About Us

 

 

Ed Batewell, Founder

Ed spent nearly two decades at IBM creating and delivering technical architectures for some of the world's largest companies—including cloud computing and supercomputers. But no matter how deep he got into the tech world, he never strayed from his first love: playing guitar and bass in rock and metal bands. Moving around the country for his career and supporting a growing family meant Ed rarely stayed in one place long enough to form a proper band. So, he built his own and brought it with him.

Here's Ed rocking in Toronto at Canadian Music Week 2000

Armed with a guitar, bass, mic, loopers, drum machines, synths, and percussion, and the effects to tie it all together, Ed set out to perform seamless one-man-band shows. But pulling off a massive, multi-instrument sound live requires more than knowing the songs on the setlist. It takes gear that's doing what's expected when expected and minimal cable clutter. It also needs to be lightweight, quick to set up and sync, and intuitive so you can focus on a multi-instrument performance without too much tap dancing on your pedalboard. 

Ed with a quantum computer

To solve this, Ed combined his decades of complex systems engineering with his passion for music, spending years perfecting what he calls (warning: Dad joke coming) his "guitarchitecture." (It's an ever-evolving system. An "ever-volving" system if you will.) The goal? Deliver music technology that meets all of those one-man-band requirements, with the best quality, value, and sound, made in America, packed with maximum features and possibilities, while hiding the extreme technical complexity and exposing what's truly needed so the artist can just play. (But don't hide the complexity irrevocably...Keystone also makes a free app that exposes every pedal parameter.)

This groundwork formed the basis of Keystone Musical Instruments, founded in 2025.