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Vintage threads from the first ten years

When is and isn't it boutique or handmade ?

4/29/2003 7:38 PM
Andrew	When is and isn't it boutique or handmade ? I've been wondering about the uses of terms like boutique and handmade. Just what defines a box as "boutique" ? My understanding is if it based on an older circuit but if its a new design how can one call it that ? Even if its in the similar "style" of circuit (i.e. Ge, older opamps, etc.) is not really boutique ? And what about handmade ? I've seen several boxes that were obvisouly assembled either partly or mostly by machine that are being sold as handmade ? How far does it have to go before a box can stop being called handmade ? Is all I need is to have a hand touch something in the box to call it handmade ? I guess theres no regulation or enforcement of these buzzwords, much like "home made" soup in a can, but there is a point when it just not right to use such terms. Are these just marketing terms used to induce a level of comfort in a musician ? Andrew

4/29/2003 7:38 PM

Andrew

When is and isn't it boutique or handmade ?

I've been wondering about the uses of terms like boutique and handmade. Just what defines a box as "boutique" ? My understanding is if it based on an older circuit but if its a new design how can one call it that ? Even if its in the similar "style" of circuit (i.e. Ge, older opamps, etc.) is not really boutique ?

And what about handmade ? I've seen several boxes that were obvisouly assembled either partly or mostly by machine that are being sold as handmade ? How far does it have to go before a box can stop being called handmade ? Is all I need is to have a hand touch something in the box to call it handmade ?

I guess theres no regulation or enforcement of these buzzwords, much like "home made" soup in a can, but there is a point when it just not right to use such terms. Are these just marketing terms used to induce a level of comfort in a musician ?

Andrew

4/29/2003 8:14 PM
Mark Hammer	There are some "in-betweenie" aspects too, and maybe these will help to clarify what "boutique" means. If you've ever seen some of the older MXR and E-H effects, these things had solder gobs on them that you could use for currency in many countries or at least fishing line weights. "Hand-made", yes. "Boutique", not really. Of course that doesn't mean that all things "boutique" should look spotless and as if they were fabricated by deities or other supernatural beings. Rather, one usually interprets "boutique" to mean that some special care was taken, and special attention was paid, during the production. That special care MAY show itself in the way that solder joints are made (flawlessly, rather than slapdash), the legending or securing of components, or the precision with which leads are cut and bundled (GP reviews of amps always make a big deal of this), but it can also show itself in terms of components being added post-production to optimize sound, or even each copy being perfboarded or wired point-to-point. I don't think either is more "boutique", but each, in their way, show attention to detail. Another way in which "boutique" qualities can show up is with assembly line production techniques, but hand-selected components. A perfect case in point would be the selection of germanium transistors in some fuzzes. Hell, the board may well be wave-soldered, but the trannies in there were deliberately picked based on measurement. Again, what falls into the "boutique" category is attention to detail. In still other cases, the components may be pulled from a bin (though this may have been preselected in some generic way), assembled using the latest mass-production techniques known, but packaged in a way that provides a little uniqueness and personality to each issue of that product line (NVN Dino-Boost and ZVEX pedals seems like a good example of that). There are instances in which the production techniques and components may not be special in any way (based on individual component measurement), but the components are selected for their general quality. Better jacks, premium pots, precision resistors, etc. Finally, there are instances where the components and production techniques may not be anything out of the ordinary, but the set of features incorporated in the product is clearly an outlier in that category of product (the Geoffrey Teese Wah and the Lovetone ? Flanger come to mind here). The bottom line is that somewhere, somebody did something more than just put it together; they tried to put it together in a way that made it special in addition to simply working. You can "hand-make" things that ignore all of that, and you can produce things with robots that take all of that into account.

4/29/2003 8:14 PM

Mark Hammer

There are some "in-betweenie" aspects too, and maybe these will help to clarify what "boutique" means.

If you've ever seen some of the older MXR and E-H effects, these things had solder gobs on them that you could use for currency in many countries or at least fishing line weights. "Hand-made", yes. "Boutique", not really.

Of course that doesn't mean that all things "boutique" should look spotless and as if they were fabricated by deities or other supernatural beings. Rather, one usually interprets "boutique" to mean that some special care was taken, and special attention was paid, during the production. That special care MAY show itself in the way that solder joints are made (flawlessly, rather than slapdash), the legending or securing of components, or the precision with which leads are cut and bundled (GP reviews of amps always make a big deal of this), but it can also show itself in terms of components being added post-production to optimize sound, or even each copy being perfboarded or wired point-to-point. I don't think either is more "boutique", but each, in their way, show attention to detail.

Another way in which "boutique" qualities can show up is with assembly line production techniques, but hand-selected components. A perfect case in point would be the selection of germanium transistors in some fuzzes. Hell, the board may well be wave-soldered, but the trannies in there were deliberately picked based on measurement. Again, what falls into the "boutique" category is attention to detail.

In still other cases, the components may be pulled from a bin (though this may have been preselected in some generic way), assembled using the latest mass-production techniques known, but packaged in a way that provides a little uniqueness and personality to each issue of that product line (NVN Dino-Boost and ZVEX pedals seems like a good example of that).

There are instances in which the production techniques and components may not be special in any way (based on individual component measurement), but the components are selected for their general quality. Better jacks, premium pots, precision resistors, etc. Finally, there are instances where the components and production techniques may not be anything out of the ordinary, but the set of features incorporated in the product is clearly an outlier in that category of product (the Geoffrey Teese Wah and the Lovetone ? Flanger come to mind here).

The bottom line is that somewhere, somebody did something more than just put it together; they tried to put it together in a way that made it special in addition to simply working. You can "hand-make" things that ignore all of that, and you can produce things with robots that take all of that into account.

