Chinese private equity firm HongShan Capital Group (HSG) has acquired a majority stake in Marshall

[Tom Phillips]

I didn't know where to post this on MEF. You can read about the details at https://group.marshall.com/2025/01/2...y-shareholder/
At first I thought is was a made up rumor. However, it appears to be true.

[J M Fahey]

read and commented about it on TGP.
Numbers simply do NOT make sense, at all.
*WE* value Marshall, of course, but then we are a niche and dying Market within the larger Music market.

NO WAY Marshall is worth 1 Billion dollars.

From their own published numbers I (generously) calculated worldwide revenues around 150 Million US$ (based on 24000 UK made amps at an average price of U$1000) so 15-30 million US$ profit (IF run very well and are very lucky).

Absolute nonsense.
Not even 5% profit on investment, not even close.

I smell a giant Ponzi plan, investors buying stock because "stock value tripled since last change of ownership" , zero relation to sales and profit ... the hallmarks of a Ponzi Plan.

That said, Company, production, design, prices, might stay exactly as before.

Investors usually do not care on day to day Company operations, typically they leave "old hands" running them.

IF/when they try to appoint "bright Finance guys" to run them, we have a mess, like Fender sale to CBS.

[Tom Phillips]

...IF/when they try to appoint "bright Finance guys" to run them, we have a mess...

Yep! Venture capitalists will do whatever they can to maximize profits as the first priority at the expense of quality or any feelings of respect for the original company.

[Justin Thomas]

Get your Marshalls while you can...

Jusrin

[glebert]

The guitar store I do contract repair work at used to be a Marshall dealer but last year Marshall just cancelled the contract. It seemed like they had no interest in typical guitar amps, only things like the bluetooth enabled boxes. Based on other sales indicators I'm seeing for modeling boxes I think we may be the last people who care about guitar amps.

[Tom Phillips]

...Based on other sales indicators I'm seeing for modeling boxes I think we may be the last people who care about guitar amps.

Yep.
All you need is a modeling box hidden behind your fake stack back line.

[The Dude]

Sadly and begrudgingly, I've gone that route myself for live gigs. Don't get me wrong. I'd still much rather play through a real tube amp, but it's just not practical in my situation. I swore I'd never play through a modeler, but they've come a long way in recent years. There are several reasons.

1) Most of our shows are multi band shows and there simply isn't enough time between acts to set up a guitar rig. I can just throw a pedal on the floor, plug in, and be ready to go in a couple minutes. Because it's just a pedal, I can usually leave it after sound check and it's ready to go. If it were an amp on stage, they'd make you strike it after sound check.
2) I used venue supplied backline for a bit. It sucked. The quality of available amps at some of these places is terrible. The last time I used a backline amp, I had 3 choices- a Marshall digital amp, a Twin Reverb, and a Twin Reverb MV. Didn't have time to learn the Marshall digital modeling amp. Plugged into the Twin and no sound. I looked into the back and two output tubes were laying inside the cabinet broken to bits. Grabbed the other Twin and it also had broken tubes. I tube swapped between the amps and got something working, but the sound was awful. After that, I swore I'd never depend on someone else's crappy amp again.
3) With my modeler, I'm guaranteed to have the sound I want every single time.
4) It takes up little space in our bus.
5) It requires no maintenance.

All in all, it's just far more practical and the general audience doesn't know the difference. Truthfully, the biggest difference for me is more of a tactile thing. A tube amp is more responsive to picking. It's sort of an extension of your picking hand. You can make a real tube amp react differently depending on how you play. That's a fantastic thing for the player, but I also think it's something the audience has little awareness of.

[Mick Bailey]

I've been watching Brett Kingman a fair bit doing product demos and he plays a lot through a Fractal modeller. I can't tell it's not a tube amp that I'm hearing.

A fair number of pro customers had gone over to Kemper and I never really took to them, but I was missing something key that only just kicked in when I watched an interview with Brett. He said a modeller doesn't have the sound pressure level etc., on stage that a tube amp has, but that's not really the point - the modeller reproduces the recorded sound.

Now, that's what we hear all the time. When we say Page, Hendrix, Beck, Gibbons has a fantastic guitar tone, mainly we're really saying is what ended up being a string of bits, a groove pressed into vinyl or some magnetic domains aligned on tape that are compressed, eq'd and manipulated then played through some random audio system is a great tone.....

[J M Fahey]

The guitar store I do contract repair work at used to be a Marshall dealer but last year Marshall just cancelled the contract. It seemed like they had no interest in typical guitar amps, only things like the bluetooth enabled boxes. Based on other sales indicators I'm seeing for modeling boxes I think we may be the last people who care about guitar amps.

