Stomp on This! The Guitar Pedal Effects Guidebook.pdf

Stomp on This!: The Guitar Pedal Effects Guidebook Brian Tarquin Cengage Learning PTR

Stomp on This!: The Guitar Pedal Effects Guidebook Brian Tarquin Publisher and General Manager, Cengage Learning PTR: Stacy L. Hiquet Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella Manager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot Product Manager: Orren Merton Project and Copy Editor: Cathleen D. Small Interior Layout: Shawn Morningstar Cover Designer: Luke Fletcher Indexer: Sharon Shock Proofreader: Gene Redding © 2015 Cengage Learning PTR. WCN: 01-100 CENGAGE and CENGAGE LEARNING are registered trademarks of Cengage Learning, Inc., within the United States and certain other jurisdictions. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706.

For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions. Further permissions questions can be emailed to [email protected]. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All images © Cengage Learning unless otherwise noted. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952235 ISBN-13: 978-1-305-11510-1 ISBN-10: 1-305-11510-4 eISBN-10: 1-305-11589-9 Cengage Learning PTR 20 Channel Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: international.cengage.com/region. Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your lifelong learning solutions, visit cengageptr.com. Visit our corporate Web site at cengage.com. Printed in Canada 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16 15 14

To my understanding and wonderful family: Liam Tarquin, Brianna Katherine, Bridget Bette, and my loving wife, Melissa! Thank you for letting me do what I love!

FOREWORD For my 17th birthday, my parents took me to Manny’s Music in New York to get my first pedal, the venerable Maestro Fuzz Tone. As if my Gibson Firebird and Silvertone Twin 12 didn’t have enough knobs and switches to play with; I loved that thing! Two months prior, the Yardbirds released a single with distortion guitar, ironically titled “Shapes of Things to Come.” How prophetic. Next came “Satisfaction,” etching that magical sustain into my brain. Next came the songs “Over, Under, Sideways, Down” and “Heart Full of Soul” by the Yardbirds, featuring a distortion pedal. I had no way of knowing that Roger Mayer was building a box for Jimi Hendrix known as the Octavia pedal at the time. Further, I never knew that these perversions of sound dated back to 1961 with a purported blown Langevin mic preamp used on Grady Martin’s bass solo in Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry.” Also, there was Link Wray stabbing holes in speaker cones to achieve his signature tone on “Rumble” in 1958. This sustain capability gave guitarists an extended flexibility to express themselves. As I recall, all of the most expressive solos on record were sax solos—for example, Duane Eddy’s guitar recordings. To wail and cry was not in the guitarist’s lexicon. Fast-forward a year, and the world was never the same after the Mayall/Clapton Beano record that featured the “Bluesbreaker” 18-watt Marshall dimed out. And of course, Jimi Hendrix’s release of “Are You Experienced?” Expression was the domain of pedals. A brief timeline of pedal history looks something like this: 1951: “Rocket 88” recorded by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (actually Ike Turner and his band). The guitar exhibited a distinct overdriven sound. 1956: Johnny Burnette’s “Train Kept A-Rollin’” certainly has some overdrive going on. The guitarist Paul Burlison claims a tube came loose in his amp. Some say Grady Martin actually recorded the part. 1958: Link Wray recorded “Rumble” with torn speaker cones. 1961: Marty Robbins recorded “Don’t Worry” with the bass distortion solo. 1961: Orville “Red” Rhodes develops a box used by Nokie Edwards of the Ventures and Billy Strange. They used it to record a 1962 song called “The 2,000 Pound Bee.” It is likely the first song ever recorded with a pedal. 1962: Glen Snoddy developed the circuit for what would become the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone. 1963: The Beatles were seen with a Fuzz-Tone in the studio. 1965: The British-made MK1 Tone Bender was introduced. We are now off and running with boxes on the floor that started out as distortion boosters and have developed into an industry encompassing a whole world of tone modification. Limitless sounds have been unearthed, from the original Fuzz-Tone to the WMD Geiger Counter, and who knows what’s to come? The MXR Phase 90 dates so many recordings,

