When My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy or Spoon's Britt Daniel want to push their guitar sound to 11, they go to Oliver Ackermann, maker of the boutique line of guitar pedals called Death By Audio. For the last few years, Ackermann — who also fronts the shoegaze-noise outfit A Place to Bury Strangers — has been building some of the most innovative effects boxes on the market: the "Interstellar Overdriver" is an insanely loud distortion box that also generates bizarro waveforms, the "Octave Clang" mixes ear-bursting fuzz with rich sitar-esque tones and the "Supersonic Fuzz Gun" has six knobs and one switch for endless combinations of guitar noise. While Ackermann's regular line pedals is a bit pricey they come housed in indestructible steel and he offers free repairs for the lifetime of the product. Even the Edge is such a fan that he ordered up Ackermann's whole product line. "His guitar tech e-mailed me and said he'd like to buy all the pedals," says Ackermann. "Then like a half-hour after I responded, my doorbell rang and there was a courier with a check. I was like, 'Sweet! You don't fuck with U2!' " KEVIN O'DONNELL

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