“I still maintain my long relationship with Marshall”: Slash confirms he will remain a Marshall player despite developing a signature guitar amp with Magnatone
This sent the rumor mill into overdrive, with many questioning whether the guitar hero’s new allegiance to Magnatone spelled the end for his decades-long professional relationship with Marshall.
It certainly would have been a significant shake up of the status quo. Slash was, after all, Marshall’s first-ever signature artist, and has been loyal to a suite of Silver Jubilee heads over the years, as well as his AFD100 Appetite For Destruction model.
Well, it has now been affirmed that Slash will continue to play Marshall amps alongside his new Magnatone units, and that the two are not parting ways.
In a statement, Slash said: “To clear up any misconceptions that might arise, although Magnatone and I have been working together to create a new Amp, I still maintain my long relationship with Marshall and look forward to continued collaboration with their incredible team.”
So there you have it: Slash will continue to be flanked by his trademark Marshalls for the foreseeable future – just don’t be surprised if you notice that a few of them in his backline have been swapped out for a Magnatone or two.
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One Magnatone that will make it into Slash’s setup will be the 100-watt M-80 signature amp that the two parties have been working on, which was born out of the Gibson Les Paul loyalist's affection for the standard 50-watt version.
“I used a Magnatone 50-watt M-80 in the studio earlier this year and was blown away by how it sounded,” said Slash when the news was reported last week. “Since then, I've been working with Magnatone on a 100-watt version of the M-80 and I absolutely love what they have come up with. It’s killer.”
It won’t be long before that amp gets a release, either: according to the brand itself, it’s slated for a release early next year, so you can be sure Slash will take one on the road when he goes on tour with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators.
For more information on the tour – and the amp – visit Slash and Magnatone's individual websites.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.