The short overview:

In 1970, I needed a guitar.  So I built my first one, because even then, good guitars were expensive, and I had the skills to build quality.  After building a few, I went into repairs, for several reasons.  Even then, unknown good guitars were hard to sell.  Repairs would give me a living, and an detailed inside look at all the right stuff.  But building was still the plan.  Several years of even the good work at E.U. Wurlitzer in Boston was enough, so I headed west.  Eventually landing at "Red's Royal Amp Service, where you get it royally", in LA.  Again, this became enough, and I left to build.  I acquired partners, and the rest of that story is fairly well-known.  I left there in 1984, to get "another detailed, inside look", this time at the CNC industry, because I then knew that this was the only sensible way to build quality.  CNC machines were over-priced and out-dated.  I had always built my own machines, so why not CNC?  This took a while, and here I am, with the right tools.


  "The System":

Very early, I realized all parts of "The System" was the sound. E.U. Wurlitzer had a great schematic archive.  Tim (who ran the place), and Bob Greenburg (the amp guy), were both really great guys.  They advised me to "stick with guitars", the amp "is a box", etc.  I did not get it at first, so I built some amps.  Then I got it.  Too many big, expensive parts, and too many "gotcha's", power supplies, the reason really cool stuff never gets built.  And I did not even know then, about all that happens to sound in recording, and radio.  Everything is "Relative".  So now, "nothing has changed, still too many (expensive, vintage) "boxes", or "try" to imitate them with software, or "Retro-Modern" gear.  It would "seem" that some of the essentials could be simply combined, for less "boxes"..


  An early sound adventure:

Going way back..  One of my first adventures was helping my dad record in an old vintage building with great acoustics.  We went way out on creaky catwalks above the high arched ceiling and hung an Altec 21B tube mic down into the room.  Plenty of drive to make it backstage straight into his Ampex 300 portable.  So again, "Relative".  Now it's not a bazillion pound Ampex, it's "too much expensive, annoying software and interfaces".  He got good sound, for that type of music, and much of it was in his editing skills.  I still prefer getting a great sound, THEN recording it.

http://www.coutant.org/altec21b/index.html

http://analogrules.com/Gallery/Ampex-300/300AD2?full=1


  To be continued...