Home of the U.K.'s finest hand built guitar effects
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Hi there,
Welcome to the Valvette website and thank you for stopping by.
My name is Johan Maertens and I design and build the pedals you find on this site.
I grew up in a family of musicians and have been a guitar player since I was nine years old. I have also had a keen interest in electronics since a very early age, courtesy of watching my dad bent over tube amps on his workbench and inhaling some of the solder fumes I guess.
On my quest for tone throughout the years I have come across a number of situations where what I was looking for was simply not available on the market or not within my reach...
So I took to the soldering iron and started designing my own stuff. some projects where more successfull than others, but eventually some fellow musicians where asking me to build them some of the pedals I actually designed for myself ...
Over the years the music has taken a bit of a back burner as a family with two lovely daughters, a lively son and a carreer in film sound recording have a way of taking up lots of time, but I have decided to rekindle the old flame and gradually release some of my creations in limited runs.
The products you will find on this site where born from a dedication to tone, not commerce. No costs are being spared to build a product that is dependable and road worthy.
As this is a passion of mine I want to keep it this way and I will only produce limited numbers of my creations. This will also protect your investment and the resale value of your pedal should you ever find your playing style move away from the tones it creates.
I hope you enjoy the stuff on this site and wish you a very musical partnership if you decide to order one of my products.
Welcome to the Valvette website and thank you for stopping by.
My name is Johan Maertens and I design and build the pedals you find on this site.
I grew up in a family of musicians and have been a guitar player since I was nine years old. I have also had a keen interest in electronics since a very early age, courtesy of watching my dad bent over tube amps on his workbench and inhaling some of the solder fumes I guess.
On my quest for tone throughout the years I have come across a number of situations where what I was looking for was simply not available on the market or not within my reach...
So I took to the soldering iron and started designing my own stuff. some projects where more successfull than others, but eventually some fellow musicians where asking me to build them some of the pedals I actually designed for myself ...
Over the years the music has taken a bit of a back burner as a family with two lovely daughters, a lively son and a carreer in film sound recording have a way of taking up lots of time, but I have decided to rekindle the old flame and gradually release some of my creations in limited runs.
The products you will find on this site where born from a dedication to tone, not commerce. No costs are being spared to build a product that is dependable and road worthy.
As this is a passion of mine I want to keep it this way and I will only produce limited numbers of my creations. This will also protect your investment and the resale value of your pedal should you ever find your playing style move away from the tones it creates.
I hope you enjoy the stuff on this site and wish you a very musical partnership if you decide to order one of my products.