Specimen Products
Encyclopedia
Specimen Products is a Chicago
-based manufacturer of custom guitars and amplifiers, led by luthier Ian Schneller. Specimen's instrument and audio equipment production consists of commissioned pieces, one-off experimental designs referred to as "Singletons", and limited production run items. Specimen Products also offers courses in guitar and tube amplifier design, construction, and repair through their Chicago School of Guitar Making. The Specimen workshop offers repair services to the general public, making use of their collection of parts from rare and vintage manufacturers.
. After completing his graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Schneller began producing instruments in favor of sculpture. In 1986, as he began producing more instruments for friends and band mates, Schneller established his workshop on Chicago's south-side Archer Street, in a loft rented by his band Shrimp Boat
. The first project Specimen undertook was fulfilling Tar
guitarist John Mohr's request for an "indestructible guitar," a task that would develop the company's longstanding experiments with aluminum guitars. The Archer Street facility was creatively productive but Schneller states that he only sold a single unit out of the many produced.
In 1992, Specimen was moved to Madison Street. It was at this facility that the company began to offer guitar and tube amplifier repair services. In the two years spent on Madison Street, Specimen introduced their first two standard models, the Pippin and the Maxwell. At this time Schneller began to experiment with mimicking the silhouette of established guitar models using non-traditional materials. This experiment would prove central to the philosophy behind Specimen's later designs. By 1994, Specimen was working to fulfill backlogged orders.
In 1994, Specimen moved to a storefront on Division Street in the Wicker Park
neighborhood. At this point Specimen's plans for a production run of 10-Watt amps materialized in the Petimor amplifiers. The Division Street shop allowed for an expanded repair business. Repairing so many guitars from big manufacturers impressed upon Schneller the need for minimalist designs with very durable construction. These tenets have become the standard of Specimen Products designs. The Division Street shop became a prominent show room for the custom instruments, establishing a customer base with many local musicians, as well as those travelling through the area. Specimen Products sold at least 100 pieces of equipment out of the Division Street salesroom.
In 2003, the business grew large enough to warrant moving to a new facility in western Chicago, representing a shift to an industrial model of production rather than a boutique. It is equipped with modern specialized equipment for finishing completed products as well as intensive design of new models. In 2005, this facility became the operating center for Schneller's Chicago School of Guitar Making.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based manufacturer of custom guitars and amplifiers, led by luthier Ian Schneller. Specimen's instrument and audio equipment production consists of commissioned pieces, one-off experimental designs referred to as "Singletons", and limited production run items. Specimen Products also offers courses in guitar and tube amplifier design, construction, and repair through their Chicago School of Guitar Making. The Specimen workshop offers repair services to the general public, making use of their collection of parts from rare and vintage manufacturers.
History
The brand Specimen Products was conceived by company founder Ian Schneller in 1981, during his undergraduate study at the Memphis College of ArtMemphis College of Art
Memphis College of Art, known before 1985 as the Memphis Academy of Arts, is a small, private college of art and design located in Memphis, Tennessee's Overton Park adjacent to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in Art Education...
. After completing his graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Schneller began producing instruments in favor of sculpture. In 1986, as he began producing more instruments for friends and band mates, Schneller established his workshop on Chicago's south-side Archer Street, in a loft rented by his band Shrimp Boat
Shrimp Boat
Shrimp Boat was an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1987. After the band dissolved in 1993, Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge formed The Sea and Cake. Ian Schneller and Tom Jasek went on to form Falstaff...
. The first project Specimen undertook was fulfilling Tar
Tar (band)
Tar was an American post-hardcore band, formed in 1988 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The precursor to Tar was a hardcore punk outfit called Blatant Dissent, which formed in DeKalb, Illinois where singer/guitarist John Mohr and drummer Mike Greenlees were attending Northern Illinois University...
guitarist John Mohr's request for an "indestructible guitar," a task that would develop the company's longstanding experiments with aluminum guitars. The Archer Street facility was creatively productive but Schneller states that he only sold a single unit out of the many produced.
In 1992, Specimen was moved to Madison Street. It was at this facility that the company began to offer guitar and tube amplifier repair services. In the two years spent on Madison Street, Specimen introduced their first two standard models, the Pippin and the Maxwell. At this time Schneller began to experiment with mimicking the silhouette of established guitar models using non-traditional materials. This experiment would prove central to the philosophy behind Specimen's later designs. By 1994, Specimen was working to fulfill backlogged orders.
In 1994, Specimen moved to a storefront on Division Street in the Wicker Park
Wicker Park (Chicago park)
Wicker Park is an urban park in Chicago, Illinois named after Charles G. Wicker and Joel H. Wicker.- History :Charles G. Wicker and Joel H. Wicker donated a parcel of land to the City of Chicago in 1870. The City of Chicago installed a small reservoir inside the triangular park. In 1890 the West...
neighborhood. At this point Specimen's plans for a production run of 10-Watt amps materialized in the Petimor amplifiers. The Division Street shop allowed for an expanded repair business. Repairing so many guitars from big manufacturers impressed upon Schneller the need for minimalist designs with very durable construction. These tenets have become the standard of Specimen Products designs. The Division Street shop became a prominent show room for the custom instruments, establishing a customer base with many local musicians, as well as those travelling through the area. Specimen Products sold at least 100 pieces of equipment out of the Division Street salesroom.
