Dusky Electronics began when, in 2013, Chris Rossi had some circuit ideas he wanted to try out for a guitar amplifier. Not only would it sound unique, but Chris had some ideas for how it could look unique as well. After about a year of work, Chris finally unveiled the D₂O amplifier, showing it to only a few folks locally. The initial response was beyond Chris’s expectation, with several players hailing the D₂O as the best amp they’d ever played, and the last amp they’d ever really need to buy. Emboldened, Chris has sought to bring his design to the wider world.

Before starting Dusky Electronics, Chris had spent the better part of two decades in Durham, NC, as an active member of the local music scene, tinkering with and fixing broken gear, and honing his ears working in his studio, Spacelab Recording Studio. Perhaps it’s because of Chris’s recording engineer trained ears that early adopters of the D₂O tended to be recording studios. D₂Os can be found at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium recording facility, Alex Maiolo’s Seriously Adequate studio, and Chris Wimberley’s Nightsound.

Chris likes to say that his pedal designs, too, are just more amplifiers. Dusky’s range of boosts, drives, and fuzzes all expand the player’s timbral range and enhance the ineffable connection between player, instrument, and amplifier. The most important element for a design is what Chris calls “bonding”—when the gear is so well integrated that it disappears and you just play. In the end it’s all about music—the only real magic there is.

All Dusky Electronics gear is designed by Chris Rossi and built by hand in North Carolina.