Pearce
32Also known as: Pearce Amplifiers, Pearce Amps
UnclaimedPearce Amplifiers was a Buffalo, New York amplifier manufacturer founded by engineer Dan Pearce, a Rochester Institute of Technology graduate who had previously worked as an electronic toy designer at Fisher-Price and contributed to the development of the Moog/Gibson Lab Series solid-state amplifiers. The company started in Pearce's basement workshop in the early 1980s and later moved into the ...
Pearce Amplifiers was a Buffalo, New York amplifier manufacturer founded by engineer Dan Pearce, a Rochester Institute of Technology graduate who had previously worked as an electronic toy designer at Fisher-Price and contributed to the development of the Moog/Gibson Lab Series solid-state amplifiers. The company started in Pearce's basement workshop in the early 1980s and later moved into the historic Pierce Arrow plant in Buffalo, supplying a network of music stores across the United States until the operation wound down in 1993.
The brand is best known for its solid-state, rack-mount bass and guitar gear, including the BC-1 twin-channel bass preamp, the B2P bass amplifier, and the G1 and G2R guitar amplifiers. Pearce designs typically combined a clean channel with a separate overdrive channel, along with onboard compression/limiting and multi-band filtering — features inherited from Pearce's Lab Series work. The BC-1 in particular gained a cult following on the secondhand market, with a factory-installed "Billy Sheehan mod" variant that became a sought-after vintage piece.
Notable players associated with Pearce gear include bassist Billy Sheehan, who used the BC-1 preamp as a core part of his rig, along with guitarists Ronnie Montrose and Allan Holdsworth. Although the original company is no longer in production, Dan Pearce continues to work in pro audio engineering through his consulting firm Pearce Electronics.
Pearce has 3 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Guitar Amplifier Heads and Bass Preamps. Their gear is featured by 5 artists, with the strongest followings in Rock, Jazz, and Electronic. Notable users include Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern, and Billy Sheehan.
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