Q&A Session With Dario Gomez/Gomez Amps

[kenposurf]

No secret I'm a fan of Dario's amps owning two different heads as well as a pair of reverb units. It seems that I am not alone as our fearless leader Peter McCormack and forumite Frank Canino (tonebender67) have recently taken the plunge into the land of his G-Spring reverb units...chime in guys! My hope is that Dario will share his knowledge here and have a blast as well..we ARE a fun group.
So without further ado, here we go:

1) Dario, How long has The Gomez Amplifier Company been around and how did you get into amp building in the first place ?

Since I was a kid, electronics had been always been around the house for me. My mother who still works for Boeing worked in electronics and systems planning and my step-dad was a union journeyman electrician. I was always tinkering with electronic projects and actually submitted an electronic 'lie detector' for a grade school science fair. Everyone there thought I bought it and just signed my name on it but no, I DID build it.

I began working on my own amps many years ago when I started playing music more frequently after college. I began helping my friends with their gear and soon found myself with an interesting proposition. I saw I could build the amps (my friends were bringing to me to repair/tune-up) for the same money they paid on eBay/elsewhere for said amp including the subsequent tuneup parts and services ---but NEW.


I thought to myself, "what would be a cool and unique amp to make that would also appeal to other guitarists? I loved the functional/gigging practicality and tone of the Princeton Reverb by Fender as a good start. However, I did not want to just provide a clone and I felt that it was a good amp but had some improvements to be desired. I thought, "if I wanted a 'perfect' amp it would be a PR with a 15", in a combo cabinet, that had a cleaner and more articulate reverb and a heavy wobble of a tremolo." I set out to build it.

The Gomez "G" Reverb-Amp was born and I believe I accomplished what I set out to do with it. Synchronously, I formed Gomez Amps. November 2010 will be our 5th year and I feel truly blessed.



2)Can you give us a brief overview of the amps that you currently produce?

Currently, there are 3 amp models available. The "G" Reverb has been discontinued for some time. The "El Sonido" and "Surfer" amps are our 50W and 100W heads, respectively. We also provide a spring reverb unit called the "G-Spring."


3)How about dropping a few names of artists using your gear? I have worked and still work with many gigging musicians around the globe and some right here in California. My endorsing artists right now are Scott Detweiler from Woodland Hills and Buddy Dughi of Mission Viejo. They are hands down a pair of some of the nicest, highly talented and most professional guys I have ever dealt with and I am honored to have them endorse my products.


4) What's on the horizon for you and Gomez Amps?
I am looking to introduce 3 new amp models this year. Given my limited time to building each one by hand and the state of the economy they will be limited edition amps.


Thanks again Dario now go make some money so you and I can go shopping for a couple of Rickenbackers!
Gladly!! Thanks George!! DGG