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And that market isn’t as niche as one might think.

The latest NAMM Show, a trade show held annually by the National Association of Music Merchants, drew close to 100,000 visitors. It’s the place to be for musicians to hear about hot new trinkets to add to their sound.

“It’s a big market in the sense that … most people who play electric guitar have at least played around with some pedals,” says Guillaume Fairfield, who founded Gatineau-based Fairfield Circuitry (fairfieldcircuitry.com) in 2008 and now has a half-dozen products on the market.

“Different pedals will affect the sound in different ways, so it’s a really easy way to change your sound.”

Also in town is Retro-Sonic (retro-sonic.com) and its line of seven vintage-style pedals. Tim Larwill founded the company in 2001, deciding to take his passion for rebuilding retro cars in a whole new direction. Now, his reworked pedals are being sold around the world.

David Arguin, the man behind Dave’s Pedals, specializes in using new and found parts to recreate a variety of vintage tones. Though the brand isn’t the most visible, the pedals can often be found amidst the jumble of boxes in some local music stores.

His protégé Calvin McCormick also started his own business, McCormick Analog, out of his west Ottawa home. He’s spent the last three years customizing existing designs and repairing broken gear, but expects to debut his own invention by June.

Though online stores and gear-talk communities are certainly a big boon, independent guitar shops like Spaceman and Lauzon in Ottawa and Distoshop in Gatineau can help push local brands into the public eye.

Spaceman co-owner Scott Terry says innovative ideas and designs are what makes a company like Empress or Fairfield get noticed. In a market crowded with reissues and clones, it helps to be one-of-a-kind.

“Guitar players are very discerning and very picky about their tone,” says Terry, “and I think when they do find a company or a pedal that seems to be their holy grail, they really stick with it and champion it.”

The owners of Empress and Fairfield both say they have plans to launch new products in 2015, the culmination of years of design work in some cases. There’s always more noise to make.