Blackout Effectors
Asheville, NC
“Built by us, for us … but available to you”
Kyle Tompkins started Blackout Effectors in his Vancouver kitchen in 2008, modding, fixing, and building the occasional pedal with a cheap soldering iron. “Really,” he says, “I should have been playing guitar instead of fooling around. It was an awesome kitchen though.” In 2009 he quit his day job and relocated to Asheville to focus on Blackout full time. Skip to 2011 and Blackout Effectors is producing 40+ handmade pedals a week that ride with bands from Band of Horses to Baroness and The Black Angels. With the experience accumulated over the past several years, Kyle is sticking true to his vision of what Blackout Pedals need to be, even if that means he ends up scrapping the majority of new circuit designs because they won’t fit the Blackout mold. “We’re only going to release the coolest of the cool stuff and in the Blackout world, no one gets to decide what is cool besides us.”
PRODUCT REVIEW
Blackout Effectors Mantra Overdrive
True Grit
$175 
Whether you’re looking for that classic overdriven sound or want to turn your speaker into Satan’s mouthpiece, you need a Mantra. Amp-like circuit architecture gives you maximum control of your overdriven sound while the Mantra’s multiple gain stages give you endless amounts of clean-up with your guitar’s volume knob. It switches between rock and blues as easily as it switches between low output single coils and hot potato humbuckers. From finger picked phrases to windmill finishes, this pedal conjures a classic sound that’s all your own, a Mantra you’ll play over and over again.