I stayed in Costa Mesa for several months and then moved to Hollywood. The first California serial number was 240 and it was a solid mahogany 6 string guitar. The first South Cal number was 250. It was one of four mahogany LP junior style neck thru.

Tobias Guitars continued to repair instruments and build custom basses for the next several years with the help of Bob Lee and Kevin Almieda (Kevin went on to work for Music Man). We moved into 1623 Cahuenga Bl. in Hollywood and after a year quit the repair business. We added Bob McDonald, lost Kevin to MM and added Makoto Onishi.

The business grew by leaps and bounds. In June of 1988 we had so many back orders that we could not accept any new orders until the January NAMM show in 1990. (For another view of the California years, see Bob Lee's story on the Articles section.)

The Gibson Buyout...

After several attempts to move the business to larger, better equipped facilities, I sold Tobias Guitars to Gibson on 1/1/90. The first Tobias Gibson serial number was 1094. At that point, Gibson was instrumental in moving us to a bigger shop in Burbank and setting us up with a great spray booth and dust collection system. We finally met So Cal safety codes. Basses built during 1990-1992 era were built initially by the same crew that had helped establish Tobias Basses as one of the most sought after basses on the planet. We added several people during 1990 and ended up with a great 10-man shop.

Business was still very good and we were not able to make anywhere near enough basses to fill the orders. Instead of trying to jack up production, we tried to get outside vendors to build for us. We had 110 "Model T" basses made for us by a very fine builder in New England, and then we got the Terada factory in Nagoya, Japan to make the "Standard" bass for us. This was and is a great bass, but the $/yen ratio killed the project. There were about 400 Standards.

Late in 1992, it was decided that in the best corporate interests, Tobias would move to Nashville. After much deliberation, no one from the original Tobias Guitars crew went to Nashville. The final LA Tobias/Gibson serial number is 2044. Despite Gibson's ownership of Tobias, all of the basses made up to 2044 were built by the my regular crew. The first production from Tobias/Nashville consisted of about 60 basses that were not numbered or finished by this crew.

I left the company in Dec '92 and was a consultant for Gibson for the operations they set up in Nashville. They had some trouble at first, but have since done a fairly good job making Tobias basses.

The new instruments...

By contractual agreement, after my consulting agreement with Gibson was up, I had a 1 year non-competition term that ended in Dec.'93. During that "down" time, I moved to the Catskills in upstate NY and set up a small custom shop. I started designing new instruments and building prototypes in preparation for my new venture.

The first instruments were named Eclipse. There are 50 of them and most all of are 35" scale bolt-ons with 3 neck thrus. I finally settled on a MTD as the company name and trademark.

I currently build about 10 instruments per month. Along with the MTD electric basses, I build acoustic bass guitars and a few electric 6 string guitars. I have one part time helper, Chris Hofschneider, who has been working for Stuart Spector off and on for the last 15 years and has been a guitar tech for a great number of bands including Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Skid Row and White Snake.

I am also doing design and development work for other companies. These projects include: the Grendel Basses, a bass for Brian Moore Guitars, the Modulus Genesis bass, a series of acoustic guitar, baritone acoustic and ABG for Alvarez, (with Joe Veillette) and a project for American Showster (with Chris). (Taken from MTD.com)

Today, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation continues to offer its timeless electric guitar designs such as the Telecaster and Stratocaster to players around the world, but the Fender family has grown to include several distinctive musical instrument brands, including Squier, Guild, and Benedetto. At the pinnacle of guitar artistry, FMIC’s Fender Custom Shop in Corona, California, and its Guild Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, offer hand-crafted custom guitars built to suit the tastes of individual players. Since 1995, Guild Guitars has also been a part of FMIC, and the Guild line of American-made acoustic and archtop electric guitars includes Benedetto brand archtop jazz guitars, considered by many to be the finest jazz guitars being made today. FMIC also distributes the Manuel Rodriguez brand of fine Spanish-made classical guitars.

