Meet Hugh - This Is Where It All Began
In 1968 there were no music stores as there today. There were basically two different kinds: Piano & Organ Dealer, or Band Instrument store, neither of which sold guitars and amplifiers. As a matter of fact, neither of these type of stores would encourage long-haired hippie types from even coming in. The only place to buy a guitar or amplifier at the time was a "Silvertone" from Sears-Roebuck.
At that time I was playing in a rock'n'roll band where attending college. We all had to go to Sears to buy our instruments. For PA we would either plug a microphone into the guitar amplifier, or use a 35-watt Bogen amp with two homemade speakers. The Beatles were touring using British-made Vox amplifier, distributed in the US by the Thomas Organ Co out of Sepulveda, CA. Because we were out of luck getting any products thru any retail outlets anywhere, I contacted Thomas Organ to let them know the situation. One day their representative called me from the Monroe airport, wondering where my store was. I told him I had no store, I was living in the dorm. He asked me to meet him to talk; he was experiencing the same frustration that I was in fining established music dealers wanting to handle guitars and amplifiers. He told me he had a quota to meet with Vox and that he hadn't sold a single piece yet. He said he would work with me if I would try to sell Vox equipment. We were the only store of our kind between Memphis & New Orleans. By the way, the factory salesman who helped out was Jack Miller from Ville Platte, now famous for Jack Miller's Barbeque sauce.
The guitar player in our band was from Greenville, Miss. Marc would tell me about his brother's roommate at Miss State was putting together his own guitar amplifiers. His name was Hartley Peavey. After much persistence, I agreed to let Hartley bring over a couple of his amplifiers. His first two products were a Musician head (130 watts) with a 4-12 cabinet and a Bass head (130 watts) with a 2-15 cabinet. This was done totally on consignment, with the terms "if they ever sell, then pay me for them. Peavey's next product was a 4-channel, 100-watt PA amp (HiZ) with two 4-10 column speakers. Yes, I was the world's first Peavey dealer.
In the next year or so, our store had become noticed by Fender, Gibson, C F Martin, Guild, Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Ovation, Mosrite, Hofner, Sunn, Acoustic, Standell, Ampeg, Farfisa, Mellatron, Moog, ARP, Altec Lansing, Electro-Voice, JBL, Crown, AKG, Sennheiser, Shure Bros, Tascam, Yamaha, Community, and the list continued to grow ...
The early 1970's gave birth to Hi-Fi industry. Virtually every major quality brand chose Specialty Sound Co to represent them in this market, as well as Ruston and Natchitoches. Every major record label was in our store to display, sell, and promote their product, with national touring Artists from each label appearing in-store. We were also the sole ticket out for all shows in Shreveport, LA Tech, Monroe, Jackson, Little Rock, LSU, and Superdome.
We were involved in sound system and equipment rental for most all shows. From its inception, we have worked with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival most years than not, at many times providing sound systems for multiple stages.
Since 1985, I have devoted my time serving our long time commercial clients with acoustics engineering, sound system design and installation.
Member Audio Engineering Society, National System Contractors Association, Louisiana Small Businessman of the Year BS Marketing, NE Louisiana University PB Audio Engineering, University of Calif Pomona
