All you ever wanted to know about Scandinavia's Premier Pedal Boutique and Guitar Gear Emporium - Stockholm's These Go To 11!

While contemplating his future direction, and because of his many musical connections through touring, Sebastian encountered and made friends with prolific pedal circuit genius one Björn Juhl - who already had an extensive library of circuits under his belt - and latterly collaborated with Bearfoot FX, Mad Professor and OneControl.

The two gentlemen got along so famously that by around mid-way through 2006 - Sebastian had made a tacit agreement to help sell BJFe pedals in Sweden. In fact things moved really quickly and he found himself assembling the above referenced catalogue in that same year - which was then distributed to all his many touring and studio acquaintances.

Sebastian with Björn Juhl above in Björn's studio / workshop.

The catalogue came quite a bit before the Store - which obviously became more of a priority when Sebastian struggled to contain his growing pedal inventory at home. By the time the store opened in 2008, Sebastian had secured 11 key pedal brands on the roster:

• BJFe
• Analog.Man
• Boomerang Loopers
• BYOC
• Cusack Music
• Diamond Memory Lane
• Foxrox
• Mad Professor
• Mollon
• RMC (Real McCoy Custom Wah)
• Xotic Effects

Initially Sebastian sold pedals out of a box in which he stored them at home. While the inventory grew so quickly that pretty soon another venue was required to accommodate them all. And just a couple of years after that famous catalogue, Sebastian was encouraged to set up a store right in the heart of Stockholm's Musician's District - just south of Gamla Stan and the Söderström River - at Södermannagatan 16.

The first shop luckily backed onto the Recording Studio 'Dubious', which ensured plenty of footfall in those early days. While the entrance to the actual store was somewhat awkward - in through a studio lounge and then down a spiral staircase. In addition to an odd entrance. The main ceiling was only 1.8 meters high, with the entrance to the single Test / Listening Room - even lower than that.

Not only was the main ceiling awkwardly low, but space was overall rather cramped at around 30 square meters - with insufficient space to accommodate any sort of in-store gig or live event. After a couple of years TGT11 took over the upstairs studio lounge also - so that the place was finally able to function more like a traditional store - with the Pedal Cabinets upstairs, and Amps and Guitars in the more spacious downstairs. The shop's handy location served the business well to put These Go to 11 firmly on the map, and there was no looking back!

The very first pedal Sebastian sold was of course from his very first Brand - BJFe, and probably the most iconic flagship pedal in that range - the low-to-mid-gain delightful Honey Bee OD - which has since had variations and derivations in all 3 of its sister brand ranges - Bearfoot FX, Mad Professor and OneControl. I have the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Deluxe derivation (5-knobs), and still intend to get a 4K edition of the Honey Bee which I'm hoping Björn will make for me as a special edition. The current mainstream variety of the Honey Bee is the most recent OneControl 3-knob edition.

Over the entire time that These Go To 11 has been trading, no pedals have sold more than the King Tone Duellist Dual Drive, and Xotic Effects Mini EP Booster. In fact Sebastian has sold so many of each that it's nigh impossible to separate them - which is why both feature here. Those are both legendary and industry standard drive and boost pedals respectively, and while I personally have 2 different versions of the EP Booster, I've still to prioritise the acquisition of a Duellist.

Ariel Posen conducting in-store Clinic.

Sebastian quickly ran out of space at the original location - Södermannagatan 16 - there were increasing amounts of boxes everywhere and the store was getting very congested! What's more is that with the main store-hand - Jocke being two meters tall, meant that he had to crouch down for the whole day, and found it pretty tricky to enter the then sole Test Room.

The above Photo is of the key store crew - Filip Karlström (left), Sebastian Nylund (centre), and Teodor Naess (right) - all gifted guitar players and great with customers!

The new store had been a long time coming, and during the summer months of 2018 These Go to 11 moved down the road - approximately 200 meters away to the west from the original location - to Kocksgatan 17 - a really decent open-plan retail space of around 100 square meters, and with Two breakout Listening Rooms, and plenty of floorspace for in-store events.

Because the move happened in the summer months there was a shortage of available labour about and Sebastian had to get pretty hands-on himself - as he led the modifications on the two fully acoustically dampened Test Rooms. In the previous store there had been some discernible sound-leakage - so a lot of time was spent fully sound-insulating and isolating those two listening rooms.

In fact Sebastian and gang became very adept carpenters and decorators over those months - as they built much of the shop-fittings themselves while the architect's dad was an experienced furniture-maker and he provided most of the furnishings. Sebastian and a carpenter friend of his built the Test Rooms and Offices, and member's of Sebastian's family painted a beautiful geometric pattern onto the floor (as below!).