FMIC’s Squier line of guitars, basses, amps and pro audio gear, combined with its full line of Fender acoustic instruments, offer a wide range of fretted instruments for the value-conscious musician. Under the Fender brand, FMIC manufactures a full line of professional-grade guitar and bass amplifiers inspired by its long tradition of innovation. In pro audio, Fender manufactures a complete line of professional sound equipment under the Fender brand, including the innovative Passport portable sound system. Fender also offers a complete line of accessories, including strings, authorized replacement parts, cases, straps and Fender logo sportswear.

FMIC facilities are located in Scottsdale, Arizona; Corona, California; Nashville, Tennessee; Ensenada, Mexico; London, England; Dusseldorf, Germany; Paris, France; and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Bill Schultz, Chairman and CEO; Bill Mendello, President. (Taken From Fender.com)

In 1949, Hull became the sole proprietor and changed the name of the company to the Ampeg Bassamp Company. Since that time, Ampeg has produced some of the music industry's most innovative and memorable products, satisifying the needs of musicians all over the world. Many of these products feature incredibly unique features and performance capabilities resulting in six U.S. patents under the Ampeg brand name.

In 1960, a design engineer by the name of Jess Oliver created a combo amplifier with a chasis that could be inverted and tucked inside the speaker enclosure, protecting the inner workings and increasing the portability of the the amp. Nicknammed the "Portaflex," this amplifier became the standard in bass combos throughout the 60's and 70's.

Also in the early 60's, Ampeg was the first company to incorporate reverb in an amplifier. The Reverbrocket preceded Fender's Vibroverb (often thought of as the original) by nearly 2 years. In 1969, Ampeg set out to design the most powerful amplifier ever made. At that time, 50-watt amps were considered more than adequate. 100-watt amps were considered "plenty loud." Ampeg, however, not only harnessed 300 watts of pure tube power but actually created a new valve (tube) technology - Super Valve Technology, or the SVT. Now the most sought after stage amplifier, the SVT has proven its road worthiness on stages around the world.

In 1986, St. Louis Music, Inc purchased Ampeg and continues the tradition of making quality, musician-satisifying products. The current series of Ampeg Classic models, Pro Series products, "B" Series heads and combos as well as the updated re-issue Diamond Blue Series are among the latest in the evolution of the professional, innovative and feature laden amplifiers available. (Taken From Ampeg.com)

Once completed, the Yamaha founder then carried the instrument on his back to Tokyo (a round trip of 250 miles) to seek the opinions of an eminent music professor. Following that meeting the Yamaha legend was born.

Through constant innovation and technological leadership Yamaha has grown to be the world's largest and most successful maker of quality musical instruments. Yamaha's global network extends across 20 countries and it now has manufacturing facilities in 15 countries.

Music education is at the heart of the Yamaha philosophy and currently 170,000 students are studying in Yamaha Music School's worldwide. In the UK Yamaha is successfully partnering state schools up and down the country with the aim of improving music provision and access to quality music teaching. In the UK Yamaha are involved in many community music projects and have strong links with a number of charities engaged in improving people's lives through music.

Unlike any other company Yamaha has successfully expanded into the manufacture of many types of instruments. Yamaha pianos, brass and woodwind instruments are played by many of the worlds top concert artists and indeed a critical element of the Yamaha design strategy is to constantly invite artists to get involved in the design process.

Yamaha Music production equipment can be found in many of the world's top recording studios and the recent move into the burgeoning UK dance scene has seen Yamaha equipment chosen by the dance floors finest.

In accordance with its desire to bring the joy of music to as many people as possible Yamaha pioneered the development of the portable personal keyboard, a product that gave many people, their first taste of music making. The trend continues with innovative products such as the DJXII that brings dance music production to a wider audience.

Yamaha-Kemble Music (U.K.) Ltd. is part of the Yamaha Corporation world wide group of companies and is responsible for Yamaha musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the UK and Northern Ireland. (Taken From Yamaha.com)