You guys have quickly became my favorite channel on KZfaq. Thanks for being just normal dudes with guitars!

Gibson and Epiphone...Fender and Squier are perfect examples Gibson's are not superior over Epiphone and Fender isn't Superior over the Squier contemporary and classic vibe Stratocasters it's the power of Suggestion that leads you to believe they are because you have been told over and over again that they are but the reality is No their Not

This is the only daily news I've grown to care about. Great topic y'all 👏

I make ultra rare partscasters and sell them on reverb when i get tired of it and am ready to move onto the next project. Ive made negative $300 so far after 10 guitars sold!

I am such a Novo fan boy. I bought my second (a Serus J) and broke the headstock in a freak accident a couple months after I got it, and Dennis fixed it himself and took great care of me. I'm a life long fan. I currently own 3 Novo's and can't wait to get another.

Here's what I have learned from playing 48 years professionally. Number one most of these Classic vintage electric guitars have actually Shitty craftsmanship and they are not better quality than a production Guitar made in the USA or Overseas imports..why people think they are its Called the power of Suggestion that's all it is and some of you will know exactly what I'm talking about

As a new regular, I enjoy how topics that were casually mentioned in prior episodes being featured as topics in future videos.

I love to support a small, local business... but for my money and pound for pound- Fender Custom Shop is all I need when looking for a prestigious level from a guitar maker. I am a traditionalist and when I’m looking for a guitar for myself, I want the classic body styles, because that is what inspires me. Not to say the other guys couldn’t do it with more attention to detail, but I just like the cookie cutter guitar shapes. Sorry novo. The serus T is really cool. Just not for me. I’d rather have a custom shop telecaster that I got on the used market for less than 3k

Xotic rarely gets mentioned but super high quality and a lot of great options

I’m surprised y’all didn’t mention Reverend Guitars! I love their Korina wood bodies and that bass contour knob. They’re a little heavy for me nowadays, but seriously well made guitars

I have a handful of good amps but recently I bought a Tone King Gremlin 5w amp that is incredible! I needed a smaller, quieter amp that I can crank for monster tone! It has blackface and tweed tones so it covers most songs I want to play. I love this thing so much. Its perfect for me. I plug my Les Paul into it and its heavenly! Good video guys.

Those of us in the cheap seats just look at the boutique stuff with a mix of envy and feigned indifference (mostly the former). I mean I can't even fathom getting on a 12-18 month wait list that I would need 3 years or more saving to even begin to afford the intro models. Names like "Collings" or "Novo" and "Two Rock" or "Tone King" are the proverbial champagne dreams and caviar wishes for some of us :)

You guys have grown on me. I enjoy the topics, news and reviews Casino Guitars provides.

Great topic. Besides guitars and amps, there are probably more boutique pedal company’s that I can count. Topic for another day

Great video guys! I think boutique builders are just guitar nerds with good woodworking skills. A lot are bad at or hate the business side, it's just a necessary evil to be able to continue with their passion. I think that's why a lot sell the brand and head off on another venture when they get bigger. If it's more business than building, they don't want any part of it.

It honestly seems whenever the makers guild buys a brand they kill it, Fano, Phoenix, Soldano... no advertising, no social media, nothing. I’m glad Dennis Fano kept the passion and started Novo.

Oh boy, the things I would do for a Two-Rock Studio Signature Combo....

My fave “boutique” brand is Knaggs guitars. Just placed an order for my 3rd one. According to Joe, because he told me himself, he has no desire to blow up into a version of the company he left. He wants to keep his company small and manageable, which I totally respect and appreciate. Plus, they are AMAZING guitars. Every guitar coming out of that place is Private Stock level of quality, because the builders are the original Private Stock build team. All of them. Dream team.

Schecter went from a small custom parts and boutique builder in the 80's and eventually turned into a rather successful low to mid cost import guitar company in the 2000's. Carvin, now Kiesel, has also had an interesting journey.

Boutique pickups would be a great topic

I was fortunate to tour the Collings factory months before Covid. Even though Bill Collings passed away, the level of attention to detail in that shop is remarkable. As an owner of both a Collings acoustic and electric, it was heartwarming to see Bill’s influence and legacy are stronger than ever.

