Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the ‘In Utero’ tour at Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, in 1993.
Photographer: James Crump/WireImageMaker of Nirvana’s Guitar Sound Copes With Trump’s Tariff Chaos
Import taxes for small businesses like Electro-Harmonix cause discord, higher costs.
President Donald Trump’s noisy and frenetic trade wars are colliding with the industry that pioneered another form of distortion — the rock ’n’ roll kind.
Just ask Mike Matthews, who founded New York’s Electro-Harmonix in 1968. The company makes equipment that alters the sound from electric guitars, creating effects used by the likes of the White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins. Kurt Cobain’s guitar riff on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit?” That’s EHX’s Small Clone chorus pedal.