What Are Some Boutique Bass Guitar & Amp Brands?

[Silas Caldwell]

Hello, my name is Silas Caldwell and I am opening a boutique music store in Nashville, Tennessee in January. We are basically done with our guitar and guitar amps section, but as a bass player, I naturally want to appeal to bass players with a nice selection of boutique basses and bass amps. Which brands would you recommend that would be a nice addition to our store?

Thanks for reading,
Silas

 

[dbase]

Hello, my name is Silas Caldwell and I am opening a boutique music store in Nashville, Tennessee in January. We are basically done with our guitar and guitar amps section, but as a bass player, I naturally want to appeal to bass players with a nice selection of boutique basses and bass amps. Which brands would you recommend that would be a nice addition to our store?

Thanks for reading,
Silas

Sandberg Custom Bass

 

[GreyBeard]

Look at Basscentral.com. They carry the boutique brands that sell.

 

[basscooker]

A brick and mortar that carries in its inventory an assortment of Talkbass boutique favorites from small scale guys would be neato.

Being here for a year I'm sure you've seen them and their cabs, amps and other wares. A few PMs might find you a "house" brand or some inventory.

The down side might be essentially creating their own competition. We're (as bass players) kind of a niche market. One may only have half a dozen or fewer new builds a month going out. Why offer another business that revenue with so few average buyers per month?
My thoughts.

Best of luck though. There are amazing products out there that we want to try! Even a half day round-trip can be figured out if you really want to test drive something before pulling the trigger. Way better than ordering on-line "blind" when paying boutique prices.

Amps are tricky. Some boutique brands may not have the kind of certification big brands do. That gets murky with selling them second party, worst case and all,, IMHO.

 

[chadds]

Look at Jive Sound. They are no where near you geographically. The fun of this place is the Sundays when the place fills with pro bassists. No one is playing on top of anyone ala GC. It's one at a time. You can hear amazing technique and tone that's not like yours. These gatherings sell a lot of gear. They have every kind of bass just not regular stuff. Also you can walk in and find a Kern or Grand Prix preamp. They featured Summit years ago. Incredible service.

 

[Analogeezer]

Maybe not super boutique (especially in Europe) but you might look into GR Bass.

They offer cabinets made of carbon fiber which are crazy lightweight and well unique in terms of being a CF cabinet. The CF versions are also boutique priced but they also make wooden versions of the same cabinets so you could stock some of those for people with lighter wallets.

They also sell small Class D heads, in various configurations and wattages.

Analogeezer

 

[squish]

Bergantino, GR, Glockenklang, Jules Monique, and Genzler are brands that are off the beaten path. There's no harm in getting some of the bigger names like Mesa/Boogie and Aguilar.

 

[chris_b]

Try and get a stock of Barefaced cabs.