Gearhead

Spun Loud, a West Seattle based company, designs and builds handmade guitar pedals.

Photos by Lisa Baumann

Building guitar pedals wasn’t a lifelong dream of Dan DeMay’s. Like most good ideas, it happened naturally and out of curiosity and necessity. In 2018, during a conversation with one of his guitar tech buddies about tone and effects, the question was raised, ‘why not just build your own pedal?’ With a solid understanding of analog electronics and soldering, Dan began experimenting with circuits and materials he bought on the internet to try his hand at pedal building. During the process, one of his bandmates asked him to create a two-in-one fuzz pedal which became one of his first prototypes. And then, everyone in the band wanted one.

We spoke with Dan, founder of Spun Loud, based in West Seattle to learn more about his handmade products and what sets them apart.

Tell us about the guitar pedals you design and make.

Right now, I have two pedals available. The Blister & Peel Fuzz Drive is a two-in-one dirt pedal that covers everything from a clean boost to heavy fuzz. The Blister side has its roots in the classic Electra distortion circuit and offers a variety of uses, including clean boost, lead distortion tones, and near octave fuzz sounds. The Peel side is more of a traditional fuzz sound, with an added tone control that primarily boosts or cuts treble tones. I like to use the Peel side as my always-on with a low gain setting and then click on the Blister side for those searing leads.

The Leon’s Railer Phaser is actually not a phaser at all, but a flanger. This limited edition pedal (I have four left) is a classic 4-knob flanger with controls for manual, depth, rate and feedback, but it goes beyond that with a wider range that lets you create a variety of modulation sounds. The circuit, designed by Electric Druid (Portugal), is a beautiful analog effect built around a BBD chip. This pedal actually started as a custom pedal, when a friend of mine who out with Lagwagon as a guitar tech contacted me saying Chris Rest was looking for a new flanger and could I build him one. We came up with the name because Chris’s nickname is Leon and their latest album is called “Railer.” The colors are also drawn from the album art colors. After I built it and Chris posted about it on social media, I started getting requests from other players wondering if I would be building more. Eventually, I decided to do 10 of them. There may be other flangers in the not too distant future, so check back in!

What do you think each accomplishes that makes them unique?

The Blister & Peel was my first offering as a production pedal, and it really came from that idea of making my own pedal and what would that sound like. I built it to my specs — the tone filtering on the input, the two-in-one configuration, and the wide range of tones/gain settings are all the things that make it my favorite pedal to play, so that’s what’s unique to me. But I have heard other people say they love the wide range of flexibility and its clarity. I think it’s very subjective when you’re talking about what is essentially a fuzz/distortion pedal. One could argue that the circuits are even fairly “transparent,” but I’d shy away from what I feel is a buzz word that has come to mean less and less. I would argue that for a lot of players, this pedal can fill a lot of slots for a drive pedal, so it’s really utilitarian. And I’m pretty proud of the art.

The Railer has a really unique circuit design that allows it to pack a bit more range into the space that would normally be totally full with the circuit for a basic flanger. As a flanger alone, it’s a very versatile pedal, much more than say an old DOD or Boss flanger. It’s also extremely limited in production — only 12 of them exist in the world! — and that it was designed for Chris Rest of Lagwagon. I think it’s a very unique looking pedal, too.

All of your pedals are handmade. How would you define that?

To put is simply, these are made one at a time, by hand and without any sort of assembly line. I design my art and circuits, I hand assemble and solder every part, right down to writing a unique note inside every pedal. I test every pedal individually, often with a thorough jam session. I get boards and parts from all over the globe — it’s no secret that a lot of parts are made in Asia — but nothing comes pre-populated or assembled. My enclosures are powder coated, printed and drilled by Pine Box Customs in Memphis, TN. Pine Box is another small pedal company that also happens to do enclosures and is willing to do them in small batches, which is a huge help to those of us doing runs of 10 or 20 at a time. I was spray painting, drilling and applying decals to my first few prototypes, but having them done saves so much time and allows me to provide pedals with a super high quality finish.

Do you build custom pedals also?

Yes. The Railer was a custom order, and I have a couple others in the works for some great players.

What are some of the most common qualities or effects that you hear people asking for?

That really depends on where you go listen to people asking. Everybody wants the perfect drive pedal, but “perfect” is different for everybody. I’ve had requests for low-gain overdrives, and that’s definitely something I’m working on, but also for reverbs (the perfect analog reverb, ha ha) and delays. Fuzz pedals are huge and probably always will be, but there’s been a huge move recently to doing classic fuzz circuits in various iterations. I love it, and I may wander down that path at some point myself, even if only just for fun.

For a guitarist just entering the world of effects, what is some advice you would give on how to find the right pedals?

I think you need to get a feel for what’s out there and what different effects do, so I would tell anyone new to effects to go hunt down some cheap pedals, whether it be through Facebook groups or just buying cheap clones so you can try them out. I would suggest getting several key effects just to learn what they sound like. Any sort of Tube Screamer overdrive circuit, a fuzz, a delay, a reverb (unless your amp has one, then you could wait until you have a better sense of what kind of reverb you might want) and then some kind of modulation, like a flanger or a phaser, or a chorus. Compressors can be really useful, too, and EQ pedals can also be great to have. The big thing is, you don’t need to rush out and buy the most expensive boutique gear to start out. Get some pedals, see what you like and what you don’t like, and then start shopping for the higher end gear. Naturally, I’d love to have everybody come buy my pedals instead of Joyos or something, but if you don’t know what you want, then you might spend money on gear that just isn’t for you.

Do you have any new products in the works?

I have a couple things going. One is a low to mid gain overdrive, which is funny, because another maker who has one of my Blister & Peels recently called it a medium gain pedal in an interview. But I’m looking to do something based around the TL072 op-amp. I have a design worked out, but I still need to do some testing and tweaking to see where it lands. I’m also working on another modulation effect that will only be available in a specific gear group, but then I’ll be working on a flanger to add to my line. And it’s not brand new, but I have some updates to the Blister & Peel coming very soon. Basically, a version 2 of the pedal. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say the circuit will be on PCBs in this version, with some improvements to the design and more!

Where can people try out or buy your pedals?

You can find my pedal at Thunder Road Guitars in West Seattle, Coconut Grove Music in Kailua, Hawaii, and if you are in the UK or nearby, Break the Machine FX carries the Blister & Peel. The Railer is only available directly, and you can buy any pedal through Spun Loud, or if you want to DM me on Instagram, where I’m most active, or Facebook.

To contact Dan, email dan@spunloud.com