A young Austin Symphony violinist named Leah had trouble connecting her violin to the sound systems of music clubs when sitting in with local Austin bands. The Baggs-equipped violin sounded strange when she plugged it in to each club's DI, not anything like the beautiful tone her instrument could produce. I volunteered to shop around and buy her a good preamp. She wanted a single box with a Solo Boost Button that would match the instrument pickup, and she wanted it to fit in her violin case. I couldn't find such a thing in the music stores, so I made her one.

An Austin musician named Marvin plays both acoustic guitar and mandolin on stage and had difficulty switching instruments when running two separate Red-Eye setups. It also used up two XLR inputs on mix boards, and he had to swap his tuner around. When he swapped instruments, sometimes the unused instrument would be set down too close to a monitor and would cause feedback. He asked if I could make him a preamp that would make playing two instruments a bit less frustrating. So I made him the first "Twin".

Music venue sound technicians kept asking for a simple Red-Eye Preamp without the Boost and Treble controls, but with the same high input-impedance and clean tone as the original. They asked that it use Phantom Power from the mixboard and no battery. So I made the Dee-Eye for them.