Friday, September 10, 2010

AUSTONE ELECTRONICS - JON BYRON BESSENT

Yes, it's a little late but still sad to just find out the main man behind "Austone Electronics" had passed away in 2009. Austone Electronics made five different pedals: "Fuzz Nuts", Soul-O-Stomp, Vibro Stomp, Fuzz Nutz Textone and most notably the Austone Millennium Overdrive.


With respect to "Vintage Jon" here is his obituary.

Jon Byron Bessent, musician and electronics technician, died Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Jon was born November 8, 1952, in Pecos, Texas. He was the son of Dr. E. Wailand Bessent and Rachel Pfluger Bessent, both now of Austin. Jon attended McCallum High School in Austin for a year, but graduated from the "old" Anderson High School in 1971. He worked at several Austin bicycle shops and in the early 1970s was co-owner of The Bike Shop. He later attended classes at Austin Community College, earned a first-class FCC license, and began repairing and servicing TVs. In 1980 he went to work for Texas Instruments where, among other things, he built power supplies for NASA and NORAD projects. In 1990, Jon – a guitarist who played both electric and acoustic guitar – took up his preferred career of fixing guitar amps, working at Musical Exchange. In 1997, he co-founded Austone Electronics, and in 2001 he and his wife, Merlyn, set up Tonecraft Amp Repair. Jon played with several bands over the years, playing a wide variety of music ranging from rock to Irish traditional to country music. Many people might recognize him as the guitar player for the Irish traditional band Gan Ainm, and as one of the musicians who attended weekly Irish tune sessions at O'Brien's Café (later Senor O'Brien's Café) for more than a decade. 



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