great if I could plug in and play that?!”
So I set out to make a tone that
sounded like a snowball cake tastes. A
lot of my pedal ideas come from food
and candy.
TR: How do you approach designing
a pedal?
FB: It starts with either an idea for a
certain look to a pedal, like a particular
graphic design, motif, or aesthetic, (like
the Cream Puff) or a name (like the
Sputnik and Sandwich) or a particular
type of sound or effect I really want to
have (like the Vibutron or Peachfuzz). So,
sometimes a product is designed from
the name down to circuit, sometimes the
reverse, but it is always just something
that I want to try for myself, something
that I would like to see and hear in the
real world. I figure that the best and only
test is whether or not it excites me, and
if I like it then others will too. That was
the case with the Cream Puff; when
I came out with that the dealers
all thought I was nuts. “Nobody will
ever buy a pink pedal,” they said . . .
but it ended up being my biggest seller
that year.
TR: You were one of the spearheads of
the boutique pedal movement back in
the late ‘90s. What has changed in the
industry since you began?
FB: Oh—everything! And very little, it
depends on what side of the coin you
look at. Technically and from a
manufacturing standpoint it is a
completely different world. The industry
that has sprung up around the DIY
movement has brought about so many
affordable options for anyone wanting
to have a start-up, from PCB design
software, to outsourced manufacturing,
UV printing companies that can do your
enclosures, vendors that can supply you
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