tube amplifiers

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TeleStar

TeleStar (Tele-Star) was founded by Maurice & Charlie Laboz in New York around 1964. TeleStar imported Japanese guitars and other instruments for sale in the USA. Charlie's son Jamie Laboz (founder of Chamber of Sounds) recalled the history of the company as follows:

"Tele-Star & LaBoz Musical Instruments
Some of you might remember TeleStar & LaBoz musical instruments from the mid-sixties. The company was originally started by my uncle Maurice and my father Charlie. They were the first US-based company to import Japanese guitars, amps and drums (originally Kawai & Teisco Del Rey) with the names Tele-Star & LaBoz on them. They were also the first to introduce Sparkle finishes, multi-ply necks and dead-on copies of popular guitars of the time. Some even had 5 pick-ups, rocker switches & chrome pickguards!

Stinger

Stinger was an electric guitar and bass brand launched by CF Martin in 1985. The Stinger instruments were made in Korea (by Samick?) for distribution in the USA. The brand lasted until the mid 1990s at least.

Adam Stark

Adam Stark made amplifiers and electric guitars from around 1985 onwards. He graduated from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, 1982  (where he focused on composition, performance, and film scoring studies) and from the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 1979-1982 where he majored in fine art and music studies. He made very limited numbers of each model.

Source: Adam Stark website (archived 2004)

Splendor

Splendor guitars and amplifiers were made in the 1960s and 1970s by Hitachi Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company - according to details stamped on the neck plates & on the back of the amplifiers.

Bludotone

BLUDOTONE is a small guitar amplifier company based in Littleton, Colorado. Each amplifier is built by hand by one person start to finish. Bludotone will telephone each customer before building the amplifier to ask about your style, guitars, choice of speakers and your ideal tone. Famous Bludotone users include Larry Carlton.

Source: Bludotone website (27 October 2020)

Simms-Watts

Simms-Watts was a British amplifier brand founded in 1968 by David Simms and Richard Watts. David Simms ran a music shop in Ealing where Richard Watts also worked as technical director. Terry Marshall (son of Jim Marshall) also joined Simms-Watts in 1968. Simms-Watts launched a range of high quality instrument and PA amplifiers in 1969 and these were used by the likes of Mick Ronson and John Entwistle. In 1972 the company was bought by EMI Sound and Vision and produced amplifiers for a few more years during the 1970s - moving to solid state circuits to save production costs.

Source: Voodoo Guitar -  Oddball British Hi-Fi: Sound City & Simms-Watts Amps  (15 September 2020)

SG Systems

SG Systems was a division of the Chicago Musical Instrument Company (CMI). They made a range of guitar and bass amplifiers in the 1970s which combined tube power amp circuits with solid state preamps. They also made PA systems.

Source: SG Systems catalogs 1973 - 1975

Supersound

Supersound Electronic Products was established by Alan and Mary Wootton in 1952 in Erith, UK. Initially started as a part time venture, they made amplifiers in their garage at home. After they moved to Hawley Grange, Dartford, Alan packed in his day job with Jennings Electronics Industries and worked full time for Supersound custom making record players, radiograms and amplifiers. He was also joined by Ron Hopkins, Dave Pankhurst and Bob Kilgour from Jennings.

Royce

Royce was a Multivox brand name used in the early 1980s. The instruments were imported (typically from Japan or Korea) and the range included electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars as well as amplifiers, banjos, ukueleles and mandolins. Multivox stopped trading in 1984 so the brand was discontinued then.

Source: Royce catalog 1980s

Cornell

Denis Cornell founded Cornell Custom Amplification in 1991. Denis Cornell has built repaired, serviced and custom designed amplification systems for many years. (Sound City's groundbreaking MKIII / IV amp's were co-designed by by Denis along with Brian Hucker)  Over the years Denis has helped design amps for many of today's big brand amp manufacturers. As a freelance consultant Denis Cornell has sorted complex technical problems and helped Fender Europe with new designs. Denis has been called upon to help major companies grow and launch their products and had a key role in Arbiter Group's London facility in designing products for them.

Ashen

Ashen Amplifiers is run by Vitaly and Natalia Godzhaeva in Southern California since around 2014, with over 50 years experience in sound amplification. They previously used the E&M Music Productions brand name. This family run company designs and hand crafts lightweight, powerfull, good sounding and beautiful custom cabinets.

Carl's Custom Amps

Carl (Carl's Custom Amps) builds vintage style tubes amps from the 50's, 60's and 70's. All his amps are hand wired and he offers a number of standard models but with many options. Some models are also available as working chassis for those who wish to source their own cabinet and speakers. Mods and customization are available for each model.  He also build lots of custom amps and performs repairs and mods on all models of tube amps.

Brave

Armas guitars established the Brave amplifiers brand in 1999. Armas Guitars is located in the town of Catania, a city on the Italian Island of Sicily with a rich history of musical instrument manufacturing.

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