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There's no getting away from the heritage of the livery

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• Review

When your products ship in cartons with the words 'Guitar Amplifier' printed on them in five different languages, you know you've arrived as a major international manufacturing operation. Of course, Marshall arrived at this point four decades ago and, remarkably, is still on top of the game today.

While most of the company's core products are still made in Bletchley, Marshall also has manufacturing operations in India, Vietnam and now China, which is where the newest product range to bear that famous white script logo comes from.

With a full digital front-end courtesy of Swedish amp modelling supremos Softube, but still driving a traditional EL34 power stage, let's welcome the all-new Marshall JMD:1. Marshall's Chris George puts it through its paces in the following clip:

Visually, there's no mistaking the JMD:1's heritage – gold control panel, gold knobs, shiny black corner protectors with gold screws and of course the Marshall logo. This is one of the most famous and well-known brands on the planet.

The JMD:1's vinyl appears to be somewhat thinner than that used on UK-made products, but it's still tough and has been expertly applied. Its electronics are contained within a strong steel chassis, which has had reinforcement ribs and locators pressed into it.

"The JMD:1's overall voicing and character is not for the timid – this is a big, bold amp and benefits from being wound up loud."

The power supply, output stage and preamp components are all on one large through-plated PCB, including the valve bases. Output valves are easy to get to but the single ECC83 driver valve is deeply recessed and will be difficult to replace. However, this won't need to be done more than every couple of years with normal use.