Differential Audio Manifestationz. D*A*M for short. The name is kinda self explanatory, right? We manifest audio products that aim to make a difference. We've been making the world a fuzzier place since 2004, unofficially since 2002. Since that time we've paid our way on this blue green magnet by doing a job we love and will hopefully make a pedal or two that you'll love just as much.
So what's the plan?
We make Fuzz Boxes. Old school crusty Fuzz Boxes. That's our thing. For sure you'll see a booster and an overdrive box in our ranks but these are squeezed in tight with the D*A*M scheme of things. Our style of construction and the sounds these little boxes produce are of days gone by. Simple, to the point, honest I guess you could say. We cut through the shit and offer you a product with a flavour rich in heritage styled for the now. Compact, solid, reliable, trust worthy little boxes of primeval funk.
Our pedals are made by hands.
Its all pretty lo-fi here. We don't use any printed circuit boards (PCB's) and use a bunch of discontinued and NOS components in our designs. Sure it makes things a little slow mo or even a little risky, as in we might not be able to find part X ever again. We like the idea of these pedals being made like that. They are not supposed to be made as a never ending steam of the same thing made over and over. At its core we are just expressing our creativity. Who wants to paint the same picture for the rest of their life?
Its all analogue and hard wired in these neck of the woods. Mechanical True Bypass switching is always fitted as standard, no electronic of buffered switching is used. The circuit boards are assembled using hand prepared stripboard without the use of any toxic solvents or chemicals. All our enclosures are powder coated which minimises any airborne pollutants into the atmosphere and we try to only buy from component manufacturers with good green policies. We use no plastic in our packaging, only recycled and recyclable unbleached card, paper and Hessian. Its very important to us that we produce these boxes without adding to mom's work load.
Less is more
While the majority of D*A*M pedals are very simple in design they do rely on careful selecting of components, especially the pedals that use discrete components (transistors rather than Integrated Chips), to achieve the correct tones. Germanium elements would be the main culprit for taking up time and need careful testing; you can't just pull one out of a box and expect it to sound right. Certain tests need to be done before a part is even considered for use within a pedal and even then it could still fail the test pedal. Germanium fuzz boxes in particular will need careful transistor tests as they are designs that use more than one Germanium device. Three sets of tests are done before I can even use a set of transistors in a pedal. Leakage, hfe & stability tests followed by hfe selection into the appropriate matched sets and then finally sound tests in a test pedal. Only then can the parts go into a finished pedal and that has to be done for each and every pedal without fail. Its quite a lengthy drawn-out process but more than worth it knowing someone will let rip with the finished pedal and have a shit eating grin the size of the moon.
Made in England
D*A*M hail from the dank and the wet in South Yorkshire England. Our lo-fi production team consists of two men, David A Main (that be me) and Jon Smales, and one woman, Linzi Haynes.
The original D*A*M idea way back when was basically of creating a fusion between the old and new. In its rawest form, a fat asssed stinky old fuzz circuit crammed into a small footprint sized stompbox. I guess we're still rolling with that plan.
...simple but effective.
David Andrew Main ~ Captain of the ship
