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Originally Posted by Tetsu
Hey, where was the Electro Music Company located? As a musician, local architecture/history enthusiast, and Pasadena resident, this interests me on so many different levels!
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Tetsu…The original factory building was located in Pasadena on the west side of Fair Oaks just north of Del Mar. During my tenure it was the home of a fully functional pipe organ which was used by organist George Wright, and later converted into an engineering/R & D facility for Electro Music. It is long gone. The main factory and office building was a circa 1960 tilt-up on the south side at 56 West Del Mar. The building is still there and houses a Salvation Army store. It’s pretty much a Plain Jane building.
I’m an architectural history buff myself and the building that has always held a fascination with me is south of the Salvation Army building on Waverly Drive. This old brick building which probably goes back a 100 years and may have been some kind of factory in its day. It was owned by Cal Tech back in the 60’s as a storage building for old stuff no longer needed or brand new stuff still in the original packing (bought with your taxpayer money by the school with no immediate need). I can’t make out the sign shown on Google Earth, but it appears that the school may no longer own it. I got to tour it when CBS was considering buying it for expansion of Electro Music in the 70’s. Since you’re in Pasadena, go by that building and maybe check it out. I’d love to know the history. I’m 30 miles away so I don’t get to that area very often. Check out Historical Aerials.com. The oldest view is 1953 shows the old brick building.
http://www.historicaerials.com/
Just so you know, after the company was bought by Hammond in 1980, I moved to the sister company Fender Guitar in Fullerton and was with them until they packed up and moved to Scottsdale in 1991. But the big Fullerton factory is gone. I worked in guitar and amplifier manufacturing and also in the R & D group and designed audio products including amps and mixers. A fun place to work but they didn’t pay work a crap either!
BTW, looking at the Google Earth street view on the old brick building you can make out the very faded remains of a sign painted on the east side. Back in the old days the building was white-washed, so a good exercise would be to try and read the old sign.