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BIG EAR Pedals | Stompbox Makers
Plug into a BIG EAR pedal like FRANK, WOODCUTTER or LOAF, and you immediately pick up on the kind of boyish excitement that exudes from its chief designer and company head Grant Wilson, who started the company about a decade ago with his partner Karen Schierhorn. An inspired drummer and guitar geek—formerly of Brooklyn indie…
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Walrus Audio | Stompbox Innovators
Walrus Audio, based in Oklahoma City, does what Colt Westbrook—the company’s president—refers to as sound manipulation. “We wanted a name and a stoic story to go with each of these effects,” he says about how they name their pedals. “To add to the mystery that is sound manipulation, which is what we’re all doing.” The…
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Stompbox Innovators | Josh Scott | JHS Pedals
Josh Scott and Eilon Paz are the classic trope of unlikely friends. At the same time, if you know their histories, you realize it’s not that unlikely. Both Eilon and Josh grew up in the sticks (the main difference is that Josh grew up in Mississippi and Eilon grew up in rural Israel), they both…
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Thorpy FX | Stompbox Innovators
ThorpyFX, based near the Silverstone/Oxford area in the sunny UK, is a pedal company run by former British Army officer, Major Adrian Thorpe MBE, whose first line of work was as an explosive ordnance disposal expert (in other words: he took bombs apart). That influence is reflected in his pedals, both in their names—like the…
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Earthquaker Devices | Stompbox Innovators
Akron, Ohio, the city that launched the careers of artists like Robert Quine (Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Lou Reed), Devo, and the Black Keys, is also home to EarthQuaker Devices, one of the pedal scene’s more idiosyncratic builders. Akron may be an “idyllic post-apocalyptic wasteland metropolis,” as the company notes on their website, but…
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Death by Audio | Stompbox Innovators
The Death By Audio Fuzz War is one of the more aggressive, abrasive, and gnarly fuzz pedals known to man. It was embraced by artists like Ty Segall, John Dwyer (Oh Sees), Chad Ubovich (Meatbodies), Charles Moothart (GØGGS, Ty Segall), and Cory Hanson (Wand), and can be considered the sound ’00/‘10s-era garage. But the Fuzz…
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Analog Man | Stompbox Innovators
AnalogMan, based in southern Connecticut, was boutique before boutique was a thing. The company’s products are handmade, and their core business is clones, updates, and revisions of classic pedals. As the name implies, almost their entire catalog is analog—they also eschew surface mount in favor of through-hole, prefer old-school leaded solder, and when possible, rely…
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Strymon | Stompbox Makers
“We want to build products with no compromises. We want to push the limits of technology in music.” That’s how Strymon describes its mission on its company website, and for once, it’s not hype. The Los Angeles-area based concern has proven one of the most innovative companies in guitar pedal-making history. It’s not for nothing…
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Z Vex Effects | Stompbox Makers
For our third “Stompbox Makers” post, we talk to Zachary Vex, the founder of Z.Vex Effects who has been described as “the mad scientist” of guitar pedals. Founded in the mid-1990s, the Minneapolis-based company’s customers include Jack White, Billy Gibbons, Billy Corgan and John Frusciante. The Fuzz Factory is the company’s most well-known effect, described…
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Keeley Electronics | Stompbox Makers
Back in the 2000s, word got out about an incredible electrical engineer who was modifying Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamers in a way that made them far more musical and tonally-rich, and that could make even brand new ones sing with the voicing of the highly sought-after originals. When both Peter Frampton and Steely Dan’s Jon…