From my perspective the main attraction is that wall of no less than 6 cabinets full of pedals - no doubt one of the finest collections of pedals to be found anywhere! :

Sebastian and I together carefully selected 12 of the brands we felt best represented the scope and scale of the store - and from within each of those we selected a leading ambassador pedal for that range (as picture in the visual below) - to represent the very best of those brands - both current and all-time classics. As follows, and listed alphabetically below by brand. Note that we felt that BJFe was already so strongly associated with the store that there was no need really to promote that any more here :

NOTE that SEK 2,000 = circa €197 | £171 | $236 | ¥26,150 | AUD 307

I'm very familiar with Kyle Chase's pedal brand and already have his '68 Red Velvet BC183 Fuzz, Fuzz Fella BC108 Fuzz and Roadster BC183 Fuzz. Of course the main variety TGT11 stocks is the numerous variants of the Secret Preamp - based on the Echoplex Preamp of course.

TGT11 has 6 varieties of Secret Preamps in stock, and the one singular variety of Fuzz Fella BC108C Fuzz (SEK 1795).

I've featured both versions of Gladio on the site before, and in fact Cornerstone was included in my Italian Builders overview back in September of 2018. The Gladio has fast become their signature flagship pedal, and is available in two very highly regarded editions - the original Dual-Channel Variety (SEK 3795), and the newer Single Channel Compact - both classics of the Dumble genre.

TGT11 was first to introduce me to Daniel Querner's beautifully engineered and cloth-wrapped fuzzes - and I currently have the Austin Pride and Secret Weapon to-date - which I believe are two of the finest examples of the range. I have one of the last Austin Pride's to feature the cool combination of NTE103 + NTE123 Transistors - later varieties deploy a different mix of transistors, but still sound extraordinary. These are some of the very finest fuzz pedals available anywhere and it's better you get in on the list early as that is steadily growing towards King of Tone style proportions!

TGT11 Stocks 8 pedals from the range - do note that these sell out very quickly :

• Aequitas (Germanium FF) - SEK 4695
• Austin Blender (C.O.B) - SEK 4695
• Austin Pride (Dual Square Face) - SEK 4895
• Equilibrium (Silicon FF) - SEK 4695
• Secret Machine (Zonk I) - SEK 4895
• Secret Weapon (Zonk I) - SEK 4895
• Tweedy Overdrive - SEK 4595
• Working Man Fuzz (Square Face Jr) - SEK 4495

I've become pretty good friends with Steve Demedash of late - and really admire his approach to pedals, and how' he's carved out such an iconic and highly identifiable brand for himself. To date I personally have only his fantastic Spidola Germanium Fuzz Device - but I dare say I will have a few more soon enough - and I'm particularly looking forward to his imminent T-60 Analog Modulator - Chorus, Vibrato & Flanger.

Of course his flagship pedal is still his early success T-120 Videotape Echo - which is available in both standard and enhanced Deluxe editions in a number of different colourways / editions. The striped motif of most of his graphics designs are cleverly evolved from the classic Sony Betamax Videotape boxes of the 80's.

There are currently 4 Demedash Pedals stocked by TGT11 :

• T-120 Videotape Echo - SEK 2695
• T-120 Deluxe Videotape Echo - SEK 3995
• T-60 Analog Modulator - Chorus, Vibrato & Flanger - SEK 3695 TBA
• 112+ Drive Chanel - SEK 2650

Classic Canadian brand - slightly industrial looking builder most famous for its Shallow Water Modulator and Meed Maude Analog Delay. I've featured the Shallow Water on this site a few times, and it's still the most enduringly popular of the range - just a gorgeous ethereal sounding aqueous modulator.

TGT11 currently stocks 7 of Fairfield Circuitry's Pedals :

• The Barbershop V2 Millennium Overdrive - SEK 2295
• Hors d'Oeuvre Feedback Loop - SEK 2295
• Long Life Parametric EQ w/ Tilt & CV - SEK3295
• Meet Maude Analogue Delay - SEK 3595
• Randy's Revenge Ring Modulator - SEK 3395
• Shallow Water K-Field Modulator - SEK 3395
• The Unpleasant Surprise Experimental Fuzz/Gate - SEK 2295

I'm a big fan of Michael Hudson, and have 5 of his pedals to-date - the Dual Footswitch Broadcast, Sidecar 808-style Overdrive, Fuzz3 (TB MKIV), Stroll On Fuzz (TB MKII) and White Heat Fuzz (Vox TB). Of course the Dual Footswitch Broadcast Preamp is still the range flagship - and deservedly so with its intricate mix of overdrive and fuzz flavours.

