microphones

Biography

When I left school I was lucky enough to take up an engineering apprenticeship that led to a city and guilds qualification, although my real passion was for djing, but in the seventies professional quality disco consoles by Citronic or soundout (now digico of course) cost the equivalent of 50 or 60 gigs, so if you wanted a good console you had to make your own. After a while it came to peoples notice that I could make and mend stuff, some of the clubs in which I was djing wanted repairs and installations, and then some clubs where I wasn’t djing wanted them too!

After having worked in many nightclubs in the south of England, London and also in Germany I took a year off, I went to work as an industrial robot programmer for a major car manufacturer.

When I went back to the entertainment industry I got a position as senior engineer with one of the counties leading contract rental companies, in my 16 years with the company we took disco of the year several times and plasa product of the year. They were quite the innovators and it was a privilege to have worked on so many different and varied projects.

When that big fish was eaten by an even bigger fish I struck up an association with a small company that provides sound equipment and services to the theatre industry, everything from a single radio microphone to a full production sound system, For ten years I have been providing them with a service department, part time, which enabled me to build up my own customer base, I also run a shop on eBay called ”proaudiorepairs” where I sell special leads, testers of my own design built into XLR connectors and any surplus electronics.

I have an extensive library of technical manuals and schematics although I am able to work without drawings if the need arises.

No matter how hard I try I am unable to play an instrument, I’m sure this helps when repairing amplifiers for guitar or keyboards as I tend to look at them with an unbiased eye and can certainly tell the shoddy from the overrated. 

My other interests include preparing and racing an Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint in a national championship, trying to learn German, walking the dog and not going to Discos.

I am in Mensa, the high IQ society, hold a National A race licence and am an AROC member.