and the Uni-Vibe is still incredibly valid even after Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs” and Hendrix’s “Machine Gun.” Using a wah and keeping time with your foot is exciting every time. When Jimi stomps on that thing, you know you’re going for a ride that is a rush. It had to be for him, too. Again, expression! Just like the original Telecaster and Gold Top were designs that were hard to beat. During my many years collecting guitars, there was an adjunct opportunity to search for collectible pedals as well. It was a really nice diversion in the collector hobby. I’ll never forget when a friend picked up a Strat and there was an original Ibanez TS10 in the case pocket…worth twice what the Strat was worth. I think it’s pretty cool that this has been an industry all to itself, and there is no end in sight. For the clever developer, there is an immense palette to work from and undiscovered colors waiting in the wings. This all has me wanting to grab some pedals I haven’t used in a while and stomp on them right now. Geoff Gray April 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank Alto Music in New York for being so gracious in letting us photograph their collection of pedals, and my endorsements from Floyd Rose Guitars, Seymour Duncan, SE Microphones, Rupert Neve Designs, Pulse Techniques, Industrial Amps, and API/JDK Audio.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Multi Emmy Award–winning composer/guitarist Brian Tarquin has established himself as a top-rated TV composer/recording artist and owner of Jungle Room Studios. In 2002, 2003, and 2005, he won Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series and has been nominated for six Emmys. In 2006, SESAC honored him with the Network Television Performance Award. Tarquin first graced the Top 20 Billboard Charts back in 1997 with the commercial release This Is Acid Jazz, Vol. 2 on Instinct Records, followed by several solo jazz albums, which charted Top 10 at Contemporary Jazz Radio in the late ’90s. From 1996 to 2001, Brian recorded four solo albums—Ghost Dance, Last Kiss Goodbye, Soft Touch, and High Life —and has appeared in more than 32 releases, selling more than 140,000 records in his career. In 2014, Tarquin produced, engineered, and composed Guitars for Wounded Warriors, which showcases Tarquin’s guitar prowess alongside such world-class shredders as Steve Morse, Billy Sheehan, Gary Hoey, Bumblefoot (Guns N’ Roses), Reb Beach (Whitesnake), Hal Lindes (Dire Straits), Chris Poland (Megadeth), and Chuck Loeb. The album features exclusively released tracks inspired by those military soldiers who have fought for our country. Tarquin also produced and engineered Randy Coven’s last record in 2010, Nu Groove, featuring Leslie West. Some of Tarquin’s accomplishments include custom-composing music for MTV, Extra, TMZ, CSI, All My Children, Alias, and the Keanu Reeves film The Watcher. For many years, he has engineered/produced/composed for such music production companies as First Com, Sonoton, Megatrax, One Music, and Zomba Music. In fact, Brian composed and produced the successful Megatrax series Megabeats. In 1998, Tarquin formed the rock/electronica band Asphalt Jungle, which composed the MTV Road Rules themes, “Witchcraft” and “Tekken.” In 2006, Tarquin opened his own boutique record label called BHP Music, Ltd., specializing in instrumental guitar music. The label released the Guitar Master series, featuring guitar legends Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Santana, Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Zakk Wylde, Stanley Clarke, Billy Sheehan, and many others. The releases, which were composed, compiled, and produced by Tarquin, received rave reviews from Guitar Player, Guitar World, and Vintage Guitar magazines. BHP Music also released Bob Marley Remixed, which explored Marley territory with electronic grooves intertwined with original Marley vocals; it garnered praised from the editor-in-chief of Mix magazine. In 2013 MusicBox (a division of ole Music Publishing) did a multi-year, worldwide subpublishing deal with Tarquin’s music production library, TV Film Trax, LLC, to represent its entire catalog—more than 150 CDs to date. The library is unique in the sense that it contains tracks from iconic guitarists such as Billy Sheehan, Steve Morse, Leslie West, Frank Gambale, Gary Hoey, Hal Lindes, and Chris Poland, as well as famous heavy metal bands such as Hollywood Roses, Icarus Witch, and the Electric Hellfire Club. The catalog

