Mr. Payàs has devoted all his professional life to the promotion and diffusion of tube electronics. With a family atmosphere of entrepreneurs and industrialists, he was interested from the beginning in the world of sound and its relation with electronics.

While he was planning and designing amplifiers, he widened his commercial activity with the sales and distribution of electronic components and by being the agent in the whole country for renowned North American companies specialized in this field.

The first amplifier prototypes were high fidelity, immediately followed by those for musical instruments and recording studios. The majority of these first prototypes were used and are being used by professional musicians who have put to the test, with great success, the high standards of reliability and tone of the amplifiers.

In 2001 Joan Payàs, together with his partner Núria Moreno, named the first amplifiers Red Note, having been established since then. Later on, in 2003, and thanks to a mutual client, collaboration with instrument maker Josep Melo began.

This fructiferous collaboration has produced four models of guitar amplifiers which have become the definite base of this line of products.

At present, Joan is devoting his time to designing, making and distributing Red Note tube electronics.

CASTELLANO - UN POCO DE HISTORIA (PDF document)

Josep Melo’s family background allows him to combine intellectual work with craftsmanship. From a very early age he was obsessed with making guitars; as he grew older they went everywhere with him and he began to build up a collection. Apart from playing them he also studied their form, their design, their sound, the wood they were made from... The collection grew and so did his knowledge which was clearly contributed to by his training as a designer, and this afforded him a rigour in his work and in his thinking.

Moved by his thirst for learning and travel, he benefited from the experience and friendship of luthiers such as James L. D’Aquisto in New York, José Luis Romanillos in Guijosa, Jean Pierre Favino in Paris and David John Morse in California. In addition he often visited factories such as Martin&Co in Pennsylvania, Gibson in Nashville, Bozeman in Montana and Fender Custom in Corona, California. In the meantime, he studied classical guitar, and later, jazz guitar.

His dedication has meant that he can pour all of the experience, discernment and hopes, which make him the person that he is, into his guitar making. The end product is a collection of musical instruments of the highest quality, made with meticulous care and whose components, which are as noble as wood, are from natural origins and have been made according to the oldest and most esteemed traditions.