It is coming up on a month ago that we sat down with Brad Jackson and Juan Kyle of Jackson Ampworks along with Nigel Hendroff from Hillsong, to chat about a new product and brand that they had built. We met they guys for dinner and enjoyed some small talk about guitar gear then headed back to their hotel room to check out the new product. The entire time we had no idea what type of product it was let alone what the actual product was.
Upon arrival to their hotel room, Brad gently slid a black box across the table for me to check out. The lid was embossed with the silver Jackson Audio logo and all I could think about was, wow this box was awesome. What on earth could this product be. When I lifted the lid this scent of metal filled the air. I thought for an instant that I had just opened a gun case. It was obvious however that what they had created was a pedal.
At this moment my heart sank. All I could think of was, “Really, I drove all the way to Chicago to check out the next overdrive pedal?” I quickly gathered myself though and remembered that Brad Jackson just doesn’t put out copies. He doesn’t put out products that aren’t unique in function and sound. So I began to listen to Brad talk about the pedal.
Honestly, until this point these three guys were just three guys who we enjoyed conversation and 22oz steaks with an hour before. Yes we had 22oz steaks. They are from Texas folks. But, as Brad began to speak about his passion for creating this pedal and how long it had been in the works, my interest was peaked again. For about 20 minutes we chatted about the features of this pedal and what their goal in building it was. As I held the pedal it weighed an absolute ton. Brad described the building process to us and that all of the metal is bent in house. These pedals are not housed in a run of the mill MXR sized pedal box like most of the other pedal out there. This pedal from start to finish has human hands on it.
Now keep in mind that we were unable to play the pedal. It was 1am and neighbors generally frown upon cranking an overdrive pedal through a Jackson Ampworks Scarlett 30. So all we are going on for this article is the passion and build quality of the pedal. With this I must conclude this article with some transparent and genuine comments about Jackson Audio as a company. I personally cannot say enough about these three guys as men of God. Yes they started a business and yes the goal is to make money to support their families. That being said I have yet to walk away from a business focused meeting/interview with that much encouragement. These guys all love Jesus and are passionate about the worship guitar world.
Below are some videos that we shot that contain 360 views of the pedal along with Nigel’s thoughts and how he plans to use the pedal in his rig. Enjoy.
I hope this article has peaked your interest in Jackson Audio. We will be publishing some additional articles in the near future about the full story of how the company got started as well as technical details and reviews of the pedal. Make sure to head over to www.jackson.audio to learn more. If you would like to purchase the pedal it can be purchased at www.chicagomusicexchange.com.
