NAD Centaur KGB5012R - ?

[jtg]

No, it's not a secret agent for the USSR, but it might as well be from its minimal web presence. I found this little gem at Trade Up here in a Portland on a quest to replace my dearly departed practice amp, after a brief period of grieving.

I eyed it with the keyboards. It was love at first sight, especially the badge, so I grabbed a bass, plugged it in, and my love only grew. Thick and deep, way more power than the ol' practice station needs. EQ settings for guitar and bass both sound good. Almost a minibrute vibe with the tweet disabled. So I bonked it on the head with $169 and carried it back to the practice cave.

Anyone know anything about these amps or the company? Looks well pre-internet (late 70s or early 80s?) and there's virtually zip out there.

Edit: model number in subject, for posterity

 

[agedhorse]

A small company, Centsur Systems made gun barrels as their primary products but built amps and mixers on the side.

The name Hurloc Electronics is from the combination of the two partners Ray Harriott and Bill Spurlock.

They stopped producing around the late 1980's or maybe the early 1980's.

I vaguely recall the brand (because they were a So. CA company and that's where I grew up), but not much else.

 

[jtg]

Thanks, Andy, for this and your many gifts to the community.

 

[brianrost]

I've seen a few around, but not for many years.

Really, making gun barrels led to making amps? That's right up there with Kaman expanding their helicopter business to make Ovation guitars.

 

[agedhorse]

I've seen a few around, but not for many years.

Really, making gun barrels led to making amps? That's right up there with Kaman expanding their helicopter business to make Ovation guitars.

The Kaman thing made sense, using existing composite materials left over from rotor blade construction, and the talent of highly skilled engineers and fabricators that were also guitar enthusiasts (starting with Charlie Kaman). The story is both fascinating and remarkable.

They turned it into a very profitable and respected company that was ultimately acquired by Fender. Jeff and I worked under the Kaman (KMC) and Fender banner for roughly 10 years.

 

[ardgedee]

The Kaman thing made sense, using existing composite materials left over from rotor blade construction

It's a little like how Gore-Tex got into the business of making plastic-coated guitar strings. Although in their case they're a large and heavily diversified company so it's less that guitar strings are a weird product niche for them, it's more that this is one of their few consumer products; they're primarily a materials and parts supplier to other manufacturers.

 

[agedhorse]

Kaman also had an industrial equipment and components division that did a lot of different things into industry and to distributors. Gears, bearings, etc.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Kaman also made some crazy composite speaker cabs too.

there was one as part of the drummer monitor stack at Seattle's (in)famous Off Ramp.

Having a vague memory of posting about this with A.H. Some time back…

Age. Sigh…