We create a premium analogue product for guitarist singer, open mic goer, giggers and bedroom superstar alike. The Story of Rhyth-Mic Stomps. Rhyth-Mic really started in 2021, the year I moved to sunny Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset. Up until then, I had been a forty-something husband, father and teacher. Sadly, that year my wife and I divorced, rather acrimoniously, and I suffered a mental breakdo
wn which meant I also had to give up 19 years of teaching. I moved and ended up living alone and distraught here in Weston. Playing music has always been an enormously important art of my life since I was a youngster. I joined my first band when I was 14, and have played in various bands throughout my life – from punk rock to ukulele-folk music, but I have never performed alone. Weston has a terrific music scene – its one of the reasons I love it. There are many open-mics during the week. I decided to gird my loins and take the plunge. It was faintly terrifying, but I loved it and what’s more, I quickly made friends with regulars on the scene. My life began improving, with company and music, and many of my anxieties lifted. I resurrected my bass-ukulele-kit making company, Buzzards Field Ukuleles and built another workshop and began instrument making again – another of my passions. It wasn’t long before I met my present musical partner, Steve, during an open Mic. We hit it off immediately and formed a gigging duo called ‘Strum and Bass’. I played bass, he played 12 string and we both sang. After year of gigging we decided we needed some percussion. Steve bought a stomp-box. It was a Travel Log by Logorhythm, but neither of us could get on with it – it was too thick and caused us both to get cramps in our shins. So, I decided to make an alternative. It was a pretty, chunky plywood design, activated by a piezo pickup, which pivoted on a hinge. I made a few and sold them on my Buzzards Field website. However, it never really produced a deep enough bass sound to my ears, so I tried several different designs, all with piezos and increasingly novel ways of getting a bigger sound. Then I had an epiphany: Why not try a different pickup method instead of a piezoelectric disk? So I tried a completely different design to accommodate a microphone. Now, I had the sound I needed, especially through a big bass setup. Again, I made some for myself and a few friends to use. During this time I began ‘subbing’ as bass player for a professional party band called Station 2 Station. They would go out as a full 5-piece, or sometimes as a duo. The singer would play a cajon as a duo, but said that he didn’t like being stuck in a hunched position to sing and drum. That gave me an idea for a wearable percussion instrument. I built a hinged, padded plinth, hooked up to electrics, which allowed for one hand to ‘snap’ and the other to produce a bass sound – just like a cajon. It could be laid on a players lap, or clipped to a belt. It could be played in view or through clothing. The only thing was, it didn’t have a name – as far as I know there is nothing else like it on the market, so I needed to christen it. I called it The Rhyth-Mic. For obvious reasons, I decided to split the stompbox project from Buzzards Field Ukuleles as it was confusing, and thus the brand name ‘Rhyth-Mic’ was born. I continued developing my electronics, soldering and laser etching skills, improving my workshop and expanding Rhyth-Mic stomps to Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, Reverb and of course, www.Rhyth-Mic.co.uk
At present, I make a range of stomps, based on a single design – the ‘M4’ (so named because it was the fourth design I tried). The M4 is available in a choice of woods – each dictating the price-point. Other designs are in the pipeline, including active stomps, built-in effects and a return to the hinged stomp design. The future is exciting for me again and I seem to have found my happy place once more, back in Weston-Super-Mare. Oh, and yes, Steve and I are still playing, and I’m still stomping, and we are still available for gigs in and around the North Somerset...