also contains classic rock covers of bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and ZZ Top. Tarquin is also an established author. His books include Recording Techniques of the Guitar Masters (Cengage Learning, 2012), which features interviews with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Zakk Wylde, Ted Nugent, Billy Sheehan, Larry Carlton, Stanley Clarke, Steve Morse, Jeff Beck, Leslie West, Robin Trower, and Tommy Emmanuel—a total of 30 outstanding players in all. He has also written The Insider’s Guide to Music Licensing and Guitar Encyclopedia, both published by Allworth Press. Tarquin currently writes for Music Connection in L.A. and has been a featured music writer for such national magazines as EQ, Mix, Guitar Player, Premier Guitar, and Recording.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Effects History The Beginning Echo Pedals Fuzz-Tone Wah Wah Pedals Early Manufacturers

CHAPTER 2 Electro-Harmonix The Beginning The Hendrix Factor Spearhead Designs Reaching Beyond Russia and Reestablishment

CHAPTER 3 The MXR and BOSS Saga The MXR Story The Roland/BOSS Story Distortion Sound Guide from BOSS Modulation Sound Guide from BOSS Tonality Sound Guide from BOSS Regulate Gain Control Guide from BOSS Sound Pitch Guide from BOSS Noise Reduction Guide from BOSS Loop/Sampler Manipulation Guide from BOSS Line Selection Guide from BOSS

Amp Simulator Guide from BOSS

CHAPTER 4 The Players The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers’ Pedal Success Phil Brown’s Led Boot Pedal Eric Johnson’s Pedal Man Joe Satriani: Pedal Tones Neal Schon: Recording with Pedals Robin Trower: Pedal Tone Master Randy Coven: Bass to Pedal Gary Hoey: Signature Pedal Skull Crusher Zakk Wylde: Pedal Crusher Chris Poland: Pedal Shredder

CHAPTER 5 Pedal Designers Alairex Analog Alien Audiotech BBE Blackstar Bogner Caroline Guitar Company Circus Freak DigiTech Jim Dunlop EarthQuaker EBS Emerson Custom Guitars Eventide Framptone

Fulltone Axcess by Giannini GNI Ibanez Jet City Line 6 Maxon Mesa/Boogie Mooer Audio Moog Morley Pigtronix Pro Co/RAT Radial Seymour Duncan Snarling Dogs T-Rex Effects TC Electronic Tech21 Visual Sound Voodoo Lab Walrus Wampler XOTiC Zoom

Index

INTRODUCTION Tone shaping has been a key element of guitarists’ repertoires since they first began plugging in to amplification units. While the early amps didn’t have much power, that didn’t keep players (or manufacturers, for that matter) from experimenting with pickup output capability or location. Real experimentation started in the 1950s. Sometimes it was by accident, such as the fuzzy tone of the guitar in Ike Turner’s hit record “Rocket 88,” which apparently was the result of an amp that had been dropped in transit or had fallen off a car, or in some of Howlin’ Wolf’s early releases, featuring a guitar that sounded like it was on overdrive, but in reality probably resulted from the amp needing to be serviced with new parts after many long nights on the road. Other times the fuzz tone was intentional, such as when guys like Link Wray were putting holes in the amp’s speaker and others were setting up a guitar’s bridge to give a buzzy sitar-like sound. Manufacturers such as Magnatone and Fender added tremolo effects to amplifiers, while Leo Fender and others were also experimenting with echo-like reverb built into the amp or as an add-on device. Guitarists were quick to take advantage, and these tones showed up on many of the recordings of the time. It was happening all over as these creative players searched for the next tonal frontier. In the 1960s, things really took off as several designers experimented with an external small-box housing electronics that could be placed between the guitar and amplifier in the signal chain. Who did what and when is a discussion best left to experts on Internet forums, as each has his own champion, but it is clear that guys like Roger Mayer, Jim Morris, and Mike Matthews were taking the idea of a small floor-standing box or pedal that could be an efficient, portable, and relatively inexpensive tool for tone shaping and expanding the colors and flavors of texture available to guitarists everywhere. These guys were just some of the ones who started it off, and in the pages of this book Brian Tarquin—a guy who knows more than just a little about tone—offers an in-depth review of these and many more titans of tone shaping. Along the way, he looks at the evolution of the stomp box, from the sometimes bulky pedals of the 1970s to the rackmounted systems of the 1980s; the wholesale expansion of tone shaping pedals in the 1990s; and the rise of boutique builders in the 2000s. Recent interest in home-built pedals is just the latest turn in a 50-year saga of exploration in tone shaping. Tarquin travels alongside the design development of pedal effects and shows how manufacturers over the years were influenced by players and vice versa. This is an important concept. Influential guitar players interested in tone shaping looked to designers and manufacturers to provide the tools, while manufacturers and designers needed the feedback, ideas, and advice from players to develop devices that could provide sonic impact while also withstanding the rigors of the road and the necessary low-noise floor of the recording studio. It was more than a little challenging. But while the designer/player synergy might appear to be a sort of chicken-and-egg relationship (which came first?), undoubtedly it was players fusing fuzz, flange, phase, and mixing in drive, delay, distortion while chorusing, vibing, and singing wah wah wah all the way home that

