MODERN BUILDER VAULT
From semi-professional musician to television
repairman to tattoo artist, Ryan Kirkland of
Skinpimp Hand Crafted has certainly traversed
the occupational landscape in search of his
life’s calling. A few years ago, however, Kirkland
began dabbling with building his own effects
pedals “just to stay involved with music,” he
said. This past January, he answered a post on
The Gear Page from a guy that wanted to trade
some gear for “something interesting.”
Skin Pimp Pedals
“Basically, I contacted this guy and told him I
could build anything he wanted,” Kirkland said.
“I ended up building him an MKIII, and once he
got it he posted some information on The Gear
Page about it, and it just took off.”
That’s a serious understatement. For 10 months
now, Kirkland has been so busy building pedals that everything else on his plate is now on
hold. So, why all the fuss? Kirkland’s pedals are
out-of-this-world clones of a few vintage Tone
Bender models from the ’60s and ’70s. Here’s
what he’s got:
MKI – A copy of the original Gary Hurst Tone
Bender, á la Mick Ronson;
MKII – A copy of the Mark II Tone Bender, á la
Jimmy Page;
MKIII – A copy of Vox Tone Bender Mark III;
The Buzzaround – A copy of the original
Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround pedal; and
The Fuzzface – Copy of the original Fuzz Face
pedal produced by the Dallas Arbiter company
in the ’60s, á la Hendrix and Eric Johnson.
His expertise with a tattoo needle [hence the
name, SkinPIMP] helps too; he offers custom
graphic designs on any model. If you can bear
the wait, it might be worth it.
For more information, email
skinpimp1@yahoo.com
skinpimp-handcrafted.com (coming soon!)
