Forum member sosomething began a PayPal
fund for Lew on October 19, BigJoe77 began
a benefit auction of his gear, and ratherdash-ing offered to mod and repair pedals in
exchange for donations to the fund. Forum
members even set up a Facebook page to
promote donations. As of press time, the
forum had raised around $2000 for Lew’s
medical expenses.
seymourduncan.com/forum
Amp Guru James Brown
Launches Amptweaker
We received word in October that legendary amp builder James Brown (5150, JSX,
‘ 72 Coupe and many, many more) is launching Amptweakers, producing hand-built
amps and effect while still designing for
Kustom. Accustomed to designing products
for artists like Joe Satriani and Eddie Van
Halen, and major manufacturers Peavey and
Kustom, Brown is now turning to the gear
community for ideas. He wants to know
what you want in an amp.
Here’s what Brown had to say:
“For the past 23 years, I’ve been busy
designing guitar amps for musicians.....
first at Peavey, and lately at Kustom.
Well, I’m very excited to announce that
I’ve just launched a new chapter in
Amptweakdom..... I’m still designing amps
at Kustom as their Chief Engineer, but I’ve
started my own personal company with the
intent of building handmade pedals and custom amplifiers: Amptweaker.
“I’m working on a bunch of product ideas,
but I’ve adopted a rather unique approach
to product development......... I’m asking
people what THEY want me to build. I plan
to start this project off by developing some
pedals, since they’re a little quicker to
develop, and that will help fund my bigger
custom Fine-Tuned Amplifier project that’s
also in process.
“So for now I’m asking for ideas for pedals
that fill some need we all have...... but for
some reason nobody makes. The payback
for giving me your golden ideas is that they
might actually get built! Just go to www.
amptweaker.com and click on the big red
Product Ideas box. There are also links to
Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter if you’re into
using those methods for keeping up with
what’s going on.
“Any help you can give me with your 2
cents worth at amptweaker.com or by passing this around to other guitarists would
be greatly appreciated. The sooner I get a
large sampling of musician feedback, the
sooner I can start building products that
players truly want and need.”
amptweaker.com
New from LR Baggs venue D.I.
· All discrete 5-Band Para D.I.
style EQ with breakthrough
high-headroom analog
circuitry.
· Isolation transformer D.I.
guarantees elimination of
ground loops.
· Chromatic tuner.
3 BoxEs IN 1!
Relentless InnovatIon In acoustIc amplIfIcatIon
www.lrbaggs.com
www.premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2009 29
