 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Amplification |
| Founded | Boston, Massachusetts, United States (1984) |
| Founder | Robert Gjika |
| Headquarters | , USA |
| Products | Guitar amplifiers |
| Website | www |
Gjika Amplification was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 1980s, by Robert (Bob) Gjika. Gjika amplifiers are original designs, and are completely hand-wired.
Robert Gjika was born in Winthrop, MA, in 1960. At a young age, he found his love of music, and soon after, began building his own guitars and amplifiers. His father was an electrician, giving him an early start in electronics. Later, he also had older musicians as mentors. His passion in his teens and twenties was playing the guitars he crafted himself, in his various local bands. By 1979, he had established himself in the local Boston area as a Luthier, repairing and building guitars and amplifiers for E.U. Wurlitzer Music and Sound. After a year+ working there, he opened up his own shop in Boston, MA, where he was soon in-demand for all things related to guitars and amplifiers. Some of the musicians and bands he did work for included popular Boston bands at the time, guitarists such as Reeves Gabrels, guitar wizard Joe Stump, and other guitarists from the Berklee College of Music scene. [1]
As a young guitarist, Bob Gjika was dissatisfied by his inability to achieve the guitar tones he was hearing on the recordings of the artists he enjoyed listening to. He realized that these tones were made possible by the work of the recording studio technicians, with the equipment they had employed to alter the original tones coming from the amplifiers. This was further demonstrated to Gjika, as some of his older mentors had their own recording studios, and experience in forcing these amps to sound better on their recordings. Observing the shortcomings of the available amplifiers, Gjika put his skills and vision into modifying these designs, in a way that would overcome their shortcomings. But his modifications failed to satisfy him, as these amplifiers were observed to have intrinsic design flaws which made them unreliable, therefore, not worth the effort and expense to attempt to turn them into what he was looking for. Gjika stopped making modifications to existing amplifiers, and started designing original amplifiers to get better guitar tone, as well as be reliable in the studio and on the road. [2]
The Gjika "Gold" amp fulfilled Gjika's goal of creating an amplifier that would give highly talented guitarists, including the late Shawn Lane, the ability to have similar tone in a live performance that was only previously available from sound studios. But there was still a major problem with this amp: its large size and heavy weight which made it impractical to use for touring and gigs.
Gjika continued with his mission, seeking to achieve this same guitar tone in a smaller, lighter package, and made quite a few more designs, both single-ended and push-pull, but after years of guitarists requesting that Gjika bring his 8-EL34 stereo amp (Gold Amp) back into production, he then focused on re-designing the old Gold into a more user-friendly, portable unit and on improving the tone further. With his Gainmaster, he was able to do this, with the 10^n (Powers of Ten) amp, in 2016. In 2024, he was successful in re-creating the push-pull half of his "Gold" amp, which is now incarnated into his Gjika 100 amp. This also required a new speaker cabinet design, specifically for the Gjika 100 amp.
In Memphis, TN, Gjika's ′Quality Guitars′, on Union Ave., was featured in a local music publication, where Tim O'Shea said, of Gjika's skills: "His technical expertise is most impressive, especially his "diagnosis to repair" knowledge of another rock necessity, the electric PA and amp... Gjika also builds and sells his custom, "Hot Box" amplifiers, perhaps the finest available anywhere." Of Bob's custom guitar designs: "Gjika builds three or four of his custom 'Wild Thing' guitars each year, at a cool five grand apiece. The prototype guitars are truly wonders to behold at any stage of construction." [3]
In 1988, Bob Gjika was featured in a local Memphis news station segment, where he showed some examples of his trendsetting guitar designs in various stages of construction [4] eight months after arriving in Memphis, TN.
Users of Gjika amps post on various music sites, for example, a reviewer of the 'Gjika KT-90 Tone monster', in Harmony Central, shares his experience of the Gjika KT-90, insofar as'Tone Quality'is concerned; "When cranked this amp sings like no other. And guess what? You can use the treble control. I mean you can crank that dog to the top and still the amp sounds sweet and warm, with just more nice high end. No ear fatigue, just pure tone." Further, on 'Reliability/Durability', he states; "The amp is built like a tank. You can not imagine how bullet proof this amp is. It is beyond anything that I have ever seen construction wise." He further commented; "You cannot compare this amp to anything else on the market so I won't. This is a great amp, and Gjika is one of the top amp builders in the world." [5]
Focusing on his own playing, as well as designing and building guitars and amps, Gjika acquired a reputation for being reclusive, resulting in many believing that he had retired from amp building. It was noted by Dave Hunter in his reverb.com article, 'Dave's Corner: Guide to Boutique Amps', in which he wrote "This enigmatic amp maker and all-round tech extraordinaire goes to few (if any) lengths to promote his own work." As to the quality of the guitar tone produced by Bob's original design amps, he assessed that "Characteristics of Gjika amps include their thick, rich, harmonically saturated tone and fast playing response." Further, "Bob Gjika has worked with Eric Johnson, but might be best known for the scorching single-ended EL34-based amp that the late and largely underappreciated fusion virtuoso Shawn Lane used on his Powers of Ten...a massive beast with four EL34s (or eight in its stereo configuration) and possibly the largest transformers I’ve seen on a guitar amp, giving it earth-shaking body and tremendous gain." [6]
In an interview by Guitar Player magazine, Shawn Lane referred to his use of his Gjika Gold amp on his Powers of Ten CD in glowing terms: "It's class-A power, all-tube, and just one of the most amazing amplifiers I've ever heard. It has a harmonic richness that really responds to a certain kind of touch." [7]
Premier Guitar covered Premier Builder's Guild's NAMM Show booth featuring Gjika Amps, with highly positive reception. [8]
Amplifiers:
Other Devices:
all these models are out of production> [10]
Getting complex, saturated, rich guitar tones at low volumes has been the focus of Gjika's amp designs, and the Gjika Gainmaster gives the ability of Gjika amps to achieve a driven amp sound, at any desired volume, supplying "bedroom amplifier" volumes, as well as providing the necessary power in situations where high volumes are wanted. [11]
Some of the artists Gjika has worked with: Shawn Lane, [12] Tony Rombola, Eric Johnson, Joe Stump, Reeves Gabrels, Keith Scott, Webb Wilder, Steve Earl, Joe Strummer, Joe Bonamassa, George Benson, Stephen Bruton, Leo Howard, Scott Sherwood, Danny Click, Michael Kraynak, Lance Keltner, Bruce Edwards, Ken Fischer - founder of Trainwreck Circuits, Eddy Murray of E.U. Wurlitzer Music and Sound, Marc Ferrari, Paul DeBartolo [13] of Spread Eagle & Bang.
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