Battle of the Boutique Amps: Which One Reigns Supreme?

Transcription:

Hey, everybody!This is Evan at Chicago Music Exchange. I'm surrounded by some of the nicest boutique amplifiers in the industry right now.

[Exclamation] "Dude, [bleep]! Yeah, yeah! That’s where it’s at, dude—that’s a rock tone, baby, come on! That’s what you want out of a Tweed. Damn, another stellar rock-and-roll tone right there. That’s the fuzz. Yeah, dude, that’s a nice fuzz coming out of an amp. Who would’ve thought you could get that?"At the end of this, I'm going to pick which one of these amps is my personal favorite. If you agree or disagree, let me know down in the comments—let's talk about it!Off the bat, I think I’m going to end up liking the Bartel or the Benson the best. I personally have a Tone King Falcon Grande, so I’m kind of leaning towards the Bartel. They’re made by Mark Bartel.I’ve also been on the internet and seen a lot of hype about Benson amps. I’ve heard them in a lot of really amazing contexts, so I’m excited to put this one to the test and see what it sounds like.We have a CME Chicago Special Fender Strat here, and I also have a CME-spec Les Paul that we’re going to be testing side by side to see how they respond to single-coils and humbuckers.

Benson Earhart Reverb
Starting things off, we’ve got the Benson Earhart Reverb. Benson amps are all handmade in Portland, Oregon. This particular amp features treble and bass controls, a volume control, a single reverb knob, and a wattage control. At its peak, the power goes up to 15 watts, and it goes all the way down to half a watt. The wattage is all the way up at 15 watts, but the volume is only at 2 out of 10 right now. It sounds really nice. It feels like it has headroom, and sitting right next to it, it’s not blowing my ears out—which is great! It has some really solid [Music] definition. It sweetens up when you play softer, but as you start to dig in, it opens up. It’s almost a little more “Vox-y,” getting super chimey the harder you play.Yes, it’s very sweet, very nice, very clean. Pretty easy and pretty solid. Before we move on to the crunchier sounds this amp makes, I’m going to see where it starts to break up. These are vintage-style single-coil pickups, so they’re not the hottest. Let’s see what happens. So right now, I’ve got the volume knob at 4. It’s starting to open up a little. The top end is coming through; it’s a bit more intense. Yeah, starting to really get that tubey, glassy Strat thing going on.Okay, volume 6. Honestly, not much different than volume 4—just louder. I can feel it in my chest, and that’s always a good thing. Still really warm and nice. Clean-ish, no breakup quite yet. Let’s take it up to 8 and see what happens.Yeah, that’s where the amp really starts to come alive.  At 8, I feel like a real rock-and-roller. That’s sick.I don’t usually like playing at loud volumes; it’s generally kind of scary because you hear all your mistakes—And then it cleans up nicely when you play lighter. That’s really cool. Big fan of that.

Lower Wattage and Crunchier Sounds
I’ve decreased the wattage by about half, going from 15 watts to 7 watts. Still at volume 8, with treble and bass knobs both still at noon. Let’s see what happens.Now I’m going to take this all the way down to half a watt. Again, volume still at 8, treble and bass still at noon.Dude, that’s sick! It’s gritty, distorted, and very fun to play. It feels cool to dig into—you’re pushing the amp as hard as you can. It feels good when an amp performs at its limits and still feels like it has more to give.It sounds more like Vox-style distortion than the warm, squishy, compressed Deluxe Reverb tone. At higher wattages, you get that squishy, American-style warmth. But at half a watt, it’s more like a cranked, direct-in sound—kind of like "Revolution" by The Beatles.With humbuckers, it sounds fuzzy and dynamic. It responds so well. Very cool distortion sound—I love it. Back to 7 Watts with HumbuckersI’m back to 7 watts with the humbuckers, still at volume 8. It’s very loud sitting next to it. Not the most practical setup, but wow! My ears!In terms of distortion, it felt a little warmer and squishier, leaning back toward that Deluxe Reverb tone, rather than the overblown, high-end ripping speaker vibe. 