Dunable is another one that I think is on the cusp of going big. They just recently started a lower prices import line. Their stuff is really nice.

Speaking of the boutique cycle, you could almost say that about Larriveé. They came from small beginnings, blew up and became a big deal and then hit on hard times in the late oughts when the economy tanked. They had to cut staff and production, and the amount of instruments they were making per month was on par with what they did when they were a baby company. They seemed to have recovered nicely, and though I do not know how sound they are in the market as far as sales go, by what I can see, they are doing much better these days, and I hope I am right. I wish them all the best. I have a C10 that is 21 years old and I love that guitar.

It's almost impossible to even place a deposit on a Mule. I've been trying for 3 months. And to buy a Nacho you have to write an essay and become a club member???

It’s interesting that despite all the various boutique guitar and amp makers the most well know players still stick primarily with the long established names. I look at them here and there but always go back to the tried and true.

I also think its cool to support your neighbors or local companies. I live in Los Angeles and the coolest brand I have found is Gabriel Tenorio strings. My main guitar is a JM and he makes a JM specific set and the difference in quality and sound is night and day. I literally picked them up in his garage and paid venmo. Support your neighbors folks!

CHC Custom guitars out of Austin, little known one man show. Still around after 20 years. Chris makes insane basses and guitars. Reasonably priced and well appointed🤘🏼

for Amps, Tone King was great before they got bought out. I’d check out the Bartel line of amps, they’re truly beautiful

A few years ago I ordered a boutique tele from a small maker - my first order from a “boutique” outfit - which was supposed to be 3 months wait. Had to chase repeatedly and got emails back saying “I’m doing it now, ready next week” etc for months, and a year later I gave up and got a refund. Turned out the guy was in the process of launching a new slightly more affordable range with a “name” guitarist, and basically crapped on his normal one-off customers. I’ve heard of other people having the same issue. I’d rather be told, “I’m really busy with a new launch and this could take over a year,” and decide at the beginning. He was asking similar money to a team built Fender Custom Shop tele and I’ve since bought a CS tele and strat off Reverb and they are fantastic guitars that I get a lot of pleasure from, and I’ve had had a couple of guitars from another small maker, Jonathan at TMG, who is fantastic to deal with and delivered exactly what I asked for, on time. So it can be done. It’s a competitive market and you need some kind of reliability to build a decent reputation. I will always try to support small outfits, but if they take a 50% deposit and lie outright to their customers, it’s a shame. So buyer beware. Loving these videos guys - you pick some really good subjects and address them in a very relaxed and sane way compared to some of the youtubers who shout a lot to get click. Well done and don’t change your style.

I remember when Zion Guitars was a thing in the 80's. They made high-end strat copies (sort of like ESP in the beginning). Zion is still around, but I think it's a very small operation in Raleigh. NC and it looks like they now make mostly metal-style super strat stuff (which is not my jam).

I've been tracking your wardrobe changes and think I've cracked the code on your filming cycle!

Wide Sky is a great example of a boutique builder keeping it low-key and gaining tons of popularity. Current wait time is about 23 months.....Suhr's wait time is about 11 months.

Can we start a poll to see if we can get a haircut for Baxter? My wife took one look and said "it's like he rolled out of bed and thought, you know what I'll make a KZfaq clip!" 😂 I love your work guys, keep it up. Seriously entertaining! Sending love from Brisbane, Queensland in Australia.

Great video as always. You could add that this cycle creates a great opportunity to get your hands on some really good guitars that get custom shop level attention to detail for production level prices if you buy them used and are ok they they are not at their peek level of interest. Ive seen standard fanos(now replaced by oltre) and TMG guitars that go used in the 1400-1500 range. I have owned both of these and they stack up well to an Elliott tone master my friend lent me for a couple of weeks, which is currently hot in the boutique cycle and sells for for around 4k used.

B&G Guitars come to my mind with the Little Sister model.

