With Richie Castellano, Blue Oyster Cult guitar player at NAMM 2018, Anaheim, CA. Awesome player, guitar electronics guy, and quite the good pal and colleague. Love chatting about theatre with his family. They're all pretty cool people.
Photo by Richie Castellano
(left to right) Westlake Audio Recording reunion of Alex Davis (now with The Family Stone), Partev, Dave Carlock. And with them former Family Stone vocalist Trina Finn Johnson --- NAMM, Anaheim, CA (2011).
Partev, on his faults, Punch Bowl, CA. Found these two while on a geology field trip,… on the last hour, of the last day, of his professor’s last field trip as a teacher, before he went off to the private sector. Partev-1 is at his right and Partev-2 at his left. Joke is, yes, now it’s all his faults.
Photo by Professor Paul Scrivner
(Left to right) Jeff "Rizz" Rizzo, Alex Davis, Partev, Moe and William Shiverly at the post NAMM 2020 dinner gathering at Joe's Crab Shack in Anaheim, CA. Another good NAMM in the can.
More on slide rules revisited 12 July 2017.
Hanging with The Family Stone: (clockwise from left) bass guitar Blaise Sison, friends of the band, vocalist Phune Stone (center), another friend, trumpet player Cynthia Robinson, our friend Pharaoh, keyboards and guitar Alex Davis and Partev. At P.F. Chang's in Woodland Hills, CA, after the concert June 2015. Check out The Family Stone at, http://www.thefamilystonemusic.com/ .
Photo by Pharaoh
Partev hanging with my pal Kelly Zirbes of Kelly's Lot at http://www.kellyslot.com/ (far right) and her pals at NAMM, Anaheim, CA, January 2015.
Photo by Casey Reagan
Shawn Phillips from Ft Worth, TX, in for service on his JTV-69 guitar and JM4 Looper. He played some great music while doing a check out on his gear. Working good now. What he can do with a guitar and a looper is nothing short of amazing. Great music, great guy.
Check it out at http://shawnphillips.com/
Photo by Mark Tabbert (July 2016)
What a guitar sees before Partev works on it.
Waiting for Dr Who to come out of his TARDIS in front of the Earls Court Tube Station, London, England, UK (circa 2010).
Photo by Partev
Barry Mitchell’s Variax 900 Acoustic
Photo by Freddy Aguilera
Left to right: Dave Meros from Spock's Beard at http://spocksbeard.com/ , Scotish drummer Ray Weston in the present line-up of Iron Butterfly, and Partev at the right, at The Canyon Club, in Agoura Hills, CA (May 2016). Check out http://www.ironbutterfly.com/ .
Photo by Stan Ausmus
(Left to right) Mitsutoyo "Mitsu" Keto of Yamaha Support, Tony Reese of YGGI/Line 6 Support, Yusuke Honda of Yamaha Support at the 2019 Yamaha Service Managers gathering in Hamamatsu, Japan. Mitsu and Yusuke are fans of Partev's work. Great bunch of guys.
Left to right: amazing drummer Kane and Ron “Rocket” Ritchotte (Iron Butterfly, Magic, Gold, Kibbey’s Dream, et al) and Partev. Rocket is one of Partev's favourite guitar players. At a birthday party for audio engineer Bobby Katz. Rocket, Bobby and Partev have known each other from their days at Bushwack Studios (1975-1979).
Photo by Dave Pearlman of Pearlman Microphones, known Dave since 1990.
Line 6 booth after show gathering of the Facebook Helix Users Group- Chris, Partev and Mark. Photo by Mark.
Partev Barr Sarkissian:
"If you were to ask me what it is I'm into, I'd simply answer- art, science and technology. I know, that covers a lot of territory".
Born in the San Diego, California suburb of National City, and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, and comes from an artistically inclined family.
Art,…
Maternal grandfather was a painter, so Partev and his cousins learned about art at an early age. He learned to draw by age-5, paint by age-7 and framed his first painting at age-11. He took up photography and later film, doing 16mm film editing (or film cutting) at his middle school. Also in middle school he took up industrial drawing which later lead to aeronautical engineering studies in high school.