Kept searching a little after posting and found something that "explains it" ...... but is depressing.

By official statement, Guitar amp sales are 5% of total.
FIVE-PER-CENT.
25% are earphone sales.
70%are Bluetooth speaker sales.

Wonder about the Marshall Fridge

[glebert]

I didn't even realize the bluetooth speakers are just bluetooth speakers, I thought at least there would be an input to jam along with your spotify playlist or whatever.

[Chuck H]

Kept searching a little after posting and found something that "explains it" ...... but is depressing.

By official statement, Guitar amp sales are 5% of total.
FIVE-PER-CENT.
25% are earphone sales.
70%are Bluetooth speaker sales.

Wonder about the Marshall Fridge

This is certainly an "explanitory" observation, BUT...

How much insight does the new parent company have to believe that they can just roll into an occupied product arena with a brand name that has no clout there.?. Marshall has a pretty specific demographic that has expectations that may now be defunct. So what merit does the brand hold with such a flip flop. Most people aren't quire that stupid. Bluetooth shoppers will ignore the product as a "rebrand" and guitarists will stop accepting offerings from the company as "rebrands". (<period) It's certain death for the companies respectability. I know that's not the way it always rolls with new and dynamic ventures. But considering the name, it's history and (up to now) it's role in a specific arena and the mindset of their clients I really think this is ridiculous maneuvering that marks the beginning of the end for the brand.

EDIT: Yes, more bluetooth systems are sold than guitar amplifiers. It's a very broad arena with a lot of competition. The company name in question (Marshall) has no teeth there at all. But that company does have teeth in a specific demographic. Ten percent of that limited demographic and keeping a toe hold there would be more valuable than .01% of the bluetooth demographic going forward with THAT company name. It would seem to me. But what the hell do I know.?.

[daz]

Sadly and begrudgingly, I've gone that route myself for live gigs. Don't get me wrong. I'd still much rather play through a real tube amp, but it's just not practical in my situation. I swore I'd never play through a modeler, but they've come a long way in recent years. There are several reasons.

1) Most of our shows are multi band shows and there simply isn't enough time between acts to set up a guitar rig. I can just throw a pedal on the floor, plug in, and be ready to go in a couple minutes. Because it's just a pedal, I can usually leave it after sound check and it's ready to go. If it were an amp on stage, they'd make you strike it after sound check.
2) I used venue supplied backline for a bit. It sucked. The quality of available amps at some of these places is terrible. The last time I used a backline amp, I had 3 choices- a Marshall digital amp, a Twin Reverb, and a Twin Reverb MV. Didn't have time to learn the Marshall digital modeling amp. Plugged into the Twin and no sound. I looked into the back and two output tubes were laying inside the cabinet broken to bits. Grabbed the other Twin and it also had broken tubes. I tube swapped between the amps and got something working, but the sound was awful. After that, I swore I'd never depend on someone else's crappy amp again.
3) With my modeler, I'm guaranteed to have the sound I want every single time.
4) It takes up little space in our bus.
5) It requires no maintenance.

All in all, it's just far more practical and the general audience doesn't know the difference. Truthfully, the biggest difference for me is more of a tactile thing. A tube amp is more responsive to picking. It's sort of an extension of your picking hand. You can make a real tube amp react differently depending on how you play. That's a fantastic thing for the player, but I also think it's something the audience has little awareness of.

Same here, for the last 10 years actually. For the last 5 i've been 100% happy. Before that it was good but lacking in some ways but not to any major degree. Now i have tone that absolutely works, and like you said EVERY time. Thats the key. I owned a lot of tube amps and some were holy grails. None ever sounded great every nite and on sone nites would be so bad i wanted to pack up and go home. In the last 5-7 years that hasn't happened once, not even close. And i have done a 180 in that i no longer even think about my amp at a gig, i just think about the music and my playing That was never the case with tube amps but for the maybe one in 3 or 4 nights they sounded satisfactory. I, my bandmates, and the audience are 100% happy with the sound. What more could u ask for? Yes there are times a great tube amp will be extraordinary, but thats almost a rare occasion.

[Mick Bailey]

Marshall had been acquired by Zound in 2023 whose main interest was already headphones and Bluetooth speakers. When looking at guitar amp percentage sales and company value, are these representative of the entire organizational that was formed after the acquisition? Marshall suddenly became a much larger company and to me it looks like the figures are not what they seem.

[glebert]

I would not be surprised if the amp business is spun out from the headphone/BT speaker business if anyone at the old company is still interested in doing guitar amps. The problem would be that they probably couldn't use the Marshall name at that point.

[TomCarlos]

Interesting.... I haven't seen a single post related to this on the Marshall Forum web site.