solid state amplifiers

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Guitar_amplifier

Ovation

From 1966 to 2007, Ovation guitars, and later on Adamas guitars, were a brand of Kaman Music Corporation, a subsidiary of the Kaman Corporation, a large aerospace company. Charles Kaman, the President and a guitar enthusiast, decided that his company could apply its technology to acoustic guitar making. In 1966 after 18 months of research and development a team of Kaman engineers perfected the rounded semi-parabolic composite body. They used a similar composite technology for these rounded backs as used for aircraft rotors and called it Lyrachord - it could be molded into shape without the need for traditional bracing.

LR Baggs

L.R. Baggs was founded by Lloyd Baggs who started out In 1973 by buying, modifying, refinishing, retuning and then returning old Gibsons and Washburns - this led to L.R. Baggs fine-handmade-guitar-and-guitar-repair business being  launched. After Lloyd finished his first guitar in a Berkeley, California garage, he took it to his guitar idol, Ry Cooder, and received his first commission. Lloyd's list of customers for his L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar included Jackson Browne, Janis Ian, Graham Nash and two instruments went to Ry Cooder. The guitar featured on Cooder's "Jazz" album is an L.R. Baggs Handmade Guitar.

Hartke

Larry Hartke and Ron Lorman began developing aluminum cone drivers in the late 1970s. They their first products, an aluminum cone, free edge tweeter and a 2-way bookshelf system with an eight-inch aluminum woofer, under the Hartke brand name. Hartke revolutionized bass amplification in 1985 with the creation of a unique aluminum cone driver that produced a bass tone with broad dynamics. Since then, Hartke has introduced a complete line of bass gear, including amplifiers, cabinets and effects.

Source:Hartke website (14 February 2022)

Gallien-Krueger

Robert Gallien is a Stanford educated engineer who first began making amplifiers in the late 1960s, while working a day job at Hewlett Packard in California. These first amplifiers had the GMT brand name, but in the early 1970s Gallien joined forces with another HP engineer Richard Krueger and the company became Gallien-Krueger. Gallien-Krueger are best known for their bass amplifiers and stopped producing guitar amplifiers all together in the late 1990s.

Source: Gallien-Krueger website (5 July 2017)

Fishman

Larry Fishman etablished the Fishman company in 1981 - to produce acoustic guitar pickups. He soon had orders from Martin and began to branch out into pickups for other acoustic stringed instrument. From the early 1980s Fishman also made amplifiers and other guitar related products. Fishman also provide OEM parts to many other guitar makers - particularly transducers and preamps tor acoustic guitars.

Source: Fishman website (14 February 2022)

Fender

The company was founded by Leo Fender as Fender's Radio Service in late 1938 in Fullerton, California, USA. While repairing musical instrument amplifiers in his electronics workshop he noticed their design flaws. He began making a few amplifiers using his own designs or modifications to designs. By the early 1940s, he had teamed up with another local electronics enthusiast named Clayton Orr (Doc) Kauffman, and they formed a company named K & F Manufacturing Corp. to design, manufacture, and sell electric instruments and amplifiers. Production began in 1945 with Hawaiian lap steel guitars (incorporating a patented pickup) and amplifiers, which were sold as sets. Leo Fender decided to concentrate on manufacturing rather than repair. Kauffman remained unconvinced, however, and they had amicably parted ways by early 1946. At that point Leo renamed the company the Fender Electric Instrument Company.

Fernandes

The Japanses Fernandes brand was first used in 1969 on flamenco guitars. The company expanded to produce a range of acoustic and electric models, and became Japan's largest maker of Fender copies. The 1970s Fernandes Stratocaster copies were well regarded. In 1992 Fernandes USA was established in Los Angeles, California and in 1996 the Fernandes USA Custom Shop was founded - but it has since closed.
 

Eden

Eden Electronics was founded in 1976 in Montrose as a manufacturer of P.A. systems speaker cabinets and then drivers. They soon realised their cabinets were popular with bass players and began to develop amps and cabinets for this market. In 2003 the company became part of U.S. Music Corporation and moved production to Chicago. The Eden product line expanded and in 2010 they started making effects pedals. Eden Amplification became part of Marshall Amplification PLC in December 2011, and moved their headquarters to the Marshall Amplification factory in Bletchley, UK.  In, 2021, Marshall sold Eden and its remaining assets to Gear4Music (Holdings) plc for £140,000.

Source: Eden Amps website (29 April 2022)

Source: Eden Electronics website (archived 2005)

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