I was then drafted (with a draft number of 3 it might as well have been...) into the military (this was 1972) and worked for 5 years in microwave/troposcatter telecommunications repair, and forward Air Control in the USAF. The next 3 years I was in (PMEL) test equipment lab - repairing, upgrading, doing preventive maintenance on VTVMs, O-scopes, digital multi-meters, signal generators, distortion analyzers, avionics standards. The last 3 years I went back to Europe where I worked in microwave/troposcatter telecommunications repair, and forward Air Control again.

    After the service I worked for Philips Electron Optics in the Electron Microscope division for 14 years - installing, maintaining (repair and upgrades), and training people how to use, and fix TEMs (transmission electron microscopes), SEMs (scanning electron microscopes), and computer interfaces.

    I became a computer ‘junkie’ in 1986; sitting in front of the monitor and dissecting every DOS program I could get my hands on. The early Windows interface didn’t do too much for me initially until Philips came out with a SEM that was interfaced and integrated with version 3.1. I thought up to that point that the MAC was a superior platform for graphics, and sound… I love HTML, and now dissect websites to ‘see what makes them tick’. That probably stems from how my parents raised me; I was constantly taking things apart when I was an adolescent to see how it worked, and I was always told "just put it back together and make sure it still works". Any other kid would’ve been beat for doing this! At that time a parent had 100% control of their kids and could meld out corporate punishment without the threat of going to jail for disciplining their offspring. Now it's not considered 'politically correct' and the proliferation of 'gang' violence reflects this all too well... (IMHO)

    I got my first guitar for Christmas 1966, and during that time the British Invasion was in full swing, and California Psychedelic music was just starting to be heard on underground FM radio stations. My friend Rob and I quickly learned some Beatles, Stones, Steppenwolf, 13^th Floor Elevator, Cream, and Hendrix songs and formed a band. At night there was a radio station out of Chula Vista, California that featured Wolfman Jack - THE Wolfman Jack *before* he 'went commercial', and he use to play the popular music of the day, with some old Blues standards 'sprinkled in' - T-Bone Walker, Albert King, early B.B.King, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lead Belly, Freddie King, early Buddy Guy, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Smith, Magic Sam... we got to hear some GREAT music that you just couldn't hear anywhere else!   
    Rob and I played together throughout junior high and high school and still JAM to this day whenever we can get together. Unfortunately, that isn't even close to being often enough because he lives in New Mexico and I'm in California.

    Since 1968 I've worked on, repaired, modified, retubed, and restored guitar tube amps - from the electronic repair, to reconing speakers, to replacing Tolex and Tweed covering, to replacing speaker grille cloth, fabricating replacement parts, etc. I started my amp repair business full time in 1992, Uncle Spot Guitar Tube Amp Repair and Restoration. 

    I also ran Veil Electron Instrument Lab Customer Services; servicing, maintaining, and modifying electron microscopes for major universities and research facilities on the West Coast from April 1998 to the beginning of 2002, when the popularity of my custom guitar amps and stand-alone reverb units eclipsed my E.M. work.  

Uncle Spot also does Website designs.
Some of the current sites include:   
*Chandler Guitars   and  
*Pacific Recone (which is now part of Uncle Spot Amps)

Some websites that are now gone - (the bar/club is also):
*Mossdale Marina Blues Club  
*Louie's Blues Club
*TABU band
*Studebaker Blues Band 

        Uncle Spot also writes/co-writes articles for several magazines, including:
                Vacuum Tube Valley
- Allen Guitar Amp Kit review, Issue 12, Summer 1999

- 6L6 Tube Shoot-Out, Issue 13, Winter 2000

- 12AX7 Tube Shoot-Out, Issue 14, Spring 2001

 - EL34 Tube Shoot-Out, Issue 16, Fall 2001

 - Emery Sound, Boutique Amp Designer Profile, Issue 18, Summer 2002