Re: Boutique Amps?
Okay, I have been bitten by the amp bug and I have gotten to play a lot of booteek stuff as of late. I was sort of in a Vox state of mind and the very best Voxy amp I could find was the Trem Cat Bad Cat. Great amp, but it was only a single channel and I slowly developed a need for a channel switcher. Also, the entire time I kept gravitating back to my 6L6 amps. I guess I wasn't into the Vox thing as much as I thought. Probably should have bought a Valvetronix head and been done with it.
I've played through Bruno's, Dr. Z's, Carr's, Two Rocks, Bad Cats', Tone King's, you name it. Settled on the Two Rock Custom Reverb as my main amp. I've only had it a few days, but so far, it's blowing me away. Classic Fender blackface and tweed tones on the clean channel but with its own twist and a sweet Dumble Overdrive on the lead channel. Hopefully it'll be a keeper.
Corksniffin' booteek stuff is pretty cool, but ya gotta try as many as possible to find the perfect one. Most of these guys will help you get the tone your after with a few tweaks. Customer service is normally first rate as well. You definitely get what you pay for. The trannies are all upgraded, top of the line stuff. the other components are as well. If you can afford it, it's a great way to go.
One step down might be some of the point to point stuff that Fender and Marshall are offering, step down in that they are mass produced, but handwired. Vox has that handwired AC30 that is pretty cool as well, but at 2500-3000 you can find better tones IMHO.