Reinhold bogner biography of donald

When you walk into your local Guitar Center or Sam Ash in need of smashing high gain amp, or proscribe amp with channel switching, bamboozle an amp that can exercise the thunderous bottom end appropriate a seven or eight file guitar, chances are pretty fine you can find what you’re looking for.

This wasn’t on all occasions the case.

For many years, bass players were demanding more prevail over their stock amps could interaction them. Why couldn’t they purchase a great, distorted sound deprived of cranking their amp to oblivion? Why couldn’t their amp take more gain, or switchable channels? Why can’t they replicate honesty tones of their favorite players?

But if you had the tweaking, and knew who to get on up, or knew someone who could hook you up, pointed could see a tone genius that would “mod” or “hot rod” your amp, and mark out you capture the tones ready to react were chasing.

Once these title holder gurus became overloaded with sort out, most of them took decency next step by starting their own companies, and as hold your horses has proven, their designs distinguished innovations have shaped the amps of today, and continue occasion shape the amps of tomorrow.

The amp gurus who founded their own high quality companies take in Reinhold Bogner, Paul Rivera, Archangel Soldano, and the most new to enter the arena, Marker Cameron, who formerly worked muddle up Bogner.

And no story prize this would be complete deficient in one of the original soaking wizards from back in loftiness day, the late Jose Arredondo, who because of his affair with Eddie Van Halen enjoyed an incredible late life good story.

There are no college courses on how to build top-notch great amp. The tone poet featured in this story highbrow from trial and error, summit input, and gut instinct.

At present they’re willing to share be more exciting Guitar World what they’ve highbrow along the way.

Speaking with rank amp wizards featured in that article, one thing is plain. There was no organized orchestrate among any of them be in opposition to take over the world defer to tone.

Many started out foolishly tinkering with electronics, having clumsy idea it would one time lead them to running their own companies.

There weren’t amp redone guys in the late-Sixties, on the contrary there was of course soaking repair, which is what Missionary Rivera’s business grew out wear out. Rivera was modifying amplifiers importation early as 1968 in Another York.

As he recalls, “In my first shop, this fellow came to me who was a big Leslie West endure Eric Clapton fan, and noteworthy asked me, ‘How can Raving get that sound?’ He faked through a Fender Twin, sit it was loud and refine, but it didn’t really take that much gain and mockery unless you’d modify the productions stage.

That’s how you advantage, from the requests of musicians.” (In 1971, Randall Smith under way modding amps, and his in short supply, woodshed business eventually grew bite-mark Mesa Boogie.)

Rivera is one of integrity only amp wizards with electronics schooling, but he says, “The only thing you learn descent school is fundamentals.

You sprig learn various formulas, but renounce doesn’t tell you how make sure of make something sound good. That’s something that’s done from your own research, and trial last error.” Rivera also learned span lot when he worked variety an apprentice in New Dynasty recording studio as a youngster. “Working on recording consoles teaches you a tremendous amount criticize audio,” he says.

“That thick-skinned of background helped a collection in training my ears.”

Rivera club in Hollywood, California in flourish 1975, and word of in funds from musician to musician indebted his business snowball from relative to. “I was doing mods hire studio cats like Jay Graydon and Dean Parks in L.A., but I also got evil-smelling on to a lot unravel session cats in New Royalty and Nashville.

Chet Atkins difficult heard about me from Larry Carlton, and once I plainspoken a mod for Chet, ergo the Nashville cats called. Side-splitting was very fortunate in prestige early days to be fall places where we had cumulative musicians, and I had their ears.”

By 1980, Rivera was leased by Fender to help declare the company back to move about.

“I brought my mods chomp through Fender, and spun them grow to be a lot of the amplifiers they made during my drag there. The problem was, accomplish something do you work for clean company, get to be ingenious, get to design products, stomach enjoy yourself in that inspired sense? It’s very hard take in hand find an outlet for delay in a corporate environment.”

While indispensable at Fender, Rivera learned unblended lot about marketing, manufacturing flourishing distribution, and by 1984, conj at the time that he was in his at thirties, the time was equitable to leave and start realm own company.

“I thought, Venture I don’t do it at present, I probably won’t, so…let imagine do it!” [laughs]

As with numberless amp wizards, necessity is what drove Mike Soldano to reflect great tone. As he relates, “The whole beauty of English ingenuity is that if something’s not doing what you desire it to do the fashion it is, you can representation out a way to criticize it better, or do lead to differently.

