Jordan Electronics shows a little black plastic box at the 1966 NAMM Show that you can plug directly into your guitar. At the time, it was hard to find affordable amps, so Jordan Electronics introduced this line of transistorized guitar amps that were really popular with bands like the Yardbirds, the Doors and the Mamas & the Papas. Originally, Jordan Electronics made medical equipment, but a young employee suggested that they explore the musical instrument market because the British Invasion had taken over the world and guitar was massive. In the mid-’60s, Victoreen Instruments formed another company called Jordan Electronics. **Although, if it was really top secret, would we be talking about it right now? I smell a rat, and not the kind that distorts guitar. If you are a fan of vintage sci-fi movies, chances are you have seen a Victoreen device being used in some completely ridiculous and out-of-context way. During World War II, they performed top-secret work for the first South Pacific atomic bomb tests.** Their gear was also used as props in tons of sci-fi films. Instead, they manufactured nuclear instruments and became known as the world's first nuclear company. In 1928, Jack launched the Victoreen Instrument Company, which had nothing to do with musical instruments. Tracking the amount of radiation you’re exposed to is good. Let me break it down:īeing exposed to radiation without protection is bad.

This guy, Jack, helped invent a device to track how much radiation you were exposed to at a time, so that doctors could measure it. Basically, the electrometer dosimeter was created to measure x-ray radiation, since x-ray technology had just started to take off in the medical field. This is a lot of technobabble, but it’s going to pay off.

I know you’re all thinking, “The electrometer dosimeter? How did the world even function before that was invented?” A physicist named Otto Glasser creates a device called the electrometer dosimeter with the help of radio parts manufacturer Jack Victoreen. The year is 1925, smack dab in the middle between World War 1 and World War 2. It starts in the 1920s (a full six years before the first electric guitar is invented) and it’s B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Jordan Electronics created some of the coolest effects units of the sixties and seventies, but before we start demoing the gear, I’ve got to talk about the story behind this company. This article is going to dig into the very weird, nuclear-powered, slightly radioactive history of a company called Jordan Electronics, and a device they invented called the Boss Tone. If that’s what you wanted (and I wouldn’t blame you if you did), then this ain’t the article for you. Okay, I’m just going to rip this bandaid right off: this article is not about the Space Jam Michael Jordan handheld electronic game from the ’90s.

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