Last week, I received from Jack Gentul's children a very heavy, flat box. In it are the originals of what are likely the only surviving documents relating to their father's career. I have been charged with inventorying them; scanning every document that is of the slightest relevance to Jack's work in general and Hilgen amplifiers in particular; and then returning the remainder to the family.
This is an honor I do not deserve, but a responsibility I am proud to undertake. .
I have not reviewed all the documents yet. However, it has thus far been a moving, even eerie experience. After spending several years fruitlessly seeking any tangible evidence that Jack Gentul ever existed, I now feel as though I am looking over Jack's shoulder as he goes about his day-to-day business. There are his handwritten notes, brittle carbon copies of correspondence, schematic sketches, and attempts to keep track of the business end of things. The record is fragmentary, like an ancient mosaic that was largely destroyed but that still retains identifiable patterns and themes.
What a person saves and what he or she discards is telling. It seems fair to infer that the items he preserved were of particular significance to him. If so, it appears, sadly, that Jack was surprised by how coldly the marketplace, and even some of his closest business associates, reacted to his efforts at innovative amplifier design. Nonetheless Jack tirelessly pursued what, to his ears, was the most musically pleasing sound that an amplifier could make. Perhaps that this may be why he chose names for his amplifiers such as "Challenger," "Champion," and "Victor." He knew he had a battle on his hands.
I hasten to add that the negative influences on Jack's career did not include anyone affiliated with Brook Electronics, Sano, or the Zonfrilli family. Indeed, the luminaries of the musical amplification industry were among Jack's chief supporters. Unfortunately, they were not the ones with the money; and the folks who did have money were not interested in risking it on an iconoclast.
In the last analysis, Jack definitely made mistakes. I would be deceiving you and myself if I indulged in idol-worship. Yet the evidence objectively shows that Jack got an astonishing number of things right, despite working in an environment that would cause most of us to lose faith in ourselves. He was a courageous man, an artist in sound, a meticulous craftsman, and a hard-working stiff.
I hope you will enjoy looking over my shoulder as I puzzle over the documents in that heavy box, and encourage you to offer your own interpretations of the evidence that emerges from it.
This is an honor I do not deserve, but a responsibility I am proud to undertake. .
I have not reviewed all the documents yet. However, it has thus far been a moving, even eerie experience. After spending several years fruitlessly seeking any tangible evidence that Jack Gentul ever existed, I now feel as though I am looking over Jack's shoulder as he goes about his day-to-day business. There are his handwritten notes, brittle carbon copies of correspondence, schematic sketches, and attempts to keep track of the business end of things. The record is fragmentary, like an ancient mosaic that was largely destroyed but that still retains identifiable patterns and themes.
What a person saves and what he or she discards is telling. It seems fair to infer that the items he preserved were of particular significance to him. If so, it appears, sadly, that Jack was surprised by how coldly the marketplace, and even some of his closest business associates, reacted to his efforts at innovative amplifier design. Nonetheless Jack tirelessly pursued what, to his ears, was the most musically pleasing sound that an amplifier could make. Perhaps that this may be why he chose names for his amplifiers such as "Challenger," "Champion," and "Victor." He knew he had a battle on his hands.
I hasten to add that the negative influences on Jack's career did not include anyone affiliated with Brook Electronics, Sano, or the Zonfrilli family. Indeed, the luminaries of the musical amplification industry were among Jack's chief supporters. Unfortunately, they were not the ones with the money; and the folks who did have money were not interested in risking it on an iconoclast.
In the last analysis, Jack definitely made mistakes. I would be deceiving you and myself if I indulged in idol-worship. Yet the evidence objectively shows that Jack got an astonishing number of things right, despite working in an environment that would cause most of us to lose faith in ourselves. He was a courageous man, an artist in sound, a meticulous craftsman, and a hard-working stiff.
I hope you will enjoy looking over my shoulder as I puzzle over the documents in that heavy box, and encourage you to offer your own interpretations of the evidence that emerges from it.