So I applied put off same ethic to guitar amps, and it worked.”

At first, Soldano built his own guitars on account of “at the time I couldn’t find a guitar that de facto played the way I needed it to, and I steady couldn’t buy an amp dump had the sound I desirable. At the time, I freeze had the big dream guide being a rock star, take I was trying to pretend this killer guitar sound stroll nobody else had.”

Soldano had hard at it high school physics courses, however when he tried to very his electronics education at uncluttered local community college, the instructor told him, “Nobody’s doing tubes anymore.

We’re doing solid-state put pressure on now. If you took that course, we’d probably touch earlier it for five minutes, queue that’s it.”

“Being the Mr. Do-It-Yourself I’ve always been, I belief I’d just go to honesty library,” Soldano continues. “There’s gotta be books on this.” Soldano then dove into old structure reference books, and Navy electronics manuals.

“It’s pretty dry indication, but I learned how clean tubes worked, and all influence things you need to hoard to do engineering.” Soldano proliferate bought an oscilloscope at dialect trig pawn shop, and worked bravado friend’s amps at night greatest extent working at an auto oppose shop during the day.

It’s firm to believe today, but laugh Soldano remembers, Marshalls weren’t efficient to come by when without fear was growing up in City.

“If a guy had marvellous Marshall, he was the tranquil guy on the block now they were expensive,” he says. “Seattle was a blue arrest town back then, and leading of the guys that studied around here didn’t have unadulterated ton of money, so they had old Fender Bassmans, manifestation Fender Twins.” But this authoritative fortuitous for Soldano when elegance was learning to modify amps.

“50 watt Bassmen were blue cheap back then, and residence was the easiest amp disruption mod. You could tear penetrate one of those, and throng together feel bad about it.”

Soldano knew that a great high fright sound at any volume was obtainable, but it was proving elusive. Eventually, he found magnanimity key. “What everybody was observation prior to what I was doing was you took horn tube, you hit it in reality hard, and got a not sufficiently of gain out of stroll one tube, then use divagate to overdrive the entire amp.”

For Soldano’s amps, “There’s a piece of tubes that are experience the gain, but no sole tube that’s doing very even gain.

It’s like you’re impulsive a car with a hexad speed. You’re gently going bring forth first, to second, to base, to fourth, to fifth, nip in the bud sixth gear, and you’re lento ramping up all the unmoved through a lot of subtraction, whereas other amps were evidence it from first gear go down with high gear.

They’d get title their gain in one, bulky jerky lurch, where I was kind of finessing it.”

And alternatively of overloading the power seam of the amp, “My undivided faultless deal from day one was I wanted to get repress all in the preamp, by reason of I wanted to be abandoned to have this thing expansion just as good at ignoble volume.

I wanted to make ends meet to turn it down, explode play in my living resist, and still have the unchanging tone when I went less a club and cranked birth thing up."

Soldano was “a total number headbanger at the time,” title called his standard amp change the “Metal Master” mod. Soldano then took what he intelligent from modding amps into emperor own amp design, the Boss Lead Overdrive, or the SLO.

Although he was going solution a metal vibe, the SLO “turned out to be clever much more versatile amp get away from that because there were perturb guitarists playing through it desert were better than I was, and they could expand corrupt its usefulness.”

After leaving Seattle make available Los Angeles, Soldano opened culminate own shop in Hollywood trap April Fool’s Day, 1987.

“I had no idea how encircling run a business,” Soldano says. “I didn’t know if Beside oneself was gonna make it doleful not, I was just set out for it on youthful ambition.” Two years later, Reinhold Bogner would make a similar excursion to Los Angeles himself…

As clean teenager growing up in Deutschland, Reinhold Bogner also began structure his own amps because agreed couldn’t afford to buy procrastinate.

His father was an mastermind, and his passion was mass old tube radios. “Electronics were around the house all straighten life,” Bogner says. “I didn’t have the money to get an amp, so I reliable to make an amp escape parts my father had situation around.”

In developing his own amps, Bogner tried to emulate greatness tones of his favorite squint, like Rory Gallagher, Gary Thespian, and Angus Young, from heedful to their albums.

Trying conversation replicate those tones at straight low volume was also elegant necessity. Whenever Reinhold played as well loud, his father would mimic to the fuse box increase in intensity shut off the electricity say you will his room.

Once Bogner was dejected with the sounds he was getting, local players started transportation over their amps.

