How bizarre.
Someone just asked me earlier today if George Scholz was dead.
I was literally JUST sitting here reminiscing about George and that whole crew, when, and you can just imagine my surprise…I find someone has literally made a post about HARRY JOYCE, just YESTERDAY, after what seems like eons of nobody mentioning these guys…and wonder of wonders…it’s CARLOS aka Carlitosfreetos.
I think I will interject a little first hand knowledge about alll this as I figure, I was probably there for more of it than ANYONE on the planet having known George Scholz for close to 30 years at this point.
In the beginning…
There was, coming from a pre-David Hasselhoff, non Unified Germany, 80’s pre-even “Wind of Change” era Scorps, although whistle it if you must, you know you want to…George Scholz.
George was a long time disciple and friend of Harry Joyce. This part is really not up for debate. Harry was very old and George was a highly educated, EXTREMELY meticulous electronics engineer, they got on very well.
Then, Harry dies. Oh no.
Enter “businessman” Charles.
Charles decides that he wants to use the “Harry Joyce” name in the United States to have George build amps that George now has first hand knowledge of, due to his connection to Harry Joyce, who is now dead.
George also decides to design and manufacture “Scholz Sugarcone” speakers, which turn out to be very high quality, very expensive, and comparable to the EVs Dumble was using at the time. Good stuff.
Unfortunately, the original run of these speakers were made by ”some hillbillies in a Georgia factory” and “we can’t find them anymore.”
Subsequent runs of these speakers over the next few years were also excellent, but, not quite the same. Eventually the secondhand market became the place to find them but for my dollar, I’m prefer Alnico Creams or those Jensen Blackbirds, at this stage, but I digress. So, whilst Charles and George were making speakers, they were also making amps.
UNTIL ONE FATEFUL DAY WHEN:
Someone contacted Charles looking for service on a HARRY JOYCE amp that neither Harry, or George had built!!
BUT HOW COULD THIS BE YOU ASK??
Charles, is a BUSINESSMAN!
Surely, when he acquired the rights to build amplifiers under the Harry Joyce name, he got the WORLDWIDE rights, and WORLDWIDE patent from the widow Joyce, right? No one would make a mistake like that would they?
Well, apparently, the widow Joyce, or the Joyce family sold the United States rights to Charles and George and the rights to the rest of the world to some other people.
AND THEN THERE WERE TWO.
Now you have two two companies selling the EXACT SAME THING, logo and all. Although opening them up side by side does reveal George’s wiring and attention to detail to be of a much higher standard than the UK built ones of the same vintage.
Occasionally youll see some shows where these were played out in the wild, notably, Rich Robinson, dudes from aerosmith, etc. having taken them on this tour or that. Those would have been ones built by George. I’ve never actually seen anyone randomly using the other HJ companies amps but…
ANYWAY.
This goes on…and on…and on for some years.
During this time George is fairly well known from say Central Florida on down to South Florida as an excellent amp repair guy and as the builder of the HJ amps and Sugarcone speakers. I’d say he was the go-to guy, IF you could reach him. Very difficult to get ahold of him then and if you didn’t actually know him he wasn’t usually inclined to answer the call.
TIME PASSES…
A dude named Kevin buys Harry Joyce from Charles.
This sale gets covered by magazine but I forget which, maybe GW or Vintage Guitar or whatever. There’s some hoopla and some people on TGP are acting excited to ask questions about the upcoming revamped new line of HJ amps. Kevin makes a TGP account acknowledging new HJ amps are being made to peoples exacting demands, tells everyone to be on the lookout for these amazing new custom pieces that are going to set the guitar scene on fire, and then…
CRICKETS.
Nada. Nothing. For months.
Nobody came back to post anything in the thread other than the occasional “hey what happened to the HJ guy” or “Has anyone tried one of these new amps?”
Simultaneously, as the buzz from the amps (no pun intended) died down, there was a new listing of one for sale every few weeks in the TGP classifieds by the company, but still no dialogue in the the forums. This is likely why in 2023 no one is talking about them either way, amazing or horrible, giant paperweight or musical heirloom, Hiwatt killer or low grade clone etc etc. You don’t hear anything because when people cared about their comeback and were excited to ask about them, it was radio silence. So people of course, moved on to the next “new” thing.
Tea Time.
Now, as far as today goes.
I would unequivocally NOT send ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING to Harry Joyce, or look to George to do ANY work whatsoever on ANY piece of equipment, if I ever wanted to see it again.
I was the one who introduced Carlos, to George a number of years back.
At literally the FIRST OPPORTUNITY, Carlos stole from me and ripped me off, in a trade, that GEORGE told me was totally legit and that he had inspected Carlos’ equipment himself and that everything is on the up and up. Live and learn.
Georges niece.
Georges niece marries Carlos and gets to stay in the U.S.
Hooray? Who Cares?
Georges niece, from Germany, apparently followed George into the electronics and amplifier building world. It was my understanding, directly from George, that she was the #2 in her graduating class and had an electronics doctorate or something and that she would be building the amps, along with Carlos from there on out. Carlos, as far as I know does not have an electronics degree, but on That topic, I’ll digress, other than to say, that if you have purchased a Harry Joyce amp in the past few years, according to the last I heard directly from George on the subject, it would not have been built by him.
So, what are we left with besides this boring story?
Only my opinions, I guess.
I would NOT buy a Harry Joyce amp at this point, or from these people.
The people involved in the company, especially the guy, now posting on here as their Customer Service rep or whatever on here are either complete sleazebags or are so completely disconnected from the situation, that they appear to have no interest in it at all.
You will never get warranty work taken care of if you can’t even reach the company to place an order.
I have no idea how much involvement, if any, anyone who was previously working on these amps has in their day to day manufacture, so, if you are a Black Crowes fanboy and were looking for that particular sound off that particular album and you were under the impression That the same guy who did that was going to be doing the same thing with that same ear for you on your amp for that 8 grand price tag…I mean I’ve just got so many better things to stress over, but I do wish that entire group the best, from George on down. With the notable exception of that guy Carlos, who I can honestly say is a scammer and I wouldn’t give a dime too. If you want your money or your belongings stolen, let Carlos near it. Caveat Emptor/ Buyer Beware and all that.
