#ashevillestartups Asheville Shop Builds Custom Amps 1/22/2015 0 Comments Caitlin Byrd-Citizen-Times Inside the bright teal storefront of The Amp Shop on Haywood Road, John Schuske tinkers with tones, makes broken equipment work again and builds guitar amplifiers by hand and with heart. “This was John’s dream,” said his wife, Janice Kitson, as she pointed to the stacks of amps with the shop’s logo on the front. “This has always been John’s dream.” From the time Schuske was a 10-year-old boy building his first Crystal radio kit, he has been fixated on understanding the mechanics of sound. When he was in elementary school, Schuske brought a piece of electric wire to school, where he impressed his classmates with the power of electricity as it sparked against their steel buttons. By the time he was 12, he had already secured his amateur radio license and had started playing chords on his first guitar. The following year, Schuske was tinkering with amps, trying to get a big sound from a small machine. “At that age, with not much education, one had many more failures than successes,” Schuske said, chuckling. “Sometimes, the successes only lasted a matter of 15 minutes before the flames started.” But his passion for experimenting with electronics could not be extinguished. During his time in the Marine Corps, Schuske received formal electronics training and would go on to work in the electronics and communications industry for 20 years. “It was lucrative, but there was no soul. It was a heartless business,” Schuske said of working in cable television. He knew he had to make a change, and in 1990 he started doing work that allowed him to combine his love of music with his passion for electronics. For a decade, Schuske worked as the senior repair technician at Wizard Electronics in Atlanta, where he did professional audio repair on everything from keyboards to turntables at the largest warranty and repair service center in the Southeast. His knowledge of makes and models, along with their most common breakdowns, became encyclopedic. But in 2000, Asheville started calling to Schuske and Kitson, who were looking to move out of Atlanta. Without even walking through the house at 841 Haywood Road, the duo said yes and have been there ever since. The Amp Shop opened shortly thereafter on July 1, 2000, as a pro audio repair shop on the ground floor of their West Asheville home. Though the shop’s primary customers are local musicians, area clubs and churches, Schuske has brushed elbows with big-time artists. When the Steve Miller Band came to Asheville to play a concert at The Biltmore Estate, Schuske was the one who repaired two keyboards for the rock group in time for the show. “They had gotten rained on at Candler Park in Atlanta, and they needed them that night at the Biltmore,” he said. Schuske and Kitson delivered the instruments to the band and received front-row tickets in exchange for getting the repairs done in time for the concert. “The roadie and the soundcheck guys actually came up to the fence and talked to us about how great the keyboards sounded after the repair,” Kitson said. “It was nice to have that level of appreciation from the professional guys.” As Schuske’s reputation for professional audio repair and maintenance work grew, customers started to ask him why he was not building amps. In 2006, Schuske could not think of a reason why not. “I put together a business plan for it and everything. I had it all figured out, but I hesitated just long enough for the housing market and the economy to collapse,” he said. “I’m glad I hesitated, though, because if I hadn’t, I’d still be sitting there with 93 amplifiers.” When Kitson’s brother, Ernie, died suddenly, Schuske realized he could not put his dream on hold any longer. “It was kind of a wake-up call,” Kitson said, wiping tears from her eyes. “It was kind of a ‘Am I really doing what I want to be doing with my life?’ moment.” In June, he started building his first tube amps by hand. “I won’t build solid state,” the 65-year-old said. “Vacuum tubes, old vacuum tubes, they sound better than solid state. They have a warmth to them. That’s what was used back then and they’re still just being used today.” The machines Schuske builds in his workshop are reproductions of older amps built in the 1950s and ’60s by Fender and Marshall, including the Fender Tweed Deluxe, the Fender Blackface Princeton Reverb and the Marshall Bluesbreaker, among others. Because Schuske works with local musicians, he wanted to make boutique amps accessible. For example, a Marshall Bluesbreaker amp fetches more than $2,000 online. Schuske sells his for $1,330. When Schuske and Kitson brought the custom reproduction amps to their first guitar show event in Charlotte, they sold a couple of pieces, including their most expensive one. On average, Schuske estimates that he sells between four and five custom amps a month. However, he has not given up the audio repair side of the business. Last year, the shop processed 611 repair tickets on items including DJ equipment, speakers, wireless microphones, guitars, keyboards, effects processors, amps, recording equipment and other gear used on-stage or in the studio. Though Schuske first wanted to be a musician, he said building amps and making repairs is right where he belongs. It’s his way of facilitating the creative process of making music. During last year’s Warren Haynes Christmas Jam event, Schuske could be found backstage with some of his equipment. When Warren Haynes and Caleb Johnson rehearsed songs quickly in the practice room before going onstage at the U.S. Cellular Center, they plugged their guitars into a custom-built amp from The Amp Shop. “It’s an industry and a lot of people make money from it, but it brings lots of happiness to people — on both sides of the stage. I know a lot of players that enjoy playing. I enjoy building amps. It’s not drudgery — it’s fun. It’s creating something from nothing,” he said. “I’m going to keep building amps until I can’t.”
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:19:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015