The God of Mods – Dennis Kager
Marc Johnson | Nov 20, 2010 | Comments 5
The God of Mods: The Tone King Gives a Shout to Dennis Kager
Marc Johnson for The Tone King
Without the support of some, TheToneKing.com would not be doing as well as it is today, and Dennis Kager has been one of our biggest supporters. For followers of TTK, you will recognize Dennis’ handiwork from our vid “TTK’s Modded JCA20H”, where we demoed the Jet City amp modded by Dennis to include a boost as well as an effects loop.
The thing that sets Dennis apart from a lot of the other Amp techs is that he is a player, and it shows in his work. Every one of his mods doesn’t try to change the character of the amp but, instead, emphasizes its best features.
After getting his education at Middlesex County Electronics School, he went straight to work for Ampeg in ’64. While he was working at Ampeg designing amps, he was working hard at night out of his home repairing them. It wasn’t long before every band passing through the Jersey area was banging down his door for repairs and modifications, and it wasn’t long after that that, with so much work, he had to leave Ampeg to do his own thing.
Calling his company Dennis Electronics, his company soon became the New York service center for both Fender and Gibson. While working on amps for big names from The Police to The Allman Brothers, Dennis still somehow found time to create the first ‘discreet’ channel-switching amp, which included two completely separate channels instead of just stacking gain on top of the clean channel. Later, he sold his line of amps and set up shop at Lou Rose Music where he has been working on amps ever since.
Any real player will tell you that nothing sounds better than a modded amp done by someone who knows what they’re doing. Dennis Kager not only knows what he is doing, but he is one of the best in the biz. His is still the go-to guy, and, when other guys can’t get the job done, they send it to him. Dennis is always open to special projects. So, if you want a killer mod done to your amp, give him a call, and don’t forget to tell him that The Tone King sent you!
Dennis Kager
Central Jersey Music Service
1627 Rt-27, Edison, NJ 08817
(732) 572-1911
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Hello, I recently bought an early ’72 Fender Pro..to some, it was road worn and put away wet! Anyway, I want to restore this dog…We take it apart and find repair stickers in the chassis from a Dennis Electronics…I call the original owner and asked if what repairs he had in the last 40 years..He told me that he used to bring his amp to a shop in Jersey back in the 70′s..see where this is goin’? Anyway, I hope the GOTM’s breathed some magic on this wretched amp so many years ago…
Hi,
I’ve tried a bunch of different ways of sequencing my pedals, some of which are pretty straight forward, but others kills the tone a bit.
Could you please give me a suggestion!
Here are my pedals:
Chromatic Tuner
Goodrich Volume Control
Boss NS2 Noise Supressor
DOD 440 Envelope Filter
Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Tubescreamer
EXH Double Muff
MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
Digitech Whammy WH4
EHX Memory Man
EHX POG
Many thanks,
Pete
I opine that to get the credit loans from banks you should have a firm motivation. But, once I’ve got a college loan, just because I wanted to buy a house.
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Thanks mr Kager for Pignose G40V (he was the designer of this little beast). I get it slightly used for only 300$ (I’m not kidding). Then I’ve upgraded the speaker to neodim one, made it 2-channel foot-switchable with only pairing of master/volume knobs and relay-switching between them
, added the tone shift and many other Steve Ahola little mods from ProManiac mod-list, and now it’s more than versatile combo. My friends don’t believe such a little box has so many power and so great tube tone (clean is bright, and distorted sound with EMG81 goes almost Zakk Wylde huge)… I heard about other mr Kager amps – they are even more versatile then my modded one, and little/toneful/powerful/affordable as well, so… Best wishes to Dennis Kager.