“Billy said, ‘I've never played a high-gain amp that I like.’ It was a tall order”: How a Smashing Pumpkins superfan made the only amp Billy Corgan has ever truly loved

Brian Carstens poses with his guitar amp builds.

When Billy Corgan announced his first-ever signature amp, the Grace, at the height of the pandemic, Brian Carstens became one of the most talked-about amp builders on the planet, seemingly overnight.

“It's like, this is what happens to other people, right? It doesn't happen to you,” he says. “You couldn't make it up. And for him to be genuinely so excited by it that he's like, ‘I want to put my name on it, and this is my first and only signature amp I've ever done’… it’s amazing.”