Isn't Joe Meek dead?

  • Thread starter Thread starter amzavareei
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amzavareei

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And didn't he kill himself and his landlady on the anniversary of Buddy Holly's death? So who, why, and how did this company come about using his name? I mean I understand his contributions to music and engineering. I just don't understand how this company came about. He's been dead almost 40 years. Are any of these products even of his design? I guess they're all green. Did he invent green?
 
well i know ---yes he is dead but
Ted Fletcher is still alive and has a new line of product.Ted work wiyh Joe and Ted started the company and the Green color was kind of a fluke.He made a unit and then wanted to paint it and the only color the guy had was that green.there is a short article intape-op mag that explain Teds life in brief
www.tfprousa.com/products.html
 
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let me help...

Ted Fletcher did a lot of green and made excellent products...
then Allen SP bought them out and told Ted he can't use the green color and the exact same everything without paying him as he now owns the Meek company...
so ted built up high end stuff once again, and went RED. :mad:
but then the RED stuff started making $$$green and no one was mad about ted using blue or red...and he definately wasn't dead like Joe who Allen now owned in Green...(oh lord).. :eek:

and is this any different than Leo Fender being dead and the FENDER Co. making Tennis shoes and cowboy shirts? I think, Fender means all things cheap shit to well built infamous styles and really expensive beat-up looking guitar replicas with corroded tuners...

to summarize:

Ted is RED, Joe is Dead, Allen is Green, Someone else owns ORANGE...

Wonder what colors are left for me? What if I want to start a company?
are all the colors taken?
 
Ted Fletcher alledgedly worked with Joe Meek.......believe it or not.

TF started producing products using (or maybe capitalising on) the Joe Meek name.

PMI (Alan Hyatt) was the US distributor and apparently had legal claim to JM trademarks or some such in the US.

Joe Meek (the b u s i ness under TF) went into liquidation, "lock stock and barrell" and was apparently purchased from the liquidators by PMI.


No need to rehash the crappier parts of the story relating to the initial demise of the UK company and what ensued.

:cool:
 
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It's a marketing ploy of course and a pretty cynical one in my view.

The difference with the Fender brand is that Leo Fender started a company himself and decided to use his own name and (deservedly) made a pretty penny from the business. I'd agree that the compnay has gone in a dodgy direction in many ways but they're still selling his designs. The relevance of the name to the product is clear.

Not so with Joe Meek. None of the Meek stuff has anything to do with the man himself.

It might not have bothered Joe Meek at all but the people making money off his name don't know that for sure.
 
who cares about Joe Meek ...Have you seen Teds new line :eek: :D
Ted is all over this audio thing.He has been doing it a long time and his new stuff looks real nice.
 
mikey@thecave said:
who cares about Joe Meek ...Have you seen Teds new line :eek: :D
Ted is all over this audio thing.He has been doing it a long time and his new stuff looks real nice.
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I think I'm right in saying Ted built stuff for Joe Meek back in the 60's.
 
I'm pretty sure Henry Ford has very little to do with the design of the Explorer.

(I know nothing about this Meek discussion, so don't bother telling me about how they are two totally different issues, or whatever)
 
Yawn!

Joemeek is a brand name, not a person. Get over it. G&L is not George and Leo, it's a brand name. And Patrick Eggle has been nothing to do with Eggle guitars for over a decade now!

It's about product, and how best to sell that product. PMI didn't buy the rights to Joe Meek's personality and legacy ... they bought the rights to the Joemeek brand name, all the silly terms like 'meekqualiser' and the very distinctive green & yellow front panels. They are recognisable and sell products ... any of you who romanticise it any further than that are just being naive.

I've been selling guitar FX pedals on Ebay under brand names I've 'created' such as Boss-Hog and Boutique .... this is stuff we're importing unbranded and adding a silly back story to because it makes people look. You think if I sold them as "here's some things we bought that are really good value" that they'd fly out like they are doing? You think if Ted Fletcher or PMI Audio said "here's some cool preamps and compressors" that anyone would give a rat's ass? It's just another effective selling point. Fletcher's selling point now is that his stuff is made in the UK. Joemeek's selling point is that it's much better made than the old TF stuff now. Whatever you think of it, some of you guys need to wise up to the realities of retail a little.

