JOEMEEK company shake up.

I know several of us are engineers and several more have home studios. I'm a big fan of the JOEMEEK compressors (Steve shivers). I even have a goodwill endorsement with them. I was an early adopter of the boxes going all the way back. I called Jack Joseph Puig one day and he told me he used several of them on every mix he does. I got one of the first fifty in the country. Those older ones had insufficient power supplies which make them pump and weese extra hard.

So, I'm trying to uncover what is going on with the JOEMEEK stuff. As I understand it now, PMI (who distributed them) bought the name and trademark. Ted Fletcher, the designer, has started a new line of products called TF PRO. The JoeMeek stuff is now being re-designed and the Ted Fletcher stuff will be somewhat derivative of the old Meek stuff. Confused yet?

I went to Ted's new site and saw this from Alan at PMI in the guest book:

You are using joemeek.net, which is registered trademark of PMI Audio Group. As such that is a violation of our Trademark. You have been asked to remove any association of promoting your new products by using our registered trademark. Further more, I consider your remarks slanderous. It is you that are palming and passing off your products as Joemeek. As for Ted Fletchers designs, well the truth will come out very soon.

This is Ted's response:

Hi Alan, There have been some new developments....as expected. On 10th October I have called a creditors meeting at which a liquidator will be appointed. He will then liquidate the company collecting all the debts and paying off the creditors at a percentage..... but until the meeting, I can operate almost normally, and I can make decisions with regard to the assets of the company. I have already told the potential liquidator that you may be interested in acquiring the rights of the trademark. He has encouraged me to contact you to ask for an offer. The JOEMEEK mark is registered in UK and has 8 years to run. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Regards,

Ted Fletcher

I heard back from Alan at PMI. Here's what he said about the recent goings on.

Hey Jamie,

Yeah, I wanted to talk with you personally so you could get the scoop
direct from me and not hear any inaccurate information. Ted went bust,
and we bought the company, along with its assets that pertain to the
Trademark which are anything to do with the products.

I am sorry that Ted did not accept my offer when he went bust.
Everything could have been much easier, but he choose a route that is
now in conflict with me, so unfortunately, it is getting nasty. I will
never ask anyone to choose sides and will prefer the products to speak
for themselves, so when it comes to that, I am more than confident the
new Joemeek products will be ten times better. After all, I know the
design flaws of Ted's stuff. I never said it did not sound good, but I
always new it could sound much better if he had been willing to listen
and improve the products, rather than continue to make them less
expensive.

Anyway, I will keep you posted as I know when you see, hear and touch
the new products, you will understand what I am talking about.

Hope all is well, and I will see you soon.

Regards,

Alan

So, I go to the new Ted Fletcher site at joemeek.co.uk and it says it's been shut down. I emailed Ted and his son (who runs the company) answered.

Hi Jamie,

The new TFPRO web site will be up shortly, sporting the new colour... The
only delays to TFPRO launching have been due to legal threats resulting in
name and colour changes... but I assure you that the gear is now in final
stages of production and is looking great.

Enjoy those green machines!

Danny Fletcher


There's some nasty stuff going on.

 

Yea, what a shame.

Why tho, do I think that the PMI versions of the Joe Meek stuff is going to be run of the mill audio stuff?

 

That's what I thought too. Ted was the one designing the stuff but PMI owns his old designs. We'll have to see what these guys come up with.

 

PMI....as in Power Modules Inc.? They're making the (excellent) Belles amps these days. Very nice amps!