Electro Harmonix
Boss/Roland
Halfway around the world was a Japanese company from Hamamatsu that was a division of the Roland company. But unbeknownst to BOSS CEO Yoshi Ikegami, he and his division were not ready for a barrage of appreciation and innovation to introduce the music industry. Their legacy and unique design steel enclosures have proven that BOSS Pedals will last forever. BOSS Pedals were known for their quirky numbers and colorful stomp boxes that innovated the shape of the device.
The company also introduced the first portable chromatic tuner that helped keep the musician’s guitar stay intonated, especially during heavy touring duties.
Notable musicians that use BOSS are the Swedish Death Metal Bands like Entombed and At the Gates, Prince, Crowbar, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Quicksand, At the Drive-In, Mars Volta, Converge, and Cave-in.
Danelectro
If a particular company were consistent in making guitars and Stompboxes in America that stood the test of time, it would be Danelectro. Danelectro is most famous for their quirky guitars, but Danelectro has settled in as one of the notorious Stompbox and guitar producers during their revival in 1999. Nat Daniel found Danelectro in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1947. However, it was bought in by MCA in 1969. In 1999, Steve Ridinger, the inventor of the Foxx Tone Machine, purchased the Danelectro brand from MCA and relocated to Camarillo, California.
Notable users of the Danelectro brands are shoegaze innovators My Bloody Valentine, Tera Melos, Incubus, The Black Keys, and Arctic Monkeys.
Ibanez
The Japanese counterpart of Danelectro is likely Ibanez. The company started in 1957 in Nagoya as a Division of the Hoshino Gakki corporation. Its CEO Matsujiro Hoshino, intended to distribute sheet music and tablature books but shifted into producing guitars and stomp boxes in Ibanez.
Notable Users of the Ibanez stomp boxes were John Mayer, Alice in Chains, Metallica, My Chemical Romance, and The White Stripes.
MXR
MXR is a division of the Jim Dunlop company initially founded in 1972 in Rochester, New York. But its CEOs were Keith Bar and Terry Sherwood because they got bought out early on. Furtherly, MXR was the first company to associate different colors with guitar pedals.
Notable users of the band are Slash from Guns and Roses, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, Tom Morello, Eddie Van Halen, Dave Grohl, and John Mayer.
