This is one of those tricky topics to address in public, but I feel I need to do so. I am actually the original developer of the SoloAmp -- the concept, the name, the fundamental industrial design. I licensed the project to Larry Fishman in November of 2005 with the objective of seeing the product fast-tracked to production for the Summer NAMM Show in June 2006. I provided a project ready to take to final production engineering and tooling, including custom developed drivers and one functional engineering prototype. Larry did not want to agree to a substantial percentage royalty, nor pay a substantial up-front fee. So, I agreed to simply accept a running monthly payment from him for the rights for whatever period of time the product was active for Fishman.

July 1, 2007 Fishman terminated our rights agreement and stopped paying me, yet continued to develop the product. Now, the company has publicly announced the product, still without paying me.

I have just come out of a disastrous employment catastrophe working for a Chinese company (yes, in China), so simply do not have the money to attack Fishman legally at the moment and secure my rights to this I.P.

I have a pending trademark registration for "SoloAmp," as well as a pending US patent application for the self-contained portable line array amp system for guitar-vocal usage, with a documented development trail extending back to my first shop-built prototype in February of 2003.

Interestingly, Fishman has heavily *******ized the product concept I presented in 2005. The product as launched is larger, heavier, more expensive, and much more complex than my original version. All along the way I have counseled Larry against these wrong-minded distortions of the pure original SoloAmp. And, as Fishman has taken 2.5 years to do what should have been concluded in 6-months, I have continued to explore further development and have drastically improved from where I was in 2005 with this product.

I have the choice now of spending precious cash on either (a) an expensive legal fight, or (b) bringing my current, state of the art "SoloAmp" iteration to market. So, I am choosing to take my newest design to production and leave the inevitable legal battle for the future.

I will be launching my product at NAMM Show in Anaheim in January. It is 70% of the size of the Fishman product, 60% of the weight, has basic 2-channel mic + guitar I/O with reverb, and improves on the SPL and sound quality of the Fishman version -- including improving bass response. It will retail for $499.

Anyone buying a Fishman SoloAmp between now and January will have their heart broken by that choice as the Fishman product is destined to eventually be killed by legal action, and (b) my January product at $499 will exceed the performance of this Fishman product.

I'm not whining. Fishman gambled that I would remain out of the country and not fight this battle, and decided to proceed without honoring our contract terms. However, I am back in the USA now, and am not letting this slide. The purpose of this post is simply to put the truth into the public eye, before the readers here, and make it available to Google.

Finally, anyone immediately hopping to Google to see who this Jack Campbell guy (me) is will discover a crazy period of nastiness where I was regularly accused of being everything but a decent human being back in the 2003 - 2005 period as I was running a very controversial Apple accessories manufacturing company. I am not a popular guy, and I carry a horde of detractors around the web with me. I think Larry counted on these factors making his contract breach more palatable to the guitar community.

In any case, the SoloAmp is too big, too heavy, too complex, and way too expensive, and completely misses the mark I set with the original project Fishman licensed from me in 2005. Compared to other options, it's still a great choice... only about half as great as it should have been.

I'll be fixing those problems at the Anaheim show.

Hi, I have been reading about your plight, which I hope you resolve soon. Never was a fan of Fishman products.

Keep me posted of your own product development - I'd certainly be interested. I'm bilingual (Jpn/Eng), and could be of some help to you with the Japanese market, having lived here for 19 years and been involved in various aspects of the music/recording business. I'm also, as you may have guessed, an active musician, involved in events throughout Tokyo.

Sincerely.
Robin Watson.

It seems that Mr. Campbell has polluted many other forums and product comment with his tale of woe (and interestingly enough, has since removed many of them.) This forum should be a vehicle for those who have experience with the product once it hits the consumer market, not a forum for sore loosers.

I ask the Moderator/Webmaster to remove this thread and let it start with comments that have value. If Mr. Campbell's product is better than the Fishman product, we'll know for sure by NAMM 2009.