Guest Post – The birth of a pedal company

The following is a guest post by David Anderson. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Anytime I learn about a new pedal company, it’s usually from a fellow player, magazine review, or an online forum like EffectsBay. Typically, a  “new” company is not so new at all. They may have been around for years before getting the word out that they are the newest tone box on the market.

I recently did some repair for a customer who told me he was thinking of jumping into the pedal market and offering some creations of his own. As I tracked his progress with his new endeavor via Facebook, I found it interesting how quickly he picked ups steam on a grass roots level. In a matter of weeks the local buzz was going around about  Physics Punk Pedals, his new company. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how a pedal company is born…

Gerald Good is an engineer by day, and rock musician by night. Soon, Gerald was in his basement  putting together some DIY boxes. Now, I have tried my hand at building some BYOC pedals, and while I was successful with the outcome, I soon realized that, with the time it takes to acquire parts, assemble, and paint boxes, it was not going to be very profitable for me, not to mention that I personally don’t have the knowledge to design my own circuits. So, to all you pedal companies out there giving it your best shot, my hat goes off to you! It is definitely a labor of love!

Gerald started like a lot of us, with a few Build Your Own Clone kits, and soon after, Good began to research and build some circuits based on designs found at Tonefiend.com . Soon, friends were putting in requests for pedals for him to build…some clones, and some not.

Now Good is perfecting his hand at fabricating his own circuit boards and implementing some designs of his own. His focus is getting pedals in the hands of musicians at an affordable rate. ” The  metal box is usually the most expensive part. It seems a little crazy to me that some boutique effects, that a straight-up clones cost hundreds of dollars” says Good .

Currently, Good is making pedals on a custom order basis. Some of his builds include the “Cube Streamer”, a variant of the Electra Distortion, the “Friendly Fuzz”, a variant of the Bazz Fuzz circuit, the ” Blue Sky Boost”, a JFET booster and buffer  that is similar to the “Codpiece”, the “Power Ring”, based on the Dan Armstrong Green Ringer, but with an added volume knob, and many others. Follow Physics Punk Pedals on Gerald Good’s Facebook page.

Dave Anderson is the owner of Tritione Guitars, a full service guitar repair shop based in St. Louis, MO. Dave has played guitar for over 25 years, and plays pedal steel, banjo, and mandolin as well. Dave also has over 20 years music retail experience and has done product demos for companies like Taylor guitars, Eastwood Guitars, Rivera Amps, and others.