His dad and two paternal uncles were former performers involved in stage, music, radio, film, and some early television. Partev caught the bugs at an early age, doing drawing, painting, still photography and film one minute, then music and theatre the next. From primary school to the present Partev continues to be involved in both the visual arts (drawing, painting, photography and film) and performing arts (acting, film and music).
One uncle was a vocalist and concert grade violinist who studied and taught violin at the Music Conservatory in Mexico City. Later he became a contract player at MGM Studios, acting in seven films under the stage name Carlos Conde from about 1950 to 1954.
Little by little, his dad and uncles had given up show biz by the time Partev was born. But he caught the bug at an early age, doing music and acting at his middle school, and working backstage on community amateur theatre productions that his father was in.
... Science,...
From science to technology, Partev developed a scientific curiosity at about age two or three, while living in the deserts of Baja, Mexico, a couple miles or three south of Tijuana (TJ),… out in the middle of nowhere. Curious about his surroundings with nothing but nature all around him, it’s easy to develop a scientific curiosity in a place like that.
In middle school and high school, it was the big three- biology, chemistry and physics. And in high school, was doing slide rule math for aeronautical engineering. In his high school senior year, Partev and four of his industrial drawing and design classmates were consulted on and made design modifications to an aircraft project that the metal shop was working on, which flew pretty well later on.
… and Technology:
With background in music, electronics and physics, at 19 years old he worked as a crew member for the rock band Iron Butterfly in his off-hours, when not building mainframe computer printers. From Iron Butterfly’s Bushwack Studios, to Crest Audio, from A/V install work (for film TV and recording industry) to Xantech (made those blue audio panels for Border Bookstores), Art & Technology (built the ET Ride and Yogi Bear sound effects kiosk for Universal Tours, Florida), Alesis to Westlake Audio Recording, Pentadyne and their Flywheel Technology, OSI Electronics, Panavision and Line 6, Inc,… Partev has become something of a fixture in the tech world.
Vox Musica:
Partev studied music composition from the late 60's through the late 70's in high school and Los Angeles Pierce College before switching to electronics. He’s performed on, engineered and/or produced numerous demo recordings for people over the decades.
From September 1974 to December 1983, Partev was a tenor vocalist in a choral group where he recorded 20 albums (2-studio albums, 18-live concert albums) now out of print at this time.
Besides crewing for Iron Butterfly at their Bushwack Studios, Partev also did music notation and music arranging, working with the bands Iron Butterfly (1975-77) and their spin-offs Magic (1977-78) and Gold (1978-79), songwriter John Koehring (1976-79), drummer and song writer Walt Kibbey, and keyboardist Larry Rust from the band Elvin Tongue (1976-79). Partev also played the occasional acoustic 12-string guitar on work tapes, jams and demos recorded with a mix of the Bushwack Bunch (1975-79).
Between 1985 and 1993, Partev worked on six independent film shorts (three as actor, four as music composer and all six as sound recorder, post production and all around tech) working with long time friend and associate he’s known since his Bushwack Studio days, Noel Crispin Pratt. Partev and Cris composed, arranged, scored music and post production audio on four of those six indie films, including the 1989 Cine Golden Eagle Award winning indie film short Typist In Trouble by Matt Ratalsky.
Partev returned to music studies in 2004, taking courses in electronic music under music composer/professors David Pinto and Michael Watts. Partev received a Certificate of Achievement in Electronic Music, in June 2006. More recently Partev can be seen in You Tube video by "panawill" as a submission to the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Charlie Video' contest (2007).
Guitar, Music Gear and All That:
At two years old Partev starting plucking away at guitars when his dad came home with a Mexican made guitar. Started learning to play at around twelve years old, and at fourteen decided to take it seriously. That meant getting into it all the way, learning to play, maintain, repair, build or re-build guitars, studying the acoustics and structures that go with it (both for acoustic and electric guitars).
Later adding other strings, keyboards, drums and percussions, and non-reeded woodwinds, along all the electronics gear that goes with it amps, mixers, movie cameras and other audio/ visual gear. Finally, at nineteen, Partev started doing it for a living when he met Ron Bushy and got pulled into the world of the band Iron Butterfly,... and he never looked back. Building computer printers by day working, by night going to college, and working at Bushwack on his off-hours. The rest, as they say, is history,... or rock music history. Later, he added a whole host of audio, visual and radio/microwave/lightwave-communications gear.