Most of the stuff you've ever used you would not have come across if it wasn't for intelligent ('cynical') marketing .......... and yes, that even goes for Mshilarious' mics, however nice he is or good his mics are.

Peace,
Nik
 
If I recall from the Tape Op article, Ted Fletcher was a background singer that Joe Meek used in a lot of his recordings. Ted was friends with Meek and understood his approach to using compression etc, and when he got into building gear years later took a similar approach sonically to the gear Meek used.

War
 
noisedude said:
Yawn!
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You 'yawn' and then write 4 paragraphs? :confused:

Which dead recording legends name does MSH use to sell his mics?

More irrelevant comparisons (and a couple of straw men thrown in for good measure).

“Yawn” indeed!

If the designs are related to Meeks designs then that's cool. In fact that's what I've always wandered.

Ted posts at group DIY and I've been reading what he's written about some if his designs:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10777

Interesting stuff (well, the bits I understand).
 
Kevin DeSchwazi said:
I think I'm right in saying Ted built stuff for Joe Meek back in the 60's.
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No this is not correct. Read the book about Joe Meek the man by John Repsch or Barry Cleveland. Ted had nothing to do with Joe Meek technically. Maybe he was a singer, but I never heard him sing and there are no credits with his name on it on any Joe Meek recordings.

Joe Meek used a lot of compression and that is the extent of it. Ted took the name and used it. We now work closely with the Joe Meek Appreciation Society and donate gear for other promotions that result in money to the society and Joe's estate. This ends up getting back to promote Joe Meek the man, not our gear
 
alanhyatt said:
Joe Meek used a lot of compression and that is the extent of it.
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Thanks for clearing that up for me Alan.
 
Kevin DeSchwazi said:
You 'yawn' and then write 4 paragraphs? :confused:

Which dead recording legends name does MSH use to sell his mics?

More irrelevant comparisons (and a couple of straw men thrown in for good measure).

“Yawn” indeed!

If the designs are related to Meeks designs then that's cool. In fact that's what I've always wandered.

Ted posts at group DIY and I've been reading what he's written about some if his designs:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10777

Interesting stuff (well, the bits I understand).
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If you think you've EVER come across a product that you didn't find or have recommended it to you because the person making it or selling it wanted you to, you're really REALLY naive.

Using a forum to sell your stuff is a great technique ... whether you're one of the good guys like Mshilarious or one of the countless muppets who spam these boards with free iPod adverts.

You're still romanticising it. It's a brand name, an image and an association. ALL of that is just sales flannel to get you to listen to it. The manufacturer/marketer hopes that once you've actually got your hands on it that you'll find it a good product.

That's pretty much all there is to it!
 
noisedude said:
If you think you've EVER come across a product that you didn't find or have recommended it to you because the person making it or selling it wanted you to, you're really REALLY naive.
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I'm getting fed up with your ridiculous straw men.

What have I said that would make you believe that this is what I think?

This is a direct question and I'd appreciate a direct and honest response.

noisedude said:
Using a forum to sell your stuff is a great technique ... whether you're one of the good guys like Mshilarious or one of the countless muppets who spam these boards with free iPod adverts.
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Another straw man. I don't disagree at all, in fact it's not even related to my point of view. What has the relationship between Joe Meek and the products that bear his name got to do with “selling stuff on forums”?

Alan’s post in this thread is the first of I’ve seen of his in a long while and I’ve always thought his contributions to the forum have been appropriate and useful anyway. So where are you trying to go with this?

noisedude said:
You're still romanticising it. It's a brand name, an image and an association. ALL of that is just sales flannel to get you to listen to it. The manufacturer/marketer hopes that once you've actually got your hands on it that you'll find it a good product.

