A Eunuch in a Harem

Abstract

Abstract The Abominatron was an unexpected hit at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention, attracting the attention of luminaries and musical heavy-hitters such as Alwin Nikolais, Eric Siday, Lejaren Hiller, and people from the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Bob found himself taking orders for modules, something he’d never anticipated. Nikolais and Siday become his first customers. But in the meantime, he needed to roll out the high-end amp (dubbed the PMS-15) because the business had lost $28,000. Tooling up to produce 100, he ended up selling three—a catastrophic end to a two-year project. But success at AES gave him hope and he threw himself into hawking the new equipment, taking an ad in a 1965 AES journal, and attending the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) convention. No sales were secured at the convention, but Bob met George Kelischek, an instrument builder who would become very influential in his life.