Amplifiers
Robert Leininger worked for Crown International for 21 years both as purchasing manager and production manager. The Elkhart, Indiana based manufacturing plant produced a string of innovative and successful products including reel to reel machines, microphones, loudspeakers, and amplifiers. Bob was...
Mike Soldano says he was late to game, picking up the guitar when he was 20, but soon made up for lost time by jumping in with both feet! He studied the instrument and listened to live and recorded guitar heroes at every chance he got. Next he fell into building guitars and took a woodworking class...
Andy Marshall has had a deep and rich musical education both in the classroom and on stage. In 1986 he established THD Electronics to focus on manufacturing guitar amplifiers. He set out to provide reissue amps (the A-10 was first), which really had not been done before and it gave Andy a chance to...
John Fields grew up in Meridian and took a great interest in his mother’s job at Peavey Electronics. As a kid, John worked on electrical components and built his first guitar at the age of 12. He later studied electronics and got a degree in Electrical Engineering before working with the engineer...
Willie Hatcher gives a great deal of credit to the public-school system in Mississippi when he was growing up in the 1950s for providing a variety of shop classes. Those instructional courses included woodworking, automotive, and machine shop, and they all provided Willie with the background he...
Norm Sundholm was playing bass for the rock band The Kingsmen when he had a few ideas to improve his amplifier. As the band rose to fame, thanks to the recording of “Louie Louie,” Norm and his brother, Conrad, formed Sunn Amplifiers. As the key product endorser while on tour, Norm learned firsthand...
Bo Engberg was asked by a guitarist friend if he would please build a better amplifier. That one request from a friend change the direction of his career because Bo soon discovered he really enjoyed the inner workings of the amp and thought of a few ways he could improve on the design and...
Anssi Hyvönen grew up in Finland where he developed a great love of recorded music and the gear to play it on. This gradually led to establishing Amphion as a hifi company in 1998. As an audiophile the playback side of the music chain was always familiar to him. To understand the whole recording...
Michael Doyle was traveling with a band when he had an opportunity to tour the Marshall factory. It was an eye opening and fortuitous experience. Several years later he was offered a job with Korg USA, and was able to rep the Marshall line for over nine years. After working for Fender (he got to...
Jim Marks always enjoyed ham radio and often sought opportunities to learn more about audio equipment. He was working as a radio station engineer for Progressive Broadcasting when he heard of an opening at Crown International. He joined the company in 1970 as a service repair technician and his...