Sam Carlson Photos
Biceglia.
As a local musician I first heard about Donato Biceglia as a sort of tall tale; a mythical amp man who could repair or build anything my heart might desire. Other musicians I knew were seemingly on their way to or returning from a trip to Dual Stage Amplification, Biceglia’s amp shop based out of Erector Square.
I had an older amp that needed a tune up, and I thought I’d pay a visit myself.
The 27-year-old Biceglia of fact was all smiles, and immediately offered me coffee from a small espresso maker that I now believe to be the source of his power. He lifted my amp onto a small operating bench and began to inspect its circuitry, walking me through everything he saw in it with the speed of a mad scientist rattling off technical terms like a speaker of tongues. He diagnosed the problem on sight — old .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) needed replacing — and suggested several safety features I could implement to extend the life of the amp.
Biceglia got his start with electronics as a young man of about 14 in Hamden. He had just started to play guitar, and idolized the sound of AC/DC’s Angus Young. He wondered why his own guitar didn’t sound like Young’s, and began to do some research. The Angus Young sound is due in large part to his amplifier of choice, the Marshall JTM45 Plexi.
“I couldn’t afford one, obviously, but I thought maybe I could build one,” Biceglia said. “I’m 14 and I’ve got nothing else to do, so why not just start learning?” He managed to find a schematic for the amp and taught himself how to read it and how to solder. After a few attempts his creation started to make sound.
“After that I just wanted to know what else I could make, and from that there was no turning back,” Biceglia said.
Dual Stage started in Biceglia’s garage. It eventually moved on to a storefront in Monroe, and then to a small shop above the Space Ballroom. Biceglia started doing increasingly involved builds of amps and pedals and a lot more repairs, taking on clients like rock bands Four Years Strong and Surfer Blood, session musicians like Mike Carlotta (who played with Mariah Carey) and effects company Black Cat Pedals.
His favorite projects, however, are the custom creations he’s often called upon to make.
“Just about everything is made custom and in house,” Biceglia said. “Each design is unique to the customer’s needs.”
The most recent build (featured in this photo) is a stereo amp for the band Green Eyed Lady based on a Fender circuit. Its symmetrical design places knobs or features on each side and the dual inputs in the center. This symmetry extends to the interior of the amp as well, with the circuitry fanning out from the center. Why does this matter? Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, it solves a practical problem. The innards of most amps are installed in such a way that the amp’s weight is lopsided in relation to the handle. This makes the amps cumbersome to carry and that much easier to drop and possibly damage. In Biceglia’s design, the primary weight is set directly beneath and handle so that the amp is easier to carry.
Meanwhile, the layout is designed to make the amp as user friendly as possible. The way Biceglia sees it, the tool has to be simple enough that it gets out of the artists’ way and lets them just plug in and play. He’s a gearhead, but an unpretentious one, and while he has a certain mad-scientist character to him, he always thinks of what he should do rather than what he could.
This thinking is evident in the Quad Reflect, one of Biceglia’s custom effect pedals. A typical effect pedal is a small box of circuitry that goes between the guitar and the amp in order to modify the sound — adding echo, distorting the guitar’s tone, you name it. The Quad Reflect puts four of these effects — whatever four the player orders — in the same box to keep the footprint small and do more with less. There are about fifty Quad Reflects in the world, including in the collections of local musicians Ilya Gitelman, Mike Cueto, and Chris Cavallier. The effects in the chassis vary from artist to artist, and are intended to be a small and portable alternative to a larger, bulkier board. My friend Gitelman’s box contains delay, overdrive, tremolo, and reverb, four effects he commonly uses.
Dual Stage’s business keeps Biceglia pretty busy, which is great for someone who seems to be happiest in constant motion. Biceglia still gets excited talking about his work; he loves to watch a project come together. When I asked him about his various projects, however, he was more keen to talk about the various musicians who use his products than the products themselves. This year, he hopes to challenged by more new custom projects, but in the end, it’s about the music being made.