About Peregrine Effects

You know how you're getting great quality with a Peregrine Effects pedal? Because Peregrine is my middle name. Literally. I used to be embarrassed by my middle name; frankly I thought it was falconry-diculous, but I grew into it over time and I'm grateful to my parents for giving me a name with a little originality.

There's a great, heartwarming story about how I inherited a curiosity for DIY, tinkering, and taking stuff apart from my father, but let's be real - I got into pedal-building because I'm a mediocre musician.

I had big ideas about how I wanted to sound, and it was easier to acquire an arsenal of small, noisy boxes than it was to knuckle down and learn those scales. Buying pedals quickly turned to building from kits, and then to learning the principles behind the circuits, and scavenging, magpie-like, for ideas in one that I could put into another.

 

Philosophy

Because Peregrine Effects (PerryFex to its friends, and you're a friend, aren't you?) is a one-person shop, it's really easy to adhere to a set of principles based on how I think the world should be.

 

Repairs

If something's broken, it's broken. It's not going to get more broken if you get in there and try to fix it, but it might get less broken. Nobody gets the extended warranty* and stuff is made to break in a couple of years. But it doesn't have to be that way. 

Most pedal malfunctions are easily-replaced mechanical or connective parts -- input/output jacks, power connections, footswitches, potentiometers. A lot of repair shops have a flat bench fee which in some cases makes it cheaper to buy a new unit. So the old one goes into a hole in the ground, or more likely gathers dust in the back of a closet among other fallen siblings. I will review the repair job and charge a fair amount for the work and minimal markup on replacement parts. 

Musical gear is meant to be played. It's not meant to sit behind a glass case in a Hard Rock Cafe in Tempe (nothing against Tempe, I've never been but I assume it's nice). This means I will repair with the best part, not the most period-appropriate. I don't believe in vintage mojo, but I believe that a pedal that won't crap out on you mid-show is the right pedal for the job. I will always return any replaced parts on vintage gear in case you wish to restore it to its original condition for resale.  

 

Custom pedals

Look at those beautiful cases in your favourite music boutique (I'm partial to Rock 'N' Roll Vintage in Chicago). So much to choose from! Well, kind of. Truth is, most overdrives and fuzzes are some variant on one of three or four decades-old designs. There's plenty of options and tweaks on those, and some very fine pedals out there based on those Large Muffs and Tube Squealers and whatnot, but I don't want to misrepresent a tweaked clone as my own original work.

However, if you come to me wanting "something that sounds kind of like Billy Corgan's guitar but without the bad attitude hanging off it, and like maybe some more skreeeryyyy sounds, you know?" I will do my best to get you where you need to go. Plus when you buy a custom pedal from me there's the asterisk. You saw the asterisk, right?*

 

*All Peregrine Effects products come with a lifetime (my lifetime) warranty. If it's broken, get it back to me and I'll fix it, no charge, no questions asked. Well, I might ask the return address, and maybe what kind of music you play because I'm always looking for new recommendations.