‘High off the sound’: Fergus Falls engineer is a guitar amp hero
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In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman’s words “contribute a verse” each day. MPR News sent longtime reporter Dan Gunderson on a mission to capture those stories as part of a new series called “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”
Maurice Skogen is a throwback. While most musicians are buying the latest digital electronics, he’s happily building guitar amplifiers based on a 1950s sound.
“The sound was better back then, the ‘50s was the golden era of manufacturing,” said Skogen, 71, sitting in his home studio and workshop outside of Fergus Falls.
There’s a mixing board, big speakers, microphones for recording music and a workbench crowded with rolls of brightly colored wire, electronic components and tools.
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“A lot of the amps have got 20, 30, 40 knobs. Mine have six or seven,” he said. “We went back to simple, so you don’t have to think about it. I just plug my guitar into the amp and I play.”
When he plays, he’s partial to the blues.
“We play a little slower, and we put feeling and vibrato and stuff onto our notes, and a good tube amp will enhance your note and make it bloom,” said Skogen, explaining his fondness for amplifiers made with glass vacuum tubes instead of silicon chips.
He traces his fascination with electronics to elementary school when he dismantled a flashlight to learn why the bulb lit up.
In 10th grade, he told the school counselor he wanted a career in electronics.
“He goes, ‘Nobody in 10th grade knows what they want to do.’ I go, ‘I do. I have a deep interest in figuring this stuff out,’” recalled Skogen. “I went to college to figure out how my tube amp worked."
With an engineering degree, he spent years in the sound and electronics industries.
But he never lost his fascination with the ‘50s era tube amplifiers. A bad back and injured leg led him to take early retirement in 2011 and he decided to start a business building amplifiers. He also restores old amps musicians find at yard sales or save from the scrap heap.
“The worst thing is bosses. When you can be your own boss, that’s the ticket,” he said. “I’ll work 12 hours building something. I don’t care. I’m contained. I’m happy.”
He’s built more than 100 amps. They sell for between $2,000 and $3,000.
“For a one-man shop out in the woods. I’m doing OK,” he chuckles.
He’s filling a niche market, but says interest in the retro amps is growing.
His success is mostly word of mouth. When he first started building amps, he would give them to musicians to try.
“I’d send it out for a week or two, and they’d come back, and they’d go, ‘Oh, it made me a better player overnight,’” he said.
“I’m not the assembly line guy. I take my time, and if it’s not right, I don’t let it out the door until I’m happy with it.”
Spending 16 hours building an amp, then plugging in a guitar and hearing the sound he was aiming for is an experience that never loses its power.
“I get goosebumps talking about it because it’s a spiritual, emotional experience,” he said. “I get high off the sound. I don’t have to smoke weed or drink whiskey. I get high off the sound I’m creating. That’s the best drug of all.”