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...You Design It, We Build It
ACOUSTIC & ELECTRIC
Be as Original
as Your Music
510 Macon Hwy • Athens. Georgia 30606
(706) 357-2004
(#90) 198-9388
285 W.Washington St. • Athens, GA 30601
BODY
PIERCING
Provided by
Virtue & Vice. Inc.
Athens’ Own
Randy Smyre
& Bethra Szumski
Association Professional
Piercers Board Member
Keeping
Athens Amplified
Sfutitufld on Out Local Techs
ohnny just bought a vintage Marshall Super Lead off
eBay for $600, his first tube amp. It has some dings in
the tolex, but the seller said that it was mechanically
OK. Johnny unwraps it and plugs in, cranks the volume knob to
11 and strums a power chord. Ah, bliss: the sound of hot resis
tors munching on electricity. But then, suddenly, the sound
stops. What is Johnny to do?
"These amps are like my children," he says. And sometimes
his children don't play nice; Hunter has been shocked over a
hundred times. "It hasn't happened in a long time," he says.
"The worst time was when a 100-watt Hiwatt zapped me right
in the forehead."
"It doesn't sound any different from a normal kit," he says,
"It's just loud as hell."
Another Athens tech builds more amps than he repairs. Nick
Greer started building effects pedals when he was 14 years old,
and at age 19 began his own company, Greer Amps. Greer's line
of 15 amplifiers and more than 30 pedals are hand-built out of
a single room in his house called "the cave." The 29-year-old
wears a beard that is prematurely gray, possibly due
to the thousands of volts that have surged through
him during his 15-year career. Despite a nearly three-
month waiting list and the high cost of using custom
components in his amps, Greer insists on placing
quality before quantity and affordability before profit:
"My goal is to make a product that a 19 or
20-year-old that's working a part-time job can save
up and afford to buy." Greer's business philosophy
isn't a profitable one, but it has garnered him world
wide distribution and endorsement deals with art
ists such as Miranda Lambert, Five Eight and Easter
Island.
Of all the techs in Athens, perhaps Steve Hunter
is the most prolific, having worked with Drive-By
Truckers, R.E.M., Widespread Panic and "just about
anybody who is anybody in Athens." Like Greer,
Hunter works out of his home. Although only a single
room in the house is dedicated to his repair business,
Thee Electrick Church, every other room is furnished
with amps that Hunter either built or worked on. His
prize, a 200-watt Marshall Major, is safely kept in his bedroom
plugged to a series of vintage effects that seem to feed it
intravenously.
For many musicians the first place to go is a music store.
But what happens when Johnny leaves his steaming pile of
broken electronics in one of these stores? It could be shipped
back to the manufacturer where it will be repaired
with the same components that failed originally. Or
the store may act as a middle man, contracting out
to a local technician. Often with vintage gear or non-
I warranty repairs, the latter takes place. So, why not
just take the gear directly to the tech? Well, many
techs work out of their homes and advertise only
by word-of-mouth. While this encourages a strong
tech-client relationship, it can alienate newcomers
like Johnny who don't know where to turn when their
j gear goes to crap.
John McNeece, owner of McNeece Music, recently
moved to Athens from Tallahassee, FL. In addition
to running a repair business, McNeece is also chief
assembler for Electric Amp Innovations, a Spokane,
WA company that builds amps tailored for low and
fuzzy tones. "I first got into this because I was play
ing too loud and screwing up my amps," he says. "So,
I started to focus on making amps for people like me
who want to play too loud."
Located in the Chase Park warehouses, his shop
houses stacks of speakers and amps and a bench covered in
the instruments of his practice: blueprints, wires, wrenches,
electronic probes and spinning gauges. He pulls back a black
curtain Lo reveal the practice room where he stores an impos
ing drum set that looks as if it were made for a giant to play.
Other techs like Roger Scoggins, owner of
Kitchen Table Stereo, work on everything from
stereos to PA systems (Scoggins will even do a
house call if you ask him nicely). His philosophy
is: "You can't just work on one thing. You can't
just work on tube amplifiers."
McNeece, Greer and Hunter, however, prefer
to specialize in vacuum lube amplifiers, and
even on specific brands: McNeece with Electric,
Greer with his own builds and Hunter with Vox.
This creates a conundrum when choosing an
amp tech: whether to spend time searching for a
specialist or to use an all-rounder like Scoggins.
Although the all-around tech will probably be
able to repair a more diverse array of gear, he
may not be able to compensate for inherent
design flaws. A specialist, however, will know
how to work around these flaws and not only fix
the gear, but make sure that it stays fixed.
Brad Olsen
14 FLAGPOLE.COM • SEPTEMBER 7. 2011
