Mutch has been written and said about the Brothers Wolfram and Gundolf Roy and there “Applied Acoustics” firm.

Yet also many myth and pure lies are trying to bend the true story of Kitty Hawk.
I’m proud to present the true Kitty Hawk History here on my little spot on the web.

The Kitty Hawk History

 

The late 70ties where hard times for music stores. Very little changes,  yet musicians wanted other sounds, Hard driven, heavy distortion and  great feedback from there amps, making them scream…

The USA was the place where it all happened in those days…In Bochum Germany there was that little music store from the two brothers Roy. Gundolf and Wolfram.

They heard what the guitarist wanted, and they had the right contacts at the right moment.
Their names?  Alexander Dumble and Aspen Pittman.

Alexander was well known for his Dumble boutique amps. Tailored to taste of he buyer and often with special Voicing components and Electronic networks..
Aspen was the founder and Owner of Mesa Boogie. Again Boutique amps but as a series build product.

Both these Gentlemen where looking to expand their business but the cutoms cost of bringing complete amps to Europe where Idiotic high in those days….
Hence… the brothers Roy.

Now remember.. those where different times… Telephone calls to they USA where Really Really Expensive, there was no Internet, Just FAX and Telephone.

The time that Santana used Fender amps that had an Randall update to give him that specific sound.
Europe had no Rockamps yet like the Mesa’s.. We had Shaller and Echolette…Pure Clean and in noway near Dumbles and Boogies…

First delivery

But the brothers took a Big gamble and had to wait more then a year to get there first Dumble deliverd….They imported amps but they came in incomplete. They came as Metal Chassis with a complete amp but no Tubes (or valves), no Cabinet, no Speaker, no Transformers, no reverb tank, just component carrier in that chassis.

Once in Bochem Germany the brother Roy build to Mesa Boogie and Dumble specification cabinets. Got transformers and other missing parts directly delivered as on stock spare parts from Fender and Peavey and so on.

The end product turned out drop dead beautiful and the European World loved them…Sounded like over the moon and back.

The “blank slate Chassis” situation sparked the brothers to reverse engineer transformers and having industrial manufactures to build after there specificiation.
In the end the brothers where not that happy with how those turned out, and they bit the bullut and learned how to calculate and build transformers in house.

They gained knowledge of what it took to Build good transformers. and they run in to the problem that Mesa and Dumble just could not produce the number of amps the Roy Brothers could sell here in Europe.

Is it a DumbleBoogie Hawk?

At some point athe brothers started to copy Fender amps and added Dumble’s and Boogie DNA leading to the first Kitty Hawk (the Standard).

Many Kitty Hawks where build in the Kitty Hawk “Westerwald” Factory whitout Dumble and Pittman knowing what was going on… but basicly the Brothers “lend” the knowhow and Mixed-up the two circuits to create there Kitty Hawk amps…
Good example was the Custom Series .

 

 

 

The Golden Hawk flew High…

Higher then tree tops and You know what they say About hight trees.
One thing they did made a big mistake was the contract with the Amrican importer was in Dollars not in Deutsch Mark  (not yet Euro’s) .  The Dollar fell but contracts had to be filled. So Kitty Hawk was basicly forced into bankruptcy.

Somewhere allong the line the two brothers got in an argument. Wolfgang left the building, and Roy was left with a great name brand. Gundolf tried to keep the amp production up and running.

Other great stuff.

Meanwhile Gundolf came up with a Midi pedal, and a effectloop switcher and an Effect mixer.. All great and very sturdy build gear….
19 inch gear got the new hot biscuite, so a 2 x 60 watt EL34 amp and a 120Watt variant where born.

Also 3 versions 19 inch preamps.. Happy days!!!

The Netherlands.

One of the early adapter of Kitty Hawk amps was a Music instrument store in the Netherlands. When the Kitty Hawk was in rough Wether in year 1992 The Shop Owner in the Netherland was able to bring over the production of Kitty Hawk Including Gundolf and set-up a production site in Hengelo.

The Stocks where brought up to spec, prepared for selling as usual, and  not mutch later the already in Germany hatched plans for a new Kitty Hawk series began to see the day light.
The Golden Eagle became a Red and White Eagle.

They really great stuff from Holland where the M series Amps. Versitile, Reliable And tone by the tons… not as good as the old Wild Standard and Junior… but…. good tone…

In the end… The Music Shop Sold the Brand and the M Series Design to a consort of men who in fact did build again but ran into the problems. Financialy.

Last thing now known to human kind is that Gundolf Does not build Kitty Hawk amps  anymore. He runs an very succesfull Art galerie in Germany and also has a Beautifull B&B for your holidays…

Thomas van BluGuitar in Germanu published an Interview with Gundolf Roy on hiss You Tube Channel.  We drop in at 28 minutes…

It does not tell the full story but in General the story is as correct as can be whitout being harsh on anybody..

 

But… Hey.. if you play a Kitty Hawk of any kind…. I’m happy to be of any help since Vintage-Audio.nl is The place where The Kitty Hawk has landed…

And I take in repairs from all over the world.