My name is Ben and I am an electronic engineer born in Valencia in the 80s, now living in Barcelona since a few years back.
My interest in the electronic world started when I was a kid: I was opening broken devices and trying to repair them, or I was experimenting new wirings of the computer sound card. I started playing guitar in metal bands at the age of 16, often with small or second hand, often broken amps.
When I turned 21 I started studying Electronics at the Valencia polytechnic, and I began to be interested in audio-focused electronics. At that time I built two clones of the Soldano SLO-100 amplifier with a printed circuit board and a tube stereo power amp. Towards the end of my studies in Electronic Engineering I moved to Barcelona.
I started playing in bands again and I built two Dual Rectifier clones in rack format. I continued experimenting for a few years, I bought several second-hand Bugeras and emptied them to mount JCM800 and Soldano clones with point-to-point wiring. After these first experimentations, I started to get interested in DIY pedal kits, assembling some Musikding TS808’s.
In 2016 I did some pedal building workshops and left my previous job as an engineer. Since then, I have been building pedals and amps, trying to maintain as much autonomy as possible in what I do. This means that I try to do all the transformation of sets of materials myself: I’m designing the circuits, making the PCBs, etching and drilling the enclosures, soldering the components, and so on.