| My First NAMM A start-up amp builder pursues his dream -- and fights for his niche among the big boys.
by Robert L. Doerschuk
July 21, 2000
It may be a bare-bones booth with a generic sign, far from the heavy traffic on the Convention Center floor. But what distinguishes this spot is the tubular crunch of two amps and the energy of Randall Aiken, the founder of Aiken Amplification -- a company which, up until just before the Summer NAMM show opened, didn't even really exist.
"I've always built tube amps," he says, in a wired, running-on-empty Georgia drawl. "I was a kid when I took my parents' black-and-white TV apart and rebuilt it, just to see how it worked. And I've been playing music since I was ten. But it wasn't after I got my first college degree, in '83, that I decided to go into it as a business."
What followed was a long period of mastering other relevant tools, including Autocad software in order to do his own mechanical engineering in 3-D, and PSPICE, a circuit simulator program which he used to design his own amps onscreen. He built up a war chest through his day job as an electrical engineer, then started investing it a few years ago on ramp-up expenses. "I spent every dime I had, every month, buying parts in quantity. Then, the next month, I did it again."
Finally, just last January, he decided to take the big leap and exhibit at the summer show. He registered for booth space -- $1,600 for a 10x10 booth. Then he learned he had to pay for the carpet -- $250. Electricity? Another $100. How about chairs? That'll be $40 per. In the end, Aiken had laid out nearly two grand, all from his own pocket.
 Suddenly the dream was getting real -- fast. "All I wanted was to take two amps to NAMM," he says. But things started going wrong. An arrangement he thought he had with a metal company for supplies fell apart. He started working longer hours and looking for collaborators who wouldn't blow their deadlines. Aiken found someone who could hand-build an amp chassis in one week. A silk screener did the lettering in just two days.
Days flew by. Aiken barely had time to come up with a company logo for shirts to wear in the booth and cards to hand out. He tried to whip up some brochures, but he ran out of money before being able to pay a photographer. Finally, there was no time for anything but finishing the two amps – which he did at four o'clock on the morning of July 21, opening day of the show. He loaded the products into his truck, let someone drive the five hours to Nashville while he grabbed a little sleep, hauled the amps up to his booth, rushed to his hotel to a shower, and just made it to the show as the doors were opening.
Why would anybody risk so much to chase a dream into so inhospitable a wilderness as the music industry? "Because I love what I do," Aiken answers. "I'm not afraid of competition. The big guys -- Fender, Marshall -- they're not my competition anyway. I'm going up against guys like Victoria -- people who make great, boutique products. Of course, I'd love to have a big building and a lot of people working for me, but I'd have to compete on price point if I went that way. Boutique people would rather worry about quality."
As Aiken sees it, there's no magic to pursuing your ambition, no matter how tough the odds might seem. "I had the pleasure of meeting [Gibson founder] Ted McCarty today, and I asked him what it took for him to succeed. Quality was paramount, he told me: ‘Never sacrifice quality. You might sell a lot, but you'll know you're not very good at what you do. And there's no such thing as luck; luck is really nothing but hard work.'"
Aiken is already on his feet, moving to greet a potential customer. "There's nothing special about that," he calls back. "Anyone can do it, as long as they love what they're doing."
You can find out more about Aiken amplifiers at www.aikenamps.com. Or if you prefer, you can email the president himself, Randall Aiken, at reaiken@aikenamps.com.
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