ABOUT US
THE BZZZZKILL STORY
Richard’s Journey
“I got my first guitar out of the dump when I was 5 years old. It had one string on it. I played the crap out of that string until my grandfather eventually bought me a Sears student guitar. Apparently I broke into tears because it had too many strings.”
For Richard Moreton, guitars would become a lifelong pursuit. Growing up with an electronics engineer father who served in the US Navy during WWII, Richard inherited an inquisitive nature and the belief that nothing was impossible.
By 18, Richard and his childhood friend were recording albums and writing songs together. "The first time you hear one of your songs playing on the radio is absolutely surreal," he recalls. Their music sold in over 70 countries, even landing on Tower Records' top 20 list in England.
Life eventually led Richard to mechanical engineering, where he spent 20 years and rose to VP of Engineering — but he never let go of songwriting and guitar playing. When a neurological disorder forced him to stop working, he turned to what had always brought him joy: guitars.
"I was a self-taught luthier since I was 5 years old. When I could no longer work a traditional job, a friend suggested I offer luthier services from home." That's how RSM Custom Guitar Works was born, allowing Richard to maximize his amazing work, while letting his body dictate the schedule. His clientele loves it, and the results are nothing short of sensational.
Gerry’s Story
As if in a parallel universe, Gerry Choquette's musical journey also began at age 5, in Gerry's case with guitar lessons at Kolt Music Studios in Winnipeg. By 15, he was teaching guitar at the Ted Komar school of music and spent his late teens gigging with friends.
But at 20, school and career took precedence. “I spent the next 40 years building and growing a successful packaging manufacturing company. Never made time to pick up a guitar.”
The COVID pandemic changed everything. Isolated at home in 2020, Gerry borrowed a guitar from his musician brother. “From that point on, I was hooked again!”
It was as if he hadn't missed a beat. After purchasing his own guitar, Gerry researched local luthiers and found Richard — the most recommended guitar tech in the city.
THE FATEFUL MEETING
"One day this guy named Gerry showed up at my door with a Les Paul needing work," Richard remembers. "After his first one, he brought another, and then another, and then bought all of my Les Pauls from me and forced me at gunpoint to make him a custom guitar from the ground up."
As Gerry recalls, "I have now made that same trip at least 12 more times as each new guitar purchase showed up. The more Richard and I got to know each other over the years, the more experiences we would share."
THE BIRTH OF BZZZZKILL
For a decade, Richard had been working on a solution to the infamous single-coil pickup hum — inspired by a trick his audiophile father had shown him from 1950s recording studios.
"I continued to cultivate the idea, from out of the guitar to into the guitar, to just on one pickup to all three pickups," Richard explains. After many failed attempts, he finally found the "missing mojo," resulting in a Stratocaster that everyone agreed was both remarkably quiet and the best-sounding they'd ever heard.
Meanwhile, Gerry was frustrated with his own single-coil guitars. "At high gain settings, the hum emitted from the pickups was a constant irritant — not only for me but for my band members and the audience. I typically took out one of my Strats only when the song called for a clean tone."
Richard's friend suggested he should "stop being such a puck hog" and share his invention, so he went looking for a partner. When they saw Gerry's band playing at a local bar, the friend said, "What about Gerry?"
"I approached Gerry very cautiously, you know, ’cause of the gun and all," Richard jokes, "and showed him the gizmo and proposed a business deal. Within an hour of the demonstration, we shook hands and have been partners ever since."
A few days later, Gerry suggested the name "Buzz Kill," which was "way better than 'thingy that cancels noise out of your pickups with a windy thing under pickguard Strat device'," as Richard puts it. They refined the spelling to "BzzzzKill," created a simple logo, and began prototyping.
THE FUTURE
Today, as Richard and Gerry bring BzzzzKill to guitarists worldwide, perhaps Gerry says it best: "All of my guitars are now totally interchangeable. I can play any one for any song, which gives me access to the exact tone I'm looking for. No more BZZZZ."
Our mission is simple: We want BzzzzKill in guitars all over the globe so that musicians everywhere can enjoy pure guitar tone, without the drone!
- RICHARD & GERRY
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