Interesting Marshall article

  • Thread starter Thread starter stratjacket
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They've ditched alot of models on American Musical's website, not sure if they're discontinued or what. They did have a recent blowout a few months back..

JVM410 - not more on website.
SC20H - gone.
SV20H - gone.
JVM205H - gone, (except for a used one).
JVM 210H - still there.
Not even a 2203X listed..
They only have a whopping 6 models available on their site. Not sure if new amps are coming, or they're just giving up.
 
Lots of tube Marshall heads available on Musicians Friend, GC, Sam Ash, and Sweetwater. JVM410, 2203x, 1987x, 1959x, sc20, sv20, they are all there

I think the lack of options on American Musical has more to do with their problems than Marshall's, since they are a smaller retailer they probably don't sell as many of the $3k+ amps so they don't carry them as much

But yeah Marshall is a lifestyle brand, out of necessity it seems to survive. Headphones, Refrigerators, licensing out the Marshall name for plugins or software models etc
 
They barely have anything listed on the Marshall website. Retailers just might be carrying what’s leftover of their inventory.
 
I read that article earlier today. Interesting that so little of their revenue is from amp sales. The money is based on their brand name according to how the article reads. As far as inventory being light with the retailers, Marshall just changed their US distribution correct? That could be the reason for that. Need some time to get distribution up to speed again. And hopefully drop their pricing structure.
 
When I stayed at an Aloft hotel in Puerto Rico each room had a little Marshall smart speaker. Played a little riff when you turned it on. I turned it on, then off, then on again, then off and I was done with it.
 
I read this the other day, too. While I wasn't surprised that they make more off of other parts of their business, I was surprised to see that amps are only 5% of their sales. Pretty stunning initially, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. There's a TON of used Marshalls out there. They've been making them for 60 years. The prices of new ones have skyrocketed since 2019, so they probably aren't selling a ton of new ones. Couple that with the fact that Marshall is the worst innovator of their own sound (literally why Dave Friedman made a million dollars), and you have a recipe for selling headphones, refrigerators, and speakers.

That said, they do have a point. It is true that Marshall is synonymous with rock and roll attitude. Think about it. People have seen huge Marshall stacks behind guitarists for 60 years. People go somewhere, see a Marshall stack and go, "Oh yeah, this is going to be a rock and roll band." So when it comes time to buy a Bluetooth speaker, if you love rock and roll, then a Marshall speaker is probably appealing to you.

One last thing. It is kind of sad that this is what Marshall has come to. As I said above, Marshall "clones" and "takes on M-style sounds" are better than anything Marshall is putting out today. I guarantee Dave Friedman's Plex amp will wipe the floor with a stock 1987X. That is simply so sad. Marshall probably only sells 5% amps because they absolutely refuse to innovate. Instead, they leave that to guys like Friedman, Bogner, Headfirst, etc. It's just a brutal late chapter to an otherwise amazing rock and roll story.
 
If they sold 2203 and 1959x’s for 2400-2600 and modded options like sir#39/ Jose clones for 2700-2900 they’d be in a lot better spot. I bet most people would put aside their pride regarding country of origin at that price point.

Nobody’s looking at Marshall to innovate, just make an 800 for the masses. Preferably with a 4th tube as an option.
 
They really just need to make affordable amps that actually sound similar to their iconic amps. The main reason why people played them back in the day outside of how good the amps sounded was simply because they were easily accessible then. For instance, Yngwie Malmsteen played non-master volume amps because they were cheaper than the then-new master volume amps when he was starting his career.
 
As far as North American sales, am I smoking crack, or did they recently announce a change in distributor? This could account for why things have dried up a litle bit, previous distributor likely burning off old stock, and just waiting for the reset. Hopefully it will bring a big adjustment in pricing.
 
I bought my Mini Jube head new in mid 2018 for under $1000.

Now they are almost twice that.

Marshall's prices are completely out of control. I love their amps, but they are no longer competitive here in the states. For the money they charge I can get a great boutique head.

If I want a Plexi or JCM800 at this point I'm going clone. Less money and probably a way better build.
 
hellzington said:
Pretty stunning initially, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. There's a TON of used Marshalls out there. They've been making them for 60 years. The prices of new ones have skyrocketed since 2019, so they probably aren't selling a ton of new ones.
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The used market is slowly chocking all those companies, that are thriving on their classics. The more they put out, the less they sell. It`s even worse in the guitar market. You can get used Gibson LPs from the 90ies all through the 2000s and 2010s nicely priced as they are not considered vintage yet. And every decade that passes, the offering on the used market grows putting pressure on the sales of new guitars.
 
psychodave said:
Marshall sucks. I could revamp their amp division and create 20% amp sales. I'm actually being serious.
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I feel like anyone with even as little as a year's experience of being a business major in college could run most of these gear companies better. Haha.
 
I don’t follow Marshall closely, but seems like they’re content to let everyone else push the hot-rodded features. Maybe they tried with the JVM or maybe something else I don’t know, but seems like they are happy to just live off the name and legacy releasing enough to not disappear. The article suggests that to me the way I read it.

Imagine if Marshall had released something like the BE100 or Splawn or whatever newer amp before and actually led innovation.
 
stratjacket said:
https://www.guitarworld.com/news/ma...lflow&utm_medium=social&utm_content=guitarist

We think Marshall represents the rock and roll attitude”: Amp sales accounted for just 5% of the Marshall Group’s revenues in 2023 – but it looks like new digital amps could be on the way​


Maybe nothing too earth shattering in the article that we didn’t already know, except I didn’t know that amps only accounted for 5% of their sales…
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Gibson and Harley-Davidson are also lifestyle brands.

I remember going to the Harley dealer many years ago to buy a new bike, 95%+ of the store was HD logo products, there were maybe 5 bikes in the showroom, all were sold waiting for delivery. I got lucky, while I was there they were getting a delivery, and a few new bikes didn't have a down payment or weren't spoken for, so I managed to get a new bike. IIRC they made more money selling HD logo items than selling motorcycles.
 
psychodave said:
Marshall sucks. I could revamp their amp division and create 20% amp sales. I'm actually being serious.
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I can get it to 100%.












Of course presumably your method doesn't involve immediately killing the lifestyle branch of the company like mine....
 
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