O.C. Record Producer Dies at 39 : Obituary: At his Fullerton studio, Charles (Chaz) Ramirez had engineered much of the local sound of the ‘80s.

Charles (Chaz) Ramirez, a record producer who helped shape some of the most memorable and widely heard rock music to have come out of Orange County over the past 11 years, died Wednesday at age 39 following an accidental fall.

At his tiny studio, Casbah, in Fullerton, Ramirez produced or engineered recording sessions by such bands as Social Distortion, Berlin, the Adolescents and Stryper. Ramirez and his studio played a vital role in fostering the punk rock boom that became Orange County’s signature contribution to ‘80s music.

Although he worked with numerous bands that had recording contracts and national reputations, he was perhaps most active helping local grass-roots bands gain vital studio experience.

“He never had aspirations to be Quincy Jones, because (hit-oriented pop) wasn’t the music he loved,” said John Mello, a musician and friend. “He believed in taking the raw, nasty kids, and putting out something with energy. He never seemed concerned with money, but he was one of the most successful businessmen I’ve ever known because he was happy in what he did.”

“He was a fun guy, probably one of the most well-liked guys I ever met,” said Mike Ness, leader of Social Distortion, the most successful product of the O.C. punk boom. “I don’t think he had an enemy in the world.” Ramirez co-produced Social Distortion’s first two albums, “Mommy’s Little Monster” and “Prison Bound,” and continued to help the band fashion its sound in demo sessions and rehearsals at Casbah after it graduated in 1990 to Epic Records.

“His significance with us was helping us shape ourselves, helping us achieve our own sound, achieve our own character,” Ness said. “He never tried to change us. We were able to do things the way we wanted to.”

Ramirez was able to branch beyond punk. He engineered Berlin’s hot-selling 1983 album, “Pleasure Victim.” And he worked closely with Stryper, the Christian heavy metal band whose glossier sound helped it become the best-selling Orange County rock band of the ‘80s.

Stryper’s former singer, Michael Sweet, said the band cut demos--preliminary versions--of all its albums at Casbah, with Ramirez engineering and advising.

“Chaz wasn’t just a punk rock producer at all,” Sweet said. “He 100% knew what he was doing, and he was one of the easiest guys to work with in the business.”

Ramirez also was a performing musician who, according to onetime partner Jon St. James, could play virtually any instrument. During the early ‘80s, he played in Eddie and the Subtitles, a local band that was influential on such younger Fullerton punks as the Adolescents and Social Distortion.

Ramirez’s mother, Sally, said her son was a bright student while growing up in Whittier. She and his father, Charles, bought him his first guitar when he was about 13, “and that started everything.” Ramirez became a partner in the studio he renamed Casbah in 1978. While other partners came and went, he was the studio’s dominant owner and creative force.

Friends said Ramirez had many talents and passions besides producing records.

“He was so many kinds of people,” Mello said. “A great record producer, a man who had a passion for remote-control (model) cars, an antique collector, a gizmo collector” who delighted in gathering used and broken amplifiers and electronic equipment and repairing it or using cannibalized materials to create musically useful gadgets such as guitar-distortion devices.

David Bay, Ramirez’s assistant at Casbah, said that passion for gathering and retooling electronic equipment is what took Ramirez to the Santa Ana warehouse where he suffered his fatal fall late Nov. 28 or early Nov. 29.

Bay said an electronics company had vacated the place, and Ramirez had received permission to remove unwanted wire and equipment. Bay said Ramirez climbed to the warehouse attic and was winding wire when the floor collapsed. Ramirez suffered severe head injuries, lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness before his death Wednesday at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Anaheim.

“So many of his (musician) friends were at the hospital. They stayed from morning to night,” keeping vigil before Ramirez’s death, his mother said. “I could tell they were heartbroken.”

Ramirez is survived by his parents and sisters, Christine Hodges and Lisa Lubeley. Services are at 10 a.m. today at San Antonio Catholic Church, Anaheim, with burial at Memory Garden Memorial Park, Brea.