I had a Bogner Metropolis and I think it was boutique...but now you can get a Bogner at Sweetwater so I have that going for me. I doubled my money on the Bogner and bought a blackface Super Reverb. The Fender is a way better amp. That’s what I think of Boutique stuff.

Really interesting discussion. I recently bought a “new” Airline from Eastwood guitars. Not sure if they are considered a boutique maker, but their sales strategy of being all online and building what people show interest in is certainly unusual. Anyway, always wanted one of the “map” guitars, got one, love it. Really nice build quality and unusual look. Thanks!

Danocaster. Interesting episode of Truetone Lounge with Dan Strain on how he almost lost the love of building guitars when the demand got too much to keep up but then changed his business model away from custom orders and fell back in love with making them again.

I can't believe you said Gorilla amps. My first amp was a little gorilla amp and it was dog excrement! Thanks for bringing up that trauma for me once again! I need therapy now to eliminate that memory!

How are we supposed to transition comfortably from a 25 minute video one day to an 11 minute video the next? Never mind… If I wanted consistency, I would probably watch a much less interesting and entertaining channel. I guess we could say that you guys are a boutique channel? Thanks for another great video, fellas!🤠 And I can honestly say that I have never used a clip on tuner of any variety. Pure absurdity, if you ask me.

Speaking of boutique you guys really need to try out an s and t classic from MacMull... they’ve been around for over 10 years, but their instruments are built using a very unique build strategy and are hands down AMAZING! I know everyone says that about so much, but once you touch one and play it you’ll see they have something really special leaps and bounds ahead of custom shop made strats and teles.... great video...and hope you guys get a chance to try out the MacMull

Brands I remember: Parker Fly Guitars. Whacky design, weighed liek 6 pounds, first guitars I remember with Peizo and they were like 3 grand and up. Mesa. If you had a Mesa in the 90s or even the 2000's... that meant you were a bad ass. If you had a Mesa you knew that you were so cool that your bassist would load the van while you talk to the chicks, now.... not so much. Friedman is still super solid, but I would not say I see them talked about as much as they were for a while. God, when they came out with their own guitars that was 2-3 months of having them shoved down our throats on youtube. The guitars look cool, I am sure they play nice, but it was just a super strat and super tele. Axe Fx and Kemper. Those were the kings of modeling and something that was mind blowing when they first came out. They were always out of stock and had waiting lists. Still good stuff, but Line 6 and even these cheap brands do similar things and the axe fx and Kempers have come down in price to try and compete. Build quality on both is suspect. Dare I say that Strymon is not as hot as it once was? Still maybe one of my favorite pedal brands and still the best of the best, but not HOT like they were with waiting lists. Brands I see rising Milkman Amps I am seeing out there a lot now. Seem to be growing in their footprint. They have a cool pedal board amp with a nice Cab sim out for recording or bedroom jams. Neural DSP, in the modeling world this is the king right now. Huge waitlist for their first pedal hardware. I am sure I am missing a few and if you actually read this.... you are a better man/woman than I am. End of ramble lol

Larivee and Bouchard are some sweet guitars. I see Larivee hanging in the Long and McQuade shops. They started as a boutique type in Vancouver. Tried lots of them in the shops. Very impressive imo

Lol, I was kind of hoping you was going to psychoanalyse our need to have the next guitar, you know, the one that will really allow us to be the player we truly know we are but are be held back because our instruments are just not quite hip enough (even though our houses are full of gear). Good video anyway, great channel!

Don't forget PRS is also a defense contractor make some scary good audio processing hardware/software.

It would be a trip if Gorilla reinvented itself as a boutique brand.

I bought a Tone King Imperial last year And it is still my favorite amp. I have nothing to compare it to as far as seeing if the quality went downhill after they were bought by a larger conglomerate but it has such a clean and tweed Fender sound and the Iron Man attenuator is by far the best attenuator I have ever used you can really open this thing up at low levels.

