With Jim Marshall’s recent passing,
the company he founded in 1962
is in a bittersweet place, mourning its
founder while celebrating his half-century
of storied, iconic amps. Marshall’s limited
edition release of five small 1-watt heads
and combos, which each pay homage visually
and sonically to a distinct decade in
Marshall’s career, are a fitting, and perhaps
unexpected way to honor Jim Marshall’s
legacy and the company’s milestone. These
amps give collectors and players a chance
to bring the Marshall sound home in compact
heads and combos that deliver big
tones at late-night volumes.
The second release in the 50th
Anniversary series (following the
’60s-inspired JMT1 head and combo)
includes the JMP-1H and JMP-1C (also
available as a head), which generate the
punchy and aggressive sounds of the classic
JMP line, yet are powered by one mere
watt. But man, what a watt it is.
Fresh out of the box, it’s the period styling
that grabs you—the gold-script, block
Marshall logo, the classic checkerboard
grille cloth, the gold post-plexi faceplate
with the red power indicator and toggle-style
power switch. The volume, treble, and
bass knobs also do a nice job of emulating
the classic faceplates of the pre-1976 JMP
Super Lead 100s. The black vinyl and gold
binding material also help to deliver the
visual mojo that makes the late-’60s and
’70s Super Leads among the most iconic-looking
of all amplifiers.
The combo’s open-back design includes
a 50th Anniversary Commemorative plate,
as well as outputs for driving either a 16 Ω
or 8 Ω speaker cab, switches for gain boost
and power attenuation down to .1 watt,
and a main power output. The JMP-1C’s
guts are built around a class A, parallel, single-ended power amp featuring two 12AT7
dual-triode power tubes, while the preamp
employs two 12AX7 tubes. The combo
drives a Celestion G10N40 10" speaker,
which is automatically defeated when you
connect either of the speaker jacks to an
external cab. The JMP-1C is wonderfully
light, and a bit smaller than a Fender Blues
Junior (around 15" x 14 1/2" x 9") so it’s
small enough to fit anywhere you want to
show it off. The cabinet feels extremely
sturdy and tightly built, with great attention
to detail along with the classic styling.
Sounds of the Seventies,
and Beyond
While the superficial characteristics of the
JMP-1C more-than-successfully evoke the
classics, the amp also sounds quintessentially
Marshall. It wouldn’t be unreasonable
to be suspicious about the performance
of a 1-watt amp with only volume,
treble, and bass controls—Marshalls, after
all, rarely have anything to do with petite.
But the richness—and just as important,
the variety—of sounds from this amplifier
are impressive. With volume around
3, treble and bass at noon, and the gain
boost off, you get a fat clean sound with a
lot of low-mid punch, enough that I actually
backed off the treble a bit and took
out some lows.
At this volume, you’ll hear some slight
breakup, but the tone is sufficiently clean
for barking ’60s blues, chimey chorus
effects, and power-pop chords. I got similar
results with a Stratocaster, though the clean-to-
edgy tones in this lower volume range
were more suited to Texas blues and cleaner
Hendrix timbres. Setting the volume from
about 5 to 8 puts Gibsons and Fenders
in an ideal zone for meaty heartland and
Southern rock riffs from Mellencamp and
Skynyrd to Wilco and Ryan Adams, as
well as garage-y textures that wouldn’t be
out of place in the Strokes or Killers. Fully
dimed, the amp sounds nearly loud enough
for gigging in a small room while packing
some seriously musky and aggressive British
blues-rock tones, suggesting Paul Kossoff or
early Gary Moore.
High-Gain Hijinx
Engaging the back-panel gain boost switch
changes the landscape considerably, ushering
in an aggressive saturation that at higher
volumes suggests hot-rodded, late-’70s,
master-volume Marshall tones. With the
volume around 5, you’ll find the kind of
proud, loud thump that Richie Blackmore
favored for his legendary power fourths.
Bumped up to 8, the JMP-1C can crush
anything from Angus Young solos to Van
Halen’s “Unchained” to Slash-style screams.
For such a small, low-power amp, it
churns out a full-throated and harmonically
dense sound that is surprisingly open with
compact and tight low frequencies. If you’ve
ever wondered why low-wattage amps are
preferred by many engineers and producers,
this is exactly why—nicely controlled
frequency response even at high gain levels,
and sound pressure levels that are sane for
microphones and musicians alike.
If I have one caveat about the JMP-1C,
it comes down to its midrange bite, which,
while certainly in keeping with the spirit
of those mid-’70s Super Leads, could be
pretty brash at times, depending on which
guitar I used. Perhaps that’s due to the 10"
speaker, which tidies up the low end but
enhances mids. There’s no real effective
way to dial down the mids either, although
the slight spiking effect can be smoothed
out a bit simply by keeping the volume at
more sober levels.
Indeed, when operating in low power
mode that midrange poke became less pronounced,
and the gain boost lent a sweeter,
broader, and more singing character to
the overdrive. Driving the JMP-1C with
an overdrive pedal (in this case a Fulltone
OCD) with the gain relatively low, the
level high, and the tone control rolled off
a bit, I found I had a bit more control as
well, and was able to find the sweet spot
more easily. Using the external speaker
jacks to drive a 2x12 or 4x12 cab also
greatly enhances the low end, and diffuses
the mids in a really pleasing way, while
increasing the perceived volume.
The Verdict
The JMP-1C can certainly deliver some
astounding tones straight out of the box.
Though it’s not cheap for a small amp, it’s
a no-brainer for home recordists looking to
add the coveted JMP growl and attack to
their tracks, collectors looking for a usable
and user-friendly piece of Marshall history,
and all those dudes who are still pining for
the Super Lead sound after putting their
100-watt heads in storage years ago. It’s even
gig-worthy, though you’ll certainly want to
mic the JMP-1C to make sure your tone is
heard through a PA. Still, regardless of your
reasons for wanting to buy into the JMP
legacy, the JMP-1C represents a very hip
way to get a little Marshall into your life.