The Amp Garage

Like regrilling sandy state Beringer amps.

I was building a bunch of combo amps for a popular effects pedal manufacturer about 2 yrs ago. They wanted the diamond grill cloth so I installed them on the combos.
That same week he showed me a copy of a letter that he received from someone he knew at Two Rock.
It was a cease and desist letter from Korg (they own Vox amps now). Basically Two Rock was not permitted to place a rhombus/parallelograms (diamond) pattern grill on any cabinet that housed a speaker. They where also not permitted to have such a cabinet on their property. They actually got this patent in the 60s when it was owned by the original British company who created this patent.

The pedal manufacture had me destroy all the Vox grills and replace them with black grills. Another amp builder( D Style) received a similar letter.
Two Rock did not want to take a chance with their head units and they removed them from their as well!

If you own an older amp from these companies that has a diamond grill it will be a rare one in the future.

Cheers
Guy

I am in negotiations with my inner asshole to have an argyle pattern pyrography headbox made.

Xov

What's patentable a geometric shape? Could you alter the size and color of the diamond pattern?

But is it worth the headache...

Diamond sounds pretty bitchin', tho.

ViperDoc wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 11:50 pm What's patentable a geometric shape? Could you alter the size and color of the diamond pattern?

But is it worth the headache...

Diamond sounds pretty bitchin', tho.

Commercial availbility of the pattern would put the claims at risk. The stitching and color are noted as components of the claim.

If we wanted to do something hilarious...

Reeltarded wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 2:36 am

ViperDoc wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 11:50 pm What's patentable a geometric shape? Could you alter the size and color of the diamond pattern?

But is it worth the headache...

Diamond sounds pretty bitchin', tho.

Commercial availbility of the pattern would put the claims at risk. The stitching and color are noted as components of the claim.

If we wanted to do something hilarious...

If I were cruel..

We don't want the image of the AC15/30 to be washed away. Let them rest on those two laurels.

Hey! Look! Come get me!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

^ One stitch in the pattern makes it a series of X's.

Technically, it's a trademark:

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=7880 ... atusSearch

Interesting info in those series of documents...

Yeah, images and shapes are trademarks..

You pedant.

Trademarks are somewhat simpler to defend over time, but MUST be equally defended in all cases.

If you turn it on it's side and tell them to GFY... we could practice making Leon Musk meltdown. I have a cbinet with riot control metal diamond grille. Looks like same angle. If I added red/brown cloth behind it I wonder if they would tell me to GFY.

Nope. As an artist and a radical subversive... hahaha

Makes one wonder, what sort of dialog may have taken place between Vox (or whoever owns them at any given moment) and Mr. Dumble. LOTS of Dumbles with Vox grill cloth! I have a feeling he used his awesome command of language to inform Vox to GFY, and it must have worked.

Interesting to note the registration date's in 2009. What Dumbles were built with diamond cloth after that time?

And why would Vox give a sh!t? I find the trademarking of consecutive rhombi (or are they crossing lines?) to be a bit too generic, not the least inventive. But what do I know?

I think you'll see a lot of activity for that trademark in the latter part of the naughts decade (i.e., 2000s) I'd like to think due to a certain company (Music Ground) that was affiliated with the now-defunct JMI Amplification, Inc. basically making vintage JMI Vox clones.

I bought a JMI AC15 twin from them in early 2007 (right around the time when you see all that activity in the "Prosecution History" detail in that link above). It had diamond grill cloth, presumably made by Korg (who owns Vox now, and then).

In fact, if you look at the "Proceedings" section, you'll see a reference to a Plantiff "Musicground Limited"... I guess they opposed the trademark (?) which was ultimately dismissed by the judge/court. This was around the time JMI Amplification were kinda ramping up making there amps on some kind of scale other than the onesies/twosies they were doing prior to that. That was my recollection, anyway. Seemed the chap I arranged with to purchase my AC15 twin went by the name of Mark Lodge, IIRC/FWIW.

Also interesting that there's also a Extension of Time proceeding involving Peavey...



<edit>

I see there was a agreement made between Peavey and Vox:

Absolutely.