Reverb Test
Let’s take a quick look at the onboard spring reverb on the Benson. Turning the reverb up to 5:That’s quite a bit of reverb at 5. I wish there were a reverb mix knob. I’ve seen this on other amps, and it would be nice to have on the Benson.Maxing out the reverb: Let’s see what it sounds like.Really, really nice transition into the crunch zone there! It sounds pretty sick—really warm throughout, with good note definition. Very sweet, not a bland clean tone at all.With some amps, you start playing them with no reverb, no effects, totally dry straight in, and they can sound kind of weak and anemic. This does not. It has a lot of character throughout and responds to your playing beautifully. It feels like there’s a really good relationship between you and the amp.I dug in, got nice, warm overdrive—very loud, needless to say! Different stuff happens at half a watt versus 15 watts versus 7 watts, obviously, but maybe that’s no surprise. At low wattage, I really liked that gnarly, speaker-ripping top end—kind of like a color box overdrive. That was awesome, dude. 

Final Test: Portability and Gigability
All right, I’m going to turn this off for the final test: portability and gigability rating. I’m unplugging this, and, for the record, I’m not the strongest guy in the world. Let’s see how this goes.Oh, actually, you know what? This is really nice! It’s shockingly light—yeah, you can move it around for sure. I wouldn’t hesitate to bring this up two or three flights of stairs for a bar gig. I say that now, but still…The leather handle feels really solid, and the amp is small and compact enough that you could probably just bear-hug it if you needed to. Portability? Compared to a Deluxe Reverb, it’s definitely better. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.

Carr Sportsman
Now, we’ve got the Carr Sportsman. This is a 19-watt combo amplifier, supposedly more in line with the American-style amps. These are known for their pure, clean, warm tones. When you dial it up, it’s supposed to deliver harmonically rich overdrive.This amp features volume, bass, treble, and mid controls, as well as a reverb knob and a headroom control, which functions similarly to the wattage control on other amps.Starting with the clean tone: I’ve got the volume basically all the way down at 1, with treble, bass, and mids all set to noon. We’re at max headroom. Let’s see how it sounds.That was really good. This might sound redundant, but stick with me—it was a very nice and clean clean. By that, I mean it’s filled with character, not lame, limp, or anemic. It felt good sitting next to it in the room. Definitely Fender-esque.

The numbers aren’t marked on this amp, so I’m just going to go up to, like, 10 o’clock on the volume knob.It starts to open up pretty fast—yeah, a lot faster than the Benson did. Still warm, very rich. Let’s keep going up. I’m taking this to about 2 o’clock on the volume.All right, that’s my kind of crunch there. You start to get a little bit of compression and squishiness. Again, very warm—the top end isn’t ripping out or giving that overblown speaker vibe. It feels controlled and makes you want to dig into the guitar to bring out the full overdrive character.Sitting next to the amp, it’s not getting dramatically louder to my ears, which is a good thing. At 2 o’clock, you’re definitely in dirt territory.

Diming the Volume
Let’s see what it sounds like dimed.That was really nice! Another stellar rock-and-roll tone right there, baby. The Carr Sportsman gives off a “better Fender vibe”—that’s the easiest way to describe it. Just better Fender character.It’s really nice, makes you want to dig in, play loud, and get excited.

Headroom and Humbuckers
Let’s see how the headroom interacts with the volume. I’ve turned the headroom down to about half and set the volume at 8. For those keeping track, that’s around 3 o’clock.Okay, so decreasing the headroom while keeping the volume high makes a substantial difference. It feels like it’s working within its limits but still has plenty to give. The compression isn’t overwhelming, but it’s still warm and dynamic. Switching to humbucker pickups: EQ settings and reverb stay the same, headroom is at half, and the volume starts at noon. Let’s see what it sounds like. Ohhh! That’s really, really good. It’s a richer Fender style, which I’m a huge fan of—very warm, with great note definition. All the things you want in a nice clean tone but with plenty of character.

