This Month's Featured Artist

Dan Keclik

dkpedals

This month, we’re taking a different approach with our featured artist, Dan Keclik. While Dan isn’t in a band, his love for guitars runs deep, and he’s been a dedicated supporter of RoughGauge.

As a fellow guitar enthusiast who turned his passion into a thriving guitar accessory business and YouTube channel, we knew he deserved the spotlight this month!

RG: Which guitarists have had the greatest influence on your playing style, and how have they shaped your approach to music?

DK: My favorite guitarists are the ones that play amazing guitar and also write great songs. Jimi Hendrix, Warren Haynes, Jerry Cantrell, Jake and Brendan of UM, John Fogerty of CCR, all amazing song writers and all incredible writers.

RG: When did you start playing guitar, and do you currently play any other instruments?

DK: Started guitar at 15, gradually picked up bass, then dabbled in keyboards and piano for a bit and in my early twenties learned how to play drums. None of those well enough in a real band setting but good enough for what I do.

RG: How did you first discover the Jake Blade, and what was your experience like the first time you used one on your guitar?

DK: Being a huge UM fan, I saw it on the guy’s guitars and bought one as soon as they were available on the UM website. It was intriguing enough to try out and I fell in love with it.

RG: In what ways has using the Jake Blade enhanced your playing or changed your sound?

DK: Using a traditional bar, you are automatically playing in a way that every player has done before you. A player can lose their identity by unintentionally falling into idioms learned from the greats like Jeff Beck and David Gilmour. With the Jake Blade, I can still do the Beck and Gilmour-isms but I can also forge my own path with it. Using it subtly while playing chords adds a nice chorusing effect, throw on fuzz and smack a low E and dive with it. It really is the best alternative out there for whammy bars.

RG: ·What guitar(s) do you currently have a Jake Blade on?

DK: My late Nineties Fender American Stratocaster, a frankenstrat with a hydro dipped pick guard and my PRS Studio. Once a Jake Blade for a Wilkinson Trem is made, then it will be on all of my tremolo equipped guitars.

RG: Talk about dkpedals

DK: I have been tinkering with stuff longer than I have been playing guitar, once the two finally met in 2005, building pedals became a really fun hobby. It wasn’t until 2017/2018 that I started painting them and my friend suggested I start doing social media to showcase my work. This led to starting a Youtube page and the Instagram page and in 2020, dkpedals was born. Over the last five years, there has been a number of demos (100+) showing individual builds and paintings, teaching how to make your first guitar pedal and building an amp. My goal is to pass on whatever knowledge I can and to help others out, through either the entertainment of the videos and information, to selling pedals for charity or getting them to players I love and respect like Jake and Brendan. One of the highlights of this whole thing has been making a custom Jacos Tacos Fuzz for Jake and seeing what they create with what I have made. FUCKING MIND BLOWING!