In a non-descript industrial building in Akron, workers and machines at Earthquaker Devices are busy turning raw metal cases and circuit boards into guitar pedals — used by musicians to create distortion effects in both live and recorded performances.
“We make approximately 50,000 pedals a year,” said Julie Robbins, CEO and co-owner of Earthquaker Devices. “We have a little over 40 pedals in our line.”
Earthquaker is among the world’s best-known pedal manufacturers. Its products have been used in songs by Paul Simon, Coldplay and The Black Keys.
Earthquaker, headquartered in Akron, was founded in 2004 by Robbins’ now-husband, Jamie Stillman, after he repaired a broken overdrive pedal.
Tariff troubles
The business has grown, but has seen a 200% increase in costs — and then a more than 30% decrease in sales — after higher tariffs took effect earlier this year. Those tariff rates have now been scaled back, which Stillman says is good, but have added to a general air of unpredictability in her business projections.
She said staff holds a weekly tariff meeting to try to keep abreast of frequent changes.
Unlike some competitors, Earthquaker doesn’t just import finished pedals. Instead, it buys raw capacitors and unfinished circuit boards from suppliers in China and other nations and completes the assembly locally. Because the parts are foreign-made and the finished products are sold in the U.S., the company doesn’t qualify for some federal programs that could help recoup tariff costs…