TwinStomp guitar pedals

AdamTwinStomp

Hello to The Fretboard,

I'm sure some of you already know of TwinStomp, maybe we've even met.  I've been looking for a way to get more involved in the UK community beyond the various guitar shows and stumbled across this rather lovely forum.  So here I am.

TwinStomp have been going since 2006, and launched our first product, the TwinStomp Booster in 2007.  Alongside the Booster (now in its MkIII version), are our Actve A/B-Y, OD-Boost, and our best seller the S21 Overdrive.


S21 Overdrive Deluxe

Other pedal ideas/variants are in the pipeline, but we're a small business, consisting only of a father (Clive) and son (Adam), and the occasional wife/girlfriend, when they can be convinced to give up some of their time to help the cause, so things sometimes move slowly where new products are concerned.  But a large demand can yield results, as with the arrival of a TwinStomp Overdrive in 2011.

All products are handbuilt in the UK, by us, and to our designs.

All questions, comments, praise and criticism welcome here.  Our products are continually improved with input directly from our customer base, so feel free to air your thoughts.  What do you like about TwinStomp?  What do you dislike?  What do you want to see in a TwinStomp case?


Cheers

Adam

smigeon

Hi Adam,

I have your active AB/Y pedal and like it a lot. I like its extreme ruggedness - probably you could run a tank over it and it and all that would happen is a dent in the tracks. The corresponding downsize is size and weight, of course, but it just depends where you like the trade-off. 

It works great as a two-amp solution - never had any ground loop issues, and being active it's very controllable.

I also like the extreme quickness and ease of changing the battery - a very nice bit of design.

Finally, I like the sound of it when used as a boost. It's actually better in that capacity than any dedicated boost pedal I've tried...

Winny_Pooh

Integrated mounting tabs are cool, looks great, could be in even smaller cases.

digitalscream

Welcome, Adam - very swish-looking pedals you've got there, but you seem to have neglected to point people at your website.

Also...damn, man, you could try to look a bit happier

ThorpyFX

hey Adam, we met at the guitarshow. Welcome to this cool place!!

AdamTwinStomp

smigeon said:

Hi Adam,

I have your active AB/Y pedal and like it a lot. I like its extreme ruggedness - probably you could run a tank over it and it and all that would happen is a dent in the tracks. The corresponding downsize is size and weight, of course, but it just depends where you like the trade-off. 

It works great as a two-amp solution - never had any ground loop issues, and being active it's very controllable.

I also like the extreme quickness and ease of changing the battery - a very nice bit of design.

Finally, I like the sound of it when used as a boost. It's actually better in that capacity than any dedicated boost pedal I've tried...

Thanks @smigeon. ; Glad you like the A/B-Y.  It's nice to see this pedal getting some love.  We're really proud of what we achieved with that one.  The idea being that if all you wanted to do was successfully run two amps, what do you need, and what just gets in the way?

It was necessary to make the pedal active to cover the level drop you get from impedance issues caused by running two amps together.  At the time we launched the pedals we were the only ones offering an active splitter with an isolated output to combat ground loop issues.

Orange just released a splitter pedal, and on their website they say that theirs is the only A/B-Y available that is powered from a 9V battery.  We've been doing just that since 2008.  I own the UK patent for the battery release mechanism.  It's my one official original idea!  I've spent a little too much time crouched on dark stages with a screwdriver.  I figured there must be a better way.  The "ring-pull/grenade ring" was the best solution we could find.

The weight of the pedals comes from them being made from solid cast stainless steel.  This was necessary for the outrigger feet we had planned.  If we'd made the pedal out of zinc alloy the way other pedal enclosures are made then these would crack and break off very easily.  People either love the stainless steel (and the weight that comes with it) or they don't.  My advice is don't drop it on your foot.

Again, thanks for taking the time to post about it.

AdamTwinStomp

Winny_Pooh said:

Integrated mounting tabs are cool, looks great, could be in even smaller cases.

Thanks.  Yeah, it was that idea that made us look towards what else we could "fix" about guitar pedals, and lead us to cast our pedals in stainless steel.

There's an awful lot crammed into those cases.  To make them smaller would almost certainly require removing the hand-soldered element of the build, and shifting manufacturing to China.