Reverb Test
The reverb on the Carr Sportsman interacts really well with the dry signal. I never felt like it got too out of hand or muddy. There’s a dramatic difference between the reverb at half and full, giving you great versatility.PortabilityThe Carr Sportsman is a 19-watt combo amp with a thick, heavy leather handle. It’s nice—not too heavy, though it does weigh a little more than the Benson. Would I lug this up two or three flights of stairs for a bar gig? Absolutely. You get a little spring clash when you move it, but it’s manageable. You could probably tuck it under your arm or bear-hug it if needed. Portability? 4 out of 5. 

Swart Space Tone Tremolo
Now, I’m plugged into the 5-watt Swart Space Tone Tremolo. I’ve never played a Swart before. It looks cool—Tweed with black edges. This amp has onboard reverb and tremolo.Instead of traditional EQ knobs, it features a three-way EQ switch. Position 1 is “full,” the middle position is “neutral,” and the bottom position is a “low cut.” There are also high-gain and low-gain inputs.Right now, I’m in the high-gain input, with the volume at noon and the EQ toggle set to neutral.I think this amp does the twangy Tweed thing really well. Is it better than a Fender Tweed? I don’t know—that’s subjective. But it’s definitely nice.Yeah, it feels like you can dig in a little bit. It feels slightly touch-responsive. Again, the volume is at noon, and the EQ is just neutral. I'm going to drop the volume down to 9:00 and see how that interacts with the gain and touch sensitivity. Okay, well, it's very quiet, obviously. It's a 5-watt amp—super quiet. Not the clean amp you're going to be looking for if you want something to play on stage. But that's a very nice, pleasant volume. For me, in my apartment here in Chicago, that would be a nice volume level, and I can get some cool tones.Getting a nice little twang there. That is one thing this amp is doing well for me right now. Playing the Strat, if you were to play some country licks—I’m not a Bluegrass or country player, so I’m sorry—we should get Nathaniel. Yeah, Nathaniel. But if you’re doing the twangy, finger-picking stuff, I think this amp would excel pretty well with that.I’m going to put the volume now at 3:00 and see what the breakup on this sounds like. Again, I’m still in the high-gain input with the neutral tone switch.So, volume at 3:00—definitely breaking up into crunch territory. Not too squishy for a small amp. I thought that was pretty nice. Now, let’s see how this interacts with some humbuckers. I’m hoping to get into that really almost fuzzy Tweed territory. Let’s see how this sounds. I’m going to put the volume right at noon.Alright, yeah. I like the way it plays with the humbuckers. It feels like it’s coming alive with the humbuckers as opposed to the single coils. I think the extra juice coming from these pushes this amp into a little more familiar Tweed overdrive territory. Let’s dime this and see how it sounds. Oh boy. That’s what you want out of a Tweed amp. That’s what you want. High-gain input, neutral EQ, humbuckers dimed—that’s it. Compared to a small Fender Tweed, what you run into when you start cranking small Fender Tweeds is a lot of compression, squishiness, and that small amp boxy sound. With this, it still felt pretty open and touch-responsive for being pushed all the way. I was a big fan of that. That was really nice—cool rock ‘n’ roll tone. Makes me want to play the pentatonic scale. What more could you ask for?Let’s check out what the reverb and onboard tremolo sound like. This is a one-knob reverb control called the “space” knob. I’m going to set it at noon first and then crank it all the way up. Let’s see what it sounds like at noon.Alright, off the bat, reverb at noon already starts to get into self-oscillating territory. This is the Space Tone Tremolo, so that makes sense.That’s spacey for sure. Let’s see what happens when we dime the reverb. Alright, reverb dimed—kind of splashy. Not a crazy change between noon and maxed out. The main difference is the amount of splashy, spring-reverb effect when dimed. But again, it’s way out there in space. On lower settings, it’s wet but controlled. I’ve got the reverb set at 9:00. Let’s see what that sounds like.Yeah, that’s nice. It feels like they blended a hall reverb and a spring reverb—a mix of both types. Let’s check out the onboard tremolo. Do you like trem? I love tremolo. I’m a big fan. Harmonic tremolo is my favorite. I play with tremolo most of the time.Let’s keep the speed all the way down and set the depth to noon.Alright, turning the speed up to noon—let’s see how that interacts.Solid. Fairly interactive for a small 5-watt tube amp. Some good versatility here. I think, if you’re getting this amp, I liked it better with humbuckers. Driving this amp works really well—it handles being pushed better than other Tweeds I’ve played. I’m a fan of Tweed overdrive, especially when it gets into fuzz territory. I couldn’t quite push this there without pedals, but a boost could probably get it done.

