Specimen Products
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| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Genre | Luthier |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founder | Ian Schneller |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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Ian Schneller, Nadine Schneller |
| Products | String instruments, tube amps |
| Owner | Ian Schneller |
| Subsidiaries | Chicago School of Guitar Making |
| Website | Specimen Products.com |
Specimen Products is a Chicago-based manufacturer of custom guitars, tube amplifiers, and audio horn speakers led by luthier Ian Schneller. 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.
The brand Specimen Products was conceived by company founder Ian Schneller in 1981, during his undergraduate study at the Memphis College of Art. 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 commissioned 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.
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Wikipedia