Pilgrimage to Madison Headquarters by Citrus

From Citrus' myspace blog

I made the Pilgrimage to Madison Headquarters again yesterday!

I headed out at about 10 am. Had some smooth sailing till I came upon a pretty ugly accident on the I-25 corridor. Didn't look like anybody got hurt, but they were obviously freaked OUT! I counted my blessings and moved on down the road. It's about 65 miles away from the house. I look forward to the drive because it takes you thru some really beautiful country. The last stretch goes along a killer razor back formation of rocks!

The place doesn't look like an amplifier factory at all...in fact the first time I went up there I went to the house first and not the shop! This time tho...I parked and went right to the shop's door. Ron came to the door and it was "oh HEY DUDE!!!" from the both of us! He took me into the depths of the shop! The last time I went up there I got a tour of the place and they were spread out all thru the building.
THIS time tho they were all holed up in one little section, by the wood burning stove. Eric and Ron were working on wedges while Andy was in his office. Ron took me to Andy but we headed right to the little work room where it's ALL going down. The spot is normally just for the speaker construction. The wood shop...so it's covered in sawdust. The wood-burning stove is fed the little scraps and unusable bits from the cabinets and wedges and heads.. All real wood here. I didn't ask a thousand questions...but my eyes were everywhere! There was no press board or crap of lesser amps. I was impressed by their obvious ingenuity and flexibility. They are getting the job done man!
Eric was skillfully building a wedge. He was all business the whole time...workin away. Andy and Ron and I sorta BS'd a bit about the Myspace and Distributors and the questions and suggestions that people are sending in to the Myspace page.

I asked Andy to blog a bit more cuz folks seem to really dig when he blogs...HE then took me to look at a bunch of Cabinets in his office.

"You wanna blog man? I got something for you Bog!" He showed me the covers that go on the corners of each cab. They were all filed to a sharp point where the pieces of wood actually meet. "That Fucker in there (Ron) Files these all down man...every one of them...cuz it just looks so much better!" In my world of Funk we say "If you have Funk. You have Style" These mother funkers got mad FUNK! I mean...I have always been drawn to the amps cuz of the way they look! Madison amps are some of the coolest looking rigs I have ever seen!

We headed back to the heart of it all and started talking about Distribution more and how hard it is to find the right folks to sell his stuff. I can't imagine what it's like breaking into this market at all! They need to get this gear into real stores in L.A. and Vegas and all over the world! Looks like things may pan out over seas in the near future...which I hope will help with the American market as well.


Ron and Andy went out to the main room of the shop and came back with the wedges that I had come to pick up. Andy then suggested that they mod them and add some capacitors to make the tone cooler. They get to opening them up....Andy says that he will help by just opening the one...but he ends up with a soldering iron in hand anyway..can't help himself. They do the mod and then Ron wraps them up with precision and care..you can tell that he takes a LOT of pride in his work..they all do! Some little inside jokes were going around about sawdust in the cabinets and other things....

We talked music...I couldn't believe that they claimed to not have much theoretical knowledge on the guitars...cuz these cats can SHRED!!...but they do it by ear and feel and emotion....I think they make their amps that way too...tons of Heart and Soul!