Academia:
Partev received six Certificates of Completion in Computer Aided Drafting from the Industrial Arts Department (between 1995 to 2003).
Also received four two-year vocational Certificate of Achievement, one for Analog Electronics, one for Communications Electronics and one for Digital Electronics, all three in (1998), and a fourth in Electronic Music from the Music Department (2006)
And finally an Associate in Science Degree in Electronics from the Electronics Department (2006),
… in all, one Associates in Science Degree and 10 academic Certificates, all from Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California.
Hanging Out Among, "the Brain Wave Crowd" (though I'm not one myself):
Partev is a Member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) since about 1983, and since 16 May 2011 is a member of their Technical Committee on High Resolution Audio (TC-HRA). He is a Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 1983, and since 1996 is a member of The Oughtred Society (a society of Slide Rule calculator and Slide Rule math enthusiasts).
Partev likes to go to the U.K. and visit the Masters program, Media Arts Technology (MAT) and the PhD program, The Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) both at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) in Mile End. Headed by Mark Sandler, Mark Plumbley and Partev’s friend, lecturer and reader Josh Reiss. It's where fascinating research and innovations into electronics, digital music, and multimedia technology is being done.
Partev is a user of the software synthesizers Reason by Propellorhead and Arturia's Modular Moog V. He is also a user of the open source software Csound, and is a member of and sometimes contributor to the Csound User Group's email-group.
The Theatre:
“People say that I have a girlfriend in London, England, because I go there so much. I tell them yes,… her name is, The Theatre”. In Los Angeles, Theatre in general is an after-thought. The UK in general and London in particular, they take art and culture more seriously. It’s engrained in their culture, so their theatre is top notch and a big part it. The Theatre there,… “it’s the best,… I can’t get enough of it”.
Partev, Walter Kibbey & Kibbey's Dream :
Being both musician and technician, Partev is co-producer of, and did the mastering and graphic cover art for, the Kibbey's Dream CD's Transistor City, Lover's Tree and the upcoming Power Lines, by Walter Kibbey. Transistor City is available at http://cdbaby.com/cd/kibbeysdream
To contact Partev and his mates, you can email him or leave a message at:
partev@partev.com
partev@cs-darkstar.com
partev@kibbeysdream.com
If a hyperlink does not operate, simply copy and paste the address selection into your browser address window, and “ENTER” key,…
Partev’s Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/partev.sarkissian
Call Sign Dark Star Home Page
www.cs-darkstar.com
Call Sign Dark Star My Space page
https://myspace.com/cs-darkstar
Walt Kibbey's Home Page
www.kibbeysdream.com
Kibbey's Dream page on CDbaby
http://cdbaby.com/cd/kibbeysdream
Walt Kibbey and Kibbey's Dream My Space page
https://myspace.com/kibbeys_dream
For Iron Butterfly
http://www.ironbutterfly.com/
Saturday Night Sound Check with Larry Rust, web radio show with former keyboardist/vocalist for Iron Butterfly
http://www.srrocks.com/
The video by "panawill", submitted to the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Charlie Video' contest (2007), go to-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqYnOWVG2fM
Other links of interest,…
Audio Engineering Society (AES)
www.aes.org/
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
www.ieee.org/
The Oughtred Society for slide rule enthusiasts.
www.oughtred.org/
Csound
www.csounds.com/
SoCal classical guitar world in Ventura County with Be Shearer and the Ventura County Classical Guitar Society.
http://www.vccgs.com/home.html
For the microtonal music world in general and in Los Angeles.
http://www.microfest.org/
http://www.microfest.org/about-john-schneider/
Our friend Pharaoh, a follower and student of the music theory of Joseph Schillinger. Find Pharaoh and his music at,...
The music theory of Joseph Schillinger.
https://www.facebook.com/practicalschillinger/
http://www.schillingersociety.com/
Wolfram
A place for math nuts like me, to go and explore. Math,… it opens up the universe up to us all. Enjoy the exploration of the universe.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
Electric Engineering Dept.