Here's the inside of a CR10 OD-Boost:



Around four hours of labour goes into each one, and they're all hand soldered by me.

AdamTwinStomp

digitalscream said:

Welcome, Adam - very swish-looking pedals you've got there, but you seem to have neglected to point people at your website.

Also...damn, man, you could try to look a bit happier

Thanks for pointing out the missing link (the website, not me!).

Hey, I'm English.  If you want a big fake grin with your sales pitch you know where you can get it!

Sporky

How about a wry, canderous smile?

AdamTwinStomp

ThorpyFX said:

hey Adam, we met at the guitarshow. Welcome to this cool place!!

Hey, yeah.  Was really good to meet you.  Great show that one.

AdamTwinStomp

Sporky said:

How about a wry, canderous smile?

Photo shoots are not my thing I'm afraid.  I really only posted a picture of myself to avoid being a faceless brand.  This out-take is about as close as I get to a smile on camera without serious medication.

UnclePsychosis

Pedals look cool. How much do they weigh? I imagine a board of them would not be too much fun to lug around...

AdamTwinStomp

UnclePsychosis said:

Pedals look cool. How much do they weigh? I imagine a board of them would not be too much fun to lug around...

You know, I've never actually weighed one.  I shall do that and report back.

Edit: Back from the kitchen scales, the TwinStomp S21 Overdrive weighs around 2lb 4oz (just over 1 kg).

We have a board with four TwinStomps on that I use for demoing at guitar shows, and it is... weighty, considering it only has four pedals on it.  But I shouldn't imagine there is anybody else out there with four TwinStomps on their board.  Having a clean boost, overdrive, and an overdrive-boost by the same manufacturer on the same board seems a little redundant.

One of the plus points about the weight is that if you're the kind of person like me who only uses one or two pedals at a time, rather than a board, then they don't follow you around the stage like a square puppy.

Cabicular

I like the robustness of it
I saw these when the first emerged and remember putting them in my list of things to try
Looked like a Vai Gemini but better made ...
Since I always stack ODs these look ideal

Cabicular

Have you got one of your pedals to Dan at the gigrig? Looks like the kind of thing he likes and you might get a bit of love on that pedal show

robwright

I've got the S21 - fantastic pedal - and I just bought the Booster on here (awaiting delivery).

Really glad to see homegrown talent having success and I think its a great idea to get involved here.

Forget smiling - you look like a young Lloyd Cole which is cool enough for anyone!

Sporky

AdamTwinStomp said:

At the time we launched the pedals we were the only ones offering an active splitter with an isolated output to combat ground loop issues.

I'm pretty sure I'd made and sold active isolated ABYs before 2008. You may well have been the first to be successful at it though.

fretmeister

Sporky;1015343" said:

AdamTwinStomp said:

At the

time we launched the pedals we were the only ones offering an active

splitter with an isolated output to combat ground loop issues.










I'm pretty sure I'd made and sold active isolated ABYs before 2008. You may well have been the first to be successful at it though.

You lent me one in 2007 at the Gasfest.

AdamTwinStomp

Cabicular said:

Have you got one of your pedals to Dan at the gigrig? Looks like the kind of thing he likes and you might get a bit of love on that pedal show

Good idea.

AdamTwinStomp

robwright said:

I've got the S21 - fantastic pedal - and I just bought the Booster on here (awaiting delivery).

Really glad to see homegrown talent having success and I think its a great idea to get involved here.

Forget smiling - you look like a young Lloyd Cole which is cool enough for anyone!

Thanks.  Hope you get some good use out of your Booster.

AdamTwinStomp

Sporky said:

AdamTwinStomp said:

At the time we launched the pedals we were the only ones offering an active splitter with an isolated output to combat ground loop issues.

I'm pretty sure I'd made and sold active isolated ABYs before 2008. You may well have been the first to be successful at it though.

In that case, I stand corrected (said the man in the orthopaedic shoes).

The TwinStomp A/B-Y, like the idea of a clean boost with two switched levels that became the TwinStomp Booster, came about because at the time I needed something that did what I wanted, I genuinely couldn't find one for love nor money.  I very much doubt it was a new idea then, but they just didn't seem readily available at that time.