Here’s a great video of Rudy Wijaya in the City of Industry, California – playing his Telecaster straight into a Max Butler “Swamp 50″ amp. I’m sorry, if you play guitar and don’t think that this is tone straight from heaven – I don’t know what to tell ya! Good job Rudy, we hope that you enjoy your Swamp amp as much as it looks like you do!
We don’t often come across Butler amps that are for sale, but every now and again we see one for sale in a forum or on eBay. Max has built nearly 400 amps in the last 30+ years, and many variations of his amps exist, such as a few combos, some 2×12′s, some heads with 4×12 bottoms, and then a lot of heads with 1×12 cabs.
Here’s a couple pics we found recently of one of Max Butler’s Swamp 50 amp heads:
To see more Butler amps, please visit our photos page.
Back in August of 1990 Max Butler built a Silver Hammer amp head for C.C. Deville of Poison. A couple of years back it was for sale first in Hollywood, and then I believe on eBay, and now Chuck Mohelsky in Texas owns it.
The other day we were lucky enough to come across some additional pics online of this amp when it was for sale back in 2008 in Hollywood in a guitar forum, take a look!
This is the inside of the amp head where Max signed it and noted the date and who he built it for:
If you have pics of a butler amp, please submit them for our photo gallery of Butler amps, by using the contact Max form on the about page.
In this interview Max talks about his recent discovery with the Swamp amp – which he’s been building for about 15 years now. If you own one of his Swamp amps – you’ll definitely want to watch this video interview!
Over the years Max has built guitar amps for some very famous people, and he’s had some pretty cool brushes with fame. Some of these have turned out to be what he calls “his greatest disappointments”.
Max talks about the Butler amp he built for Eric Johnson back in the 80′s, the amp he built for Billy Gibbons in ZZ Top, and the Box Car Willie band.
We recently got an email submission from Tyler Ross – who owns in fact two Swamp amps built by Max Butler. He was kind enough to send a nice testimonial as well – and this is what he had to say:
Unlike most the players that have a Butler amp I myself did not have these two made for me, they were built for a family member. from the first time i heard these amps I fell in love with them, and when they were for sale I bought them. there has been multiple time where my family member has tried to by them back (good luck).
I too have had the pleasure of meeting Max, he is one of the nicest guys in this business. he will never say no to an idea, and he is always wanting to hear what you want done. I have owned these amps for five years, and I dont ever plan on selling them. The first time I went to meet Max I had him give me an autograph it still hangs above my amps to this day.
This is Tyler Ross’ submitted pic of his Swam amp stacks:
(click image above to see full size)
This is the autograph Max gave Tyler:
(click image above to see full size)
This is a video demo of Max Butler’s personal 25 watt Swamp amp, with Darrell Orr on guitar, playing his 70′s Les Paul custom (straight in), 1×12″ cabinet. The Swamp is an incredibly versatile amp, 1 channel, and comes in 25, 30, and 50 watt versions. It’s VERY pedal friendly, and basically what you might call a “Bassman on steroids”. It can be very clean, and play blues and jazz just like silk and butter, or (when you crank it) it can be very biting like the best Nugent licks you ever heard!
Last time I was in Eaton Rapids at Max’s house picking up my Silver Hammer amp head, Max’s long time friend was there – Darrell Orr. Max has been friends with Darrell since he gave him guitar lessons as a teenager! I was lucky enough to have Darrell play my HSS strat through my Butler Silver Hammer and got a quick video demo. You can hear as he turns up the volume and “give it some more gas” how it turns the snarl on this incredible amp.
The “Silver Hammer” is a 2 channel (footswitchable) 50 watt Plexi, that’s VERY pedal friendly!
Here’s a great pic of the Max Butler Amp and 4×12 cab built for Tracy Stiles! You can read what he has to say on our testimonials page.
If you own a Max Butler amp, you can submit your picture or testimonial on our About page.
Chuck Mohelsky was nice enough to submit a dozen and a half pictures of the 4 different Max Butler amps he owns (including the one originally built for CC Deville of Poison), and awesome pics of one of the first Silver Hammer amps built back in the 70′s.
Click the link below the picture to visit the full photo gallery:
