Interview with Mike from Seeker Electric Effects
Hey man nice to meet you, your pedals looks great. When im scrolling my instagram page just found you, and super cool looking pedals. So far what pedals you make?
Thank you, so nice to meet you!. I’ve been building pedals for about 9 or 10 years now, but I only just started Seeker at the beginning of this year (2020). I’ve built just about every kind of pedal but the pedals I enjoy most (building and playing) are Fuzz, especially Germanium Fuzz. Tonebender, Fuzz Face and Big Muff are what I build the most but I also enjoy building more obscure circuits like the Park Fuzz Sound and FY-2 Companion Fuzz.
Always fun for me to build hardwired point to point pedal, and sometimes we just found some cool sounding pedal by accident,hahahahaha….tell me about your funny story when you build pedals?
I haven’t had anything that funny happen by accident! Most of the time it’s a mistake that will be frustrating where it won’t work or its really noisy. When you’re tuning a fuzz, trying different transistors etc you often stumble onto a very unique sound. Sometimes not very nice but sometimes you get gated/8 bit/ring-mod messy sounds! Those are fun! I also tend to get lots of radio stations playing through my amp with leads flying out of the pedal when swapping transistors, funny when you come across a song you like!
So far did you making your own circuit?
I’m mostly building classic fuzz circuits from the 60’s and 70’s. I’ve done my own tweaks as needed to get it closer to the sound I like but nothing that’s 100% my own design. I am working on a hybrid Silicon/Germanium fuzz based around the Colorsound One Knob Fuzz. Not a completely new circuit but a new variation of the old one. It’s a fun project!
Any plan to make some modulation or delay pedals?
I take requests for special orders, that’s most of what I build. Recently I built a Ross 2 knob Phaser that came out really great! In the past I’ve build a lot of different things including delays using PT2399 and Spin FV-1 chips, lots of Tremolo pedals, Chorus and Vibrato pedals as well. As long as the idea is fleshed out confidently in my head I’ll build just about anything. My main focus for Seeker though is building old fuzz circuits.
Last question, what is your favourite fuzz pedal and why?
That’s a tough decision, I enjoy them all! If I have to choose just one it’s the Baldwin/Burns Buzzaround. All Germanium Fuzz that’s not too fussy to build. Really tasteful combination of grit, gating and sustain that works equally well with chords and single notes. The Buzzaround has the best attributes of a Tonebender and a Big Muff making it quite versatile. It has a sound that inspires me to play and that’s what it’s all about!
Thank you so much Mike, have a nice day
Thanks for thinking of me to interview. Very nice of you! I look forward to seeing your different pedal creations. They’re so unique and look amazing. I really like your logo too!