I am not an electronics technician.

I began buying and selling used selling guitars in 1967 at the age of 17.

I worked for Leo and John Mallieris at the original Leo’s music in Oakland, for a wage of $10 per day and $10 per day credit towards the purchase of a Fender Twin Reverb.

Played guitar with John Lee Hooker, Greg Kihn, and the Rockets, which included a lead singer later known as Eddie Money.

Wrote tunes on Eddie’s first two albums (“Can’t Keep A Good Man Down”) and one for Greg.

Owned two vintage guitar stores during the period of 1971-1976 in Berkeley, California. Traveled extensively and bought guitars nationally.

I built my first recording studio, Tewksbury Sound, in Richmond, California in 1976.

We moved into the Hyde Street Studios (former Heider’s, San Francisco) in 1980.

I bought Coast Recorders ( Mission Street) from  Bill Putnam in 1988. Installed my first Neve, a modified 8026, in 1990.

Moved the studio into the Golden State building on Harrison street in 1995. It was a very well equipped studio and a great sounding facility.

Coast Recorders closed in October of 2000. R.I.P.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working in the studio with the Rubinoos,  Psycotic Pineapple, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Vox Pop and Omar Sosa, among others.

I began collecting, buying and selling recording equipment in 1972 after being exposed to the studio, thanks to Tom Lubin, then a CBS engineer, and now a well-known educator .

In August, 1976, I met Allen Sides and was made aware of tube microphones.  The light went on…as a “vintage guitar” dealer, in 1977, it was easy  to embrace the idea that an old microphone could be superior to a new one.

I believe I coined the phrase “vintage recording equipment”, an extension of my activities as a “vintage” guitar dealer.

I began importing large quantities of Neumann, AKG, and Telefunken tube mics in 1978.

Typically, from 1978-1990, we would buy 20-30 tube mics per month.

As a result of intensive research and  extensive  travels, I have imported thousands of tube mics, dozens of Neve consoles, as well as innumerable pieces of classic outboard equipment.

I owned a store  in Hollywood from 1985-1992, managed by my lifelong friend Mr. Jon Rubin.

Arguably the rarest tube mic in the world, the Telefunken Ela M270 stereo microphone (serial number 101) now in the collection of Blackbird Studios was purchased by me in Vienna, from one of the”Austrian Sound Hunters”, an amateur recording club, for the princely sum of $1100.in 1983.

In 1988, I began selling large quantities of gear to Shelley Yakus and A&M (now Hensen) studios, including at least 80 Pultecs and 100-200 classic tube mics, as well as hundreds of other pieces of classic equipment. Needless to say, Shelley has great taste in gear and indeed is one of the great engineers.

I sold my first Neve console to Al Firestein of Acoustilog in NYC in 1979, where it functioned happily for many years.

Since then we’ve sold 75-100 Neves and probably stripped another 100 or so for parts. We have never sold a single SSL console.

We began selling Neve modules to the industry in 1985. The first pair we sold were 1064’s to Mr. John Cuniberti, who used them extensively in the recording of “Surfing With The Alien” by Joe Satriani.

We’ve sold hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of packaged and raw Neve modules. We began modifying and selling Telefunken V72’s in 1992.

I bought the E.M.I. Redd 37 console in Germany in 1981 with Mr. Chris Solberg, a lifelong friend and musical cohort. We had it for 10 years and then Jon Rubin sold it to Lenny Kravitz. That was a very good thing, because 6 months later the house it was in burned down to the ground in the Oakland fire!

We began manufacturing a Class A vintage reissue preamp package in 1994, and sold 400-500 units before 2000.

I still collect and play old guitars and write songs. My last royalty check was for $71……….

Partial List of Clients

STUDIO ULTIMA
TARPON STUDIOS
TRAX RECORDING
AMBIENCE RECORDING
STUDIO IN THE COUNTRY
JIM BRADY RECORDING
THE CASTLE RECORDING
GARY CHANG
CHEROKEE RECORDING
CONWAY RECORDING
GRANNY’S HOUSE
HEAVY MOON
HILTON SOUND
MICHAEL J.JACKSON(PRODUCER)
DAVLEN RECORDING
JOHN COUGAR MELLANCAMP
DON GEHMAN
PAT LEONARD
GARY LADINSKY
STUDIO D
ZOMBA RECORDING
ALPHA AND OMEGA
PHILLIP GLASS
THE MANHATTEN CENTER
NORMANDY SOUND
RUSTED ROOT
SEAR SOUND
SOUNDS OF HAWAII
BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN
BRUCE HORNSBY
MILAN BOGDEN
STEPBRIDGE STUDIOS
MATT WALLACE
MARK MCKENNA
BEARSVILLE STUDIOS
TOM FLYE
TONI FISHMAN
VINTAGE TONES
TALCOTT MOUNTAIN STUDIOS
JACK ROCK
JOHN MCBRIDE
STUDIO 880
TINY TELEPHONE
MR.TOADS
STREETERVILLE STUDIOS
GREENE ST.STUDIOS
RPM RECORDING
GEORGE BENSON
WALTER BECKER
SUSAN ROGERS
O’HENRY STUDIOS
BOB BILES
DAN SCHWARTZ
THE MINT STUDIOS
POWER PLAY
OCEAN ENTERTAINMENT
MAMA JO’S
BOB COUVER
ELLIOT MAZER
JAMES STROUD
SKIP SAYLOR RECORDING
RICK NOWELS
BRUCE MONICLE
ALLAIRE STUDIOS
KEVIN GILBERT
BILL BOTRELL
THE POWER STATION
HYDE STREET STUDIOS
LARRABEE RECORDING
MARK LINDSEY
MARK LINETT
AND MANY MORE…………………