About Us
Rocketfire Guitars began as the funding agent for a poor
college student earning a degree in Electrical Engineering. Towards the
end
of 2004
I was on a search for a set of pickups for a Strat that I was playing
at
church. I was looking for a vintage type tone and stumbled across
someone who was building SRV #1's from Fender 60's and 62 Re Issue
Stratocasters. I saw it and thought... "Hey! I think
I could do that". My first attempt sold for more than I had expected
and one after another brought
a quick sale and very good reviews to my surprise.
How did I learn what I'm doing today? I've always been an electronics
junky. When I was a kid, I loved finding a broken clock radio, or
boombox, and connecting it to my parents phone or other device.
Blessing to me... not so much to
my parents. Long story short, in High School my church's soundman
happened to own a Tube Guitar and Bass Amp Shop in
the Chicago area town I
grew up in.
I was playing bass in church one day and asked him about it. A week
later I had
one of the best jobs, I've ever had (to this day). I learned more than
any kid deserved to learn. My boss and friend, Henry Kern spent hours
teaching me
about electronics, tubes, guitars, and business. He was a walking book
on Tone. He could tell in 30 seconds of an audio recording what guitar,
pedal, and amp were used. As time went on, I developed an ear and taste
for
classic tones.
I stopped by my old boss's business shortly after starting
Rocketfire
Guitars and
told him what I was doing. At that point I was using the RI Fender
guitars as the basis for my SRV.
He gave me a good challenge. He said, why not do this yourself? I said,
"What?"
And he said it again. I knew electronics and how to solder etc. but
didn't know much about guitar work or being a luthier. So I went out,
bought a set of nut files
and a pack of 15 bone nuts. I went to town and destroyed most of the
pack. But as
time went on things got easier and easier. Today, I'm still learning a
bit at a time.
Why Rocketfire??? Silly name but my original thought for a name involved the desire to have a vintage/retro vibe to attach to my guitars. Back in the early 60's people were pretty nuts about the space age and aircrafts etc (e.g. the Jetsons, amp names like Ampeg's Reverb-a-Rocket, Jet, etc.) So a brainstorm or two after eating too many ice cream cones and out came Rocketfire. If you don't like the name shoot me an email:) lol!
That's it. Thanks for reading! Now flip through the rest of the site and waste more of your precious time.