Pro Music Australia is excited to announce that they are now distributing Macdaddy Stompboxes. These exceptional stomp boxes are uniquely handmade on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
A History of the Stompbox
The first stompbox began appearing in the southern states of the USA shortly after the civil war. When the slaves were emancipated and left the plantations, they took their music with them. Poverty left them with very little choice when it came to musical instruments – many of the travelling musicians using apple crates to create a percussive sound with the foot, thumping the middle of the crate to create a “bass” drum sound. The next step was to nail a piece of flat tin to one of the front corners so that when stomped on it created a sharp “clack” sound. Two or three tin lids that were beaten out of shape and nailed loosely to the opposite corner, created a very early version of a tambourine sound. This became known as the Mississippi apple crate and an instrument was born.
A History of MacDaddy
The Macdaddy story began in June 2012 when professional musician and amateur woodworker Adam Truscott, became frustrated with the stompboxes (that he was paying good money for) kept breaking. There was probably good reason for this, as he’s not a small person. This problem led him to designing and redesigning the pickups and trialing different body shapes until he had a product that became the MacDaddy Wombat, the staple of the range. The first working stompbox turned up in late 2012, but was too cumbersome, and way too time consuming to make.
The Wombat as you see it today rolled off the bench in 2015. The very first (serial number 0001) is still working today, better than ever despite being stomped on by Adam 4 nights a week. When Adam was content with the Wombat he turned his attention to designing the other models in the range. The Platypus arrived when fellow musician and a close friend, living in Norway, desperately wanted a stompbox that would fit in his guitar flight case, as he flew to almost all gigs in Norway. A smaller foot print with the same wombat thump was what he needed.
The next challenge was to produce something unique and different sounding, leading to the development of the Kookaburra and Artist models. Tambourine jingles were sourced, by tearing apart a couple of tambourines and two different styles trialed. Both had their own individual characteristics that were quite striking and so both stayed.
Finally the Koala emerged. The concept was to combine the bottom end thump of the Wombat and Platypus with the characteristics of the Artist and Kookaburra, and a double ended the heel toe action provided the answer. Rather than using two stompboxes that were EQ’d differently, the Koala has two outputs and sounds in the one pedal.
In 2017 Adam realised that if these things were ever going to see the light of day he would need some sales focus. This is where fellow musician and human whirlwind Garry Hudson came in. Garry’s focus and business drive has bought MacDaddy to where it is today. Macdaddy believe that their stompboxes, made from Camphor Laurel, are the best on the market and are awfully proud of them.