The
BLUESBREAKER:
Revisited
by John Wiley
A unique distinction of early Marshall
amplifiers is that none of them within the
same model line sound exactly alike. Partly
attributable to Founder Jim Marshall’s
penchant for working with budding British
musicians and working many of their suggestions into his designs, and partly due to
the difficulties of locating
reliable parts suppliers,
Marshall’s early designs
each had their own personality. For instance,
Marshall’s Model 1962
combo was, itself, an
ordinary amplifier; however, one particular Model
1962 used by Eric Clapton
with John Mayall and the
Bluesbreakers had such
a revolutionary tone that
it created a new sound in
the still-young world of
rock n’ roll.
and the Beach Boys. That LP’s impact soon
spread to America and abroad, inspiring
legions of new guitarists around the world
– especially influencing musical rebels in
the United States. Clapton’s playing style,
combined with a ferocious amplified tone,
seemed to inject a new and exciting dimen-
Unfortunately, that Model 1962 disap-
peared, with Clapton himself unsure of
what became of it; years later, it would
become known as the holy grail of combos.
Although those early combos had great
tone, no two sound exactly the same. Two
decades later, the Marshall reissue would
sound nothing like it at all.
The Reissue
For many of us, the year 1990
brought an answer to one
of our greatest wishes: the
Marshall Model 1962 2x12
combo was finally reissued.
The idea had apparently been
in the works for quite some
time, as evidenced by this
author’s correspondence to
a Marshall Factory Director,
Keith Carnall in the late
months of 1984. Carnall’s
reply stated, “We have
thought many times about
In 1965, Clapton found running a ‘vintage special,’
himself the featured gui- with valve rectification and all
tarist in John Mayall and the other old goodies… let us
the Bluesbreakers. Armed just say for now that it is an
with a 1960 Gibson Les idea that we will continue to
Paul and the Marshall work around and perhaps you
Model 1962 combo ampli- will get your wish granted.”
fier, he single-handedly Although Clapton was not
discovered a combination aware of the amp being reis-
of guitar and amp that sued, Marshall christened
produced an extraordinary it the “Bluesbreaker,” in his
howl – Clapton achieved honor. When asked in a 1989
his trademark sound by Guitar World interview he
playing the amplifier at This image, from the Beano LP, shows Clapton tuning up, with his Model 1962 in the backround replied, “Did they really? How
full volume. The sound was full-bodied, sion into the young blues-rock genre. sweet. I didn’t even know that. How does it
authoritative, but not overly distorted; it eas- But none of this could have happened with- sound?” Marshall simultaneously introduced
ily cut through the other band instruments. out the small British amp company, Vox. the Bluesbreaker and the JTM45 in 1990,
The sustain was pure, the treble notes sang Models like the AC30 would provide the along with the new JCM900 Series.
and the bass registers exhibited a “throaty” “British Invasion” with its unique sound,
bottom. At such high volumes, the amp was and convinced Marshall to build a compact
prone to feeding back, and this provided an amplifier for his new company; the initial
awesome effect to the overall sound. development of Marshall’s first combo took
place in early 1964. In a 2003 interview with
Musician’s Hotline magazine, he claimed the
Model 1962 was built at the request of Eric
Clapton. “Eric used to practice in my shop
and he was one of the first guitarists to ask
me to build a combo,” Marshall recalled.
“He wanted one so it would be easy for him
to put the whole thing in the boot [trunk] of
his car.”
The blistering tone was captured on vinyl
and released to an unwitting public as John
Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Eric
Clapton; also known as the “Beano” album,
it quickly shot to number six on the British
charts, even amongst the din of other popular British and American pop groups such as
the Beatles, the Animals, the Rolling Stones
At a cursory first glance, Marshall did an
outstanding job recreating the Bluesbreaker,
as it externally resembled the original with
the distinctive and elegant Marshall styling.
Just like the original, it was rated at 45 watts
and came with two Celestion speakers. The
cabinet dimensions measured 29. 13” wide
by 23. 62” high by 9. 25” deep, and black
vintage tolex coupled with a vintage-style
Bluesbreaker grill cloth completed the package. Electronically, the 1989 reissue used
two 6L6 vacuum tubes for power, three
