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Akron effects pedal manufacturer continues to expand
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 27, 2017
Many people have hobbies but not everyone can boast that a hobby led to a major business operation with sales around the country and internationally.
But that’s exactly how Akron-based effects pedal manufacturer EarthQuaker Devices got its start.
The year was 2004 and musician and entrepreneur Jamie Stillman said he was looking for a store where he could get an effects pedal fixed and he came up empty-handed.
“I’ve always been a tinkerer, with a do-it-yourself spirit,” said Stillman. “So when I can’t find someone to do something, I learn how to do it.
“When I couldn’t find a place that fixed pedals, I looked it up on the Internet and found a website that taught me to create them instead.”
A native of Kent, Stillman did not have any electrical engineering training, but he did start his own record label, Donut Friends, at age 13, which he ran until he turned 25.
He attended Kent State University, where he majored in graphic design, but he left before he graduated to go on tour with his rock band The Party of Helicopters.
In 2004, he was still touring, doing freelance graphic design work and selling silverware on eBay to make ends meet. But then he started creating pedals in his spare time.
“Some friends of mine heard I was building pedals and they asked me if I could build one for their band, The Black Keys,” said Stillman.
“The guitar player from the band posted a video of them playing online and there was a lot of interest. Before I knew it other people were asking me to make effects pedals for their band.”
The Hoof fuzz, as it was called, would go on to be used on festival stages around the world.
Stillman started off working out of the basement of the West Akron home he shared with his wife and business partner, Akron native Julie Robbins.
They have three children, Gavin, 20, Sylvia, 12 and Vivienne, 11.
“I was building the pedals and doing the painting in the basement and Julie would help me with assembly after she came home from work at night,” said Stillman.
At the time Robbins, who received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Baldwin Wallace University, was a financial planner at FirstMerit.
By 2007, they decided to incorporate as EarthQuaker Devices.
“I came up with the name EarthQuaker because my band members and I had always talked about forming a heavy metal band by that name,” Stillman said.
On New Year’s Day of 2010, they hired their first employee, adding one person every six weeks until they had outgrown the basement.
Two years later they moved their nine employees into their first location on Bishop Street in West Akron.
Today EarthQuaker Devices employs 53 people, who work out of 350 W. Bowery St. in Akron. They manufacture more than 40 different effects pedals for guitar, bass, keyboard and synth, all of which are built by hand, one at a time.
“The only things we don’t do ourselves are the powder coating for the enclosures and the fabrication of the raw circuit boards,” said Stillman. “Our pedals do everything from making a signal louder to producing distortion and overdrive to creating delay and reverb.”
The pedals are distributed via dealers, with about 60 to 70 percent of sales taking place in the U.S. and the remainder being purchased internationally.
They range in price from $195 to $225. Stillman said the most popular product is the Rainbow Machine Polyphonic Pitch Shifting Modulator.
Two of the more unusual offerings, said Stillman, are the Dispatch Master Hi-Fi Digital Delay and Reverb device and the Afterneath, an “Otherworldly” reverberation machine.
In Northeast Ohio, the pedals can be found at Replay Music Akron, Woodsy’s Music in Kent as well as Guitar Center and Sam Ash Music.
“Our website enables people to find a dealer based on their location,” said Robbins, who handles the marketing and finances for the business.
She said EarthQuaker does a variety of advertising in print publications, on social media and via their own blog, podcasts and video content. They also attend trade shows such as NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and most recently Moogfest in Durham, North Carolina.
On August 5, the owners will hold their annual EarthQuaker Day, which includes workshop tours, clinics, live music and more. It takes place at the company’s headquarters at 350 W. Bowery St. and there’s no cost to attend. For more information on the event, go to (https://www.earthquakerdevices.com/eqday).
While the business has been growing organically, Robbins said they are looking into developing new products in the future.
“We did a small run on amps as an experiment last year,” said Stillman. “It went well but unveiling a completely different product line would be a big undertaking.
“We would probably have to do it out of an entirely new facility,” he said. “So while we will most likely add some new products, it won’t be any time soon.”
“Our main focus right now is on expanding our international market,” said Robbins.