Very solid overall. You could probably do a Neil Young thing pretty well with this amp, which is nice considering it’s just 5 watts. Onboard effects—reverb and tremolo—are solid. It’s nice to have effects built-in on a small tube combo. Portability rating? This one better be a five. It’s a 5-watt combo with a nice leather handle. It’s super easy to take around.Yeah, I’m giving it a 5 out of 5 on portability. This is a killer little grab-and-go amp. Alright, let’s talk about the build quality and aesthetics. This thing looks amazing. Let me spin it around for you real quick.Alright, we’ve got a great tweed covering here. It’s super clean—love that vintage-style grille cloth. The handle is really nice, with leather accents. Everything about this looks boutique, premium, and well-crafted. I’m impressed with the build quality, no doubt.Alright, one more thing I want to talk about here: versatility. It’s a small amp, so I wasn’t expecting much versatility, but I think it’s surprisingly versatile for what it is. You’ve got the two inputs—high-gain and low-gain. The neutral tone switch gives you an extra layer of tone shaping. The onboard effects add some flexibility to the sound.Would I gig with this? Probably not, unless it was a really small venue or mic’d up. It’s more of a studio or practice amp for me, but that’s where it shines. If you’re looking for a versatile practice amp with some premium features, this might be it.Alright, final thoughts on the Space Tone Tremolo. It’s a boutique 5-watt amp that delivers on all fronts for what it is. The touch responsiveness is solid, the tone shaping is versatile enough for a small amp, and the onboard effects are a nice bonus. It’s portable, aesthetically beautiful, and well-made. At the end of the day, this is a niche amp, but it nails what it’s going for. If you love that vintage Tweed sound and want it in a small package, this is a winner.Now we're plugged into the 28-watt Bartel Starwood amp. These are handmade in Baltimore, Maryland. The control set on the Starwood has a preamp, reverb, and master volume section.In the preamp section, you have volume control, treble, and bass control. For the reverb, there’s a mix and dwell, and then you have a master volume knob. The master volume functions similarly to the attenuators or wattage controls on other amps.Right now, I have all the knobs set to noon and no reverb. Let’s see how that sounds.Alright, with the master volume and the preamp volume at noon and the EQ knobs at noon, that’s a really nice sound. It’s your pretty standard American Fender-style clean tone. There’s just a tiny bit of dirt—enough to break up slightly when you hit it hard. It’s got a nice twang to it as well.If I could physically do it, I’d probably pull off some sweet chicken-picking stuff, and it would sound sick. Now, I’ve turned the master volume all the way up and set the preamp volume to 9:00. Bass and treble are still at noon.Nice. That gives you that twangy Strat tone, with volume in the room staying reasonable. Considering this is a 28-watt amp, the headroom is maxed, but the volume feels low at 9:00. It delivers really warm, standard clean guitar tones—like a guitar that’s made of wood, played by hands made of flesh.Let’s crank the preamp to 3:00 and see what happens with the breakup.Alright, that’s a nice, squishy, warm overdrive. It feels like a hug—inviting and forgiving. It reassures you, “Don’t worry, you’re good at playing guitar; I’ll make you sound good without much effort.”It’s chimey on the upper strings, warm and bassy on the lower ones. It doesn’t cross into "woofy" territory in a bad way. Instead, it’s balanced and musical. Let’s hear how it sounds pushed to its limit.That felt cool—like the 2B glassy thing Strat players love. The overdrive doesn’t overshadow the guitar’s characteristics. It’s more like a loud Tweed-style overdrive that inspires digging in for some rock-and-roll.Next, I’ve got a Les Paul plugged in. Master volume is at noon, preamp volume is dimed. Let’s hear some humbuckers. Oh, hell yeah! That’s the fuzz we were looking for. It’s a fantastic fuzz tone coming straight out of the amp. It reminds me of Neil Young and Crazy Horse—maybe not exactly Rust-era Neil Young, but close. Humbuckers drive this amp so nicely.Now, let’s explore the reverb. I’ll set the dwell knob to noon and adjust the mix to see how it interacts. That’s nice—solid and middle-of-the-road. The mix was a bit more present than I expected, but it didn’t overpower the playing. Let’s push the mix up to halfway and see what happens. Pretty! It feels lush but controlled. Let’s crank the mix all the way. There it is—clean and solid. It’s slightly colored but doesn’t distract. If I were performing in front of a crowd, I might want to color it more with additional effects, but it’s still very usable.Clean rating? Solid—middle-of-the-road good. The overdrive rating? One out of five—it’s a five. This is my favorite overdrive I’ve heard straight out of an amp, maybe ever. It’s second only to my Tone King Falcon Grande, but that’s because I invested in it. Shoutout to Mark Bartel for crafting such an amazing overdrive.The reverb is usable and versatile, though not as mind-blowing as the overdrive. The mix knob offers great flexibility for dialing in specific sounds.As for portability, it’s a tube amp combo at 28 watts, so it’s about as heavy as expected. I’d rate it a three out of five. Lugging it upstairs for a bar gig would be a chore, but it’s manageable.

