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Ron Holden — founder of Holden Sound Industries .....
Ron Holden started his business (Holden Sound Industries) in the mid sixties, at first custom building valve amplifiers for guitars and basses, from a small room upstairs in front of his father's photography studio. His big break came when a local Christchurch music shop (Beggs) agreed to purchase his first production 100 watt guitar/bass heads and quad boxes in 1967. News soon travelled around the country and these new amplifiers were powerful beasts with two channels and tremelo. They were called Holden and looked like a fender with a sloping control panel front and Fender style grill cloth etc.. Encouraged by such runaway success, Ron sat down and completely redesigned the chassis and cabinet style to be more in keeping with Marshall, and expanded his range with several new models. About this time he shifted into much larger premises and employed most of of Christchurch's professional musicians, winding transformers, assembling chassis and building speaker cabinets. Mike Lewis, who had recently immigrated from Great Britain, a fine guitarist and general nice guy, invested money in Ron's business and sales soared. Mike brought many ideas and a very nice Vox AC30 and Gibson SG Special with him.
In the mid seventies, Ron, suffering from ill health, sold Holden Sound Industries to Mike, and moved across to Australia. There he formed another company called Holden Wasp International with Ian Johnstone (who had started the Wasp company in 1967). Wasp was mainly involved with importing and distributing components and parts for amplifiers and cabinets. Mike continued to expand the line of products under the Holden name until Holden Sound Industries simply shut up shop and called it a day in the late 80's, early 90's. |
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