THE MAD PROFESSOR HISTORY

Let's jump back in time to the golden 70's...

Harri Koski has actively played guitar since mid 70..s and he is also an enthusiastic collector of vintage amps. Out of his love for hi-end guitar gear Harri founded in 1996 the Custom-Sounds - the first true boutique guitar gear shop in Europe. An important historical event related to the birth of Mad Professor Amplification was, that Custom-Sounds started out also as the worldwide distributor of BJF pedals, designed by Björn Juhl in Sweden, in 2000. This is when Harri and Björn got to know each other better.

Björn has earned a legendary reputation as a genius amp tech, after modifying countless tube amps for pro players in Sweden over the years. He knows the pro's and con's of pretty much every type of guitar amplifier ever built. The BJF pedals are probably the most sought after boutique guitar effects pedals on the market today, and Björn is widely recognized as one of the most talented amp/pedal designers ever.

The actual beginning of the Mad Professor story dates way back to 2001. Both Harri and Björn had a long-term experience with tube amps, and they weren't 100% happy with any of the existing amps they had played with. In 2001 they had a serious talk about the possibility of designing The Ultimate Guitar Amplifier of all time. Harri and Björn agreed that this amp should be designed completely from scratch, in order to make it right - instead of doing like others, cloning the classic amps, which all have certain shortcomings (more about that on our blog). Björn told Harri that he can design this amp, but he can't commit himself to building them, since he was already busy enough with his BJF pedals.

This is where Jukka "Bukka" Mönkkönen stepped in. Jukka has a long history as a trustworthy and qualified technician of pedals and amps in Finland, and he was more than happy to build real tube amps after fixing hundreds and hundreds of ValveState amps over the last three decades!

In the hot summer of 2002, the Ultimate Guitar Amp of all time - Mad Professor CS-40 - was finally born, and the official launch took place at the Great Scandinavian Guitar Show 2002 in Stockholm Sweden! The demand for BJF pedals had kept growing, and by 2005-2006 the waitlist was massive! At this point Björn Juhl came to an agreement with Mad Professor Amplification, and the manufacturing of BJF Design pedals started. The Mad Professor Amplification Ltd. was founded in October 2006, owned by Harri Koski and Jukka Mönkkönen. The company is constantly developing new amps and pedals designed by the one and only Björn Juhl.

May The Tone Be With You!