I chose controversy by trying to answer this...

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ThorpyFXThorpyFX Frets: 6090
in FX tFB Trader
Sometimes you just have to give your opinion, no matter how unpalatable. 

what say you in 2022? what makes a boutique pedal company in your mind?


https://guitar.com/features/opinion-analysis/what-defines-a-boutique-pedal-company/
Adrian Thorpe MBE | Owner of ThorpyFx Ltd | Email: thorpy@thorpyfx.com | Twitter: @ThorpyFx | Facebook: ThorpyFx Ltd | Website: www.thorpyfx.com
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Comments

  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7732
    edited June 2022
    No controversy I can see. You missed out the part that says "So what is boutique"




    The correct answer being:

    "Over £200 and has top mounted jacks"
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  • ThorpyFXThorpyFX Frets: 6090
    tFB Trader
    No controversy I can see. You missed out the part that says "So what is boutique"




    The correct answer being:

    "Over £200 and has top mounted jacks"
    ahahahaha

    its a thorny issue, but that seems like the definitive answer. :)



    Adrian Thorpe MBE | Owner of ThorpyFx Ltd | Email: thorpy@thorpyfx.com | Twitter: @ThorpyFx | Facebook: ThorpyFx Ltd | Website: www.thorpyfx.com
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11809

    Boutique has become a marketing term more than a definition these days. What matter more is the quality of components and construction. Boss might not be boutique but they are solid pedals with quality that is time tested. Boutique used to mean it’s made by a single person or small team, small batches. AnalogueMan for example, but people attach it to JHS who has a team of like 50 people. I also personally never thought of Strymon as boutique either. Quality yes, but not in the same vein as AnalogueMan or even….Hungry Robot. That guy is truly boutique. I think Fairfield Circuitry too can be in the same vein.


    Chase Bliss is boutique….just about, it’s gotten bigger now and their set up has got more professional, Joel has hired more people, more designers like Tom from Cooper FX and Knobs to help develop things so it’s not just him. The stuff they are making though are probably the more niche and unique in a saturated market.


    EQD…I dunno, like JHS I think they are almost right up there. If Behringer ad Mooer is at the one end (cheap, made to a price point), Boss and MXR below who are affordable but quality, then I feel EQD, Strymon, CBA, JHS are somewhere in between. At the very opposite end would be your 1 man band like Hungry Robot.


    I guess price comes into it, and so is the size of their operation.  

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  • joeyowenjoeyowen Frets: 4025
    There are many small builders are clearly boutique, solo operations or small teams.  Paul C, Bill Finnegan, Thorpy of course!  They produce great productions at a small scale.

    Large companies such as MXR/Boss are not at all.  

    Then you have the middle grounds such as Keeley/JHS who were 'boutique' but have really grown in size and production.  They still make things in house (I think) so you could argue they are.  However, Keeley are just pushing dsp after dsp, so I'm not sure it fits with the traditional pedal boutique of old.

    Companies like Strymon/Source audio might not count in a guitarists eyes, as it is very digital.  However I believe Strymon is all made in the USA in house.  Feel free to correct me if anyone knows better

    Is there an online collab venn diagram thing we could try for fun?   (if venn diagrams could be called fun....)
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    Nice piece of work. Well above the standard of journalism in many of these articles.

    To answer the question - for me boutique is about the personal contact. The fact that you know there’s someone who cares about the product and it’s use. Someone who concentrates more on these than on sales targets and management scorecards.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • TheBigDipperTheBigDipper Frets: 4722
    It's a bit like the "quality" question in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I'll alter it for this thread.

    "What is the definition of a boutique pedal maker?"
    "It's impossible to define, but we all know a boutique pedal maker when we see one". 
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  • menamestommenamestom Frets: 4641

    This one is inspired by @ICBM:-</span>

    Boutique - uses 3DPDT Footswitches.
    Non-boutique - uses something better.

    EHX exception to the rule and any common sense.
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  • Looks like what ever boutique is, it was popularised in the 60s/70s, like so much of guitar culture 
    https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Boutique+&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CBoutique%3B%2Cc0
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  • RickLucasRickLucas Frets: 396
    Been there. Done that. Back to Boss.
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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27580
    I think boutique needs to have been largely hand made by people directly employed by the company.

    No third-party pick-and-place wave-soldered SMD, fer instance. 
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    Sticking a Joyo circuit in your own brightly coloured .enclosure.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23937



    Chase Bliss is boutique….just about, it’s gotten bigger now and their set up has got more professional, Joel has hired more people, more designers like Tom from Cooper FX and Knobs to help develop things so it’s not just him. The stuff they are making though are probably the more niche and unique in a saturated market.




    That opens up another can of worms.

    Can a product as complicated as a Chase Bliss product ever be "Boutique"?

    They might sell in far fewer numbers than Boss, but the tech and R&D go beyond many of the bulk manufacturers.
    Selling 1 pedal a week that was assembled in a shed but needing HAL9000 to do the circuit and logic design is not boutique.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71957
    To me, boutique means overpriced based on some esoteric marketing nonsense about being handmade that doesn’t matter and I’m not interested in. And almost always American.

    (I do not consider ThorpyFX boutique, and not just for the last reason.)

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • SnagsSnags Frets: 5326
    I don't think anyone's mentioned the other aspect (although I skimmed some of the article) which is sort of implicit in the small company/small runs thing but there's an implied exclusivity with boutique. Borrowing from the way it gets used in fashion, you've got that combination of it being a bit pricey (so the peasants don't get it), a bit exclusive, a bit less well-known (so only the true cogniscenti are going to appreciate it), perhaps a bit inaccessible to the average bear (waiting lists etc.). So regardless of whether the device is, in and of itself, of better quality or functionality, there's a certain cachet in owning and using it which comes from all of the non-tangibles that don't actually impact (for a pedal) what the thing actually sounds like.
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  • De_BatzDe_Batz Frets: 117

    This one is inspired by @ICBM:-</span>

    Boutique - uses 3DPDT Footswitches.
    Non-boutique - uses something better.

    EHX exception to the rule and any common sense.
    This is quite literally click bait…
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  • robinbowesrobinbowes Frets: 3021
    Boutique == "expensive"
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    Boutique == "expensive"

    Paul Cochrane's TIM and Timmy were not expensive for what you got, yet he would definitely be "boutique" to my way of thinking.
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  • maroonedmarooned Frets: 15
    Boutique overdrives = modded true bypass tubescreamer. Extra kudos points for using a swirly paint job and  a white washer on the switch 
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  • ThorpyFXThorpyFX Frets: 6090
    tFB Trader
    crunchman said:
    Boutique == "expensive"

    Paul Cochrane's TIM and Timmy were not expensive for what you got, yet he would definitely be "boutique" to my way of thinking.
    bill finnegan and the klon would also fall into this category.
    Adrian Thorpe MBE | Owner of ThorpyFx Ltd | Email: thorpy@thorpyfx.com | Twitter: @ThorpyFx | Facebook: ThorpyFx Ltd | Website: www.thorpyfx.com
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  • Boutique == "expensive"

    Paul Cochrane's TIM and Timmy were not expensive for what you got, yet he would definitely be "boutique" to my way of thinking.
    bill finnegan and the klon would also fall into this category.
    David Barber. Marc Ahlfs?
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