Pilgrimage to Electro Harmonix

On January 9th during a quick trip east to see the family, I was invited by EHX Vice President of Marketing Mike Castellano to get the cook’s tour of arguably the country’s oldest and largest pedal concern. Founded during the heyday of the music explosion in late 1968, owner, CEO and basic guiding force of EHX, Mike Matthews, gave me a brief audience during the tour.

Mike Castellano was aware of my Cakeman Saga as well as “Route 22,” (he lives off it in Westchester,) so I came prepared with cakes, cookies and bread from the family’s J.J. Cassone Bakery.

The Cakeman with his wares for Mike Matthews at Electro Harmonix

I got the full tour with Mike and Owen Matthews, Mike’s heir-apparent who I met last year at NAMM. We saw the design stages, assembly rooms, testing (with real guitar loops!) and finally the massive shipping hall. My head was spinning as we passed hundreds of stacked Big Muff’s, Mel 9’s and new favorite, the Ravish Sitar pedal.

What srurck me was how innovative the company remains. I mean, there are only five basic pedal styles but they keep digging and coming up with newer ideas that the guitar-playing public seems to love.