About BIG JOHN EFFECTS
BIG JOHN pedals are much more than just cool-named designs. They carry serious tone! We believe that tools for musicians should be designed and made by musicians. Only musicians really understand what musicians want. It's like the difference between a cheap factory wine and a top quality organic wine. You can taste the difference and the love that was put into making it by the winemaker who knos how to taste it, not a machine.
You can hear the bigger sound comes from top quality components and point-to-point hand-soldered connections. The factory wine may be cheaper and seem good enough at first, in time you'll find the headache wasn't worth the cheapness.
There is too much cheap rubbish on the market. We believe in our products because they are top quality, heavy-duty and built to last forever.
From the very beginning we have designed our effects pedals to run on 9V DC from a regular power supply. You have more reliable power and you help save the planet by not throwing away more 9V batteries.
Also, building effects pedals the way we do leaves the smallest possible footprint. Not even a teaspoon of debris is produced with every pedal. We ship your pedal in recycled materials whenever possible.
We enjoy building every one of our pedals ourselves, taking the time we need to make every single one just perfect. There is no boss, no stockholders, no investors. Nothing to obscure the simple goal of designing & building great sounding gear and bringing quality, inspiration and joy to the world of music!
SHORT HISTORY
Big John Music was founded in 2006 in Belgium by bassplayer Jan Detremerie, who later got help from guitarplayer Stijn Vandebril to build the pedals.
Since 2013 the workshop is run by (also bassplayer) Arnoud Faber in The Netherlands.
Timeline
2006: first pedal designs by Jan Detremerie
2007: Hairy Balls v1 (fuzz only)
2008: Hairy Balls v2 (boost & gate & fuzz) Available
2008: Granny Puker overdrive & octave down (bass, guitar, synth) Available
2009: Obama Wah filter & distortion with voltage gain control (bass, guitar, synth)
2011: Lil' John series (Boost and Fuzz) designs by Stijn Vandebril (pre-order only)
2012: Pocket Rocket (Vintage Tube Overdrive) Available
2013: Arnoud Faber continues with new designs & building all pedals
2014: Dirty Sandwich (boost, drive & fx chain looper) Available
2015: BassDrive (prototype)
2018: AmpAmp bass pre-amp (vintage bass-amp in a pedal) (pre-order only)
2022: LoLife (flatwound sound) (pre-order only)
2024: TrebleJuice (prototype) (pre-order only)