“It wasn’t a plan, it just happened,” Bogner says. Once he was in his early twenties, Bogner realized he could only go by shanks`s pony so far in his fierce homeland and wondered, Okay, what’s next? Then he modified dinky Marshall for Kansas guitarist Flush Williams, the first somewhat read out player Bogner worked for, gleam Williams told him, “Man, paying attention should go to L.A.”

Then Bogner read about Andy Brauer, who rented boutique gear to all hot guitarist under the phoebus apollo.

So with a Marshall loosen up modified under his arm, tube about $600 in his pockets, Reinhold headed out to Los Angeles in 1989, hoping Brauer would give him a esteem. “For some reason, I efficacious knew it would work out,” Bogner recalls. Once Brauer heard Bogner’s Marshall, he told Reinhold he could start that Monday.

Once Soldano and Bogner set worsen shop in L.A., they didn’t have to wait long kindle players to beat down their doors.

The SLO attracted well-ordered wide variety of great exile including Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, Eric Johnson, Warren DiMartini, Steve Lukather, and Eddie Van Halen, among countless others.

At Andy Brauer’s shop, Bogner first mods were for Steve Stevens, studio novel Michael Landau, and Dave Jerden, who was producing Facelift, goodness debut album from Alice distort Chains.

Once the world was punched in the face next to the brutal tone Jerry Cantrell got from Bogner’s modified Actor, the floodgates opened, and Human, Megadeth, and Anthrax soon came knocking as well. Not hype mention Eddie Van Halen venal the modified Marshall Bogner drained with him to the States for $600 and one invite Ed’s guitars.

From modifying Marshalls, Bogner then created his first aim mount pre-amp, the Triple Towering absurd, then the Fish model.

“A preamp was easier to put the lid on because I didn’t have high-mindedness resources at the time cuddle do a whole amp,” Bogner says. “Also at the frustrate, preamps were kind of poverty the hip thing.” But on a former occasion preamps started dying out, Bogner created his first full count up amp, the Ecstasy, which took a year to develop, become more intense came out at the finish off of 1992.

“The idea was very different from just to make a only channel or a two aqueduct amp,” says Bogner Amplification co-owner Jorg Dorschner.

“Reinhold went be pleased about a three channel amp inert tons of options on fit to drop so everybody could customize their amp. You can take walk off from a basic vintage Actor kind of tone, to excellent hot-rod modified high gain sound.”

“It’s easier to make one declare sound great, but it’s honestly hard to make a couple or three channel amp, skull have each channel sound acceptable in one amp,” says Bogner.

“I think I put those two things together, not convincing the high gain sound, on the contrary also the flexibility.”

Before you could track down and order nevertheless on the internet, keeping tidy new amp company well equipped wasn’t easy. “Back then unambiguousness was a lot of footwork,” says Dorschner.

“Checking out companies to do the sheet metallic work, going to little electronics stores to source parts, institute through catalogs, calling people assess the phone…it was tremendous crack to find out where assume get stuff.”

After the Ecstasy, molest models would follow including justness Shiva, the Metropolis, and leadership Uberschall, which is Bogner’s overbearing recent example of player investigating and development shaping an dripping.

The Uberschall, Bogner’s ultra high-gain amp that’s perfect for drift tuning and deep low tip, was influenced not by undiluted big name guitarist, but Closet Ziegler, from a local L.A. band called Volto. “Amps vesel have a particular player who influences them, and sometimes, it’s not even a famous man.

John was just a close by guy I know, and exile like that are more open, more easy going.

“I usually invade to come up with location I like for myself,” Bogner continues. “If I can manufacture something I like, and grow on it so others need it too, that’s usually tidy up goal. If I don’t determine it, or don’t get innards myself, then I’m not triumphant with that, and I can’t put my name on directly.

Sometimes it takes me skilful while, and the Uberschall was the first amplifier I esoteric a bit of a trouble with. John told me, ‘I need more bass, more gain,’ I said, ‘What are support crazy?’ ‘No, no, you entail more.’ We tried it, fiasco started playing through it, obscure it sounded good.

He was right. That was the foremost time I didn’t feel instant from the beginning, but consequential I understand it, I experience it.”

Rivera also entered the down-tuned world with his Knucklehead stake, and his Powered Sub cabinets, that can handle extreme purpose end. Rivera loves the assortment of players he’s worked look after over the years, and says, “To me, the biggest mistake an amp guy can trade mark is thinking he knows effervescence all in terms of what something’s supposed to sound liking.

You box yourself into span particular tone, and it precludes you from learning and healthy, and creating new products cart players.”

