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Lee
started working for Fender in 1980 , The amplifiers
that he mostly worked with was the Twin II , Concert , Deluxe Reverb II ,
London Reverb . This was very interesting time Lee got a chance to see how
amplifiers could be mass produced while keeping the quality. Lee got the
chance to work with of the greats in the industry by the name of Ed Johns
, Ed was one of the best known Tube designers in the industry , he was also
in on the first designs of the 6L6 / 6550 output tubes . It wasn't uncommon
to open an old tube book and see a young Ed Johns sitting behind a bench
that looked like something out of a Frankenstein movie. Ed was the reason
Fender did point to point wiring in there amplifiers and he came up with
there first channel switching amplifiers. Freddy Travaress was another one
that Lee looked up to , Freddy was the designer of the Stratocaster and the
Jaguar Guitar , Freedy was also a lot like Les Paul , they both where designing
guitars around the same time and they both where breaking ground with early
Tape recording. Lee has said many times that he would have never given up
that chance to work with ED and Freddy. Fender was and is a great company
but they were too large to move fast with The market trends , Lee saw the
trends changing and he wanted to create amplifiers with more gain , so he
took a chance and quit Fender in 1983 to start Metaltronix. Metaltronix was
started by Lee in 1983 , There was a music store in Reseda ( was started
by Lee in 1983 , There was a music store in Reseda (Harmony Music) that had
space in one of its corners so Lee set up shop. Harmony Music was run by
a guy named J.T. who was the local guitar builder that went on to work for
Gibson , Becoming the head of there Custom Guitar department. This was a
scary time because nobody was known for making a living building Custom hand
built Tube Amplifiers , So Lee ran a Ad in Guitar Player magazine to see
the response and the rest is history. Calls started pouring in from all over
the world , it was more then he expected , soon he would be taking over the
whole music store and turning it into a company. Metaltronix was located
across the street from the world famous Wolf and Rismiller "Country
Club". Metaltronix grew quickly shipping product internationally , sponsoring
local rock shows and radio stations (KNAC). One of the first products that
Lee produced was the SS-1 Active Stereo Splitter, Lee
new that to really get the company off it's feet it would need to be capitalized
so he created Perfect Connection Corporation in
1985. In doing this Lee found a group of investors which later was the downfall
of the company , can you say Hostile takeover again. Anyway Perfect Connection
Manufactured the first all tube one rack space preamp both for Guitar and
Bass (GP-1000, BP-1000) , then he came up with the
first 100 watts a side one rack space poweramp (SP-1000) that was designed
for guitar.In 1987 Lee merged Metaltronix and Perfect Connection into one
Large factory in Northridge California. The Northridge
factory was like a mini Fender we where doing all the manufacturing under
one roof , We showed for the first time the Blues 59
Amplifier at the winter Namm show because we were asked by Billy Gibbons
(ZZ-Top) to come up with an amp that was more for the southern market. Metaltronix
was growing and adding new products each year ,Lee came up with a new kind
of distortion pedal called the "Maniac",
which was in production when the company came to a complete halt in 1990
with a try by the investors to take over the company. Things could not be
cleared up in court so in 1990 Metaltronix/Perfect Connection was closed
Bummer !.
