Caroline Guitar Company Wave Cannon

Caroline Guitar Company

Our first product is the Wave Cannon™ booster/overdrive/distortion pedal. We believe it is the finest pedal of its kind on the market. It is capable of tones that are dynamic, responsive, powerful, and soulful. We care deeply about great sounds, and this pedal is our first tribute to that cause.

We pursued this goal with a proper mix of passion, madness, and diligence. As a former touring pro and gear critic who had owned, played, tested, or reviewed over 75 different distortion pedals, I had a pretty good idea for the recipe I had always wanted. For years I had also modified or “unlocked” other brands of pedals for our customers and friends, only to grit my teeth when confronted with limits to what I could do within their framework. In the end, the enclosure (rightfully) was also still theirs to brand – their reward for putting in the hustle and capital towards creating, developing, and marketing a product.

I took my initial concept as far as I could, then I put my trust in good people to make it better. After lots of prototypes, genuine feedback and honest advice, lead user testing from great working players whom I trust, and some interesting adventures in converting dreamware to hardware, we launched the Cannon in October, 2010.

We’re not going to pretend that this pedal is for anyone and everyone. While capable of stomach-punching levels of boost all the way to waves of op-amp driven fuzz, the Wave Cannon pedal is not for the novice player who needs to cover their technique or playing with copious amounts of dirt and compression. This is a high-gain unit that responds to the full range of expressive tools that a serious player can use: changes in technique, pick attack, dynamics, guitar and amp controls, pickup selections, and so on. And we haven’t even talked about the Havoc switch yet!

Each of the first 75 will be made entirely by hand and numbered with our “Dreamed, Designed, and Created in Columbia, South Carolina” laser engraved badge. From our work at the Southeast Guitar and Amp Show in Raleigh, NC and our existing relationships, we will be selling the Cannons at retailers in Columbia, Arlington VA, Raleigh NC, and New York City.

Caroline Guitar Company about the Cannonball pedals

Our Cannonball™ pedals are our very limited, one-off unique or custom order pieces. Each is a work of art, with the enclosure custom painted by a noteworthy artist and then specially wired by hand in our shop.

Each begins with our acclaimed Wave Cannon™ distortion circuit, but we put a couple special tweaks inside to make each pedal unlike any other. Then we load the Havoc switch, but this time we put it on a rugged latched or momentary footswitch that you can activate with your foot.