At the age of 14, I picked up a guitar for the first time. I fell in love with the instrument and spent lots of time learning chords and scales and playing everything from Brad Paisley to Metallica. While in my first semester of college, my grandfather, a retired telecom and electronics technician, taught me the ins and outs of working with vacuum tubes. He taught me soldering skills, showed me what tools are needed, and explained the role each part of an amp plays in amplifying an input signal. We built my first guitar amp together. That was an experience I’ll never forget!

Four years later, I graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with my Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and landed a job in the telecommunications field shortly thereafter. Through all of these transitions, my interest in guitars and amplifiers never waned. I spent hours every day playing guitar but was never completely satisfied with the tone coming from the amps that I was using. So I found myself reading more and more into the world of amp building. I knew that if I built something myself from scratch that I could tweak it to my liking. From early on, vacuum tube amplifiers intrigued me, and soon I became obsessed with learning everything I could about building vacuum tube guitar amps. I immersed myself in tech articles, books, and online forums on amplifiers.

In 2014, I decided to push forward with Keytone Amplification as a side-business. I enjoy every part of the design and construction process, and I’m very meticulous with every aspect of each build. We select some of the best hardwoods to build amp cabinets from and make certain each one is constructed such that they will last a lifetime. In order to ensure the best tone and greatest reliability is achieved, we use only the highest quality components. Each Keytone amp is built by hand in East Tennessee. Our attention to detail is so great, I guarantee your Keytone amp will be one of the finest looking pieces of gear in your house or studio…and best sounding! 

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