Not one word about the most beautiful, best playing, and best sounding guitar I own, not to mention entirely hand made to perfection. The EASTMAN SB59/V!!! I've had over 100 guitars, and the only one that's come close to my Eastman was a walnut '71; ES335 TD. Selling it is my second greatest regret, next to selling my 96 JCM Slash, 1of 3000! Ugh, so stupid, but I'm building my collection back,up just on a smaller, more reasonable scale!!!. Peace Baxter & Johnathan, Keith in RVA

Novo is still going gangbusters, have a year waiting list on the Custom line.

i'm playing my Fano SP6 literally as i'm watching this...check them out again, still around, still kick ass

I'm just proud that Baxter knows it's 2021.

Thanks for keeping boutique built pedals, pickups etc out of this... same principles you have discussed apply to everything boutique built.... Ovation is a brand I thought of that didn't get mentioned. Brands fall out of trend because of lack of quality control, missing shipments, etc... but also because they fail to innovate, fail to attract new artist, etc.. It's not enough to built a great product. You can do that and have a niche group of players who will want and buy your product, but once you try to transition to a mainstream brand, even a mainstream high-end brand, you're dealing with real competition from companies that put a lot of money into marketing, working to attract new artist endorsements and offering innovative new products. PRS's endorsement deal with John Mayer a great example of the company going somewhere new. You might think PRS didn't need John Mayer, but the reality is his PRS signature model really made the PRS brand a hot topic again in music gear media, forums etc... Any builder out there who thinks that sort of thing isn't important has their head up the ass. it's not just important, it's absolutely vital to always be proving relevance. I do see companies not doing that. I give Suhr maybe 5-10 years before we start to see a decline unless we see them start to really play the same game as the big builders.

I love that a local,(local for me) amp company is so hot Benson amps!!!!

I think the boutique market is directly correlated to the "value" of the bigger companies. Right now, Fender prices are sky high and the QC is in the gutter. So I think people are looking elsewhere for either better quality or better bang for their buck. As the big companies quality goes down, the boutique market goes up and vice versa.

I own a Sahana from Nepal. The sound of the Hymalayas.

As a Canadian, I am seriously thinking about getting a Godin '59 Stadium, Desert Green. While not exactly boutique perhaps, as they sell a lot of guitars overseas, my research showed a surprising lack of presence for Godin in American online guitar stores. Haven't played one yet, (because Covid) but reviews that I have seen/read indicate a serious undervalue of a very well made guitar line.

my wife and I are a small cabinet company and we understand the Mule situation. we have to balance how much work we can take on. I think we would have to do 4 times the work to make hiring 1 person work. (We are kinda a boutique cabinet co.)

The bass market has one of the biggest boutique sectors. Fodera, Ken Smith, F Bass, all awesome

Tone King Imperial MK II and the Gremlin are freaking awesome amps.

Owning post hype gear is where it’s at. Get a early Fano or Bilt or TMG. They are still pretty awesome. I think veritas and Novo are going to be super popular for another year at least. As for amps. I am still a Carr fanboy. I own 2. Loving that post hype life. Morgan, Jackson, Victory, Milkman, and Tyler are great post hype options. I think Benson and Matchless are eternally hyped. But I don’t see Benson amps much anymore since they shifted to pedals. New show idea: amp builders that are shifting to pedal building now.

Martin Custom Shop may well be up there to Collings standards now but they’re pumping out more guitars in a week than Collings does in a year! That to me makes me gravitate towards Collings and guys like Lowden. I actually sold my Lowden 15 yrs ago and bought an Atkins.

Dave Friedman has figured out how to kinda become mainstream but remain a "boutique" company all at the same time. And if you message him for help, he responds personally and pretty quickly.

Not a guitar specifically, but definitely in the boutique vein: I have been on the waiting list for my King of Tone for over 3 years now. They are good enough that people are willing to wait and Analog Man haven’t bowed to pressure to crank up volume of units produced while potentially sacrificing quality.

Bought my Lowden F12 in 1997 , made in Ireland, for a little under $2,400. I am bowled over by the price of a new Lowden today.

I’ve played a lot of different stuff and boutique is solid; their QC is higher, tolerances are better, and they just can be cooler. The thing is, PRS exists so...

Fano’s are being closed out ( Standards, not Alto de Factos) I purchased 2 of them, before they began disappearing! Still great guitars, one builder per instrument...now they have an overseas line, renamed the Standard line, and increased the price.