Matchless Chieftain
Last but certainly not least in the list, we have the 40W Matchless Chieftain. This is a 2x2 combo amp. I've never personally played out of a Matchless, so this will be cool to see. I feel like Matchless are known for their ability to be really, really loud without losing their fidelity. They can also take pedals very, very well.I will say, I will not be dimming this amp because I'm sitting a foot away from it, and I like to listen to things in my free time, so I'd like the ability to continue hearing after shooting this video. Not going to be dimming this. But it does have a pretty cool control set. We have a preamp volume, bass, mid, treble knobs. We have a Brilliance knob on this, which we have not seen on the other amps. We have a single master volume knob and a single reverb knob. We also have high and low inputs, and as you can see, we got some cool lights behind the Matchless logo and behind the control set there, so when you're on stage fiddling with your settings, you can see what you're doing.First up, we're going to do all knobs at noon. We're going to keep the master volume knob at 9:00.Alright, so with volume—preamp volume at noon, master at 9:00—we're already getting a little bit of breakup. Again, that really, like, 2B round characteristics of a Strat, I think, really comes through on this. Super dry with no Reverb, I think.Uh, it doesn't feel like the amp is coloring the sound so much as just driving it, like the Strats really coming through on this. Let's take the volume to about 9:00 and see if we can clean it up a little bit. Alright, so once we cleaned it up, I think everything I said previously with the volume at noon remains true as you continue to clean it up. Again, the guitar itself is really, really coming through on this.

Matchless is known for taking pedals very well, known for being able to be colored very well. So compared to some of the other amps, this just feels very dry, very clean. Lets the guitar do the talking. Again, all of these knobs just at noon, just kind of getting straight-up guitar tone. Let's see what it sounds like with some distortion.Alright, we're keeping the master volume at 9:00. I've got the preamp volume at 3:00, and again, EQ all at noon. No reverb.Alright, as we start to overdrive the amp a little bit more, it feels very similar to a Deluxe Reverb, but more. Let's see how this sounds with the Les Paul with humbuckers. Again, I still have the master volume at 9, I got the volume at three, EQ at noon, no reverb.Nice. Alright, so really interesting overdrive compared to—compared to these other amps. With the humbuckers, I felt like I was playing through a velcro fuzz a little bit with that throw on the neck. You want that warm, woy, fuzzy overdrive sound—you got that out of this. Alright, so we've dialed back the preamp volume back to noon, master still at 9 because I like my hearing. See how that sounds.Alright, so yeah, yeah, dialing back the preamp volume. Still, you're getting that kind of like woy, like fuzzy, a little muddy overdrive—not necessarily muddy in a bad way, um, but humbuckers again to single coils just is obviously going to drive the amp a lot more. You're getting a lot more harmonic content. Um, yeah. Let me know what you think about this particular style of overdrive. Again, this is the first time I've played Matchless, so there's probably a lot of things that I could do to dial in. There's certain play styles that these amps appeal to. Alright, so I've cleaned it up a little bit. I've put the preamp volume back to 9:00, have not touched the master. Going to check out the reverb now. We're going to put that at 9:00 as well and see how that sounds.

