Gerald Weber, who constructed guitar amplifiers below the Kendrick model and was a longtime contributor to Classic Guitar, died at his house April 17 after battling most cancers for 2 years. He was 71.

Weber grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, and fell in love with music at an early age. His mom sponsored a teen membership the place, at age 11, Weber started attending occasions along with his older sister appearing as chaperone. Among the many acts he noticed there was Billy Gibbons in Transferring Sidewalks. He began taking part in in native bands at 14 and was first-chair drummer within the faculty band; he finally took up different devices.

After spending a lot of the Eighties working direct-to-consumer meat firms in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida, in ’88 he started constructing amplifiers in a small store on his property in Pflugerville, Texas. There, he realized to design and wire circuits by learning books about tube amplifiers written by Ken Fischer and others. He spent many hours on the cellphone with Fischer, speaking about amps and different music matters. In February of 1991, he started writing the “Amps” column in VG, adopted later that 12 months by the “Ask Gerald” Q&A column. He compiled a few of that materials and additional analysis whereas authoring 5 books on tube amplifiers.

“Gerald was dedicated to constructing the perfect amplifiers he might,” mentioned Jill Weber, his spouse of 30 years. “He regularly researched and designed circuits in pursuit of the perfect tone he might get from his designs. He had very excessive requirements and was at all times keen to talk with folks about their tone and amplifiers, and really a lot loved sharing his data with everybody. He had a weekly webinar that introduced him a number of pleasure as a result of he might converse with individuals who had the identical ardour.

“He was at all times genuinely desirous about everybody he met, and was keen to assist all.”

This text initially appeared in VG’s July 2024 problem. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.