A nice wah wah story

[soul-o]

Just thought you all might like to hear a heartwarming tale of wah wah rebirth. I love my old purple Budda wah that I've had for 18 years or so. I have tried other wahs and this is the one that just sounds right to me. Over the years and a few thousand hours of use, it has held up pretty well, but I have a couple of broken cry babies under the bed that I have pilfered for parts when things have gone wonky on it. It finally just stopped working last Fall. One of the screw holes on the bottom was stripped, too, so I though it was time to move on. I tried a vintage vox wah and that wasn't the sound I was after. I bought a used Fulltone Clyde Delux, which broke after a few gigs and, of course, the repair process for Fulltone is so user unfriendly and discouraging that that pedal has now joined the cry babies under the bed. I should have just bought another one of the one I liked, but prices for the original design kinda shot through the roof. I spent twice as much trying to save a few bucks- I bet there's a lesson there.

I know that Budda amps got sold to Peavy at some point and didn't have much hope for gettng my purple wah fixed, but I reached out to the founder Jeff Bober through his new company East Amplification and he was responsive and nice and told me to send it on down to him in Maryland. It only took about a month and he fixed her right up, put a NOS Budda bottom on it and had it back on my pedalboard. It's just nice to see someone standing by a product they built beyond their current responsibility. I thought he deserved a shout out for that.

 

[Peegoo]

I reached out to the founder Jeff Bober through his new company East Amplification and he was responsive and nice and told me to send it on down to him in Maryland. It only took about a month and he fixed her right up, put a NOS Budda bottom on it and had it back on my pedalboard. It's just nice to see someone standing by a product they built beyond their current responsibility. I thought he deserved a shout out for that.

While this may appear to be a unique instance--based on the way business is normally conducted these days, it's no surprise.

I've known Jeff from back in the days when he was the owner, chief cook, and bottle washer of Precision Audio Tailoring in Glen Burnie, MD. He has always been a cool cat, and he is truly an amp guru/magician/wizard. He's the kind of friend you want on your Short List.

Info Scrambled On Purpose

 

[Timbresmith1]

While this may appear to be a unique instance--based on the way business is normally conducted these days, it's no surprise.

I've known Jeff from back in the days when he was the owner, chief cook, and bottle washer of Precision Audio Tailoring in Glen Burnie, MD. He has always been a cool cat, and he is truly an amp guru/magician/wizard. He's the kind of friend you want on your Short List.

Info Scrambled On Purpose

Indeed! Good guy. I sent him a vintage fuzz pedal eons ago and he fixed it right up.

 

[11 Gauge]

I've known Jeff from back in the days when he was the owner, chief cook, and bottle washer of Precision Audio Tailoring in Glen Burnie, MD. He has always been a cool cat, and he is truly an amp guru/magician/wizard. He's the kind of friend you want on your Short List.

I've lived in Maryland my whole life, and am actually very close to Glen Burnie.

I had no idea that Jeff was building Budda amps in Maryland, way back when, at the time. It was actually really only in some little music store, not that far from the MVA in Glen Burnie, in the 90's, that I first saw a Budda amp in the flesh.

The craziest part of all? It looks like Budda Amplification used to be on 3916 Vero Rd, which is literally less than two miles from where I live!

 

[Peegoo]

It was actually really only in some little music store, not that far from the MVA in Glen Burnie, in the 90's, that I first saw a Budda amp in the flesh.

That was Master Musicians. Pretty good shop for such a little hole in the wall. The original Buddas are KILLER amps.

Jeff's PAT shop was off Holsum Way in Glen Burnie back in the 80s. After Budda got started Jeff moved his shop to Joh Ave in Arbutus (where David Byrne is from). When he sold the name to Peavey, he stayed on as a consultant for a stretch--I assume as a non-compete provision--and ran the Budda East office in the same location. When that association was done, he started up East Amps.

 

[11 Gauge]

That was Master Musicians. Pretty good shop for such a little hole in the wall. The original Buddas are KILLER amps.

Yep, that was it! I kind of ended up there by accident, and really didn't even know there was a music store there, at first. They also had Mesa Boogie amps and other stuff that Bill's Music House, Mars Music, etc. never had in stock.

I never had the scratch for anything like a Budda or Matchless amp back then, otherwise I probably would have gotten one (a Budda amp, specifically) from Master Musicians. My budget only allowed me to buy stuff like a brand new TS5 from them. I also remember that they had a PRS with a maple neck and SSS pickup configuration that I didn't even know was something that Paul made.

Jeff's PAT shop was off Holsum Way in Glen Burnie back in the 80s. After Budda got started Jeff moved his shop to Joh Ave in Arbutus (where David Byrne is from). When he sold the name to Peavey, he stayed on as a consultant for a stretch--I assume as a non-compete provision--and ran the Budda East office in the same location. When that association was done, he started up East Amps.

I've lived at the same place in Arbutus for almost 25 years now. Prior to that I lived in Lansdowne for 5 years, actually not that far from Arbutus. And Lansdowne is like the last town prior to the AA County border, so is even closer to Glen Burnie.

I always forget that David Byrne is from Arbutus. All of my art friends from my younger years (who all went to MICA, even though I went to Towson Univ) would probably kill me for that. Despite living in Maryland for all of my life, I guess I'm still just an Arbutus transplant.

...I can honestly say that I really loved a lot of what was going on with guitar amps in the 90's, specifically. I would have loved just spending 10 minutes in Jeff's shop, no doubt about it. So crazy to think that I was virtually living 'just down the street'...

 

[Peegoo]

I also remember that they had a PRS with a maple neck and SSS pickup configuration that I didn't even know was something that Paul made.

That was the DC3 model. There are lots of calls to bring that back into production--even among the folks that work there!

 

[Gaylord Amsterdam]

Sweet!

 

[CV Jee Beez]

That's cool. It looks great.