I’ve always loved music. Growing up, my only exposure to music was whatever was on the radio or in my parent’s record collection from the ’70s - Tom Petty, The Clash, Yes, Led Zeppelin, CSNY, etc. I eventually started buying my own cassettes (yes, cassettes) and would walk around with a small case of my favorite tapes or self-made radio mixtapes from the ‘90s - Green Day, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Live, Collective Soul, etc. This eventually shifted to compact discs, and my portable CD player with 1-sec skip protection was always in one hand along with a giant CD binder that I would take everywhere.
It was obvious my interest in music was centered around one thing - guitars.
My mother took guitar lessons in college and kept her classical guitar in the attic. When I showed interest in wanting to learn, she brought it out and showed me a couple of chords that she could remember. My parents were smart and knew that children have fleeting interests. They told me I had to show them I was serious about playing guitar before investing in one of my own. Not too long after, my parents bought me my first electric guitar and it changed my life forever. I started reading Guitar World Magazines where I learned how to read tabs and I quickly learned as many songs as I could.
While flipping through the pages, I remember the first ad for a guitar pedal that caught my interest - DOD FX-64 Ice Box Stereo Chorus. Chorus was everywhere at the time and it drove me insane that I couldn’t get my guitar to sound like the songs I was playing along to. My Peavey Rage 1x12 had on-board distortion, so I was all set there. But try to play “The Rooster” without a chorus pedal. Or the verses in “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Or the intro to “Cemetery Gates”.
This started my love affair with effects pedals and I’ve been collecting them ever since.
Years later, I saw a blog where someone modded a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. They changed a couple of capacitors and the difference was apparently “so creamy” or whatever. I decided to try it myself. There was a Radio Shack in town (yes, Radio Shack) where I bought a soldering iron and the right capacitors needed to do the job. The directions were clear and in the end, I had an overdrive pedal with a switch that changed the sound ever so slightly, but enough to impress the fuck out of me. I was hooked and slowly entered the world of DIY pedal building.
I’ve always loved how one simple stomp box could change everything. With PEPPER ELECTRONICS, I hope to create pedals that will inspire anyone who plays guitar and wants to enhance their sound at the push of a button.
- Joseph Pepper