Groove Tubes to Ship Vipre Mic Preamp This MonthExpanding with a new factory, new tubes and amps to follow
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Vipre
(Click for a close-up) |
April 25, 2001Aspen Pittman, founder and president of Groove Tubes LLC, has announced that
the Vipre Project, an all tube mic preamp featuring variable impedance mic
loading and variable rise times, is due to start shipping in April.
Additionally, Pittman announced that his 3 year partnership with the Alesis
Corp has come to an end. Under the exit agreement Groove Tubes retains all
their original products designs, intellectual property for the studio mics
and processors which were invented before the strategic partnership, and
regains the exclusive rights to the Groove Tubes trademark and it's round GT
logo. Additionally, Groove Tubes keeps the most recent development project -
Vipre. Alesis retains the GT Electronics division, including the seven AM
series mics developed by Pittman.
Pittman comments: "The adventure with a large corporation like Alesis was
at first exhilarating and exciting. In the end, I guess we just felt more
comfortable operating at a somewhat lower level of production with the
tighter control on product design, build quality, and customer relationships
we had enjoyed in the past. This was especially true in the case of the
Vipre Project. This unique product could not be built on an unlimited high
volume scale, and so we took the opportunity to exit at this time with Vipre
to guarantee it will always live up to it's initial rave reviews. The folks
at Alesis are great people, treated us well and we wish them every blessing.
However, we felt we needed to get back to a closer relationship with both
our product and our customer."
Groove Tubes has recently purchased a new and larger factory in the city of
San Fernando, California. They expect to announce release of an American
made 6L6 tube within the next year. Groove Tubes 20+ year core business of
supplying their well known high grade performance tested and precision
matched Groove Tubes to the after market and OEM companies like the Fender,
Ampeg, Laney and Soldano has grown 40% over the last two years. They also
have resumed building a Custom Shop range of tube-based studio and guitar
products including the Speaker Emulator 2, the Trio preamp, and the Soul-o
Series guitar amplifiers. Additionally, they have just launched a new custom
shop SFX product range. SFX, Stereo Field Expansion, is a new patented
technology developed by Aspen Pittman and Drew Daniels that allows for live
performance in realistic 300 degree stereo from a single speaker
cabinet,ensuring that the entire audience and band hears the same stereo
imaging. This latest SFX technology is the magic behind the award winning
Fender Acosticsonic amp. Fender is currently developing other products
which will feature SFX technology.
The Groove Tubes custom shop SFX will accommodate any preamp, stereo FX, and
power amp currently in use by the musician and works with electric guitar,
keyboards, and bass.
Finally, Pittman commented: "We've been so blessed with great ideas,
products and customers who could hear the difference, it seems like the last
20 years have just flown by. Now that we're back to our full strength and
flying solo, I'm very much looking forward to the next 20, starting with the
Vipre mic pre which we will begin to ship in April. As long as our customers
continue asking for better sounding gear, we'll keep trying to make a
difference they can hear." For more information, visit their web site at www.groovetubes.com. |
