Cully Craft Cover
that they could be making them for all sorts of different amp companies, for old Fenders or Vox or whatever. Eventually they got too busy and they sold the company to me, and I hired our seamstress Kelli, and they trained her to make the covers. Eventually I ended up selling the company to Kelly and her husband Jeremiah because I didn’ t really feel qualified to own a sewing company( laughs). And I knew that they would be very happy with taking ownership of that. So they’ re still making amp covers for us and many other companies. They actually made the little bags for 1981 Inventions, the“ DRV” pedal, which I think is neat. They’ re taking on new clients all the time.
[ WM ] The outliers on your website are the Kemper profiles. Explain how you put these together and why you decided to offer them on your website?
[ Chris ] Well, I was curious about the Kemper thing, so I actually bought a Kemper and started profiling the amps, and buying other people profiles on my amps. I figured if I’ m profiling my amps I might as well offer it to people. I don’ t know what’ s going to happen with them long term, maybe analog guitar amps are going to go away. I certainly hope not. But I really didn’ t see it as competitive, or competing with
my amplifiers. One is a piece of software, and the other is a physical thing. You can’ t say a Steinway piano plug-in is the same thing as a Steinway. No one goes for that. Maybe Steinways are going to go away, but I doubt it. I don’ t think people are going to totally abandon the actual thing for the simulated thing. I just don’ t think people are like that.
[ WM ] Anything new you’ re excited to let people know is coming?
[ Chris ] We have a couple things. We have the Ryan Adams Signature Amp which will hopefully happen at some point, though we’ re still kind of working it out with him and his management. I am developing another bass amp to replace our Gnostic, I’ m pretty excited about that. I think it’ s going to be a 100-watt flip top 115. It’ ll actually be kind of an all-in-one thing.
[ WM ] You’ ve mentioned Ampeg a couple times …
[ Chris ] The Reverberocket is a wonderful sounding guitar amp and I love the reverb on it. And, I think they knocked it out of the park with the B15N cabinet design.
[ WM ] Benson amps have also gotten a lot of love in the House of Worship community, not the least of which is our friend up at Bethel, Michael
Kemper Profiling Amp
Pope. How did you get to know Michael and what about your amps do you think appeal to Worship musicians?
[ Chris ] I got to know Michael through Casey Marvin at Veritas Guitars. Michael was coming through town and Casey said,“ You’ ve really got to meet this guy, he’ s an amazing player and great guy. You should come up and bring some amps so he can try them out.” So, I did and I talked to Michael for a couple of hours. He kept playing the Monarch I brought up and he just was kind of fell in love with it. He actually asked if I could make the same thing in 30 watts and I said,“ Yeah, definitely. I haven’ t before but I’ d just add two power tubes.” So, I did and I was originally going to call it the Cardinal, which is a play on words for Michaels last name which is Pope. You know, every pope needs a cardinal! But we were having some trouble with Cardinal Guitars, so we called it the Chimera instead.
But yeah, Michael and I are buddies now and he’ s actually got a couple more amps on order. I think what appeals to Worship guys about the amps, is generally the clean to dirty-clean tones that they’ re capable of. They just help effects and sensitive playing shine. They really put that thing on display. I think we have another amp that’ s actually more appropriate for worship, which is the Earhart, which is our take on the classic Top Boost sound. It doesn’ t really share any circuit similarities but we kind of made it do the same thing. I think Michael is getting one of those pretty soon.
[ WM ] Once I plugged into my Monarch Reverb and started switching between the American and British channels, I knew I had to own it. You’ re still a relatively small manufacturer. Knowing that interacting with your amp is key for sales, how do you navigate that, and how big is your dealer network?
[ Chris ] We have about thirty dealers internationally. Hopefully there is a dealer nearby anyone who wants to try out an amp. I’ m a firm believer that trying it out is believing.
88 October 2018 WorshipMusician. com