César Díaz

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César Carrillo Díaz (1951-7-13 - 2002-04-26 [1]) was a Puerto Rican born guitar amplifier technician and guitarist who worked with a number of high profile musicians, most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan, as well as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Neil Young, and others. Guitar Magazine dubbed him "The Amp Doctor" for his work in tube amplifier repair and modification.

As a native of Puerto Rico, Cesar Carrillo Diaz was playing guitar by age six. Listening to records by Robert Johnson and Sonny Terry sparked an early love for blues music. At 12, he was guitarist for The Hungry Men, where he would remain until 1969, when he came to the mainland with Johnny Nash (of "I Can See Clearly, Now" fame), before moving on to join Frijid Pink. In 1970, he met G.E. Smith, and they have been friends ever since. During the seventies, Cesar played a major role in the then- developing market for vintage tube-powered guitar amplifiers. Guitar World magazine--the publication that dubbed him "The Amp Doctor", has characterized him as the "guiding light" of tube-amp restoration. Over the course of that decade, Cesar located, restored, and returned to productive musical use countless vintage tube amplifiers--and opened the ears of a horde of guitar players to hidden worlds of tone and expression they never knew could be drawn from their instruments. In 1979, Cesar befriended the as-yet-unsigned Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom he outfitted with the amplifier/speaker setups on which that guitarist's sound would go on to conquer the blues world. His friendship with Vaughan would last until the guitarist’s untimely death in 1990. “We were real close. He was a good friend,” Diaz says “No one can take Stevie’s place.”

By the early eighties, Cesar was in the beginning stages of designing and hand-building prototype amps that would evolve into his own line of limited-production guitar equipment. The Amp Doctors approach was to maintain the originality of vintage components by hand picking vintage resistors and capacitors from a vast array of parts he hoarded away. Vintage amp authority and collector Phil Badell, recounts. "Cesar never threw anything away, but would measure and label parts. He would tune amps to dial in the right amount of tone. He would just work at it till he got the growl, as he put it." The early eighties also saw many partnerships with companies such as Angela Instruments and John Sprung's American Guitar Center. But Diaz was not one to be tied down and in '84 and met Clapton through a member of the Rolling Stones' camp; he worked with the Stones and Keith Richards from '82 to'87 and would continue the relationship till his death, locating and restoring vintage amplifiers for Clapton and Richards. Diaz served as Clapton’s technical advisor on the “Journeyman” album.

In 1986, G.E. Smith, who'd just joined Bob Dylan's band, brought Cesar on board to tend to the two guitarists' gear and tone. That began Cesar's six-year association with Dylan. After G.E. left the band, Cesar stepped into the guitarist's slot, playing some 50 dates with Dylan. Cesar also played with Dylan when he won his Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1991. He left Dylan in ‘93 to devote more time to his family and amplifier business.

Back home, Cesar continued to develop and manufacture amplifiers, along with high-end guitar effects--all hand-made, in small production runs. He holds a patent in vibrato design. Diaz was approached by Fender to consult on the circuit design of the reisue of the '64 Vibroverb. " Back in the 80's Diaz restored and tweeks every inch of tone for artists such as SRV, Steve Jacobs and many others. Badell states, "Diaz used the same attention to detail on the reissue which to this day is in production". Numerous guitar stars cherish their Diaz amps. Richie Sambora uses his on the road and in the studio. Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and Jimmy Vivino (Conan O'Brian's guitar man) each own six Diaz Amps. The Tremodillo--Cesar's unique tremolo device--has been used on top-ten charting releases by Joan Osborne, Collective Soul, R.E.M. and other recording artists.

The publicly-visible aspects of Cesar's contributions to the music-- such as album and interview credits from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Neil Young and others--are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his impact on the sound of contemporary electric guitar. Any guitar player who has ever called on Cesar's services has come away from the experience with a whole new outlook on their instrument's voice and potential for the expression of musical feeling. Cesar's modifications of guitar pickups and his amp and guitar-effects innovations have been widely imitated by a whole new generation of equipment manufacturers. He has helped shape the sound of rock~n~roll history.