Hey Baxter and guitar Jesus , Can you guys please start a podcast ? Thanks in advance

Dumble has always been the poster child for boutique guitar gear, LOL! Those amps fetch ridiculous, stupid prices today and have for years. Some boutique amps sound really good but if you know an ace guitar tech who knows what tubes to install in your trusted Ol' Deluxe, you can own a regular amp that really sounds incredible. While many boutique pieces of gear are cool, I'm much more likely to want a "regular" Les Paul, Strat, etc. Like you said, boutique pieces are hot and then maybe out of favor. If I have a really good playing guitar and an amp that I like, I'm fine and my wallet is happy also.

You guys are so cool! I love how casual you guys are...I feel like I am just hanging out with you guys and you guys make me laugh.

My favorite boutique amp is definitely Victoria. Their versions of Fender Tweeds are as good if not better than the originals and infinitely better than any of Fender’s reissues. They have a new model that they just introduced called the Club Deluxe that is a Blackface Deluxe Reverb (without Tremolo) in a Tweed Deluxe cabinet. I can’t wait to try one of those. You guys didn’t mention boutique pedals in the video, but Mythos Pedals is very popular right now. I remember when Zach worked at Carter Vintage. There are/were several employees of Carter Vintage who have their own companies building guitars.

I saw someone on KZfaq playing a Collings 290. I discovered that it is essentially a Gibson Studio that you'll pay 3 or 4 times more for than the Gibson, or 2 to 3 times what you'd pay for a Heritage H137. A good guitar, perhaps, but there is only so much you can do with a guitars basic components. There is no way the price is justified.

My first guitar amp was a Gorilla. I used to turn it up and touch the guitarsheadstock to the top of the amp. Epic feedback.

From the acoustic side, you have to mention Bourgeois Guitars although I'm not sure if they are on the rise or the fall since their partnership with Eastman. Dana Bourgeois and his team build some pretty fantastic guitars

Bogner to me is the ultimate boutique company... but it's all subjective. A while ago I saw this guy in a bar, he had a standard strat and a marshall dls 40 or something like that... and he sounded incredible!! No pedals either, guitar straight to the amp, it was all him.

look up CMG Guitars, they make guitars in Statesboro, Georgia at an affordable price, also make amps called Devilcat amps. Surprising that their guitars are US made, since they aren't crazy expensive.

I'm so surprised that you guys passed on B&G Guitars, especially their Private Build Series and their Little Sister Series. TRULY boutique guitar makers!

Baxter is attempting to secure a boutique beard. Jonathan OWNS the boutique beard! Have a good weekend, gentlemen!

love boutique guitars, unfortunately they're a little too pricey for me. I played a collings ES style through a Carr amp and it was the best sounding thing i've ever heard. Also love that Baxter is into Elder Scrolls. I can't wait till the pandemic is over, I wanna visit and talk about nerd shit with him. Baxter, what build do you play in Skyrim and what was your favorite guild?

Boutiques in the pedal world; should be taking note that not only are some of these the best options available, but that they are also one of the few industries still made in Western countries,- U.S., Britain, Germany, Denmark, Greece, etc. No small thing, especially given some of the reasonable price points. Help maintain some of those jobs they should have jumped through hoops to hold on to. Don't buy Chinese unless you've no option; or at least accept that you're cutting your own throat.

I have a Fano and love it, I will keep it to the day I die.

Man, so many companies - especially with the amps man 65 Amps, and Dr Z amps were the HOT amps ( Divided by 13 too) and they seem to have fallen off the radar now (65 is gone now, but rumors they are coming back.

I remember in the 90’s and in to the 2000 where every top tier hired gun guitar player from L.A. was playing a Tom Anderson Strat or Tele.

Novo guitars are a dream

Danelectro here. Still wacky and cool. The lipstick pickups are great, twangy things of beauty.

Love these videos

Blackmachine Guitars... 2010-ish, all the prog-metal folks had to have one.

