About us, the Enso, and Causality

You've already heard the cause, which led to our first effect:

In our quest for tone, we've bought numerous pedals only to be disappointed with the lack of innovation and mediocre sound that so many delivered... we finally decided it was time to take matters into our own hands.

To expand on this a bit, we believe that there is lots of room for innovation in the pedal world, even in the classical categories, and no need for blatant rip-offs and blind copies, except where the essential tone is embodied by the circuit, per se (notwithstanding IP/Copy rights to the contrary ;-).

What's that broken circle thingy?

Enso is a Japanese word meaning circle, but in art it is an important symbol of buddhism and closely associated with the state of zen enlightenment. It is loaded with meanings other than enlightenment, such as strength, elegance, the concepts of universe and void and even a particular aesthetic. It also suggests infinite possibilities.

We like these many positive attributes and have adopted the enso as part of our company logo. The enso is also interpreted as expression of the moment. For us, if we can deliver you effortless tone, that may contribute to your 'tonal' enlightenment, freeing your mind 'to simply let the body spirit create.'

In particular, we have chosen to leave our enso open as opposed to closed. An open enso suggests you are part of something greater and reminds you of the importance of asymmetry and irregularities in the aesthetic qualities of a thing... these are both important concepts to us in our guitar effects.

Causality and Guitar Effects

Cause and Effect has its own meaning associated with it in the buddhist world: karma. Wouldn't it be nice to see some karmic justice play out in the guitar effects market?

As engineers we tend to fall back on the scientific or Aristotlean views of causality... we want to fully understand the root cause of the tone we are after and ensure that we can reliably and consistantly deliver that in our products. We reject unsubstantiated claims of component mojo but embrace quality and minutiae that contribute real differences to our tone. We won't limit ourselves by hearsay evidence and suspect 'pseudo-scientific' principles and instead focus on pushing the envelope and testing assumptions with our experimental circuits.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the result!