Boutique amplifier is a catch-all descriptor for any type of
instrument amplifier that is typically hand built with the intention of being much better than the mass-produced variety offered by large companies. In the majority of cases, this is reflected in the price. Sometimes they are ''clones'' of older designs, often with minor improvements or alterations in layout or circuit design; sometimes they are new designs altogether.
The boutique term are also used among effect pedals, such as the manufacturer Analog Man.
History
California company
Mesa Boogie
Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969.
Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a s ...
can lay claim to being perhaps the earliest boutique amp company: their late 1960s
Mark series, based on the ubiquitous
Fender Princeton "study" amp but "hot-rodded", quickly established a reputation for tone and volume, and was used by, among others,
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound feature ...
.
Since the advent of the boutique amp age, larger companies have released reissues of their classic designs, touting their faithfulness to the original sound and the labor-intensive building process.
Common elements
Some common features of boutique amplifiers include
point-to-point or
turret board construction, heavy-duty chassis,
NOS vacuum tubes
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as a ...
, and high-end electronic parts and speakers.
Notable manufacturers
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Gjika Amplification
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Bogner Amplification
Bogner Amplification is an American guitar amplifier manufacturing company founded by Reinhold Bogner in 1989 in Los Angeles, California. Bogner began by custom-building boutique amplifiers based on classic (blackface) Fenders, and now offers dif ...
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Fryette Amplification
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Carr Amplifiers
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65amps
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Matchless Amplifiers
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Dumble Amplifiers
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Trainwreck Circuits
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Carol-Ann Amplifiers
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Van Weelden Amplifiers
See also
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Tube sound
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boutique Amplifier
Instrument amplifiers