Today we’d like to introduce you to Billy Walters.
Billy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Acorn Amps started in Gainesville, FL by Tyler Petito in 2008. Tyler was the local electronics wizard and would fix guitar amps for music stores and musicians in the area. He then got the opportunity to travel with touring bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Cobra Starship, and Cartel as a tech and member of the stage crew.
During this time, his wife Andi Petito relocated to Atlanta to complete her nursing degree at Emory. At the end of his most recent tour, Tyler moved to Atlanta as well and that’s where we met and began our friendship. I became his apprentice and he taught me electronics theory, troubleshooting techniques, and how to fix guitar amps.
Tyler also reconnected with his friend from Gainesville named Derron Nuhfer, who was managing a Guitar Center in Atlanta at the time and began referring all local amp repairs to Tyler and I. At this point, Tyler’s living room was constantly filled with amps to repair, so we decided to make the leap and open a guitar amp repair storefront to better serve the community. Our first location was in Decatur, which we quickly outgrew.
After two years, we relocated to East Atlanta Village and have been thriving and growing amongst the artist community that EAV is known for. Acorn Amps is now proud sponsors of several up-and-coming touring acts like Microwave and Dead Now, as well as Atlanta rock stalwarts such as Royal Thunder and The Pinx. We also pride ourselves on being THE place in Atlanta to get vintage guitar amp repair for the best price and fastest turnaround.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Growing a small business is seldom a smooth and easy process. There have definitely been plenty of growing pains and hiccups along the way. Some of them are unexpected and unavoidable and other times you just have to learn by doing it wrong a few times.
One might think that guitar amp repair is a high niche market and that business might be slow, but it’s been the exact opposite ever since we opened for business in Atlanta five years ago.
It’s certainly a great problem to have, but juggling the constant flow of amp repairs in order to maintain a fast turnaround as well as finding time to continue to develop new amp circuits to expand our line of Acorn Amplifiers has been a learning experience. Our customers and the local music scene are our highest priority so we’ve had to work extra hard to keep artists’ gear running as it should as well as continue to expand our brand.
Acorn Amplifiers – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Acorn Amplifiers is a guitar amp company that builds meticulously-crafted, high-end amplifiers and effects pedals.
We design and craft quality, professional music gear for professional musicians. Acorn Amps is also a full-service guitar amp repair company. We rebuild and restore guitar amplifiers from all eras, new and old. We are known amongst the Atlanta music community as THE place to bring your amp to be repaired quickly and properly.
I’m very proud of the reputation Acorn has developed over the past five years in Atlanta.
We continue to grow by word-of-mouth since people are happy with the quality work we perform and recommend our services to their musician friends.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I gauge success by the growing support and trust from the local music scene that I serve. Musicians will bring their gear to Acorn to be repaired and we get to know each person and begin to develop a relationship with this community as a whole.
I feel most successful when a new customer comes in and tells me that their friend or bandmate recommended us to help them with their gear. It’s that kind of word-of-mouth brand-building that shows me that we are really doing something right.
Pricing:
- Hand-built effects pedals starting at $89.00
Contact Info:
- Address: 1259B Glenwood Ave SE
Atlanta, GA 30316 - Website: acornamps.com
- Phone: 4046003696
- Email: shout@acornamps.com
- Instagram: acornamps
- Facebook: Acorn Amps
- Twitter: @acornamps
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