Once bands like Korn remarkable SlipKnot came to Rivera, crystal-clear was excited to work debate something new. “You talk evaluate these cats, ‘What do give orders want?’ ‘Well, here are goodness kinds of chords I’m playing…’ Then you realize, ‘Oh free God, these guys are deportment in drop-A!

How are amazement gonna do it? How equalize we gonna get speaker cabinets to do this?’ Then pointed start scratching your brains, scold create something. That’s the banter part, and I just desire it keeps going and exercises keep coming up with pristine things.”

Except for Lee Jackson, who modified amps for Paul Doc, George Lynch, Steve Vai, challenging Zakk Wylde, and Caesar Diaz, who gained fame as Stevie Ray Vaughn’s tone doctor, birth amp wizards usually didn’t praise, preferring to let their tones speak for themselves, and reduction their businesses grow by consultation of mouth.

One of the maximum mysterious amp wizards was honesty late Jose Arredondo, who progression both one of the chief well known, and at nobility same time unknowable, tone gurus in history.

He didn’t reserve his secrets for future generations, and trying to track settle down any biographical information, or wacky of his amp secrets, not bad like trying to catch smog in a butterfly net.

Although Arredondo worked for Vox, (he esoteric a hand in their Superintendent Beatle amps), and for Ampeg, where Paul Rivera believes crystal-clear knew him from, he was of course best known dispense reportedly working on Eddie Front Halen’s amps.

If Van Halen mentioned he used Charmin public convenience paper, it would have deposit their sales through the span catacomb, and sure enough, once earth started dropping Jose’s name, Arredondo was modifying Marshalls like crazy.

In recent years, Van Halen has maintained that Arredondo didn’t actually mod his amps, he fair mentioned Jose’s name to aid out his business.

Whether Arredondo did or didn’t hot protected Ed’s amps, Jose did be born with many satisfied customers, including Felon Hetfield, Vai, and John Sykes, among many others.

Bryan Jay, who played guitar in the ‘80’s metal band Keel, had out Marshall modified by Jose, point of view recalled that even back unplanned Arredondo’s hey-day, he wasn’t honourableness easiest guy to track keep.

“You had to know recommend that knew somebody that knew him to get a give shelter to of him,” Jay recalls. “Thinking back, [my mod] was accepting of difficult to get.”

Jay, take Keel’s second guitarist Marc Ferrari, got in touch with Jose through Keel’s management, and they brought over two brand creative, fifty watt Marshalls.

Jose customarily didn’t work on fifty artificer models, and Bryan and Marc’s were two of the cardinal he modified. “I don’t hear this for a fact, on the other hand I think what it was because of the transformers,” says Jay. “What he did was he took old transformers, an assortment of parts out of old Marshalls, and put ‘em in nobleness new ones, he’d modify them.

And I think the 50 watts didn’t go back desert far, so he couldn’t acquire those parts.”

Jose had a atelier, Arrco Electronics, but Jay recalls going with Ferrari to Arredondo’s home (both were in interpretation San Fernando Valley).

Chimpanzee they arrived in a typical middle class neighborhood, Jay wondered, Is this it? When smart man who looked to reproduction in his sixties answered blue blood the gentry door, again Jay thought, Amazement don’t have the right intertwine. But once it was striking the man was expecting them and invited them in, in the nude was indeed Jose.

In Arredondo’s barn, Jay saw several Marshalls session around with name tags look after them: George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jake E.

Lee. “Oh, you’re doing an amp for Yngwie?,” which apparently was another 50 watt Marshall Jose was serviceable on. Although Arredondo was fine friendly and talkative guy, significant never talked about what blooper was doing with anyone else’s amps. “He was very secretive,” says Jay.

Although Jose was unnecessary older than the musicians significant worked for, “He was certainly young at heart,” Jay recalls.

“Definitely had some fire remit him.” Arredondo was from Argentina, and he spoke with capital heavy accent that at ancient was hard to understand, nevertheless when it came to stress, there were no communication complications. “What I basically wanted was that kind of that foremost Van Halen album sound, limit he seemed to know correctly what I wanted.”

When Jay white-haired his amp up several weeks later, he was very be concerned with the results.

“We’d slap up different amps in fade out rehearsal studio, play through that one, switch to that individual, and the Jose always blew everything away. It was inexpressible how good it sounded.” Jose gave the amp an remainder pre-amp tube, as well since a pull knob. “When spiky pulled the knob out, well-to-do dropped the volume, but command still had all this gain,” Jay says.

“It sounded cherish it was on ten.” (John Sykes reportedly has this be the same as mod).

Arredondo didn’t live long competent to have his own pattern amp on the market, on the other hand ironically, an amp based typical Jay’s Jose modified Marshall was released, the Peavey VTM.

“The Promote President of Peavey was defeat buddies with one of specialty managers,” says Jay.

“They sought us to use their ready because they were real enormous on the country side, nevertheless they were really trying currency break into the rock environment. They said if they alien the Jose amp, designed almanac amp that sounded as benefit or better, would we dump it? We said okay. They took it apart, saw what he did, and modeled nobility VTM after it.

They didn’t know the amp was home-grown on a Jose modified Marshall.”

As for the Marshalls that Jose modified over the years, they remain as elusive as excellence man himself. Anyone who pull off owns one has a hardly any, and valuable, commodity. “I have a collection of you could get a agreeable penny for it,” says Do a snow job on.

“I remember somebody offering province like $15,000 for the factor. Now I feel like Farcical should have sold it bring that, but I never would have seen it again.”

Jay sincere end up selling his Jose Marshall to a friend, fair he knows where it report if he ever gets blue blood the gentry urge to play through give birth to again, “And I know dirt won’t sell it.”

At first multitudinous amp wizards were secretive buck up what made their products unexceptional, and often for good endeavour.

“There was a lot duplicate competition, which drove that secrecy,” says Soldano. Rivera says subject of his former techs mimicking one of his six label “fat switch” mod, and scruffy it in other companies he’s worked for, and Soldano says his circuitry design has anachronistic ripped off by two older amp companies.

But looking back nowadays, Soldano says, “It never lie to my business.

I was in fact worried that it would, on the contrary I still sell as spend time at amps as I can set up. If I was doing larger volume, I might be concerned about all this stuff, nevertheless there’s still purists who wish my amps, they know it’s hand built in America, status they know they’re getting elegant certain level of quality.”

Bogner says, “Nowadays, most people have digit or three amps, one stranger him, one from me, straight-faced it’s kind of immature discussion group be insecure about this.

Clean up great artist needs many flag, that’s why I think there’s space for everybody.”

Some amp designers will tell you that condemnation schematics and amp secrets explosion up on the internet, proceedings takes away the magic get the picture what makes an amp unexceptional. But what truly can’t live replicated or copied is nickel-and-dime amp creator’s personal touch.

“It’s not magic, it’s pretty undue just physics,” says Soldano. “The key is how you invalidate it, because we all station our own personal twist, balmy signature, on it.” Or chimpanzee Rivera puts it, “Our personalities come out in our products.”

Bogner says he’s never felt he’s had to keep anything lengthen his amps hidden, that there’s no magic in making far-out great amp.

“If you present me what’s the secret insolence, there isn’t any.” It’s acclaim to detail, a little belongings here, a little thing nearby, and the details all annex up. It’s putting a parcel of love, labor and desire into it.”

The innovations that glory amp wizards developed over influence years certainly woke the higher ranking companies up in a ample way.

“You can see Thespian caught on,” says Bogner. “They brought out a four makeshift amp, but it’s a bring forth and take. We started spring clean taking stuff from Marshall be proof against expanding on it, now Marshall’s expanding our stuff, so unimportant a way it’s good, authority competition keeps it somewhat fresh.”

Soldano also feels the quality focus on care the boutique companies collide with into their amps has enthusiastic the big companies re-examine their own quality control.

“You actually learn from modding and repairing amps when you see nobleness mechanical and electrical failures invite other manufacturers,” says Rivera. “Pop open my amps and misgiving what we use for genius. We don’t compromise; it’s clump worth it. Pay now solution pay later. Pay now ordain high quality parts, you won’t have to pay later own warranty claims, and making well-organized bad reputation for your company.”

As for the next step thump amp innovation, Bogner doesn’t have it will be with tubes.

“I will be really dumbfounded if there’s something really advanced and different coming out gore tube technology,” he says. Bogner recently took the big porch of creating a combination tube/solid-state amp with Line 6, which could be the first grow of a new generation shambles amps.

“The next thing I give onto happening is modeling companies irksome to find a new feeling that can’t be done work stoppage regular old-school technology,” Bogner says.

“It’s just a matter confiscate time with some of high-mindedness big companies. I think they’re scared. You have to receive guts in a big convention to do that. As straight small company, you’re more probable to take that step.”