Here's FXDB's interview with Mike Nelson of Boomerang Musical Products:

How did Boomerang Musical Products start?

I went looking for a looper back in 1990 and was unable to find one. All the music stores kept pushing delay pedals. Lee and I worked at the same company Showco/Varilite, and began discussing the idea. Lee provided a purpose built hardware system and I developed the proof-of-concept software. After some delays due to personal events the project was taken to the market and the first Boomerang Phrase Sampler was sold in July 1995.

For better or worse, we did it all ourselves. Mike designed the basic chassis shape, button location and functionality. Lee thought up the foot roller volume control, designed the circuits and wrote the production software.

El Musico Loco

El Musico Loco is a 1-man operation. Chris Bradford is a US ex-pat living in Spain. He is hand-building a small range of pedals.  He builds the boards and has local people finish the boxes. I'm looking at the Honky Dong MFBO,  MosFetBOoster.

Honky Dong

The Honky Dong has a bright orange enclosure, makes it easy to spot and easy to find would you ever misplace it. The gold lettering looks great on the orange paint.  There's only 1 control and it's called ‘stiffy’ (insert giggle here!) which obviously controls the amount of boost. I had a quick look inside and the build quality is top notch with quality components. You will also find the battery connection in here but you'll want to power this pedal with a power supply as you won't be turning it off any time soon!

Here's FXDB's interview with Jonathan Glynn of Mill Hill Creations:

How did Mill Hill Creations start?

A natural progression for my tube amplifier company focused on guitar tone.

We read many vintage books on early transistor circuits. My back ground in electronics is 1990 Government Electronics (Air Force Sat Comm Ranger), as a hobby I read everything I could about tubes and alot of that info bridged into transistors and those basic thoughts and circuits are where I started my discovery.

Here's FXDB's interview with David DiFrancesco of Rolls:

How did Rolls start?

I was an LDS (Mormon) missionary in Argentina and I had a companion (Paul Overson) from Arizona that was a guitar player. Mondays were sort of a free day and I build amplifiers and effects for local members. I was already deep into electronics when I went to Argentina and there it is common to build things 1 off. The local shops are set up for that sort of thing (totally different from here). Anyway, there was a local band in Villa Maria, Cordoba called the "Rhythm Devils" (Diablos del Ritmo) and they wanted to play "Satisfaction" so I built them a tube based fuzz and that was the first effect I ever built - and I was hooked. I loved that stuff and still do even though I have moved on to other things. When I got home I registered the name DOD and started building fuzzes and wahs, then partnered with John Johnson for sales and built up DOD Electronics. We sold that business in 1988, but I was restless and started Rolls and built the RFX pedals. We have discontinued them some years ago, but I still think they were a good design.

Who helped or inspired you to start building pedals?

Well that is a good question, all of us got help from Maestro and Mike Mathews, Electro-Harmonix who basically did all the real market research for the industry. Every pedal today has it's roots with them. They didn't intend to help, but they did.

Here's FXDB's interview with George Burgerstein of George Dennis:

How did George Dennis start?

I am guitar player since 1964. My task in the development of the pedals was to create the final sound of the pedals.

We have had five development engineers (electro- and mechanical) and those have all credit for the success of our pedals. In 1994-2005 we had about 22 employees and they all participated in the production of FX pedals.

All GD products are developed by our company, without outside help.

Tonebug series

T-Rex Engineering has been around for a lot of time, making high quality pedals and accessories that can be found on pedalboards all over the world. Although they have a vast range of pedals from delays and modulation to overdrive and distortion, they decided to release a new range of pedals a couple of years ago: Tonebugs.

The Tonebug series of pedals is bringing the T-Rex quality in smaller packages, for less money. The range currently has 10 different pedals. All the pedals come in the same enclosure and have the same look: 2-3 dials and some little switches depending on the model. I also gotta give props to T-Rex for shipping the pedals in a nice box, it makes the pedals a bit more special.

Here's FXDB's interview with Alex Anest of Phoenix Custom Electronics:

How did Phoenix Custom Electronics start?

I started building pedals to replace the ones that were stolen when my pedal board got ripped off after a gig. I started selling them to pay for the parts to make more for myself. And it just went from there.

General Guitar Gadgets, Small Bear Electronics and my friend Kevin were a big help.

Tonebug series

T-Rex Engineering has been around for a lot of time, making high quality pedals and accessories that can be found on pedalboards all over the world. Although they have a vast range of pedals from delays and modulation to overdrive and distortion, they decided to release a new range of pedals a couple of years ago: Tonebugs.

The Tonebug series of pedals is bringing the T-Rex quality in smaller packages, for less money. The range currently has 10 different pedals. All the pedals come in the same enclosure and have the same look: 2-3 dials and some little switches depending on the model. I also gotta give props to T-Rex for shipping the pedals in a nice box, it makes the pedals a bit more special.

Here's FXDB's interview with Kevin Wilson of Wilson Effects:

How did Wilson Effects start?

I began building pedals out of frustration at some of the high prices that other effects cost. I have an electric/electronic background so it was quite a good fit. I decided that I wanted to offer high quality boutique effects at a more affordable price.

Wilson Effects was developed in 2006 but was officially made into a company in November of 2007. I'm the sole proprietor of Wilson Effects with the support of my wife Michelle.

I was mainly inspired by the wealth of information that was available on the world wide web. You can practically get the schematic for anything. People who inspire me are Dave Fox of FoxRox electronics, Analogman, Skreddy and Devi Ever to name a few.

Tonebug series

T-Rex Engineering has been around for a lot of time, making high quality pedals and accessories that can be found on pedalboards all over the world. Although they have a vast range of pedals from delays and modulation to overdrive and distortion, they decided to release a new range of pedals a couple of years ago: Tonebugs.

The Tonebug series of pedals is bringing the T-rex quality in smaller packages, for less money. The range currently has 10 different pedals. All the pedals come in the same enclosure and have the same look: 2-3 dials and some little switches depending on the model. I also gotta give props to T-rex for shipping the pedals in a nice box, it makes the pedals a bit more special.