Rob,
So, what boutique gear have you tested over a protracted amount of time?
well; my stepfather owned a big sound company/recording studio/sound reinforcement company based in orange county. we provide sound reinforcement for concerts and what not. Him and his partners put me in charge of buying gear; amps, guitars, recording preamps; whatever i thought was worth a try; they think its worth a try. I guess they thought i was "hip" enough to know whats in.
as far as amps;
ive had bogners (ectasy, shiva) boogies (first prod. recti series down to mark series, mavericks, heartbreakers etc. etc.) marshalls (plexi's, jcms etc etc) dr. z , matchless, crates, orange, barons, laneys, victorias, blues saraceno's own amp that his dad built for him, slash's sh1t...yada yada yada.
ive messed with hebert's and vh4's too..not my piece of cake...and guess where i found it? at guitar center; USA's biggest music chain store.
its really funny when i had this audition with some band and i was using markflos LANEY VH...the guy after me who had a herbert with him begged me to use marks Laney. he thought, mark's amp was "ballsy"..i wouldnt know, i dont own a herbert. i did anyways (peace mark!).
guitars? well there's a sh1tload of them, but by far the biggest and dumbest move i made was to order and buy an abyss guitar. i think we shelled $7000.00 for a guitar that was really made well, but such a liability to play. you dont want to damage that freakin "last supper" inlay. i got more to list here but what am i proving?
oh yeah, i had these gear when i was 19. thats just how we roll.