About GARY

---

Hey all --  Hurricane Gary here.

People ask how I got started building amplifiers.  As a lifelong guitarist, I was only interested in how to repair m Fender amp.

In 1980 I enrolled in the local Vo-Tech Industrial Electronics, a two-year night course.  We learned basic electronics, AC, DC, Tube, Solid State, Radio and Television circuits, etc.

Our final project was to build a working tube amplifier, as needed to complete the course and receive our Certificate.  I was excited to build my first tube amp!

Having a young family, I was strapped for cash.  With a pair of diagonal cutters in hand I went to the back room where donations of old TVs, radio sets and other electronics were stored I filled a box with tubes, sockets, switches, pots, transformers and wire.  I built my amplifier and received my Certificate.

Later I built a few more tube amplifiers on the kitchen table as a hobby, just for FUN!

For the next decade I repaired Fender and Marshall amps for myself and for friends.

I started a loudspeaker repair business, working at night and weekends repairing amps and speakers.  I still do that today.

In 1995 & 1996 I was lucky enough to land a job at VAC (Valve Amplification Company), a high-end vacuum tube amplifier manufacturer) Assembly Department.  During my time there I absorbed everything that was being built on a daily basis.  I amassed their bullet-proof build quality, F-RA fiberglass turret boards, PTFE silver-plated wire, aluminum chassis and high quality components that I still use today.

In 1998 a long-time friend, the late harmonica wizard "Rock Bottom", liked a Fender 5F2A circuit housed in an art deco-inspired radio cabinet that I had built.  A partnership was born on that day.  I have been using the name "Hurricane".  Rock came up with model name "The Hurricane Harp V-8 Amplifier". As they say, "we were off and running".  Rock used his Harp V-8 amplifier on his 1998 release "Shake Your Boogie Leg".

I'm currently busy with new prototypes and resurrecting old models.  I am now offering a Limited Edition of the amplifier that started it all:  The "Rock Bottom" model Hurricane Harp V-8 Amplifier.