Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Broyles.
Zach, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve always been a relentless tinkerer. When I was a kid I often took apart toys, rewired things, and was forever interested in working on things myself. At a young age my Dad gave me a soldering iron for little projects here and there, and that was part of where my journey as a maker started. When I took up playing guitar at 15, I became obsessed with learning how to make things my own. I began swapping guitar pickups and that eventually progressed into working on my guitar effect pedals. In the early 2000’s the guitar pedal mod craze was sweeping the internet, and I was ravenous for it. I would buy pedals locally or on eBay, modify them, then try my hardest to flip them for a profit to fund the next purchase.
After years of honing my skills with a soldering iron on a PCB, a fuzz pedal I had broke. Being me, I immediately opened it up and said to myself, “This doesn’t look too complicated…I’ll just make a new one!”. I did and it worked! From there I began making my own pedals for fun, and that fun turned into making them for friends and needing a moniker. Being from the little southern town of Sparta, Tennessee, I decided to name my “brand” Mythos after consulting with friends. I made pedals in my spare time for fun and hoped to make a little cash, but it wasn’t until I met my now wife and moved to Nashville that I really tried to give it an honest shot.
I began working at a vintage guitar shop in Nashville and, after honing my skills and ears by listening to great gear and even greater musicians, the brand started to take off. I went from working at a spare desk to the kitchen table then to my own dedicated room in our tiny apartment and in late 2017 my wife and I decided it was time for Mythos to become my full time job. I devoted every spare moment I had to learning the ins and outs of how to build and operate my business, leaning heavily on social media and YouTube as a way to grow brand awareness. Things were on a steady climb but nothing astronomical until 2020. My family and I had traveled to England for me to make guest appearances on some pretty major guitar related YouTube shows and we got home right before the world shut down in early March. The videos went live and my life changed immediately. The brand had the attention of a captive audience at home and just like so many others during the COVID years, the business exploded.
As the world returned to some kind of normality, Mythos had positioned itself as a prominent name in the guitar pedal space. I went from my home shop to sharing a space with a guitar manufacturer in town and soon after that the team and I moved to our own workspace north of Nashville proper. We have embraced social media and YouTube, using it as a tool to grow our brand and more importantly connect with the community. Podcasts, livestreams, videos, it’s all a huge part of our brand and something that I as a maker and business owner love.
In late 2024 I rolled the dice on another business. Me and my team are such fans of guitar and we’ve made so many friends in the industry that was decided to open a small boutique guitar showroom called High Voltage Guitars. For the moment we’re operating out of our current pedal production space, transforming an empty front room into a small shop were we hope to fill a void in Nashville for new high end instruments. It’s been a challenge balancing the pair of business, but they are working and we’re excited to see where everything is headed as we move into the future.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The hardest thing for me as a creative person was staying passionate and focused. When the thing you love becomes your livelihood then the way you view it tends to change. Your hobby is now your work, your “job”. My favorite part of making or creating is the creative process. Designing a circuit, hearing how it sounds or interacts with my instrument, designing the artwork, all of that is incredibly fun for me. When it leaves that stage and you enter the mindset of, “Ok, now I need to make a few hundred of these things”, the fun fades. Finding that balance is always a challenge.
One shouldn’t complain about growing pains, but the pain and stress of growth is real and overcoming that is what makes or breaks success. For me I had to finally relent and say I needed help. I hired help and that relieved the immense pressure. I’m a “bend till I break” sort of person, so admitting I couldn’t do it alone was very difficult. Lucky for me, I’ve found a great number of people to help me, and my team currently are some of my best friends and they keep the ship afloat while allowing me to stay focused and keep my head on straight creatively.
The hardest part of what we do is that guitars and their accessories are not a necessity. We’re beholden to the market as it ebbs and flows, and that uncertainty is always a difficult part of being a small business owner. We’ve tried to diversify ourselves, not only by opening High Voltage but also with being very active online. I believe the that true path to a lasting presence online is being face forward, and also being yourself. People want to be part of a community so you have to put yourself out there. It’s challenging and often very tiring but I’ve met some of the most amazing people on my journey and made friends the world over. That’s something that no matter where the market goes you can’t take away.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What Mythos does is create guitar effect pedals. Pedals, as we call them, are these little boxes that go between an electric guitar and an amplifier to “effect” the sound. They can add volume, distortion or fuzz, make and echo sound, etc. They are a huge part of guitar culture and many of the sounds we’ve heard on records for the past 60 years!
We focus on classic effects that are very familiar in the guitar space. My hope is to create guitar pedals that feel like an extension of yourself as a player. I don’t want anything to impede the creative process but rather enforce it and help a player get the sound they hear in their head out into the world. We have a mantra around the shop, it’s not the most creative or world changing expression but we want “No Bad Sounds” from Mythos pedals, and that’s what I hope players experience when they plug in and turn on a Mythos pedal.
In regards to our little guitar shop, we wanted a place that offered a different selection and was also a fun place to hang out. I don’t care if a guitar costs 500 bucks or 10,000 bucks, players should have the opportunity to try the gear they’ve only heard of. I hope everyone who comes to High Voltage Guitars leaves having learned something about a piece of gear and enjoyed their visit. It’s not always about making every person a customer in my opinion, it’s about making sure everyone has a great time. I think retail, regardless of industry, sometimes forgets that.
What were you like growing up?
While my body grew up I don’t know if my mind or heart ever did. I’ve always been passionate and full of imagination. As a child of the mid 1980s, I was enamored by cartoons, movies and video games. I wanted to be a Ghostbuster so bad I couldn’t stand it, to be honest…I still do. I will forever hum the melodies of songs from the NES games that my sister and I would get to play after we finished homework. I never cared for school, but I’ve always loved learning. Forever wanting to march to the beat of my own drum or whatever John Williams rhythm was beating in my chest. I was always a reserved and quiet kid publicly, and despite being very face forward online today I still often feel like that shy introverted kid I was growing up.
My parents, while having a lot of rules, never denied us from following our passions and supported creativity. Lucky for me too, they are huge music fans. Though not musicians themselves, they always played music of every type either on the Hi-Fi or on in the car. I remember being a teenager and my Mom said, “I heard this band and thought you might like it” as she handed me my first Green Day CD. If not for them, the Zach today would be a very different person. One could say that about everything from the past, but it’s a combination of all those things that have lead me to where I am today. One of my constant sources of inspiration, Adam Savage (Mythbusters, Tested), reminds people he meets to “Stay Obsessed”. I believe that is a great philosophy and a way to remain passionate about all the things we all love as individuals, especially after we “grow up”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mythospedals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mythospedals/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/mythospedals
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MythosPedals
- Other: https://highvoltageguitars.com/
