GAS AMPZILLA

Brands with a sense of humor are much too rare.

Great American Sound started as a side-kit adventure, quickly so successful it became a serious brand - with a few twists : iIts amps sported crazy names and logos and GAS even published a quarterly magazine named... Gasette.

The early 1980s however weren't as open to twinkle-fun jokes or Popular Electronic kits and GAS closed down, five years after its owner quit to found another "it's in the name" adventure named... SUMO.
The owner, engineering director at SAE, was James Bongiorno, of course : the designer of the Marantz Model 15, the Dynaco Stereo 400 or the Harman/Kardon Citation 23 - and many others in between.

First available as a Popular Electronics kit, the original AMPZILLA was revised in 1978 to become the AMPZILLA IIa (shown and described here). The japanese models retained the original frantic logo (in early 1920s german expressionist style), while european units had an "european products division" tag added to the GAS logo.

The later AMPZILLA III was again available as a kit, but that was after GAS closed down...

Mr Bongiorno, the one and only, likes pink suits, lime suits and green and yellow hats - brands with a sense of humor are much too rare.



> Nudies of the Ampzilla IIa (with IIa logo and peak LEDs) at the indispensable amp8.com.

> Some about the later Godzilla here (with the Grateful Dead).

> History and lineups plus most of the GAS Gasettes.

> A japanese 1977 Ampzilla here and a 1978 Ampzilla IIa (without IIa logo but the original '77 Ampzilla logo and added peak LEDs) here.


This post was possible thanks to the literature donation of Göran Karlsson !