drove the revolution and evolution of tone shaping with guitar effects. Stomp on this! Eric C. Shoaf April 2014

CHAPTER 1

Effects History I believe the desire for guitar effects all started in 1958, with the power of the song “Rumble” by Link Wray. Many consider Wray to be the father of the power chord and the pioneer of distortion tone by the electric guitar. Wray once told Guitar Player magazine, “I had a Premier amplifier with a big speaker on the bottom and two tweeters on each amp. It was a crossover head. I got me a pen and started punching holes in the speakers.” Others say it was Duane Eddy’s recordings in the 1950s, when he miked a 500-gallon empty metal water tank with his amp and played through it to create large echoes. It also could have been Les Paul’s tape echo he invented in the studio by modifying an analog reel-to-reel tape player, which spurred the design of Charlie Watkins’s Copicat tape echo machine that was small and portable. (Think of a small reel-to-reel tape player in a shoebox size that you could take on the road and to studios.) Figure 1.1 Boss pedal-board heaven to keep the neighbors up all night!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Of course, you can’t forget those tube-driven spring reverb units in 1950s amps either. But whoever was the first, the simple fact was that guitarists needed something more to express themselves than a clean-sounding amp tone. Effects really came of age and rocked into space during the British Invasion of the 1960s,

with artists such as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Robin Trower, and the list goes on. Yes, it was truly the innovativeness of the 1960s artists that pushed the envelope of effects. No longer was it the time of conservative-sounding rockabilly bands and singers like Buddy Holly. It was the time of the Beatles’ classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, on which you could hear the original Uni-Vibe, shown in Figure 1.2, and George Harrison’s Maestro FuzzTone. Figure 1.2 A reissue Uni-Vibe. Can’t you hear that swirling guitar tone from Hendrix?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The Beginning Let’s visit the ancient roots of effects for a minute, when in 1917 Lev Sergeivitch Termen, a Russian musician/engineer, invented the theremin. You play the theremin by using your hands and their proximity to two separate antennas, which adjusts the pitch and volume of the instrument. This was an intricate part of the maestro himself in the 1970s Jimmy Page. Just listen to “Whole Lotta Love.” During the middle-section breakdown, you’ll hear the theremin in action with distortion and delay. And of course don’t forget Led Zeppelin’s live stage performance, where Jimmy mastered the instrument in front of your very eyes! Great Hollywood composers even used the theremin in such classic movie soundtracks as The Lost Weekend and Spellbound by Miklós Rózsa, and The Day the Earth Stood Still by Bernard Herrmann. Now take the Hammond organ, invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934, which introduced tremolo, chorus, vibrato, and reverb. These would become important effects pedals for guitarists later in the century. Hammond even introduced spring reverb, which was originally designed by Bell Labs. Then, of course, came the 1940 invention of the Leslie, a rotating speaker system by Don Leslie. As you may have guessed, it didn’t take too long for guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to get into the act and play their amps through Leslie cabinets. Even the Beatles used it on albums such as The White Album and