I own a Kiesel bass, and it’s spectacular. They don’t get much love, or mentions in conversations like this, but they are building great guitars. They’re capping their production to around four thousand guitars a year.

Fuchs is a perennial one that comes to mind. Andy is missing that big fish ala Mayer with Two Rock. Otherwise his amps are equally as good as Two Rock. Landry makes the best high gain amp no one ever heard. Loucin Guitars out of Toronto makes just killer Acoustic Guitar. Some stuff came and went like John Kasha’s Tonemaster amps. A lot of it is marketing, or finding a player with visibility to break the brand. There’s so many boutique pedal companies, Emma is killer. Miss the days of the Amp show.

Pignose and Danelectro....my first two boutiques...way..way..back in time 👍😎🎸

my Novo arrives in a few weeks! yessss. The Abernethy soon after. yesssss.

THD anyone? Made waves with the Univalve and Bivalve amps. I have a Hot Plate attenuator that I’m afraid to use since it began malfunctioning. It was great for a while though - taming a beastly Hot Rod Deluxe!

It's pretty interesting how Carvin Guitars went from a somewhat generic template of options to the custom design beast that is Kiesel Guitars. You can absolutely still use the same template that Carvin used for decades on the Kiesel website. I think they're definitely on an upswing in terms of popularity, but I also think that they have no interest in becoming PRS size. Perhaps their use of CNC pulls them out of the cork sniffing "boutique" brands, but it's not like PRS doesn't also use CNC machines to carve the bodies.

I was waiting for Santa Cruz and Tom Anderson mentions during boutique conversation. Good stuff though as always guys.

It's weird these days because it feels like there's SO MANY boutique makers of gear out there. Seems like everyone and their dog is building amps or pedals out of their garage.

Idk if Bankers are considered boutique since they're affiliated with Gibson, but Brent Hinds' Hammer Axe is probably my dream guitar (for $3,900 it'll probably stay that way). Boutique stuff is cool because you don't see very many companies with the stones to put a bigsby on a flying v

my 1st amp was a Gorilla amp!!!! 30 watts, terrible tone, not loud enough to jam with my drummer friends....then I saved up and bought a Marshall JCM800 4x12....all my problems were solved!! lol

Okay, did someone else say this yet? The whole "guitar thing" is absolutely nuts. Get a good guitar or several (one for each thing you do) and bond with it. You shouldn't care what name is on it or how old it is. You don't need twenty guitars because you can't use that many. If you think you "must" have some new "pretty" guitar or you must buy a "collector guitar" you have been brainwashed. How many "guitar" youtube channels are there now? How many young guys have become electric guitar builders only to make another Les Paul or Strat. Now the entry point for a pretty good guitar is 3 grand, who decided that number...musicians? NOPE! Vintage means what? OLD, is it still okay if you fix it up? probably, does it feel right..maybe okay, so play the thing... Go and play, that's where the fun is. I met a guy at the store and he told me he owned 35 guitars..he couldn't play that well but I'll bet Gibson likes this guy a lot. I'm sorry but I've been playing my whole (long) life and I've never given a crap about the name on my guitar, I just pick them when they talk back... Cheers.

Awesome video my friend! Like it very much!💯💯👍👍

Trends with certain model Guitars and Guitar (and associated gear) Companies have to do with big named player(s) are using the product. Not just with Smaller Boutique Brands either, same can be said for the Big Boys. Look at Gibson, they were fading fast before Slash became a superstar with his Les Paul. Then everyone had to suddenly have a Les Paul back in the late 80's early 90's. Same goes for Brian Setzer. Gretsch was basically heading to obscurity till Brian was strutting around with his 6120. Before that Gibson had all but failed with the Les Paul till Players like Page started using one. Boutique Guitars and amps are the same. The example of Clapton with a Soldano. To this day still don't believe many Players out there will buy a Guitar with out an accepted brand name on the head-stock that has been approved by some famous artist. There are some Fantastic guitars out that don't get recognized as being any good until that stamp of approval from an artist appears. Same goes for amps, pickups and effects.

My boutique jazz setup is definitely one I had to save up and wait a long time for. My amp is a Henriksen head