Sonic, Squared:

Jasper's Juliet Collective

Dale Short
The note from the electric guitar goes around, and around, and
around, through a hidden assembly of electronic circuits inside a round vinyl
box called a "Circadia," with the face of a mysterious blond young woman
on its cover label !etween the guitar and the amplifier the note is
transformed into a sound li"e a mix between a drop of water and a tuning
for", the "ind of vibrating purity that music can have in your dreams
#lug in a different special$effects box$$appropriately named the
"%ainbow Crash" model$$and the soothing dream turns nightmarish& the
pedal's catalog description uses terms li"e "gnarly" and "boisterous," and
even a promise that it will "beat the hell out of your amp's input stage"
'he only thing the two vastly different sonic effects have in common
is that the devices are both manufactured, as are an array of others, inside
wor"space along Jasper's (ndustrial )rive: the !evill State !usiness
(ncubator Center Created in *++, with grants from the -ppalachian
%egional Commission and the 'ennessee .alley -uthority, the Center is
named for the late Congressman 'om !evill
'he manufacturing company's name is 'he Juliet Collective, and on
this day its entire assembly line consists of C/0 %obbie Spears and his
colleague !ritt 1ardner, wor"ing across from each other at a table covered
with circuit boards and soldering guns
Spears' now$incubating brainchild came about through an unli"ely set
of circumstances: a love of guitars, a love of electronics, and the near$fatal
crash of a friend's 2indstar van in the year 3,,,, the day after his high
school graduation
"( was asleep in the bac" seat," he recalls "2hen ( wo"e up we had
capsi4ed, and my nec" was bro"en ( couldn't move my arms" 5e was
bedridden for months with a cervical collar brace 65alo7, and was no longer
able to play his guitar
!y trial and error he determined that his hands had 8ust enough
dexterity to arrange electronic components on a circuit board So he spent
his graduation$gift cash at %adio Shac" and set about building his assembly
s"ills: "Soldering became, in effect, my occupational therapy"
!y the time the anniversary of his crash rolled around, Spears had
gradually relearned guitar and started touring with a Christian roc" band
-long with his newfound appreciation for free movement came a new
perspective on the electronic special$effect devices that wor"ing musicians
are so fond of
5e started custom building some of his ideas for musician friends, and
one of them as"ed him to paint his name on the finished product -s an
inside 8o"e he signed it "Juliet"$$not from Sha"espeare's %omeo$and, but
referring to an odd lyric he routinely shouted onstage during an original
song his band played
'hus the Juliet Collective was born: selling specialty products via the
(nternet direct to serious musicians as far away as Sweden and Japan
'he industry's first special$effect pedal, commonly "nown as the
"wah$wah," was introduced in *+9: !ut in the *+;,s, when bul"y
traditional vacuum tubes could be replaced with tiny transistors, the field of
instrument$modifying too" off in countless new directions
"- company li"e Juliet is technically "nown, these days, as a
'boutique shop,'" says Spears, "because we ma"e speciali4ed items in limited
quantities !ut ('ve never li"ed the word 'boutique' because it has "ind of a
pretentious feel to it, and that's not what we're about, at all
"#robably half the people doing boutique stuff don't actually "now
electrical engineering& they're 8ust ta"ing schematics off the (nternet and
putting an existing product li"e a 'ube Screamer into a different "ind of box
and calling it their own, and that seems dishonest to me 2e don't do
clones"
-n art poster on their office wall boils down the mission: "<usician$
!uilt 1uitar Stuff %ound #eg, Square 5ole"
'he most obvious quality that separates Juliet's products from the
crowd$$even to someone who's not a musician$$is their outward appearance
0n one side of the company's office floor is a metal grid arrayed with test
samples of effects$pedal boxes, mostly from other manufacturers 'heir
designs tend toward the squarish, monochrome sameness of a shelf of
random automobile parts
0ne box brea"s the monotony, big$time: 'he Juliet brand's circular
vinyl cover is a four$color, art$quality design, featuring the face of an
attractive and mysterious young woman$$unofficially "nown as part of the
"hot chic"s series" 'he anonymous women are not chosen for eye$candy
value, Spears says: "'hey're beautiful people inside and out 0ne is my
girlfriend, another is a longtime friend, and another is the sister of one of my
best friends (f we "new a girl who was beautiful but had a bad attitude, you
sure wouldn't see her on one of our products"
-s for the boxes' internal qualities, a review in #remier 1uitar
maga4ine said the company "embodies the boundlessly imaginative,
renegade spirit of pioneers /lectro$5armonix and <orley"
- detailed rundown by an on$staff tester of Juliet's "Circadia" model
6Spears' first release7 includes this observation: "Slow, odd$meter tempos
create cool, wah$li"e swells ideal for rhythmically oriented ambient wor" or
slower soul and blues tunes=and they can also inspire cool counterpoints to
a vocal melody, or even a whole drum part
">or the latter reason, control frea"s may have a hard time with the
Circadia (t often does seem to have a mind of its own -nd it may, at times,
as" you to play to what it?s doing instead of the other way around
"!ut 8amming away in my rehearsal space with a drummer, a
syncopated rhythm played off a simple fun" rhythm became a whole new
groove, mood, and song (n this way, the Circadia has the potential to be one
of those magic bullets when you?re in a compositional rut (t may not have
the answer you were loo"ing for, but it can lead you down paths you may
not have "nown to exist"
"@eah, it was great to get such a good review for our strangest pedal,"
Spears says, "because ( thin" for some of our more bread$and$butter
products li"e 0range Cream we don't have to ta"e 9A minutes to explain
what it does (t's a distortion (t's our own distortion, it's unique (t's parallel,
but still it's more grounded in something a new customer can understand
without having to "now a lot about us to start with"
Juliet is also in the process of exploring a different path: a new line of
products for the mid$range price mar"et "0ur premium line isn't cheap,"
says Spears "Some models are close to BC,, !ut it's not because we're
trying to prove, '5ey, we've got an expensive pedal' (t was an experiment to
spare no expense and ma"e the best possible product, period
"2ith our new Candy Shop line, we're tethering bac" down a little bit
#eople have to learn to trust you before they can throw down BC,, So this
new line is about half the price, but the products have the same spirit -nd
that's a challenge, but ( can apply what ('ve learned from doing the premium
line, so ideally these can roll out a little more consistently
"0ur whole heart is in trying to bring bac" the notion of
craftsmanship, of people tal"ing personal pride in the things they
manufacture"
wwwthe8ulietcollectivecom
D D D
(Dale Short is a native of Walker County. His weekly radio program "Music
from Home" airs each Sunday at pm on !ldies "#".$ %M& streams live
online at www.oldies"#"$fm.com& and is archived afterward at
www.carrolldaleshort.com'