They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and a couple of years ago, Upstate musician, producer and engineer Andrew Oliver saw a need that needed to be filled. Or, more accurately, he saw input jacks on guitar amps and other gear that needed to be protected. The quarter-inch holes were a haven for dust, water and rust when the equipment wasn’t in use, so Oliver figured he’d search for some kind of protectors for the jacks.

“We have three different designs meant to hit different demographics. We have the diamond, we have skulls for the punk rock crowd and aliens for the sci-fi fantasy genre. And the plan is to introduce more designs in the future.”

And he didn’t find much out there.

“I wanted to get plugs for the inputs, and I was sure they made them,” Oliver says. “And they were kind of hard to find. I was confused by that at first.”

Oliver eventually found precisely one kind of plug, and he wasn’t crazy about how it looked.

“I was able to find one product that was very plain,” he says. “It almost looked industrial; it was not fun at all. And I thought that was crazy, because there were millions of the quarter-inch inputs for guitars and amps, and it blew my mind when I could only find one product that was very plain and not targeted to the consumer in a fun way. I felt like they needed to be out there.”

That was back in 2018, and Oliver spent the next year or so working with several different developers to create the product he couldn’t find, a line of fun, decorative plugs called Dummiez.

Once he had the design down, he worked with 3D modeler Todd Thrash to make the final product.

“You have to have experience with the equipment to figure out some of the problems. I had experience with different kinds of gear, and that helped me with the end product.”

“Dummiez are quarter-inch dust plugs for the input and output on your music equipment and recording equipment,” Oliver says. “It plugs a hole to keep the dust, smoke and air out, and all Dummiez have a decorative head. They look cool on the gear, and it’s kind of a way to decorate your studio rack or your guitar on the wall.”

After initially working with hard plastic while developing Dummiez, Oliver eventually moved to soft rubber. And as he mentioned, they aren’t just functional, they’re attractive.

“We have three different designs meant to hit different demographics,” he says. “We have the diamond, we have skulls for the punk rock crowd and aliens for the sci-fi fantasy genre. And the plan is to introduce more designs in the future.”

Oliver says his unique perspective as both a musician (in the local band Brother Oliver) and engineer gave him a feel for what his target audience both needed and wanted.

“You have to have experience with the equipment to figure out some of the problems,” he says. “I had experience with different kinds of gear, and that helped me with the end product. And from a marketing perspective, I feel like I understand what musicians respond to as well.”