About Us

Solving the guitar effects pedal problems of working musicians.

We have a true passion for making things easier to use.

Chris Trifilio
Chris Trifilio - President

I grew up holding things. My dad was always fixing something in the house or building stuff for my mom in his workshop (whatever they saw at the gift shop that morning he would have created from scratch, identically, by that afternoon). He did a lot of Bondo-ing, sanding and painting the rust spots on the cars, I can still smell that, and the smell of the DDT he’d spray around the house to keep pests out, which is of course not quite legal anymore.

During each of these adventures I was asked to hold the hammer, hold the post so it stays plumb in the hole filled with concrete, hold the ladder….etc. Inevitably something went a little wrong, as with any good house project, and there’d be a little commotion but also I learned that even when problems come up, keep at it and you can not only fix it, but make it better.

So thus began my career of trying to make the world a better place by designing better products. I worked for years on things like blowtorches, snow-sleds, lot’s of medical devices, you name it. I’m a musician and in 2014 I decided to make the leap and create products full time for musicians to make their lives easier. So as John Cage said "begin anywhere", and I started Chemistry Design Werks in my tiny 1924 garage that barely fit a car in the first place. I moved out of the garage but I'm still a small shop. I design everything myself, do a lot of prototyping and testing with real musician’s and then everything is built and shipped right here from my little shop in St Paul.

You never know where life will take you, I’ve been working on making Holeyboard Pedalboards better, full-time, since 2014.

I work in my shop, create new things, and I pack them up myself and ship them so you, the musician, can try them out and hopefully say, “Wow, that’s cool and it works great!”.

It’s a good way to spend the day and I am extremely thankful when you put your trust in the Holeyboards and when you support little companies with big ideas.

Chris Trifilio - President

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