TGT11 stocks 3 of the Hudson Electronics pedals :

• Broadcast Preamp - SEK 2395
• Broadcast Dual Footswitch Preamp - SEK 2395
• Sidecar 808 Style Overdrive - SEK 2395

Jesse Davey is doing very well as a Brit abroad, and his range has seen significant expansion in the last couple of years or so. I personally have only one of his to date - the miniFUZZ Germanium, while there are a number more on my wishlist - the miniFUZZ Silicon and Mini Octaland in particular - and probably the Soloist and HeavyHand too! The key pedal selected on this occasion is the really clever and truly great sounding 1968 Vibe which is just near perfect in its horizontal BB-size enclosure vs so many much larger competitors - and giving you a 2-channel / 2-speed variant. It's price though is pretty eye-watering at SEK 5595 - so a proper investment piece!

TGT11 Stocks 12 of King Tone's Pedals :

• Battery Box - SEK 1595
• Blues Power Overdrive - SEK 3995
• The Duellist Dual Overdrive - SEK 4095
• miniFUZZ Germanium - SEK 3095
• miniFUZZ Silicon - SEK 3095
• Mini Octaland Octave Fuzz - SEK 3695
• Rise Treble Booster - SEK 2795
• Soloist Overdrive - SEK 3295
• Splitter Box - SEK 1295
• The Octaland Octave Fuzz - SEK 3895
• Vibe 1968 - SEK 5995
• Vintage Fuzz - SEK 4295

Chris King Robinson is another Brit doing really well for himself recently - a touring musician with something of a gear fetish. Like many he started out modifying Fuzz Faces until he hit on a formula for two of his own - the compact edition Fuzz and vintage discus-style Custom Fuzz - both Silicon variants as far as I understand. More recently he has launched the Texan Twang - obviously a specially tuned SVR style 808 circuit. And most recently he has lunched the rather large enclosure Gypsy Vibe - which sounds divine - but boy does it take up a lot of space! No doubt the Gypsy Vibe will come into stock soon enough - it has only just been launched.

TGT11 stocks 3 Pedal Pawn Pedals, as follows :

• Fuzz - SEK 2595
• Fuzz Custom Shop - SEK 4395
• Texan Twang OD - SEK 2595

R2R Electronics is something of a specialist - with only two effects types in the range - Treble Booster and Vintage Wah in a few different editions. TGT11 only stocks the two-knob Treble Booster variants AC107 (SEK 3495) and OC44 (SEK 3995). These are very well made of the highest quality vintage components - and the pricing is very much a reflection of that.

I had always associated Japanese Brand Shin's Music with Dumble-style Preamps, and it wasn't until I encountered TGT11 that I was aware of the much broader range coverage. Obviously the Dumbloid is still the best known / flagship Shin as such and rightly serves as brand ambassador here - still one of the very best options out there and with a price tag to match.

TGT11 stocks 10 of the Shin's Music range :

• Baby Perfect Volume Hybrid - SEK 3595
• Bass Master Preamp - SEK 4995
• Clean Boost - SEK 4495
• Clean Drive Overdrive - SEK 4495
• Double Trouble SRV Overdrive - SEK 5495
• Dumbloid Boost - SEK 5695
• Dumbloid Overdrive - SEK 5495
• Dumbloid Twin Overdrive - SEK 8895
• Pro-Vibe - SEK 5495
• Pro-Vibe DX - SEK 7495

This somewhat under-the-radar Japanese Brand has a small but perfectly formed range of 5 gain pedals currently - the Silver and Gold Klon-style Overdrives, Dhyana D-Style Overdrive, Fetbox Custom Preamp, and JRM Fender Blackface-style Overdrive. By far the most impressive in the range is the Gold V9 Extremely Tuned Klone - with its 3 additional controls on the right side of the pedal - Fat Mode, Clipping Mode : Germanium/Led/Silicon, and Bypass Mode : Buffered/True. This is truly one of the very best Klones on the market - and very few people know about it.

TGT11 currently just stocks the 2 KMC-OD Klone varieties - while I'm trying to persuade Sebastian to stock the full range - or at least get the Dhyana in also.

• KCM-OD Gold V9 Extremely Tuned - SEK 3695
• KCM-OD Silver V10 - SEK 2695

Vongon's Ryan McGill is thus far best known for his very well received Paragraphs Resonant Low Pass Filter. While his new confection the Ultrasheer is about to eclipse that - with its smart combination of Stereo Reverb and Vibrato. I'm still not sure how I feel about these wood-framed pedals yet, but there is no doubting its output. One of Sebastian's favourite pedals currently!

TGT11 Stocks both Vongon pedals :

• Paragraphs Filter - SEK3695
• Ultrasheer Vibrato/Reverb - SEK 4995

Phil X and Ryan Roxie in the house!

These Go To 11 Store Crew at the 2015 annual Gothenburg Fuzz Guitar Show - Hannes on the left, Jocke in the middle, and Head Honcho Sebastian on the right - looking somewhat like junior doctors!

Luchador Sebastian Salsa Inferno with Hot Sauces and various pedals - caliente!