In search of boutique tone? There’s no better place than Tone Merchants in Orange, CA. I found this excellent shop online while surfing the web for a boutique tube amp, and recently had the fortune to visit the shop while I was on vacation.
Why is it so special? First off, Noel Evangelista, who runs the place is just a great guy. Very warm and good-natured – and definitely not someone who tries to be a salesman. In fact, when I was first searching for a tube amp, it was Noel who recommended that I buy a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe to get introduced to tube amps. Paraphrasing our conversation a few months ago, “If you’re new to tube amps, then you can’t go wrong with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It’s a great starter amp – plus you get that distinctive Fender clean sound.” Based upon that conversation, that’s exactly what I did, and after a few mods, I’m absolutely lovin’ it!
Secondly, the shop is set up for hanging out. The main amp room is spacious with a couple of comfy couches in the center, so you can relax while you twiddle with the amps. The unsaid sales pitch is simply this: Let the equipment speak for itself. For serious tone freaks, that’s a powerful pitch. Words can’t convey what an amp or guitar does. You have to hear it.
Furthermore, unlike most music shops, Tone Merchants has a very select, very limited inventory of amps and guitars. You won’t find name brands like Fender, Gibson, Marshall, Vox, Bad Cat, Buddha, or any boutique amps that you might read about in Guitar Player mag. The stuff here is all boutique. I played two amps from Cornford and Faustine. Loved both, but really dug the Faustine which has a built-in reactive speaker load attenuator. That’s a very useful addition as well as being a fantastic-sounding amp. For guitars, I played a Heritage 535 classic made by some of the original Gibson guys, which was an even better-sounding ES-335. Real clean, deep tones. But the guitar that I absolutely fell in love with was a Suhr Classic. From a distance, it looks like a Strat with a dual-coil humbucker in the bridge position. But what sets it apart is the absolutely gorgeous, silky-smooth tones it produces. The one I played had an alder body with a maple neck like my own Strat, but the fret board was rosewood, which really smoothed out the tone (I love rosewood fretboards). Ahh… I want this guitar!!!
Anyway, I digress. Tone Merchants also gives clinics and small concerts in their sound stage at the back of the shop. It’s a great place for showcasing local guitarists. If you’re in the area, check out their concert and clinic schedule.
All in all, this is a must-see shop if you’re looking for boutique equipment. Also, if you want to play a Faustine amp, this is the ONLY place to go as they have an exclusive deal with Faustine amps.
Guitar Gear 
Man, that’s a nice shop. We have a sort of boutique shop like that here in Houston, not as nice, but, they’ve got the goods. Called Rockin Robin.
Are you enjoying your Deluxe? I have a DeVille that I use a lot, but it is just way powerful, and I’ve been thinking about trading it for a Deluxe. I need something I can crank and get a good sweet spot. It’s impossible with the DeVille. I get to 2 or 3 in the Master, and the bar’s walls are coming down. Let me know how your Deluxe does.
Nice post!
Best,
Ignacio
http://www.igblog.wordpress.com
I love my Deluxe! But I wouldn’t get rid of my DeVille if I were in your shoes… You have the 4 X 10, right? In any case, many amp manufacturers (incl. Fender) install linear (audio taper) pots in their amps so by the time you get to 4, you’re very close to maxed out. There’s very little difference in actual volume from 4 to 12.
This really is just a marketing ploy so that when you twiddle with an amp in a shop, you go, “Dang! This puppy is LOUD! I’m only on position 3!” But then you take it home, and you can’t play it at night because the wife gets up and says “Turn that freakin’ thing down!” But you can’t because a millimeter of movement causes a HUGE shift in volume. But all is not lost. There are a couple of things you can do to better control your volume.
1. Swap your volume and master pots for logarithmic pots. This will give you a lot more control over your volume. Note that in order to get into power amp distortion, you still have to get your Master and Drive knobs up, but you have much better control – especially at lower levels, and you should be able to find a reasonable balance btw Master and Drive. If you take the amp into a shop, the mod will cost you anywhere from $125 – $175 (but that’s Northern California prices), but it’s well worth it.
2. Even with the mod, my Deluxe’s output is pretty big – in your case, with the 4 X 10, it’s big. So in addition to the mod, I use a power attenuator. I evaluated a lot and decided to go with the Dr. Z Air Brake. This was the missing piece of the puzzle for me because it allowed me to get my amp’s output below 90dB, which my sound guy at church said I had to get under in order to not blow through the entire mix. Another attenuator I am considering buying is the Weber Mass 100, which attenuates a lot more than the Dr. Z, but I feel is more suited to my home studio because of its direct out plug. In any case, either of these two will cost you btw $225 – $275 on eBay.
If you don’t want to do the mod, an attenuator is what I’d do first. Note that the two I mentioned are the best ones. All others I’ve played around with significantly alter your tone to where your high-end sparkle gets lost – that’s he beauty of Fender clean.
I have the 2 speaker DeVille. I know all about the pots and attenuators. I haven’t gotten around to changing the pots yet, since I just know that it will still be way too powerful to get to the volume level that I think is best. I recently unplugged the speakers on both my DeVille and my Blues Jr., so that I would use the amp of the Blues Jr. and the speakers of the DeVille. What a difference man, just being able to really push the Blues Jr to get some good tone without blowing the place apart, and getting it out of the DeVille’s speakers/cabinet. I may do that for a while, even though the impedance does not match, but I’m going from high in the amp to low in the speakers, so it’s not too bad. I may just end up getting a cab and use the Blues Jr. with it, and modify the DeVille’s pots.
Then the attenuator is the answer. It really does make a big difference.
I forgot to ask you if you’ve seen this website before:
http://studentweb.eku.edu/justin_holton/
You probably have. But if not, it’s a really good source for Hot Rods. Have you seen it? I found it a long time ago and had it bookmarked…
Laters,
ig
avenged seize sevenfold fallen avenged sevenfold
I live in the UK and as far as I know we have nothing that’s like Tone Merchants.
Man I’m envious.
Ian