Boutique Amp Distribution burned down last night

[golem]

https://www.gearnews.com/boutique-amps- ... dman-amps/

They manufacture for a lot of the boutique brands: Friedman Amplification, Wampler, Soldano, Egnator, Diezel Synergy, Matthews Effects, Tone King, Bogner and Morgan.

[uwmcscott]

That sucks, lots of nice names on that list.

[mickey]

Well, that is one way to raise prices without everyone getting P.O.'d at you!

[Chocol8]

This is bad! I was just talking to my local shop last week and they were already having a hard time getting amps to sell. Mesa Boogie, for example, has already stopped taking orders for 2021! Now Friedman, Soldano, Egnator, Bogner and Morgan are going to be unavailable as well! There won’t be much for the small shops to sell, since they usually can’t carry Fender or Marshal amps. Yikes!

[Partscaster]

Thats a lot of good young amps that never got to rock.

[toomanycats]

I'm more surprised to learn that all of these boutique brands are made at the same facility, which would imply that they might not be so unique as one might imagine. I had thought that high end amps like these were hand built in a dedicated small shop by a small number of technicians whose entire focus was that brand.

[golem]

@toomanycats Even though it's in my nature to bring that sort of thing up, I was going to skip it this time. I've also hard mixed things about getting service of BAD gear when it fails (which is actually how I found out about BAD in the first place).

[Chocol8]

Most small amp makers are their own shop, many with just one builder. Those guys mostly sell direct. Soldano started that way, grew into a slightly bigger but still small operation, and then when Mike wanted to retire, he shut down and later sold/licensed to BAD. I don’t really know the history of the other BAD brands, but I think they may own some, and simply handle manufacturing for others.

As far as the designs, the BAD brands all started with separate designers, but so many tube amps are simply modifications of just a handful of prior designs. Marshall’s evolved from the Tweed Bassman, the Soldano SLO from a Marshall, the 5150 series evolved from the SLO and Marshall’s, Friedmans similar. Even the Dumbles are an evolution of a Fender Blackface circuit. There has been very little originality in tube amps since the 60’s.

[LightWingStudios]

Their guitar manufacturing area took it in the neck too. Bummeroonski!

[Mossman]

I'm more surprised to learn that all of these boutique brands are made at the same facility, which would imply that they might not be so unique as one might imagine. I had thought that high end amps like these were hand built in a dedicated small shop by a small number of technicians whose entire focus was that brand.

I don't really consider these brands to be "boutique". To me, boutique is special-order, custom-made to your specs. They don't start building the amp/guitar until you order it. I think of Friedman and the rest as more like "cottage" manufacturers. Their amps are still hand-wired and built by a small number of technicians... They're just doing it in a building that they share with a number of other manufacturers. Probably to defray the costs of owning and maintaining a manufacturing facility on their own. It's not like they were farming out the manufacturing to some faceless, automated factory that churns them out on an assembly line for various brands. It's quaint and romantic to imagine a half dozen people lovingly crafting these amps and guitars in a rustic workshop out in the woods somewhere, but they need to turn out more than one or two products a month.

On a side note; Friedman said he didn't know what used to be in that building... I think it used to be an aircraft manufacturing plant. You see a lot of them in California. The building that I work in looks like that on the inside (though it's not nearly as big as that place), and that's what they used to do there. I recognized the arrangement of iron beams and tracks running up near the ceiling. Those tracks were for cranes that transported large aircraft parts from one part of the building to another.

[Tonray's Ghost]

Well, that is one way to raise prices without everyone getting P.O.'d at you!

Well they keep saying that inflation is 'amping' up..

[Mossman]

Well, that is one way to raise prices without everyone getting P.O.'d at you!

Well they keep saying that inflation is 'amping' up..

[insert rim shot]
[insert groan]

[golem]

I've heard people refer to boutique as having more to do with size. At some scale of manufacturing, like Suhr, it has to stop being called boutique.

Whatever Boutique is, it's still sad to see BAD's facility burndown.

[uwmcscott]

Whatever Boutique is, it's still sad to see BAD's facility burndown.

This was posted by Dave Friedman himself yesterday (below)- looks like perhaps the amp facility itself was not as badly damaged as other parts of the building, but i'm sure it's still a mess no matter what. Fortunately no lives were lost

Thank you to everyone who has shown concern and support in the wake of the fire that broke out last night at Boutique Amps Distribution, the Los Angeles manufacturing facility of Friedman Amps, as well as several other brands. First of all, we'd like to thank the Los Angeles Fire Department for their incredible response to the situation, which in all likelihood prevented what could have been an even worse outcome. Also, the building was completely empty and it's with extreme gratitude that we are able to say no bodily injury of any kind occurred as a result of the fire. Unfortunately, we don't know all the facts as to the extent of the damage and are not able to provide a lot of information at this time. The part of the building that was most affected by the blaze was a tenant-occupied area that did not house any portion of Boutique Amps, and we're absolutely heartbroken for everyone who was affected by that damage. Once again, we can't say and won't speculate on any specifics at the moment, but as you can imagine there is at least some loss to the Boutique Amps building and its contents due to exposure to smoke and water. Thank you once again, your support means a lot to us and we will provide updates as soon as any are available.

