“A new take on a classic”: Marshall teases the release of a modded JCM, as a new era for the legendary amp brand beckons

NAMM 2025: Marshall is teasing “a new take on a classic” amp head and a “stomping new line-up” of effects pedals as it prepares for its much-anticipated return to NAMM.

Two teaser clips were posted over the weekend ahead of NAMM 2025, which will mark the amp giant’s first appearance at the event in five years. The legendary amp builder will be using its comeback to showcase “the best that Marshall has to offer” – and these two drops are right at the front of the queue.

The legendary British firm is synonymous with the sound of classic rock, and has been championed by the likes of Jimmy Page, Slash, Angus Young and other big players for a range of generation-defining guitar spectacles.

Now, a new era of Marshall beckons, as the firm has teased what will likely be the release of a hugely sought-after modded JCM amp head.

The first teaser shows an amp comprising a single row of 10 dials sitting atop a 4x12 cab in a darkened room, a spotlight illuminating different parts without giving anything away. From such glimpses, a resemblance to the iconic JCM900 can be made out.

That amp, first introduced in January 1990, featured master Volume, Reverb, and Gain controls for its two channels while a Presence dial augmented its three-band EQ. The all-valve amp embodied Marshall’s tonal spirit, and is one of the company’s most enduring feats of amp engineering.

It remains to be seen what Marshall will be doing differently this time out, but the promise of “a new take” means that players can expect more than just a copy-and-paste reissue.

In fact, we’d go as far as to wager this particular example could in fact be the first of many in-house amp mods that Marshall fans have been clamoring for for years.

Modded Marshalls have a history of their own, and over the years some of the guitar world’s most revered amp engineers have all developed reputations for elevating stock Marshalls. Now, it looks as though Marshall will finally be releasing some of its own.

Furthermore, when asked by Guitar World last year whether the company was working on producing its own modded amps, CEO Jeremy de Maillaird revealed his team were “working on this”. So, watch this space...

As for the pedal tease, there’s even less to go on. Five shadowy stompboxes, all offering the same stylings, are shown. The satisfying click of a footswitch, followed by an overdriven power chord tells us that, surely, one of these will be an overdrive pedal.

Historically, Marshall hasn’t played with too many effects. There was the SV-1 Chorus Vibrato, the Regenerator – a three-in-one modulation pedal – and a handful of others, but it has usually focused instead on different flavors of overdrive, such as The Guv’nor and the Blues Breaker, both of which were reissued in 2023.

With NAMM 2025 kicking off later this week, we fortunately won’t have to wait too long for these grand reveals.