Our Technical Contributors are the lifeblood of EMEAPP. These experts are closely involved with EMEAPP’s mission of restoration and preservation.
George Alessandro
Growing up in the 80s, George’s interest in vacuum tubes as a hobby was not the norm. With the right mentors as guitar teachers, Stevie Ray Vaughan hitting the music scene and having met Fred Chassey, he reached vacuum tube nirvana at a young age, and continued servicing and building guitar amplifiers throughout his college years. At the crossroads of medical school, he chose to launch his own amplification company, Hound Dog Corp.
Now called Alessandro High-End Products, George has serviced and restored countless amps and has always felt that it was his calling to return old amps to their former glory. He says that being an advisor to EMEAPP is an honor he looks to live up to.
George’s interest in vintage vacuum tube guitar amps is how a hobby became a passion, grew into an obsession, and ultimately became his profession. His 30 year journey has been steeped in the technology and design of amplification that has created some amazing music.
Bell Tone Synth Works
Bell Tone Synth Works, comprised of Alison Stout, Darian Scatton and Joe Alesi, are a part of the group that helps keep our vintage instruments alive and well. They were established in Philadelphia, PA in 2016 by owner and senior technician Alison Stout. In just a few years, Bell Tone Synth Works has developed a reputation as one of the best synth tech shops in the country. We are committed to providing thorough, detail-oriented repair and restoration work combined with friendly, responsive and transparent customer communication. Thanks to the value we place on truly understanding how analog and vintage digital systems work and the time we constantly invest in expanding our knowledge, we have also become known for succeeding in fixing troublesome issues where other techs have failed.
Al Goff
Al Goff began working on Hammond Organs in the late 1960’s with his dad, Harold Goff, who was a Hammond technician from 1940 until 1984. He was also recognized by Hammond Organ Company as the factory’s first “Senior Hammond Organ Service Technician” with 25-years service in 1965. After Harold’s death in 1984, Al continued providing Hammond and Leslie Dealer sales, installation, and service and established GOFF Professional to focus on custom, mail-order parts, rentals, and to provide technical tour support for touring bands and musicians worldwide.
Al was fortunate to work with many of the finest Hammond organists during the past 50 years in Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Rock, Alternative and other music styles. He was the first to MIDI a Hammond B-3 which was recorded on Blue’s organist Jimmy McGriff’s album “You Ought to Think About Me” released in July 1990. As the Hammond technician for many major bands, Al rebuilt both of Keith Emerson’s Hammond C-3’s and Leslie speakers including Keith’s “Tarkus” Hammond and two Leslie 122’s speakers which were acquired by EMEAPP in 2018.
Ray Klos
Ray Klos has a broad history that includes electronics, racing, antique and musical instrument restoration and years as a guitarist and bassist. During Ray’s 34 year career, he also worked for the Bell System Telephone Laboratories in various positions in electrical engineering, management, sales and marketing, including four years with two Japanese technology companies.
Ray also has a history with real estate investing and restoration, but his light really shines as the combo organ-whisperer, helping to keep the EMEAPP collection alive and well. And we appreciate that.
“Texas” Steve Korchak
“Texas” Steve is a Senior R&D Biochemist and Project Scientist by profession for a Fortune 100 Diagnostics Pharma company. He also worked with two pair of Nobel prize winners in R&D at the University of Texas HSCD. He has worked on projects such as detecting leukemia cells in the blood using computerized laser stimulated fluorescence activated analytical flow cytometry and has also used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to identify synthesized DNA base analogs. In other words, he enjoys all things scientific.
Outside of the lab, he maintains a strong interest in listening to music, electronic music, playing and programming analog and digital synthesizers. He has owned many vintage analog and digital synthesizers throughout the years but says “Vintage Moog, Arp, Oberheim, Sequential are still my favorites. The day I heard my first Moog modular, Arp 2500 and Minimoog, I was hooked for life.”
Steve Masucci
Steve Masucci is an enigma. His years of rebuilding and reworking ultra-rare synthesizers and unique keyboard instruments make Steve the go-to for challenging projects. His knowledge of electronic music and the pioneers who created it runs deep.
Steve was recruited by another EMEAPP advisory board member, Wally ‘Gotye’ De Backer, to rebuild a forerunner of the synthesizer, the Ondioline, created in the 1940s by musician Goerges Jenny. This instrument is so rare that Steve had to recreate many of the components by hand. Steve is also a working musician, playing guitar and bass in his long-time band, The Lost Patrol.
