About Marla Amplification

Marla Amplification is dedicated to my best friend of 12 years. No one deserves their name to be immortalized more than Marla. She had a heart of gold and a wagging tail of destruction. I hope her namesake continues on to be the positive influence she once was to anyone lucky enough to meet her. 

Most amp makers origin stories start as a tale of a repair shop guru or a nerd with an electronics degree. My origin story is more focused on two decades of working with customers, business development, and gaining an understanding of large scale American manufacturing.

I managed music stores for 15 years all over the South. I loved it. I still miss being able to have a positive impact on employees' lives and having the chance to make customer's day. The people were great and working with musicians was always entertaining. But, after a decade and a half, I wanted to branch out and learn a new way of impacting the music industry.

I accepted a job at a musical instrument manufacturer here in town. It was cool for a bit, but creativity became less of a staple of the brand and each day began to feel like the day prior. A few months into the gig, I realized I still needed a challenge in my life, so I picked up a soldering iron and started ordering some amp kits... I'd build something, swap components, return it to its original state and start all over; it was such a rewarding feeling discovering something new each day.

On a coffee break one day I stopped to see my friends at Heyday Musical Instruments & Repair. They had just bought in a bunch of old Ampro (and other) projector cabs. They asked if I could build them some amps to pop into the cabs. The first cab I stuffed an amp into was a metal housed Bell & Howell projector cab. It's been my favorite amp I've built, and it's the inspiration for my first public offering (I hope to find that Bell & Howell again one day...). I built them a handful more amps with different feature sets and wattages to help them sell though their remaining cabs. The encouragement that I received from the great people at this shop is the reason you can now buy a Marla Amp today.