4/30/2003 6:05 AM
Regan	To me, boutique means limited quantity, high quality. small company. Generally no mass production. Regan

4/30/2003 12:28 PM
Pete Cage	I try to avoid using the term "boutique," and prefer to call them "specialty" products. Of course, I don't like the way we use the term "gain," either... My $0.02, PC

4/30/2003 12:56 PM

Doug H

quote:
"Of course, I don't like the way we use the term "gain," either..."

Heh-heh!

IMO, "boutique" is another one of those terms that has outlived its usefulness in the pedal world, maybe not so much in the amp world. It used to mean the small guy "David" doing the high-quality detailed work (as Mark already mentioned) on "niche-y" products who went up against the "Goliath" large corporations who were stamping out generic products hundreds at a time.

The pedal market has been flooded with small builders and I think the lines between a lot of these "categories", blurry at best, have pretty much been smudged off the paper at this point. In the end I think "boutique" is a nice marketing spin kind of word, not much else.

Doug

4/30/2003 1:28 PM
Mark Hammer	Maybe, but "boutique" doesn't have to mean small. Consider Fender Custom Shop guitars. Small company? Hardly. Attention to detail? You bet. Built as if a small company? Apparently.

5/1/2003 10:18 PM
MBSetzer	Well, I remember towards the middle of the 20th century when about the only remaining shops still being referred to as boutiques were for ladies' fashions. I don't see how describing amplifiers or guitars as boutique could be based on any earlier usages of the word. This was for stylish or conservative women who wanted or needed, and could afford their apparel to be exactly like they requested, and were willing to participate in the process. There were still some identical outfits on the racks in different size ranges, but nothing in the store was actually a finished garment, there were no hems and each client was fitted with an oversize pattern that would be custom-tailored to her exact specifications. The full-service boutiques naturally had a staff fashion designer for clients who wanted things which were completely unique, at additional time and expense. This is just the opposite of most fashion stores which most women shop at most of the time, referred to as ladies' ready-to-wear IIRC which should be self-explanatory. So to me a boutique amp is the result of a completely unique custom effort, or a generic (but exceptional) platform which has been tailored to the client player, either way no two units are completely identical, the differences are supposed to be quite noticeable. Trainwreck & Dumble amps come to mind, didn't somebody first use boutique amps to describe these in particular before any other music gear? Now for handmade I think the definition will always be a little fuzzier, not many of us are going to be able to make many of our own tubes and stuff, so each of us will have to draw the line somewhere. I personally consider prewired circuit boards to be a mass-production technique even if they are not PCB's and just eyelet or turret boards. But if you are actually making the boards by hand even if it is not one-at-a--time, that would surely still be handmade whether you are mass-producing at that point or not. you have to consider what you think the opposite of handmade is, right now I think maybe automation might be a sign that a subassembly is not hand made, sometimes that could be a bare PCB supplied to custom specifications by a vendor, the next level would be automatically stuffed, and as companies generally complete the process with automatic soldering and then automated testing & QC, a circuit board may have nothing handmade about it. maybe your vendor actually does make boards by hand in the quantities you request though, or maybe you can't verify this one way or the other anyway. If you considered it to be just another component like a tube though, most likely any pedal or amp would be handmade in every other respect. maybe Ampagers need to form a consensus and try to agree over time on what might seem to be the most meaningful way to apply the hand made designation to different types of music equipment which we are familiar with. And sheesh, I never thought anything I learned from going to debutante balls would become useful in electronics Now that's an oxymoron Mike

5/1/2003 10:18 PM

MBSetzer

Well, I remember towards the middle of the 20th century when about the only remaining shops still being referred to as *boutiques* were for ladies' fashions. I don't see how describing amplifiers or guitars as boutique could be based on any earlier usages of the word.

This was for stylish or conservative women who wanted or needed, and could afford their apparel to be exactly like they requested, and were willing to participate in the process. There were still some identical outfits on the racks in different size ranges, but nothing in the store was actually a finished garment, there were no hems and each client was fitted with an oversize pattern that would be custom-tailored to her exact specifications. The full-service boutiques naturally had a staff fashion designer for clients who wanted things which were completely unique, at additional time and expense.

This is just the opposite of most fashion stores which most women shop at most of the time, referred to as *ladies' ready-to-wear* IIRC which should be self-explanatory.

So to me a boutique amp is the result of a completely unique custom effort, or a generic (but exceptional) platform which has been tailored to the client player, either way no two units are completely identical, the differences are supposed to be quite noticeable. Trainwreck & Dumble amps come to mind, didn't somebody first use *boutique amps* to describe these in particular before any other music gear?

Now for *handmade* I think the definition will always be a little fuzzier, not many of us are going to be able to make many of our own tubes and stuff, so each of us will have to draw the line somewhere. I personally consider prewired circuit boards to be a mass-production technique even if they are not PCB's and just eyelet or turret boards. But if you are actually making the boards by hand even if it is not one-at-a--time, that would surely still be handmade whether you are mass-producing at that point or not. you have to consider what you think the opposite of *handmade* is, right now I think maybe automation might be a sign that a subassembly is not hand made, sometimes that could be a bare PCB supplied to custom specifications by a vendor, the next level would be automatically stuffed, and as companies generally complete the process with automatic soldering and then automated testing & QC, a circuit board may have nothing handmade about it. maybe your vendor actually does make boards by hand in the quantities you request though, or maybe you can't verify this one way or the other anyway. If you considered it to be just another component like a tube though, most likely any pedal or amp would be handmade in every other respect.

maybe Ampagers need to form a consensus and try to agree over time on what might seem to be the most meaningful way to apply the hand made designation to different types of music equipment which we are familiar with.

And sheesh, I never thought anything I learned from going to debutante balls would become useful in electronics

Now that's an oxymoron

Mike

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