A native of Puerto Rico Cesar Carrillo Diaz
was playing guitar by age six. Listening to records by Robert Johnson and Sonny Terry sparked an early love for blues music. At 12, he was guitarist for The Hungry Men, where he would remain until 1969, when he came to the mainland with Johnny Nash (of I Can See Clearly, Now fame), before moving on to join Frijid Pink. In 1970, he met G.E. Smith, and they have been friends ever since.
During the seventies, Cesar played a major role in the then- developing market for vintage tube pow- ered guitar amplifiers. Guitar World magazine the publication that dubbed him The Amp Doctor, has characterized him as the guiding light of tube-amp restoration. Over the course of that decade, Cesar located, restored and returned to productive musical use countless vintage tube amplifiers and opened the ears of a horde of guitar players to hidden worlds of tone and expression they never knew could be drawn from their instruments.
In 1979, Cesar befriended the as-yet-unsigned Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom he outfitted with the amp- lifier and speaker setups on which that guitarist's sound would go on to conquer the blues world. His friendship with Vaughan would last until the guitarist’s untimely death in 1990. We were real close. He was a good friend, Diaz says No one can take Stevies place.
By the early eighties, Cesar was designing and hand-building prototype amps that would evolve into his own line of limited-production guitar equipment. Meanwhile, he continued locating and restoring vintage amplifiers for such guitar luminaries as Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.
Diaz met Clapton through a member of the Rolling Stones camp; he worked with the Stones and Keith Richards from 82 to87. Diaz served as Clapton’s technical advisor on the Journeyman album.
In 1986, G.E. Smith, who just joined Bob Dylans band, brought Cesar on board to tend to the two guit- arists gear and tone. That began Cesars six-year association with Dylan. After G.E. left the band, Cesar stepped into the guitarists slot, playing some 50 dates with Dylan. Cesar also played with Dylan when he won his Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1991. He left Dylan in 93 to devote more time to his family and amplifier business.
Back home, Cesar continued to develop and manufacture amplifiers, along with high-end guitar effects all handmade, in small production runs. Numerous guitar stars cherish their Diaz amps. Richie Sambora uses his on the road and in the studio. Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and Jimmy Vivino (Conan O Brians guitar man) each own six Diaz Amps. The Tremodillo Cesars unique tremolo device has been used on top-ten charting releases by Joan Osborne, Collective Soul, R.E.M. and other recording artists.
The publicly-visible aspects of Cesars contributions to the music such as album and interview credits from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Neil Young and others are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his impact on the sound of contemporary el- ectric guitar. Any guitar player who has ever called on Cesars services has come away from the experience with a whole new outlook on their instruments voice and potential for the expression of musical feeling. Cesars modifications of guitar pickups and his amp and guitar-effects innovations have been widely imitated by a whole new generation of equipment manufactur- ers. He has helped shape the sound of rock~n~roll history.
 
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