RETURN TO THE FOUNDRY
ROUND 2 WITH PETTYJOHN ELECTRONICS
BY NICK RAMBO
“It’s been like getting
shot out of a cannon.” and separate. We each have different
strengths and give each other space to
do our job to the best of our ability.”
This is how Stephen Pettyjohn
describes the last two years. That’s
been the span since Tone Report last
caught up with him and, in that time,
his eponymous company has gone from
humble upstart to serious contender. It seems like the formula is working.
Last year, the plan was to release four
new Pettyjohn pedals. Together, they
launched five.
The key to success? Keeping it simple.
“I come up with the products—and
how to build them—and Chris figures
out how to sell them,” he says with a
laugh. “We collaborate heavily during
new releases, but Chris and I are quite
different, and that serves us well.”
Chris, of course, is Pettyjohn business
partner Chris Hoff.
The two entrepreneurs met five years
ago, socially, but didn’t talk much until
a mutual friend connected them based
on Stephen’s interest in starting a
pedal company. And from there, it just
worked.
“Chris brought business leadership and
manufacturing experience to the table,
which I lacked,” Stephen says, “but in
general, our roles are mostly defined
By splitting one of their original
releases—the PettyDrive Deluxe—
in half, Stephen paved the way for
a modular and expandable series of
pedals that were both functional,
aesthetically pleasing and more
marketable. This also allowed him the
opportunity to make some significant
upgrades.
“My process of designing a pedal has
morphed over the last few years as my
skills and knowledge have improved.
I have the basic building blocks that
I designed and can use on any pedal:
power sections, input and output
buffers, a handful of filter types—
even our knob layout is basically
standardized. It really comes down
to what the special thing each pedal
is going to do now. The magic, the
function, the control interface—that’s
what takes the most of the time.”
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