It's fair to say traditional tube amps and pedalboards have fallen out of favor with many guitar players over the past few yers. Nowadays, you're just as likely – if not more likely – to see a big act playing in an arena or stadium using only a Quad Cortex, or any other amp modeler. And, as with any other paradigm shift, it doesn't come without its downsides.
According to Brian Wampler, the man behind Wampler Pedals, pedal manufacturers are facing a moment similar to what happened when Napster emerged and disrupted the music industry.
“It's analogous to Napster – for those who remember that, that's where everybody who had music that you just uploaded to Napster, and now no one needs to buy any more music,” he tells Products of Music host Adam Wakeling.
“So, I mean, the question is, ‘Well, what do you do?’ Well, eventually, Spotify forms, you know? I mean, is that good? Not if you're an artist, it's not good. I mean, not really. I mean, not unless you're just using the music as a marketing tool.”
According to Wampler, brands like his that are also experiencing this digital paradigm shift must pivot to more innovative products – and capitalizing on gaps in the market.
“I think, really, everyone in the pedal market is, I would say, concerned,” he asserts. “If anything, I think it's going to take a big chunk of the market... as well as [create a] two-band market.
“So I always look at things like there's two paths: you can always stick your head in the sand and ignore it and think, ‘It's not going to happen to me and it's not going to happen to me,’ and then wonder what happens in five or 10 years. Or you can say it's going to happen. I need to make a pivot here.”
For Wampler, plugins have served as the company's pivot. Indeed, some of the company's best-loved pedals have been given a new lease on life as virtual plugins. The Terraform Multi Modulation and Metaverse Multi Delay pedals have already received the digital treatment, with additional pedal plugins soon to follow.
“The next plugin is ready right now,” he teases. “I just need some time to get the marketing side of it ready. It's based off an analog product of ours. But it's a plugin, and it's going to be a fun thing to do.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wampler addresses tariffs – and how tariff uncertainties are impacting his business.
“Anyone who's making guitar pedals or amps or anything that uses electronics at all in the music field is really struggling, like you’ve lost all the profit,” he states matter-of-factly.
“The retailer actually makes the most money. So we're manufacturing it. We sell it to a retailer. They then sell it. They usually mark it down to try to sell it quicker. And so that's where a big bulk of the money is. But for us, we're selling it at a lower price, and now, with those tariffs, we're almost selling at a loss.”
He continues, “You don't really want to raise the price up anymore, but you kind of have to if you want to stay in business. So I don't know how it's going to work out. We bought so much stock before those tariffs hit that we're kind of trying to run on that, and we're getting ready to run out.”
Back in May, NAMM CEO John Mlynczak gave Guitar World the lowdown on the impact of tariffs on the guitar and musical instrument industry, while a couple of weeks ago, D’Addario’s CEO revealed how the firm has been weathering the storm.
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