Entries for December 2015

Dawk worked closely with Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple & Rainbow throughout the 70’s - 80’s servicing, maintaining & Modding amps as well as working on gear for the whole band. He also worked with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio era. He also worked with such acts as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi & in his final years & perhaps one of his longest stints was with the band Manowar

He had a very special relationship with Jess Oliver of Ampeg. Jess took a liking to Dawk & soon took him under his wing. They remained close up until the day Jess passed on. He had given Dawk all of his original schematics & technical notes that he had drawn up including schematics of the amps Jess designed after he left Ampeg.

Dawk was also one of the first techs to work on Marshalls when they made their way to the states. He provided a great deal of technical support to Marshall & he was the first amp tech to install 6550’s as Marshall was having trouble with the reliability with EL34’s at the time. Marshall adopted Dawk’s suggestion & began shipping their amps with 6550’s, which proved to be more reliable until the quality of EL34’s later improved.

He also visited & worked at the Marshall factory in England for a few weeks. Founder & CEO Jim Marshall took Dawk out to dinner. Jim graciously gave Dawk a factory tour & it was during this tour where Dawk met & befriended Ken Bran. Dawk worked at the Marshall factory for 2 weeks before being called back out on the road with Richie Blackmore. Dawk is probably best known for his work on the Marshall Major amps, which is what Richie Blackmore used for many years.

Dawk lived about 30 minutes down the road from our Voodoo Amps facility (Lansing NY) & on average he by stopped by the shop once every week or two to hang out as well as to visit his brother Danny Stillwell who also worked with us as an amp tech. Dawk enjoyed coming to see what we were working on at the time, to trade or swap parts but most of the time it was to hang out & talk amps as well as the history of the business & tubes. It was very much like family coming to visit & I can safely say that they ‘broke the mold’ when they made Dawk, which he would laugh at that himself (lol).

He recounted numerous stories of his years on the road, what he did to Richie Blackmore’s amps, how he wired the electronics in Richie’s guitars & all the fun times as well as the mischief he & Richie would get into. He worked with a lot of iconic artists but he always seemed partial to Richie. About 9 months ago someone contacted Dawk & said he was writing a book on Deep Purple. He asked for Dawk’s input but after a few conversations Dawk got the sense that he was more interested in the ‘dirt’ on the band. In his own words Dawk said “No way in hell I would tell him anything that happened, those were my friends & I wouldn’t do that under any circumstances.” He was a man of principle & he was always honorable, I always admired that.

When Dawk arrived at the shop it was very similar to the TV Show ‘Cheers’ (for those who remember it) as we would always shout “Dawk!” when he walked through the door & he would smile ear to ear. He loved our little Dachshund Sasha & always called her ‘Squeaker’ as she would make squeaky like noises whenever he arrived as she was so excited to see him.

He was one of the kindest & most giving souls that I’ve ever met. He was a bright light & always brought a positive presence with him. He never stayed for less than 2-3 hours at a time & he always brightened the day. I will forever remember Dawk working on & restoring a Marshall Major in our shop. Dawk worked at his own pace & took his time, which he would happily agree with. He was incredibly methodical & his attention to detail was impressive. When it was completed, the amp looked just as it did the day it left the Marshall factory. He performed a quick bench test, took a few voltage readings & immediately turned it full up & said ‘Play some Richie (Blackmore) riffs.”

I was happy to accommodate. I played ‘Man On A Silver Mountain’, ‘Smoke On The Water’, ‘Knocking At My Back Door’, ‘Burn’ & many more. My jaw hit the ground & it was at that very time that I instantly fell in love with the sound of a well tuned Marshall Major. He gave me his tech notes on the Marshall Majors, which he had added to throughout his career as he was working on them. He also gave me what he called his ‘MTC’ (ie: Master Tone Circuit), which he designed for Richie’s guitars so that I could install it into one of my Strats. It was also an integral part of Richie’s tone but that was Dawk, he was forever inventing & fine tuning circuits.

“Dawk, I always had a good time hang out with you & loved talking shop with you. It’s incredibly hard to imagine that we will never have another conversation again, never share another meal or BBQ at the shop… even as I write this I am tearing up. You’re back home with all your friends now & we’ll all carry on as best as we can. Thank you for your friendship, your sage advice & for always being you. Say hello to Jess & Sasha for me, we’ll meet again soon, God speed my brother, God speed.” – Trace Davis, President / Founder Voodoo Amplification Inc. [more]