NAMM every year , you could not ignore them . Darrell invited me to come to lunch and checkout Line 6 and meet some folks . After this , I really thought I would love to work for them . Darrell had me do a report about what I would do with bass amps for bass players if it were up to me . I did a 3-page report and Darrell shared it with management and he came back to me and said that everyone liked my report and he thought I would be perfect for the product but wanted to know if I had any financial experience . I told him that I was the controller at Fernandes for eight years and Tyler ’ s bookkeeper before that . This started my seven years as a product manager and more at Line 6 . He and I brought the LowDown bass amps , Spider III with the artist presets , Spider Valve with Bogner , Spider Jam , M13 , M9 and the James Tyler Variax guitars to the market . It was an incredible place to work at because of the caliber of people I got to work with . It was just amazing .
One of Rich ’ s beta testers for the JTVs was Dwayne Larring in 2009
[ WM ] When you were at Line 6 , I told you that I believed 30 % of all new guitars , amps and effect pedals were purchased by the modern worship guitar players . You went digging into warranty cards and other “ inside ” information and after calculating your findings , you then started placing Line 6 ads with us . Tell us about those efforts you took ?
[ Rich ] You were ahead of the curve . You knew this in your guts and then around 2010 NAMM announced to the industry that churches were buying more gear than secular venues . But after you sparked my interest , I started looking into it and reaching out to houses of worship and found this to be very true . I think you introduced me to Lincoln Brewster who remains a good friend . The more I dug into it the more I realized that houses of worship really benefited from Line 6 technology . I had dozens of beta testers from this segment in my tribe . One of the key guys was Dwayne Larring . He was in the original Sonicflood and very connected in the worship market . Because of him I met more and more cats that helped me really understand what kinds of things were needed for that market . He was the first person outside of Line 6 to see
FOH for Volto at the Yestival
a basic drawing of the M13 .
[ WM ] You left Line 6 at some point to become a full-time mix engineer . I remember that because you would come up to our Christian Musician Summit conference and just drive artists to and from the airport for us . How did you come to leave such a great company ?
[ Rich ] I love making products and have loved all my full-time normal jobs , but my first love is and will always be playing music , mixing music , etc . In 2012 I left Line 6 to be a full-time mix engineer . I started mixing live bands when
I was in high school in 82 ’. I mixed my mom Sharon ’ s Christian rock band . They were called Foundation Rock . I learned so much from the bass player , Harvey Olsen , in that band about running a mixing board and getting sounds . At Dick Grove School of music in 87 ’, I had a production class as well as an engineering class where I learned from an engineer who had worked with Bruce Hornsby .
Also , in 1985 , before I came out to California , Bryan Carlstrom went to Los Angeles Recording Workshop and got a job working for Track Record in Hollywood . If you remember ,