Queen Mary University of London, in Mile End, London, UK.
www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/digitalmusic/
and
The Centre for Digital Music (C4DM),
Queen Mary University of London, in Mile End, London, UK.
http://c4dm.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/
and
Media and Arts Technology (MAT)
Queen Mary University of London, in Mile End, London, UK.
http://www.mat.qmul.ac.uk/about-us/
For the London Theatre scene (it's the best, I just can't get enough of it).
http://londontheatredirect.com/
and
http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/
For the Cine Golden Eagle Film and Video Competition, and the 1989 Winner Directory for "Typist in Trouble" by Matt Ratalsky.
https://cine.org/about-cine/
and
www.cine.org/directories/1989-CINE-Winner-Directory.pdf
Film-maker Sean Zaccheo of Zaccheo Films and the film Accidents Happen.
Be careful whom you harm, it can come back on you. After all,... Accidents Happen.
http://cargocollective.com/zaccheofilms
Eddie Ciletti: like an electronics Hobbit, from Digital Audio to Vacuum Tubes, there and back again!
www.tangible-technology.com/
Robert "Stretch" Schoonraad, technician, vacuum tube valve amp guy, guitar player and really a cool guy.
http://www.valleysoundla.com/
Partev is on a paper as technician, testing bacterial control systems in cooling towers used in High Volume Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, for commercial buildings, published in July 2003. Our paper on Bacterial Control with Ozone, Water Quality Products magazine, July 2003 W. Craig Meyer and Partev B. Sarkissian, Pierce College, Woodland Hills, CA
https://www.wqpmag.com/sites/wqp/files/ACF1BED.pdf
Thank you Jon for getting me set-up, and thank you Andrew for helping me get it all updated, sorted out and up and running again.
Copyright 2017, P.B. Sarkissian
We is bad,.. we do rock-n-roll. Partev and Tony hamming it up at a couple of after work, after hour gatherings and music jams at Line 6, Inc. Rock on!
With his pal from the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Ozzie Sutherland of Euphonix, during NAMM, Anaheim, CA (2013). Photo by Cris Pratt
Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy and Partev (January 2011). Ron and Partev have known each other since late August 1975.
Photo by Nancy Bushy
(from the left) Jeff "The Rizz" Rizzio, Alex and Partev at the annual post 2017 NAMM dinner at Morten's Steak House, Anaheim, CA.
Photo by Morten's staff, using Alex's Phone
(from the left) Alex, Pharaoh, Malik, Jeff "The Rizz" Rizzio, Moe and Partev at their annual post 2016 NAMM dinner at Morten's Steak House, Anaheim, CA.
Photo by Marissa
-- Partev and the World of Rock-N-Roll--
Line 6 University- where they give talks are about hobbies, outside interests and such. Partev, James and Chiron (out of frame) working with John Osborne's Optical Therimins (March 2016). Partev giving a talk on slide rule calculators (November 2014). Below: And since 2016 was an Olympic year, Partev gave a foil fencing demonstration with Eric. Engarde, advance, parry and a Touche' Turtle. Partev started fencing when he was 12, taught by wrtier/actor/make-up man Pete Deyell.
Photos by Loretta and Susan.
Partev with Cris Pratt,... they came from out of the woodwork.
Guitar built by Sidney, Australian guitar maker Charles Cilia, for Stevic McKay of the Australian band Twelve Foot Ninja. It has Line 6 circuits in it. He brought it to an engineers at Line 6, who gave it to Partev to troubleshoot an electronics problem. Fixed it test played it,... it's an exquisite guitar and Stevic some does awesome guitar playing. Wonderful guitar, I couldn't put it down. Thank you Stevic.
Photo by Freddy Aguilera (September 2016)
The Bob Moog Foundation- Thank you Michelle Moog-Koussa for the photo of this piece of history,... Bob Moog's slide rule calculator, used to solve the math used to create his great synthesizer products.
Audio recording room at Los Angeles Pierce College (2006), doing a class project for an Electronics Music course as a student .
Photo by Phillipe Aubouchan
Custom rebuilt JTV-69 US, made from prototype spare parts from the engineering department, as a favour for one of the guys in IT.
Photos by Freddy Aguilera.