[Chocol8]

It is definitely hard to define boutique and know where to draw the line. The building was quite large, but there really were only a handful of people making the amps, and another handful making the cabinets. Friedman doesn’t wire every amp himself, or any of them anymore, but he still play tests every single one.

[mickey]

Well, in @uwmcscott's post above, Mr. Friedman says "the building was completely empty." So, how is this going to affect amp supply?

[Milkman]

Well, in @uwmcscott's post above, Mr. Friedman says "the building was completely empty." So, how is this going to affect amp supply?

I assume he meant empty in regards to people.

[uwmcscott]

Well, in @uwmcscott's post above, Mr. Friedman says "the building was completely empty." So, how is this going to affect amp supply?

I assume he meant empty in regards to people.

That is correct - unoccupied by people at the time of the fire. Having said that, even though the main building that was damaged the most was not the amp production building, they are all connected. And if you have ever had a fire in your home or or your place of business, you know that smoke and water damage can be almost as bad as fire damage. We had a kitchen fire when I was growing up that was contained to one room, but pretty much everything in the entire house had to be replaced as the smoke damage was so bad. Especially with all the stuff that burns in a large commercial fire - plastics, composites, etc.

[Milkman]

Also, as an FYI, there can be a risk of violence after a fire too. For instance, if you light your dad’s garage on fire, then point out to him that at least your dirt bike was unaffected even though all of his tools were, you are really tempting fate. At least, that was the case in the 1970s.

[LancerTheGreat]

It's not boutique (to me) if someone else builds it for you. That's like saying a gourmet dinner factory burned down, and it turns out to be the Banquet TV Dinner factory.
If I'm buying something I'd define as boutique it was made by less than 5 people, with no conveyor belt, no solder bath, no multipin plastic clips that are hot glued in position, no sweatshop, it was painstakingly made to the degree of a full 12 course gourmet meal and someone sat and followed every lead to be sure they're clean and they've checked every terminal and junctions voltage to be sure it's in as tight of a tolerance as possible.

If I wanted a fucking bugera in a nice box I'd just buy a bugera and put it in a nice box.

[uwmcscott]

It's not boutique (to me) if someone else builds it for you. That's like saying a gourmet dinner factory burned down, and it turns out to be the Banquet TV Dinner factory.
If I'm buying something I'd define as boutique it was made by less than 5 people, with no conveyor belt, no solder bath, no multipin plastic clips that are hot glued in position, no sweatshop, it was painstakingly made to the degree of a full 12 course gourmet meal and someone sat and followed every lead to be sure they're clean and they've checked every terminal and junctions voltage to be sure it's in as tight of a tolerance as possible.

If I wanted a fucking bugera in a nice box I'd just buy a bugera and put it in a nice box.

In fairness to Friedman and the the others, if you watch the Sweetwater video it appears to be far from a Sweatshop. Certainly it's a produced video and it doesn't show the whole factory, but the workers they show do appear to be skilled and working in a pretty nice environment. And to be honest, I think I'd rather have those kinds of people building me an amp rather than one guy trying to keep up with demand and doing it all himself.

In then end though I'm a cheapman's bastard so I'd probably never buy any of the amps built there anyway unless they were used and on sale for my kind of price on Reverb

[Mossman]

Heheh... Cheapman's bastard.

[Chocol8]

It's not boutique (to me) if someone else builds it for you. That's like saying a gourmet dinner factory burned down, and it turns out to be the Banquet TV Dinner factory.
If I'm buying something I'd define as boutique it was made by less than 5 people, with no conveyor belt, no solder bath, no multipin plastic clips that are hot glued in position, no sweatshop, it was painstakingly made to the degree of a full 12 course gourmet meal and someone sat and followed every lead to be sure they're clean and they've checked every terminal and junctions voltage to be sure it's in as tight of a tolerance as possible.

If I wanted a fucking bugera in a nice box I'd just buy a bugera and put it in a nice box.

I am not a huge Friedman amp fan, but I bet most of their amps are made by less than five people. There’s a good chance that the main chassis was wired up by just one. Then, one for the cab, one for the Tolex, and one for final assembly. If you include QC and Dave playing it, then I guess it may be 6. It is a far cry from Bugera in a nice box.

[golem]

A guy I buy gear from regularly is always trying new amps. Truthfully he sounds good through everything he plays but Friedman was my personal favorite of the gear he's had.

[Mossman]

That's like saying a gourmet dinner factory burned down, and it turns out to be the Banquet TV Dinner factory.

I understand where you were going with that analogy, but I think it would have worked better if a gourmet dinner factory were actually a thing.