{"id":53018,"date":"2018-07-02T16:27:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T20:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=53018"},"modified":"2018-07-03T10:13:48","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T14:13:48","slug":"wright-state-grad-wright-patt-engineerguitarist-makes-a-joyful-noise-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2018\/07\/02\/wright-state-grad-wright-patt-engineerguitarist-makes-a-joyful-noise-in-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State grad, Wright-Patt engineer\/guitarist makes a joyful noise in business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Mike Trombley earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees at Wright State University. His master\u2019s thesis centered on one of his attempts at creating a reverb effect. His background is in electrical engineering and computer programming, a useful combination for someone building digital electric effects.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base electrical engineer has stepped into the competitive market of electric guitar effects pedals, helping guitarists shape their sound \u2014 and creating a new business along the way.<\/p>\n

Mike Trombley, 26, is a Troy resident and owner of Red House Electronics. He builds pedals in what might be considered the classic way, chasing a sound he feels he can\u2019t get from other pedal companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for a complex sound with a simple interface,\u201d Trombley said in an interview at his home, where he builds the guts of his pedals. \u201cI try to take the crazy stuff and make it easy to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander Scaglia \u2014 a former Springfield resident now based in Cincinnati \u2014 helps design the pedals, which can be found\u00a0online\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0and in some area music stores, including Trojan City Music in Troy and Lester\u2019s Rock N Roll Shop in Middletown.<\/p>\n

Observers agree this is a challenging time for the guitar market. Guitar Center was $1.6 billion in debt last year, according to the Washington Post, and Gibson Guitar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.<\/p>\n

But some pedal builders say their own market has been surprisingly durable. The little sound-processing boxes that electric guitars connect between their instruments and their amplifiers is crowded but growing, by some accounts.<\/p>\n

According the National Association of Music Merchants, from 2005 to 2015, the retail value of the effects pedal category increased more than 45 percent, with a 13.7 percent gain in 2014.<\/p>\n

Trombley, of Native American heritage, grew up on reservations out West before his stepfather brought his family to Troy. His pedals\u2019s designs and art are a nod to that heritage.<\/p>\n

He earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees at Wright State University. In fact, his master\u2019s thesis centered on one of his attempts at creating a reverb effect. His background is in electrical engineering and computer programming, a useful combination for someone building digital electric effects.<\/p>\n

And of course, Trombley plays guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my second full-time job,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. job.\u201d<\/p>\n

His pedals cover fuzz, reverb, overdrive and phasing sounds. That\u2019s familiar territory for pedal-builders, but Trombley feels he offers guitarists flexibility in simple, easy-to-use packages.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo really shine in the pedal market, you have to be unique,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He started building pedals for friends in the Dayton area, and their feedback was encouraging. While there are plenty of engineers who can design circuits, not every engineer will understand what a guitarist means when he or she says they\u2019re searching for a \u201cwarmer\u201d sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cA guitarist would immediately know,\u201d Trombley said. \u201cA musician has that ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMike is incredible,\u201d said Scaglia, who studied graphic design at Clark State Community College.<\/p>\n

Phil Doncaster, who works at Trojan City Music, has long been impressed with Trombley.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe couldn\u2019t be a nicer guy, and he\u2019s extremely smart,\u201d Doncaster said.<\/p>\n

Trombley will sometimes bring his computer to Trojan City to update his pedals, which feature digitally processed effects but an analog \u201cdry-through\u201d signal path that leaves the guitarist\u2019s core sound intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has no doubts about his equipment and his programs, and he knows the ins and outs of every single thing he does,\u201d Doncaster said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen him get asked a question that he didn\u2019t know the answer to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019s a hell of a player,\u201d Doncaster added.<\/p>\n

Trombley said that so far, his expenses have been covered by his sales. He programs the effects software and surface-mounts components on his circuit boards himself. His pedal box drilling, powder coating and screen-printing is performed by a company in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time I get home until the time I go to sleep, this is kind of what I do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base electrical engineer has stepped into the competitive market of electric guitar effects pedals, helping guitarists shape their sound \u2014 and creating a new business along the way. Mike Trombley, 26, is a Troy resident … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":53021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4268,730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electrical-engineering","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53022,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53018\/revisions\/53022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}