In 2003, the business grew large enough to warrant moving to a new facility in western Chicago, representing a shift to an industrial model of production rather than a boutique. It is equipped with modern specialized equipment for finishing completed products as well as intensive design of new models. In 2005, this facility became the operating center for Schneller's Chicago School of Guitar Making.
Products
Specimen Products offers a wide variety of products for sale from their showroom. Both the string instruments and amplifiers produced by Specimen use experimental designs and materials, or seek to reinvent antique designs or concepts.Instruments
The instruments produced by Specimen products have become highly regarded as both ornate works and quality sound. While Specimen continues to experiment with different materials and designs, most of their works fall into one of the various series designed by Schneller.Aluminum
- One of the first instruments designed by Specimen as a custom order, demand for aluminum instruments rose after they were featured on the cover of Tar's album Clincher. One of the most diverse styles produced by Specimen, Schneller has produced bass guitars, mandolas, and guitars varying from standard design to the "Flying V" design. The stated goal of the Aluminum series is durability. Acoustically, they are described as having the sustain of a hard-bodied guitar with a resonance similar to a traditional acoustic guitar.
Pippin
- The Pippin series is designed in the vein of the Gibson Les PaulGibson Les PaulThe Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
. The cutaway design is intended to make the guitar comfortable and easy to play. The majority of the Pippin series are solid-bodied, giving them a long sustain. While styling within the series varies to a degree, they all typically feature artifacts of early 20th century guitars, such as slotted headstocks and engine-turned aluminum accents.
Maxwell
- The Maxwell series is styled after a handmade guitar purchased by Schneller at the Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. Costing only $5, the guitar of unknown origin was crafted improperly from crude materials, giving it a very rough sound and appearance. The Specimen line of Maxwells pays homage to this using raw and unfinished MasoniteMasoniteMasonite is a type of hardboard invented by William H. Mason.-History:Masonite was invented in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi, by William H. Mason. Mass production started in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s Masonite was used for many applications including doors, roofing, walls, desktops, and canoes...
, bolted on necks, and very simple geometry. It was chosen as Premier Guitar Magazines "Guitar of the Month" in June of 2009.
Royale
- The Royale is a hollow-bodied archtop with side-by-side resonance chambers meant to mimic the curves of the human ear. This design focuses vibrations to the neck of the guitar in the manner that the ear focus vibrations to capture sound. The result is a guitar that provides more biofeedback to the player, intended to allow the player to feel subtle nuances in sustain and intonation.
Singletons
- Specimen has produced a variety of Singletons, or one-off custom designs. Some Singletons were made to order by musicians looking to achieve a certain sound or to reinvent a particular instrument, such as the Electric Lute. Some are reinterpretations or modifications of existing instruments built by Specimen as continued experimentation with design and acoustics. Several Singletons are entirely new instruments, such as the Moule Bird, a hand-held single-stringed instrument that can be plucked or bowed.
Audio
The stated design principle of Specimen Products' audio equipment emphasizes durability and functionality over feature-rich designs. The tube amplifiers are built without the functionality that comes standard on most production amplifiers, theoretically limiting the number of possible locations for distortion and malfunction, though there is some controversy to this claim.Speaker cabinets
- Specimen Products employs an octagonal resonance horn o all speaker boxes, intended to increase the spatial effect of music played through it. Horn Speakers have been made in varying sizes, from 3 to 8 feet tall. Specimen has made Horn Speakers in a variety of powers, ranging from 10 or less watt speakers for personal use (such as with an MP3 player) to 70 watt pieces intended for stage performance. A special Horn Speaker known as the Janus Horn was commissioned by Andrew Bird, featuring a two-mouthed horn that spins during operation, giving music played through it a Doppler effectDoppler effectThe Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from...
.
Amplifiers
- The Specimen Products line of amps began with their Petimor amplifier, a 10 watt birchwood based amplifier designed to accommodate classical guitar. Also available is the Stereo Amp, which is essentially two Petimor Amps in one case, angled at 25 degrees apart. After a variety of smaller-scale experiments, Specimen released the Horn Amp, a single-tube amplifier fitted with a 24 inch horn in order to produce stage-performance level volumes.
- Specimen produces exclusively tube-driven amplifiers due to popular belief that it produces a warmer or more natural sound than solid-state amplifiers, and rely on less electronics that may fail. Critics argue that these points are negated by the weight, cost, and shorter working life of tube amplifiers as compared to solid state amps.
Notable musicians using Specimen equipment
- Andrew BirdAndrew BirdAndrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...
- Horn amp, Custom Maxwell - Liz PhairLiz PhairPhair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw and Phair moved to San Francisco together, and Phair tried to become an artist there...
- BJQ Pippin - Alexander Kapranos (of Franz FerdinandFranz Ferdinand (band)Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
) - Silvertone Maxwell - Buddy GuyBuddy GuyGeorge "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
- Aluminum guitar - Neko CaseNeko CaseNeko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....
(of The New PornographersThe New PornographersThe New Pornographers is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1997 in Vancouver, British Columbia.-History:The band's first four albums each ranked in the top 40 on The Village Voices Pazz & Jop year-end poll of hundreds of music reviewers. From 2000 to 2006, either a New Pornographers' album or a...
) - Electric Tiple - Jeff TweedyJeff TweedyJeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
(of WilcoWilcoWilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
) - Silvertone Schnellercaster