Jim Scott
An avid enthusiast of musical electronics, Jim Scott began working with synthesizer design and manufacture in 1969 at R. A. Moog of Trumansburg, NY. At the time he joined Robert Moog’s company, a new “portable Moog” project was in its infancy. Scott became project manager for production of the instrument, leading to the first introduction of the legendary Minimoog – the most successful and influential synthesizer its time. Following this, Scott was the prime creator of the Micromoog, another hugely successful synthesizer for the company, and still respected today for its many positive attributes. After Moog Music on a variety of successful projects, Jim moved on to other fields in music and electronics, returning with Bob Moog and Tom Rhea to co-create the Crumar Spirit, an incredibly rare instrument that is still considered one of the greatest monosynth designs of all time.
Jim Sivel
James Sivel is a second-generation Registered Piano Technician with the Piano Technicians Guild. This certification requires the technician to pass a series of 3 rigorous tests in front of a juried panel of Certified Testing Examiners
Jim grew up in the business, apprenticed by his father, Richard F. Sivel, a registered technician himself. The young apprentice also worked for a prestigious piano rebuilder and supplier to the industry for one year outside the family business and then spent the following three years as a road technician for a retail piano dealer. Tuning approximately 1000 pianos a year for the last 30 years, James is experienced as well as uniquely qualified.
Currently Jim services pianos in homes, schools, churches, and also concert work in local venues, including The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project.
A lifelong student of piano technology, Jim regularly attends technical programs and seminars to stay current in his trade. Jim’s services include tuning, repairs, action regulation, restorations, estimates, appraisals…all aspects of piano technology are handled competently and professionally.
Tim Warneck
Tim Warneck is a musician and an engineer from Pennsylvania who understands nuances of the analog sound at a fundamental level few other technicians can match. Tim currently runs Retrolinear, a company specializing in the restoration of vintage keyboard instruments, custom engineering and consulting work, and the manufacture and production of a number of electronic products and replacement parts for upgrading and restoring vintage keyboards.
Prior to becoming a world-renowned musical instrument repair technician, Tim studied Electrical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, earning BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering, and he nearly finished a music degree as well. He was subsequently employed for many years as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) designer, designing custom chips for the automotive, medical, and consumer markets. Several of the circuits Tim worked on in industry are currently in and will be in the next generation of digital CT scanning and Xray equipment- the analog readout circuitry, switched cap processors, and ADCs on the front ends that in Tim’s words “basically count the electrons captured on the X ray detectors (flat panels, CCDs, etc.)”.
Vintage electronic keyboards have been his passion from an early age, starting with an Emerson portable record player and “a bunch of 45s,” and he got the vintage keyboard bug in 7th grade when his piano teacher at the time loaned him her “Wendy Carlos by Request” LP. He also studied cello (ironically with Shana Sear-Gaskill, Walter Sear’s daughter), piano, and sang and performed in many bands, orchestras, choirs, and quartets, and he currently plays in two rock bands.
Tim has a very sensitive ear as far as sound quality goes (nuances, sonic artifacts, timbre, etc.) and often found himself asking lots of questions and playing recordings over the phone to people asking them “What is that instrument?” He eventually discovered the Fender Rhodes, and then acquired a beat up Hammond B3 and Leslie 122, and then synthesizers. Eventually, his madness for vintage instruments led him to leave the ASIC industry to chase his dream full time.
In Memoriam
Gene Stopp (1959-2023)
Gene Stopp had been building analog synthesizers as a hobby since high school. When the Yamaha DX7 was introduced in the early 80’s, he was able to acquire a considerable collection of vintage keyboard instruments at rock-bottom prices. Analog synthesizer restoration (along with Hammond Organs, Clavinets, Mellotrons, and other classics) became a passion.
He was lucky enough to meet Will Alexander, who offered him the chance to help restore Keith Emerson’s massive Moog Modular system before the ELP Black Moon tour in 1992. He became the caretaker of the giant Emerson Moog Modular synthesizer in 2011, restoring it in his garage and then moving it into the house, where Keith recorded several tracks.
Gene was employed by Moog Music as part of the product design team. He was responsible for the release of the Emerson Moog replica systems, the re-release of the iconic Moog 900-series Modular systems, and as part of the team that re-released the Minimoog Model D.