A short history of nearly everything

Introducing Bigfoot Engineering's founder and CEO, Rhys Stubbs.

"I began playing guitar at the age of nine and was soon making music in bands. By the time I studied electronics formally at college I was already building guitar and studio equipment. I'd make anything we needed at the time, and I had to do it on a real shoestring budget.

When I finished college I headed to university to study guitar full-time, and I was soon repairing and modifying equipment for customers whilst I worked at a guitar shop. Some great pieces came through during that time, including an early Gibson ES-355 that was one of just seven built for Chuck Berry, and one of the first ever four input Marshall amplifiers."

Pictured: Me recording with an early incarnation of what would later become the King Fuzz pedal.

"Money was always tight when we were playing in bands, so I built my own portable recording rig. We would make temporary studios anywhere from log cabins in Devon to farm houses in France. Eventually, we found the perfect location in South-East England and built a permanent studio; five prolific years ensued and we made some great records there."

Pictured: This is the first and only all valve (tube) portable recording studio in the world. It took me three years to design and build, and features eighteen valves.

"Around the time I finished my guitar diploma, Gibson flew me to Nashville to show me their manufacturing processes in detail. I fell in love with the craftsmanship I saw at their archaic Custom division, and it fuelled my obsession with developing my own creations. After six years of working in guitar shops, I decided to quit to focus on building musical equipment full-time. 

As a free-lancer I worked on some really interesting projects; repairing the mechanism of a 1930's German pedal steel guitar with my brazing torch, zinc-electroplating drum hardware with my home made dipping bath, and everything in-between."

​Pictured: The first ever Octo Puss pedal. I cut, folded, machined, brazed and engraved this enclosure entirely by hand from sheet steel.

"For many years I specialised in valve circuits, which lead to me working as an electronic design engineer for Vortexion, a fantastic audio equipment manufacturer from Wimbledon, England. Prototyping valve electronics for them was a very exciting time, and it fuelled my creativity enormously. I grew so enamoured with the Vortexion brand, with it's timeless design classics and wonderful heritage, that I was inspired to found a new British musical company that could continue in this tradition."

Pictured: One of my amplifiers; I designed this with the less ubiquitous ECC81, ECC82, and E34L valves, and features only a volume control.

"Bigfoot Engineering grew from my belief that there was too large a distinction in purity between guitar amplifiers and pedals. Turning my back on crude stompbox circuits, I began meticulously translating valve (tube) gain structures into all-analogue guitar pedals. Ever since, we have continued to design and manufacture every Bigfoot Engineering product entirely by hand here at our workshop in England; this is a strictly uncompromising company, and one I am proud to put my name to."

Pictured: Bigfoot Engineering enclosures being machined and silk-screened by hand in our workshop.​

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