About Us

Jim Dunlop started the Dunlop Manufacturing company in 1965 in Benicia, California, and followed his dream to provide quality products for fellow musicians. Along the way he created the Dunlop Cry Baby, an innovative wah-wah pedal for the electric guitar. Jim focused on the accessories market and put out a line of capos, guitar slides and a new brand of plastic guitar picks he named Tortex, among other products. Over his long career Jim also served as a mentor to many of his employees who have developed their own careers throughout the music industry.

From the very first “Superbadass DISTORTION” that we released, it has traveled much of the world, and a great deal of artists have used it. Nevertheless, the “MXR” Series is what we are proud of as a company.

So we decided to make MXR - Steve Vai Custom series with some of his best pedal effects incorporated in our wave processing. It was a week-long stay at Vai’s ‘Harmony hut,’ as he likes to call it. This is where all of his signature creations come alive.

We understood his persona, color choices, art inclinations, and most importantly, the secrets to his live tones. With all this in hand, we are about to launch the MXR - Steve Vai Series this January.

Our Collaboration with

Mr. Steve Vai

Known for his virtuosity and style, Steve Vai has had a long and enviable career as a guitarist, singer, composer, and producer. The 1979 Berklee College of Music graduate, who began playing with the legendary Frank Zappa and his band in 1980, has also found time through the years to educate and assist other musicians. In addition to teaching a Berklee Online class on technique, he established Make a Noise Foundation in the late ’80s to help aspiring musicians. He credits Berklee with opening the world of music to him, saying, “The best music education I got was at the school’s listening library, where they had every kind of music available. Being exposed to different kinds of music was a big contributor to my musical awakening.”

After transcribing for Zappa at age 18 and then playing with his band for several years in the early ‘80s, Vai set out as a solo performer. Vai sold more than 15 million albums and won three Grammys.

“I’m fighting time on this project because I’m getting older and at some point I’m going to hit a wall physically,” he says on his website(Opens in a new window). “While I still have the chops to do it, I want to make my definitive guitar statement.”