That's pretty much all there is to it!
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You don't say? That's what I've already said.

Kevin DeSchwazi said:
It's a marketing ploy of course....
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There is a distinct difference between not understanding why something happens and disagreeing with something that happens. I understand why the Meek name is used, you really don't need to explain it (again).

The fact I think it's ethically a bit dodgy doesn't make me naive. It's an opinion which I'm perfectly entitled to hold and as such the fact you disagree doesn't bother me in the slightest. But it does bug me a bit that, through ignorance or malice I'm not sure, you constantly try to imply that I "don't get" the issues or that I'm trying to create conflcit in relation to other issues (such as "selling stuff on forums").
 
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Kevin DeSchwazi said:
I'm getting fed up with your ridiculous straw men.

What have I said that would make you believe that this is what I think?

This is a direct question and I'd appreciate a direct and honest response.

Another straw man. I don't disagree at all, in fact it's not even related to my point of view. What has the relationship between Joe Meek and the products that bear his name got to do with “selling stuff on forums”?

Alan’s post in this thread is the first of I’ve seen of his in a long while and I’ve always thought his contributions to the forum have been appropriate and useful anyway. So where are you trying to go with this?

You don't say? That's what I've already said.


There is a distinct difference between not understanding why something happens and disagreeing with something that happens. I understand why the Meek name is used, you really don't need to explain it (again).

The fact I think it's ethically a bit dodgy doesn't make me naive. It's an opinion which I'm perfectly entitled to hold and as such the fact you disagree doesn't bother me in the slightest. But it does bug me a bit that, through ignorance or malice I'm not sure, you constantly try to imply that I "don't get" the issues or that I'm trying to create conflcit in relation to other issues (such as "selling stuff on forums").
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Nick

I'm very sorry if you think I'm getting at you, am underestimating your intellect or have a problem with you in some way. I know you to be an intelligent guy but I've read your thoughts on the Joe Meek/Joemeek thing a number of times and wanted to engage with you on it because it seems such a random bee to have in your bonnet. And yes, I do think it's naive to call it a 'cynical' marketing move (whether by Ted Fletcher previously or PMI Audio now) ... because IMHO it's no more cynical that Eggle or Fender guitars continuing to trade off an association that simply does not exist. Whether it ever existed doesn't seem to be a big issue at all, the fact is that it is untrue.

Obviously Joemeek, as with Eggle, Fender and CF Martin is a brand name rather than anything to do with the famous people of those names. But then, who gives a rat's ass what Larry Hartke thinks, or whether James Laney really had a clue about how to make a guitar amp in 2006?

I really honestly think it's just a brand name which was paired with a distinctive look and sound and genuinely can't see what you find less acceptable about it than any number of other pieces of marketing. When Hoshino Gakki wanted to sell guitars into the European market they bought out a little Spanish guitar maker because they thought more people would buy their guitars if they were branded 'Ibanez' because they'd associate it with high quality traditional European luthiery. Maybe I'm just too cynical but that seems like a really sensible move to me, even though 'Ibanez' had never made an electric guitar and had nothing to do with the use of their name by that Japanese company.

Nik
 
OK Nik, I apologise for my ‘firm’ response to your previous post.

We have a difference of opinion

I’ve just done a week long course on negotiation techniques for my job (possibly a reason for my combative mood yesterday) and one of the first things you learn is that you cannot negotiate beliefs and values, only issues. I think the same could be said for debating opinions which are based on intrinsic values.

And that’s what we’re doing.

Of course I can’t help but point out that all of your examples aren’t strictly analogous to the Meek discussion. But there probably are other instances where the same thing has happened, and that would bug me too. I’m not suggesting that this is unique.

To say I’ve got a bee in my bonnet is probably fair but it’s a Saturday, it’s my girlfriends birthday and it’s unlikely that this will be on my mind as I drink beer and eat Indian food later this evening. You’re right, it’s not that big of a deal.

Have a good weekend.
 
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