Interview with Blake Studdard of Mammoth Electronics
For a while there, I was REALLY into working on pedals. Unfortunately, my work has really consumed my available pedal time, and that is something that is getting on my nerves, and something that will hopefully change soon. My bench is right next to my office, so I’m always reminded about how much I enjoy working on pedals for my music buddies out there. Working on pedals is very empowering. It’s a good feeling to ‘fix’ something … in this ‘throw away’ mentality these days. Once you know how to fix things, the requests start pouring in from friends with broken footswitches and wiring.
Then the next logical step is to build something. Probably from a kit but you might be get into breadboarding, etc. Playing with circuits is fantastic. Seeing cause-and-effect and being able to manipulate it by experimentation. Very cool. When you work with pedals one of the big challenges is sourcing parts. It can be a pain, especially if you’re working on vintage circuits and trying to find compatible values to those older schematics. Availability and pricing can be an issue too. Personally, I’ve been buying parts from several electronic sites, but it was really great to see Mammoth Electronics.
Mammoth Electronics is a great new site for providing pedal parts out there. They also offer kits and offer some services such as silk screening and enclosure drilling. I had a chance to send some questions to Blake, President of Mammoth Electronics:
What inspired you to start Mammoth Electronics?
Playing in numerous bands and the local studio scene, I was a gear-head and effects-junky from pedals to rackmount gear, and began trying to build my own pedals with alot of trial and error. I found that there was a tremendous amount of knowledge out on the web and in forums and blogs, but it was hard to find a parts source that was reliable, consistent and easy to navigate so I thought, “maybe i should do that.”How long has Mammoth Electronics been in business?
It will be 2 years this December.Where are you located? Is this a web shop only? Or do you have a brick and mortar presence as well?
We are centrally located in Oklahoma USA and we are not currently open to the public, but possibly one day. We shall see?!What separates you from the other electronic component or pedal part outfits out there?
There are some great companies that are out there and each offers a unique selection of parts and knowledge. What we offer is a seamless and easy-to-navigate shopping experience with a large selection of enclosures, colors and drill-layouts as well as great sounding DIY pedal kits and all the supplies necessary to build high quality and great looking pedals. While we are geared toward the DIY guys and small-run manufacturers, we have a deep inventory to efficiently supply larger pedal, audio and amp manufacturers. Consequently, because of our bulk purchasing with suppliers, weare able to pass on the price savings to our smaller customers so everybody wins.How is the world of DIY/MIY and boutique builds? Is the field growing and the demand rising?
The demand is there and growing. With knowledge and parts becoming more available, we are seeing a large number of new-to-the-market customers. Alot of guys want the experience of literally “building” and “crafting” their own sound. They want to put their signature audio circuit into a box that they can customize with paint color, knobs and artwork and put on display for others to see and hear. It’s a satisfying experience to hear another performing musician play a lick through an effect pedal that you built and to know you had a piece in that. Some customers have the ambition of selling thousands of units a year and others simply want to build a few units a year. I think the other driving factor for the DIY community has been the downturn in the economy and the subsequent effect on peoples wallets. Why pay $200 for an overdrive pedal when you can easily build it yourself for 1/3 of the price and as a plus, you get the ability to choose the size of the enclosure, color of enclosure, color of LED and the type of knobs? The DIY effects market just makes sense in a cash-strapped economy.Do you offer some vintage NOS components?
We have some vintage NOS stock. We have been asked to carry more and from time to time we will bring in some vintage parts, especially chips. We get alot of requests for old Bucket Brigade chips, but since there is a surplus of counterfeits out there, we are careful what we bring into our stock.With the limited supplies of vintage transistors and capacitors, etc., are there *really* comparative components that can achieve same/similar tones?
Absolutely. To the average consumer, most wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in vintage transistors and caps. It is sweet every once in a while when you hear a vintage mullard yellow-jacket OC44 next to a clone or cross-part. Nothing really compares to the old stuff and if price is not in the equation, then by all means, get the old stuff. But, we’ve tried to do our best to partner with manufacturers that are still making replicas to the same specifications of the old stuff. We carry the CoolAudio Bucket brigade delay chips that have replaced the old Panasonic BBD. We also carry a line of germanium and silicon transistors that are made to the original mullard spec by a North American military transistor manufacturer.What are the components you see flying off the shelf at a regular basis?
Our customers really like our 3PDT (true bypass) foot switches as well as our micro toggle switches. Alot of the switches out on the market are China junk, but our supplier, 4Site Electronics, makes some high quality switches. Our enclosures are a big seller as well. The ability to customize drilling and powder coat and still ship same or next-day makes it really favorable for our customers that want a high quality enclosure with a quick turnaround. Consumables are another big one. We sell alot of wire, solder and bare circuit boards.What is the most popular enclosure out there in demand? Any reasons why?
The 4S125B, 4S1590B and 4S1590BB are the big sellers and recently the 4S1590BBT (Taller version of the 1590BB) are selling very consistently. Some builders want to maximize real estate on their pedal boards so they opt for the smaller 4S1590B, some want the ability to put 10 toggles and potentiometers in a single box so they will stuff them into a 4S1590BB or 4S1590BBT. For alot of our beginner DIY guys, we recommend the larger enclosures (4S125B and 4S1590BB) simply because it is easy to maneuver the components and wire inside the enclosure.Do you offer enclosure painting.. or silkscreening?
Yes. We do offer powder coating and silkscreening.Do you offer pre-drilled enclosures?
Yes, we have a huge selection of pre-drilled options and are always adding more at our customers’ requests.For people interested in pedal building, kits are a great way to get started. Do you offer any kits? If so, what kit do you recommend for someone interested in building?
For a first-time / beginner build, the Stage 3 Booster is very simple and sounds incredible. After that, the Hot Chilicon Fuzz, the ODC Overdrive and the EA tremelo are very simple builds with dynamic audio quality.Do you offer any give aways (ie: components, enclosures, kits, etc?)
Multiple times a week, we have awesome giveaways, from effects pedals and kits to parts and enclosures. Our facebook page is the place to be to find out about the giveaways and its super easy to win. We also have daily deals that occur multiple times per week and its a great opportunity to pickup some great parts at a ridiculously low price.Anything new coming down the pipe that you’re excited about?
The pipeline is definitely full with new and exciting products. We have some new kits that are coming in the next few months, including a delay. In response to our Amplifier guys, we are going to be bringing on a full line of caps, transistors, resistors and pots as well as the hardware, boards, sockets and consumables. There are a few other irons in the fire that I’m not at liberty to discuss, but I am certainly excited about the direction Mammoth is heading and the community of engineer-artists that we get to partner with.
Please check out Mammoth Electronics at their website and like them on Facebook!
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