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I have decided to publish this history, a little at a time, as I write it. So here goes :
My name is Dave West, (David W. West) of Okemos, MI. About 1965, a fellow named Dick Wagner walked into my little Hi-fi shop on Saginaw Street in Flint, Michigan. I was a local kid, 21 years old, and I sold McIntosh, Dynaco, Acoustic Research, Klipsch, and a few others. I was one of 13 Klipsch dealers in the world. The other 12 were in Boston! Selling quality Hi-fi components in Flint, Michigan was a losing proposition. Beer and color TV would have sold better! Dick fronted a Michigan band called The Bossmen, and he wanted to know if I could get him any JBL Guitar Speakers. I had never heard of JBL. I had never heard of Dick Wagner, or the Bossmen. I had never even seen an electric guitar, or an electric guitar amplifier, up close! But I loved Rock 'n' Roll and I saw this as a possible opportunity to make a buck working with my favorite music (At least I’m honest about it!).
I made an appointment for the JBL sales rep in Michigan (James Flora and Company), to come see me. When Jim arrived, he informed me that I could not buy just JBL Guitar Speakers. I would have to purchase $5000.00 worth of JBL Hi-fi Speakers, and then I would be allowed to purchase $5000.00 worth of JBL Guitar Speakers. $10,000.00 was a lot of money in 1965 and I was not sure I could swing it. After some heavy dealing with the bank and my dad (George West), I was able to come up with the $10,000.00.
I placed the order with JBL and proceeded to wait for delivery, equal pieces of the D130F 15" guitar speaker and the D140F 15" bass guitar speaker. I don't believe 12" units were available at this time. JBL turned out to be not just any guitar speaker. Dick Wagner and the Bossmen turned out to be not just any guitar player, and not just any band, not by a long shot! Dick Wagner was, and still is, one of the most creative and musical guitar players I have ever heard, and the Bossmen almost defied description in their total musicality. Listen to Dick's guitar solo on Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane". His personal rendition of a song he wrote, "Only Women Bleed" (an Alice Cooper Hit, recently recorded by Tory Amos) is now playing on our home page as background music. What a stroke of luck I had concerning the first guitar player I ever met! Without Dick there would have been no West Amps.
I will have a compilation of early Bossmen music available on CD, somewhere on this web site, and you can judge their early music for yourself. This CD also contains a few tracks from Dick’s next band, the Frost. The CD was compiled from vinyl to CD, by Dick himself, at the time of the Bossmen’s 30th Anniversary. The original master tapes had been destroyed in a fire at Dick's place. I also intend to have a few Bossmen tracks available for you to listen to at the end of this statement.
Dick used to drop in at my shop for long discussions about just about anything, including, of course, music and music theory. I remember the time he asked me if I could spell rhythm guitar, and I could not. Another time he carefully explained to me that playing flute, (which I did), was a lot like playing bass guitar! (which of course I did not). Enough musical hero worship for now, and on with our story.
Before the JBL speakers even came in, Dick told me that his friends in a local band, Terry Knight and the Pack, (shades of Grand Funk) were the first band outside of Norm Sundholm's own band to play the new Sunn amplifiers and "would I like to see one?" I said "what the heck, bring one in." The amp arrived in the shop and I proceeded to take it apart. Much to my surprise it contained a completely stock Dynaco Mark III power amp and a very little modified Dynaco PAM-I monaural preamp. They were putting these items in a cabinet, putting JBL speakers in a cabinet, and getting LARGE BUCKS for these things. I thought, "If they can do it, why can't I?" Thus was born the original spark that led to West LaboratoriesTM and the West guitar amps.
When the story continues, I will be building three West LaboratoriesTM guitar amplifiers for Dick and his new band the Frost, and discussing the various tube types I used over the years, and why. I will also be talking about the tubes being built today.
I will be talking about some of the local bands I managed in Flint, including Sunny Hug, The Cooley Group, and from a little farther away in Holly, Michigan, Skyhook. Some of these musicians went on to greater fame and glory.
After that I will be talking about my encounters with Rob Namowicz of Skyhook (see picture in Museum), Peter C. Cavanaugh of WTAC in Flint (Author of Local DJ), and my time with Mark Farner, Pete Woodman, and Meatloaf in Bay City. Mark used to actually build cabinets for West Amplifiers for a short time. That's when he first tried out my original 60 watt (2 KT88s) West GA60 and fell in love with it. I will have his own words on the subject in an interview here very soon. By the way, Mark plays through one West cabinet with two 15" JBLs to this day. He actually carries four of them just in case. I know, I know, you have seen a lot of other stuff on stage, but look over beside the drummer! The West cabinet is always there! I will also have an almost unbelievable story about my first encounter with Meatloaf in Bay City.
Then will come my move to Lansing, Michigan to partner with Bill Marshall of Marshall Music, and our equipment sponsorship of Grand Funk Railroad, Edgar Winter, and others. I will be talking about my passionate love affair with the Electrovoice SRO 12" and SRO 15" speaker. This speaker was actually developed with the help of a band from Ypsilanti, named "Scott Richard's Case", later known as just SRC. I will also be discussing my time managing the Woolies and the best band to ever come out of the Lansing, Michigan area, the Plain Brown Wrapper, and my acquaintance with Denny Preston.
This story will continue right up to the time I walked away from the company in 1972, and left it to it's horrible, solid state, "Motengator", future!
More will be coming every few days, or as fast as I can remember it, and write it!
If anyone has information I have forgotten to include, please Email me.
Founder of West Laboratories,
Dave West