dealers at a 55% mark-up ( as opposed to the normal 10-15% markup) which forced dealers to sell Marshalls for such high prices that Jim knew his sales would only grow in small incremental amounts and would severely limit his profit potential. In desperation, Marshall started many outside business ventures (including two large department stores and several other retail businesses) such as making Park amplifiers which were produced from 1965 to 1982. The early Park amps, a favorite of collectors everywhere because of their rarity, were essentially Marshall amps with a different name plate and thus exempt from the Rose-Morris agreement. This Park is from 1966-1967 and used KT88 power tubes. Of all the amps we heard that day, this may have been the best, a sweet, full throated amp full of musical overtones.
Mitch’s collection also includes a number of rare Vox amps, including the AC-15 seen here in the lower left hand corner. Probably made in 1960, at some point in its history, the tolex was painted black to appear more modern, I assume, and its covering is only partially restored. Again, the amp sounds like you’d like your amp to sound.
After this tour of the Colby collection, the group headed out to the eagerly anticipated dinner (some of Long Island’s finest Italian) and then we left our gracious Korg hosts to go back to the real world. We came away from this preview with the sense that both Marshall and Vox had made some solid product and marketing decisions that would allow them to hold their own against the new competition.