Alright, with reverb at 9:00, it is barely perceptible at all. Um, I guess it adds a nice tiny bit of air, but let's put it up to noon and see how that sounds.Alright, so even with the reverb at noon, really not getting in your way at all. Um, chillest test over there. Yeah, it's the chillest of all these reverbs that we've run through. Um, let's max this out and see what happens.Alright, um, even with the reverb maxed, that was—it would be like a quarter of the reverb on the Swart, or like, you know, a little less than halfway on the Benson, maybe. Um, nice. Yeah, yeah, solid. Does its job, kind of just makes it sound bigger and airy. You got the nice little splash on the percussion, um, but certainly doesn't run away from you. Certainly does not get in the way of the dry signal. Clean rating—it’s just neutral, and that's the point, and that's what it's supposed to be. If anything, with all these knobs at noon, granted you have a lot of control within those, but the EQ just all set at noon feels kind of bright, um, especially compared to some of these other options.

This is hard not to inject personal preference. I, again, personally, I wouldn't reach for a Matchless. I've never played Matchless. I know they're very good at what they do. I know a lot of people love them a lot. They're very well beloved in their scene. Um, but just trying to be objective and comparing them to some of these other amps, I think it's really good at what it does. It does a very specific thing. Alright, this is a 40W 2x12 tube amplifier. Unplug this. I can already say I'm not lugging this up two to three flights upstairs for a bar gig. Nice leather handle. It's 80,000 lb—I think. This comes at, yeah, this comes at what, like 81 lb or something. Zero zero, bro. I won—I mean, it's not—it's not fair, but it's not a portable amplifier where you can wheel it and leave. Yeah, you put this on casters. Don't bring this to your third-floor bar gig. Get another amp. Sacrifice, get a smaller amp. You're going to deafen the people in the bar with a 40W 2x2 anyways. So portability, one out of five. I'm sorry, but that is by far the worst. No surprise out of any of the amps that we've looked at here.I will say one thing that would be nice on this that would make it more portable: side handles. You need two hands anyway. Yeah, you're going to be using two hands to carry this thing. Get a stronger friend than me to handle this for you. And there you have it—five of the finest boutique amps that we have in stock right now at the Chicago Music Exchange.

I will say, I went into this assuming that I would like the Benson or the Bartell the best. After playing through these, I think I've changed my answer a little bit. I'm still going to pick two. I think for a clean tone amp, I'm actually going to go with the Carr Sportsman. I was a huge, huge fan of that. I really liked the coloration that it gave to the clean sound of the guitar. I thought the overdrive was solid, but that was my favorite. Reverb: just mellow, solid middle of the road reverb. Really, really nice clean tone. Pretty compact, easy-to-carry package. Yeah, I really, really liked the Carr Sportsman. I'm a fan of American-style clean tones, so that's where my answer is coming from. I thought it interacted great both with single coils and humbuckers. Just all around was the easiest to dial in off the rip. Sounded the best without having to make any major adjustments. As for overdrive, far, far, far and away, I'm going the Bartel. I love that dude. I need that in my life. That was unlike any overdrive I've ever heard out of an amp. So cool, fuzzy, just nice, interacted so well with humbuckers, made the Strat sound amazing, amazing and huge as well. So I'm sticking with the Bartell for overdrive. I'm going with the Carr Sportsman for clean tone.

Obviously, this is only a small fraction of all the boutique amps that we have in the store. So head to the website for the full list. Stop in the shop if you are in the Chicagoland area. There were a lot of different considerations for what to be included in this video. Shout out to Dr. Z. Shout out to Magneton. Shout out to Two Rock. We got a ton of good stuff in the store right now, so give us a call, head to the website, check all of our inventory out, and let me know in the comments if you would have rather seen some other amps or if we should do another video like this comparing a few different boutique options.