NAMM 2019, another NAMM in the can, at Joe's Crab Shack, Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, CA- (left to right) Jeff "Rizz" Rizzo, Partev, Alex Davis, Terre Holland. And as they say in Ireland, ""... and the craic be good". Good food, good pals, good stories, and a good time was had by all. Photo by Jeff and our server.
Hanging with Gino and his spaniel Sarge. Sarge once saved Gino’s life, so Sarge was the most pampered spaniel around, except for maybe Felicity Kendal’s spaniel. Sarge, you were a great old dog.
Photo by Gino
Helene Webman, Partev and Ofer Webman at the Tone Wood Booth, NAMM 2019 in Anaheim, CA.
-- Partev In the World of Guitar Work --
Partev and Pharaoh selfie at the 2015 NAMM, Anaheim, CA. Pharaoh is a friend and student of the Schillinger theory of music. Check out Pharaoh at http://www.manishboyz.com/ .
Ricki bass guitar in a Stew-Mac Neck Jig. Replaced the bridge/tailpiece and checked the internal electronics (solder points and cleaned contacts). Rounded, worked and dressed some rather worn frets. Sounded great when it was completed. Me and Ricki.
Photo by Mike “Hatz” Hatzinger
Partev hanging with long time pal, colleague and guitar wizard, The Electric Detective himself, Rick Brannon at NAMM, Anaheim, CA (2013).
Partev, Jeff "The Rizz" Rizzo, Alex, Kim and friends at the post 2018 NAMM dinner at Morten's Steak House, Anaheim, CA. Another NAMM in the can. Good food, good company and good atmosphere. And a good time was had by all before going off to the four points of the compass.
Photo by Morten's staff, using Alex's Phone
Partev’s English coffee shop pal Hugh Greville-Morris. One of the best chaps you could ever meet (Café Nero, Kings Rd, Chelsea, London, UK, 28 December 2008). That Café Nero location and unfortunately Hugh are both gone, but Hugh is not forgotten.
Photo by Partev.
Carlos Rios (Chick Corea, Stevie Nicks, et al) and Frankie Stein, a custom left-handed Tragg SG copy with JTV electronics in it. A favour for the boss and Carlos.
Photos by Freddy Aguilera
--- General Photos ---
Photo by Phillipe Aubouchan
Customized JTV-89F with three pick-ups, by my pal guitar maker Touch Singleton for guitar player and Line 6 endorser Oz Noy. Came to me for some last minute electronics mods. Nice job Touch.
Photos by Freddy Aguilera
A pleasure to work on these Line 6 guitars for Ted Leonard (Spock’s Beard), Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind), Richie Castellano (Blue Oyster Cult), Jennifer Batten, Robert Sarzo (Queensryche), Carlos Rios (Chick Corea, Stevie Nicks), Stevic McKay (Twelve Foot Ninja), Oz Noy, David Freiberg (Jefferson Starship), Dave Mason's guitarist, Trevor Rabin (Yes, et al), Shawn Phillips, Partev’s old Line 6 pal Cosmo Watts (played with numbers of notables) and others.
2019 NAMM, Anaheim, CA- (left to right) Dave, Alex Davis, Partev, Jeff "Rizz" Rizzo and Terre Holland. Gangs all here and ready for audio.
Partev hanging with David Pearlman at the Pearlman Microphones booth at NAMM, Anaheim, CA (2013). Check out https://pearlmanmicrophones.com/ .
Thank you Jon for getting me set-up, and thank you Andrew for helping me get it all updated, sorted out and up and running again.
Copyright 2021, P.B. Sarkissian
Left to right: Zoe Webman, Partev, Helene and Ofer Webman. Hanging out with my people at Tone Wood Amp, NAMM, Anaheim, CA, January 2017. I love these people, and their product too. Check it out at https://www.tonewoodamp.com/
Hanging and doing a selfie with the ever awesome, young and talent in music, art and culture, Stephanie Yavelow. Her dad Christopher Yavelow is one of my favourite composers and electronic music people.
Got my 6-inch Sterling slide rule calculator, in my The Bob Moog Foundation pocket protector (thank you Michelle Moog-Koussa), in my Pearlman Microphones shirt pocket (Dave, thanks for putting pockets in your shirts),....now I'm ready for a day of audio work. Cup of coffee or tea and the day is complete.