James Granuzzo
Main.Ace.FX
Colonia, NJ, not far from NYC
www.mainacefx.com
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I’ve played the guitar for almost as long as I can remember. When I first started discovering new music on my own as a kid it was the days of late 80s / early 90s alternative and grunge. I saw the people in these bands a normal accessible people, and not the rock-gods of the 70s and 80s. They were normal people…but they had guitars. Naturally, I wanted one too.
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
My influences come from all over the place, and I could talk about it all day long. Here’s the (long) short list – Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Cave In, Dinosaur Jr, The Pixies, George Harrison, Veruca Salt, My Bloody Valentine, Frank Zappa, Rival Schools, Jimi Hendrix, Rudimentary Peni
What led to the start of Main.Ace.FX? How long have you been in business? How big is your operation/how many employees do you have?
I’ve been running Main.Ace.FX for about five years. My entire business is just me in my garage and a spare room in my house that’s been converted into a workshop/office. I do get some much needed assistance from some really talented friends who contribute artwork and pcb layout. Everything else (circuit design, pedal assembly, and artwork etching) I do myself.
Did you have formal schooling, or are you self-taught? Take us through that story:
No, I have no formal training or education in electronics at all. As a musician, I was always really interested in effects pedals. Also being very curious, I naturally needed to know what made them tick. I read about a few mods and tried them out on pedals I already owned, but it didn’t satisfy my curiosity enough. I found some schematics of other pedal circuits and just studied them until they made sense. I got my hands on a breadboard and started turning these schematics into functioning circuits. Once I understood how everything worked, I tried drawing my own schematics and playing with them on the breadboard until things started to sound good.
What drives you as far as new pedal creation is concerned? How long does it typically take for an idea to come full circle and become a demo pedal? What’s the process behind new gear, and the eventual release of it to the public?
Fuzz is by far my favorite effect, so I have stuck to that for the most part. Delay is something that I really like and am starting to experiment with a few circuits that will hopefully be the first Main.Ace.FX delay pedal.
The process of taking an idea all the way to a completed pedal definitely varies in terms of time and frustration. Sometimes an idea can only take a few days to design, with everything moving along quickly and smoothly. Other times, things don’t work out the way you expected and a lot of time and nerves are blown trying to get everything where it needs to be. There are a few circuits that have been through numerous redesigns over a long period of time before I was happy with them. In the end, a new pedal design will take anywhere between a few weeks to a few months before it is 100% ready to go.
What are some of the biggest concerns facing your profession today?
Not so much a concern facing the profession, but more of a personal concern is the difficulty for a small business like mine to make a name for myself and get my pedals noticed among the bigger names in the boutique pedal scene right now. There are a lot of awesome companies making some awesome gear, but from a consumer perspective, they are more often than not going to go for a known name rather than take their chances on a new (relatively) unknown like me.
Where do you see pedal building going in the future?
I’m not sure that I have a specific prediction about where things will go from here. But I do have a hope that the boutique scene stays strong. Quality, hand-made effects have given musicians an incredible and great sounding alternative to mass produced pedals. Boutique pedals are built by people that know and understand music, and are available and accessible to answer questions and talk shop.
Who are some of your favorite builders in the industry right now?
There’s a lot of awesome stuff going around right now, but my personal favorites would have to be Christian from Adventure Audio, Ryan from Fuzzrocious, Brady and Seth from Old Blood Noise, Brian from Smallsound/Bigsound, Grant from Big Ear N.Y.C., and Philippe from Caroline Guitar Company.
Name the last 5 records you listened to:
1. Mutoid Man – Bleeder
2. Veruca Salt – Ghost Notes
3. Failure – Fantastic Planet
4. POE – Haunted
5. Starflyer 59 – Gold
Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Love the Klon, but hate the hype. Bill Finnigan created an incredible circuit and the impatience of our society that takes instant gratification for granted just couldn’t wait on a man building pedals by hand. Instead of respecting his craftsmanship, some people found it better to pay extremely inflated prices rather than just wait for a new one to be built. And it’s sad to see that most of the money made here went to the people selling their Klons at a huge markup…big profits to people who did nothing to earn them.
Any last comments, or anything you’d like to talk about?
Thanks for reading…I hope to build for you guys soon!!
Thanks so much to James for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.mainacefx.com, cheers!
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