When is a Marshall not a Marshall? When it’s a Narb, of course. Long a fascinating footnote to the company’s history, this alternative brand arose as something of a bet between colleagues.

For all the undeniable classics produced by Jim Marshall and his right-hand men Ken Bran and Dudley Craven, it seems the company’s marketing and branding were made up as it went along. Like so many names that became big in the formative years of guitar amplification – Fender among them – Marshall, Bran, and Craven got their start thanks to a heavy dose of the do-it-yourself ethos, building the first amps in the back of Marshall’s music shop in the West London suburb of Hanwell. And even after Marshall’s 50- and 100-watt stacks had planted their formidable flag in British rock-guitar tone, the team maintained an irreverently DIY approach.

One of the quirkier results of that from-the-hip approach to amp design, manufacture, and marketing was this rare 1972 Narb head, a big 100-watt lead amp with the serial number 14 (from a run of 14).

In the December ’23 issue, we discussed Marshall’s adoption of the Park name to supply amps to a dealer in the north of England that was otherwise frozen out of a new distribution deal. It has often been assumed that Narb amps were another bid to circumvent Rose-Morris’ grip on the market, but, Tucker Beirne – a Marshall collector and vintage-amp enthusiast – has learned differently.

“I recently spoke with Mitch Colby about the Narb,” said Beirne, referring to the noted tech, collector, and amp historian who worked at Marshall’s U.S. distributor for 32 years before launching his Colby amp line in the early 2010s. “He told me that Jim Marshall and Ken Bran went to the pub one evening. After having a few beers and chatting about the company, Ken told Jim that he didn’t believe amps sold because of the brand name ‘Marshall,’ but in fact they sold because of the sound. Jim disagreed, and after a few more beers, Ken made a bet that the same amplifier design would sell just as well under another name.

“Shortly thereafter, Marshall produced a line of amps under the Narb name, which is Bran spelled backward, an ode to one of the founding designers at Marshall. This is only a story, though, Mitch admitted, and most people are still under the impression it was done to get around Rose-Morris.”

This Narb Tremolo 100 is essentially the Marshall JMP 1959T Super Tremolo of the same era, a version of the legendary Super Lead. Not only does it carry the requisite four EL34 output tubes for a whopping 100 watts of power, plus a fourth ECC83 preamp tube (rather than the three of most Marshalls) to enable the tremolo effect, but the circuit appears point-for-point the same, too.

The construction exhibits all the late-metal-panel traits that will have a vintage-Marshall fanatic drooling, defined by the post-plexi cosmetics and high-voltage circuits that retained the desirable hand wiring and Mullard “mustard caps” that have helped to make the late-’60s and early-’70s amps so hotly pursued. Just a year or so after this amp was manufactured, Marshall changed to printed circuit board (PCB) construction, resulting in amps that most acknowledge still sounded great, but which have undeniably been less-collectible over the years.

Given the scarcity of this Narb Tremolo 100, however, its collectibility could never be in doubt. A longtime fanatic of vintage Marshalls in general, Beirne tells VG he’d sought one out for many years before locating this example in England and purchasing it from its original owner.

“The parts used in these amps are left over from the Marshall production line,” he said. “The knobs were also used on very early JTM45s.

“Marshall’s 1959T Super Tremolo and this Narb Tremolo 100 are exactly the same, but don’t sound the same!” Beirne adds, though he also concedes that no two vintage Marshalls ever sound quite the same. “The tone is amazing – this amp is loud, with a booming bottom-end and tight, crisp high-end. It’s extremely responsive and fun to play. Dynamics are a breeze, and the amp responds relatively well to effects pedals but becomes a little muddy when you add gain. It’s teetering on the edge of unstable… and in my opinion those amps are the most musical.”

As the photos reveal, it has had several electrolytic capacitors (a.k.a. filter capacitors) replaced to keep it functional, but is otherwise clean and impressively original – evidence of a relatively stress-free life. The cabinet is the same as that which housed the 1959T Super Tremolo of the time and is covered in the same black bronco vinyl, but rather than the Marshall’s brushed-gold aluminum control panel, the Narb’s is one of simple silver metal with black screened legends. A similar piece of thin silver metal printed in block capitals forms the amp’s logo plate, in place of the graceful white “Marshall” script. Silver and white cabinet string and piping also replace the Marshall’s gold.

For all that, though, as Ken Bran posited, it’s how an amp sounds that matters most, and Beirne says this one sounds fantastic.

Then again, when players in 1972 went looking for “the Marshall sound,” not many were talked into buying a Bran. Which is to say, it looks like Ken lost the bet, and Bran amps never came close to outselling Marshalls, though it was hardly a level playing field given that so few were produced.

This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.