MH: When was that and how many people were involved?
RS: Around 1973. I actually got the focus on building Boogies and was able to put aside the other things. At first, it was just me doing everything. Then my wife started helping. Then some neighbors helped. Mike Bendinelli was painting the bathroom ceiling when I dragged him down to the shop and showed him how to remove some capacitors I had discovered to be defective and he stayed on for about 25 years or more. Back then it was a true cottage industry with various people doing small subassemblies, such as the foot switch box, or prepping shielded cables and delivering them to me to build into the finished amp. At one point I was returning from my daily "constitutional" which comprised walking up the mountain behind the house and as I came back down through the redwoods, I could see the girls sitting on the deck, stuffing circuit boards in the sun with their tops off. I stood there for a couple of minutes just realizing that I had achieved the perfect gig (for me, at least) and I told myself never to stray too far from the happy, contented, productive and creative feeling of those times.
