A Short History of Boomerang Musical Products
Boomerang Musical Products was founded as a partnership between Lee Hardesty and Mike Nelson and is based near Dallas, Texas. BMP has been doing business since 1 Jan 1995.
The idea for the original Boomerang® Phrase Sampler popped into Mike's head in 1989 after scouring the MI market for a quality looping device and coming up empty handed. With Lee's assistance Mike created a prototype looper later that year, but busy lives and children kept the guys from taking the project to the next level. In the summer of 1994 they revisited the idea of founding a company based on a looper, and decided to get serious.
Lee added the volume roller concept, then proceeded to design the production circuit, chassis and software; Mike helped with ergonomic design and styling. When they thought they were ready, the public was notified of this cool new product by a small ad in one guitar magazine. It was a modest start, but now the Boomerang® Phrase Sampler is available across the USA, Japan, Australia and in many European countries, and has received favorable reviews from Guitar Player, Premier Guitar, Bassics, Guitar Shop and Recording magazines. Many professional players in virtually all styles of music have embraced the Boomerang® looper: guitarists, bass players, vocalists, sax and trombone players, violinists, keyboard artists and others.
Lee Hardesty was born in Lima, Ohio, and was interested in both guitar and electronics at an early age. When he was 16 years old, his family moved to Dallas, Texas. In the late 1960's Lee was guitarist for the regional bad boy band called The Briks. They wore the most black leather, had the longest hair, played the loudest and had the toughest attitude of all the Dallas area bands in the late 1960's. With time Lee mellowed a bit and shifted to country rock with a band named Bigfoot, and went to college to complete a degree in mathematics. During this same period Lee, always up for a technical challenge, designed and built his own eight channel recording mixer. In more recent times, he worked at Showco, Inc., one of the largest providers of touring sound systems in the world; Showco Prism systems have been used by many top touring rock and country artists. Lee was their one man research and development team, and developed the proprietary crossover and phase alignment system for the Prism system. Showco was purchased by Clair Brothers a several years ago.
Mike Nelson was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Mike started playing guitar at age 10 and wound up playing the same clubs as Lee with his band, The Sen-sa-shuns, so the two met. Mike dropped out of college in 1969 to play professionally and later joined the band, Gladstone, which had a top twenty hit called "A Piece of Paper" in 1973. The band broke up and Mike returned to college to get a degree in chemistry and computer science, supporting himself by playing on the weekends. Mike still gigs with bands Hat Trick and The MojoMen. Before quitting to devote all his energies to BMP, Mike was a programmer for Varilite, Inc., one of the premier automated lighting companies in the world.
The two have been friends for decades, have played guitar for decades, have performed professionally for decades, and are accomplished technical guys. Their passion for music and innovative technical ideas will lead to some very interesting products over the next few years.
