A Little History

I’ve always been a huge fan of good rock, blues, and metal music, as well as sports (GO Cards!, GO Blues!).

One of the things that I think really helped in my musical upbringing was having one of the USA’s absolute BEST (and longest running) rock stations KSHE 95 blasted into my ears since birth (kshe and I are roughly the same age).

Well, one of the main reason for me playing guitar was me being a huge Hendrix fan. So obviously, I like a good fuzz tone. Was never really happy with the fuzz sounds I got with pedals I had tried. The one pedal that was close was a Crest Audio Fuzz Face with BC109’s in it if I remember correctly, that I got in 1998.  At the time I had no idea of the significance of the Crest Audio Fuzz Face and who created it, so what did I do? I started tinkering around inside, modifying the damn thing… That’s what I did! And, boy, did that thing ever sound good.

Soon after, I discovered a website called Harmony Central in the year 2000. I lurked around there reading, got hooked on the forums (finally signed up in early 2001 as duderanimous), and my passion for effects just intensified. I had also purchased a Zvex Fuzz Factory, and really liked the home made look it had – and the sounds, too.  Around mid 2002, I thought lets try to make my own pedal, and started reworking the classic Fuzz Face circuit to try and improve upon it. This eventually turned into the Monsterpiece NPN.

The Evolution of  the Monsterpiece!

I started in the basement, working on top of the washer & dryer. Was using the cheapest parts I could find at the couple of local electronics surplus store. Folded sheet metal boxes, super cheap dpdt switches, etc…

Was it hard building my 1st pedal? Yes and no. Yes because of the materials and tools I was trying to use, and no because I did have a general clue as to what I was trying to accomplish. Eventually it work as designed, hahaha

After I got some of the pedals working, I thought, hey, these sound pretty good! So I sold some very cheap via internet forums and eBay. Did this for less than a year, then stopped altogether until August 2005 when I started making “real” pedals.

So here I am today, still making pedals in my basement, but now making REAL pedals, really GOOD pedals, working on a real workbench instead of a washer & dryer, using only QUALITY parts, and still doing everything by hand, all by myself. Because of this, each individual pedal is unique in it’s own way – no 2 Monsterpieces will look exactly the same – but they are all consistent in one thing – producing fabulous tone that easily integrates into YOUR style and sound.  I am the One Man Monsterpiece Band!

ROCK ON!