Let It Be. So when was the first true stomp box produced? It was the DeArmond Tremolo Control box made by a company called Rowe Industries, which started to appear in the late 1940s. By the mid-1950s, companies like Fender and Gibson were building the tremolo effect into their amps, such as the Tremolux and GA-83S amplifiers. However, these companies also manufactured stomp boxes such as the Gibson GA-V1 Vibrato Box, which used a tube circuit for pitch-shifting vibrato. The Vocoder has its roots from the 1939 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York. The Voder, as it was called, stood for Voice Operating DEmonstratoR. It was very clumsy and complicated to work—the gist of it was taking a sound source and generating it into speech. Then there was the Sonovox, invented by Gilbert Wright in 1939, which was the grandfather to the talk box. In 1950s Los Angeles, recording engineer Bill Putnam Sr. was credited by many as the first person to employ echo in recordings. However, it was Les Paul who used slap-back tape echo by adding an extra head to his tape machine. He also would play two tape machines and alter the machine speed on one of them to achieve a flange effect. When he played live, Les even had a control box mounted on his guitar to control a tape machine offstage for harmony effects.

Echo Pedals Echo is a really important part of guitarists’ identity throughout guitar history, whose origins date back to the 1950s. One of the first echo devices was the EchoSonic amplifier, which replicated the Les Paul slap-back tape echo effect. Guitarists of the day, such as Scotty Moore, Gary Lambert, and Chet Atkins, all used the amp in the studio and live. All this led up to the release of the Watkins Copicat, as I mentioned earlier. At the same time, a company called Tel-Ray Electronics made a similar tape echo box called the Adineko Memory System. Then there was the Ecco-Fonic invented by Ray Stolle, which was a tape delay unit with adjustable delay length. Soon, every country was producing some sort of echo device, such as the Echocord (Germany), Klemt Echolette (Germany), Binson Echorec (Italy), Meazzi Echomatic (Italy), Vox Echo (UK), Domino (UK), Guild Copicat (USA), Guild Echorec (USA), and the Fender Model 6G15 Reverb. Figure 1.3 Vox Double Deca delay. You need two stories for that large delay!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Fuzz-Tone The 1962 Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, a Gibson product, is credited as the first distortion stomp box released on the market. This was due to the invention of the transistor, which set off a spark that was heard around the world in the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Then Maestro started to get real competition for fuzz-tone pedals around the world. In fact, L.A. session guitarist Tommy Tedesco used the Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal on the television theme song for Green Acres. The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Yes’s Steve Howe were both zealous Maestro Fuzz-Tone users as well. British pedal designer Roger Mayer, who later designed the Octavia for Hendrix, copied the design of the Maestro Fuzz-Tone when he was making a distortion pedal for Jimmy Page in 1964. Then came the 1965 Tone Bender by the Macari brothers in London, followed by the Vox Distortion Booster invented by Dick Denney. Remember the Fuzz Face? Well, that was made in 1966 by Arbiter Electronics, which was made famous by Jimi Hendrix. Many other fuzz stomp boxes came out of the woodwork in the 1960s, such as the Mosrite Fuzzrite, Orpheum Fuzz, Clark Fuzz, Manny’s Fuzz, Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx, Zonk Machine, Guild Foxey Lady, Jordan Boss Tone, Super Fuzz, Fender Blender, Ampeg Scrambler, Dallas Rangemaster, and Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz. Some stomp boxes got their start as oddity effects in the recording studio, like the Clark Fuzz made by engineer Glen Snoddy to replicate the tube-overdriven recording console channel fuzz tone. Even before there were fuzz pedals, many guitarists tried to get that nasty overdrive sound. For example, Roy Buchanan sliced his speakers to get that buzz, and Paul Burlison achieved it on his guitar tone in “Train Kept A-Rollin” by dropping his amp. Figure 1.4 My MXR Distortion + I bought in 1970s—beaten up, but it still shines that tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.5 Fulltone: hand-built in California, but British tone from Robin Trower.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Wah Wah Pedals You cannot speak about the wah wah pedal and not mention the 1967 Clyde McCoy, because it was noted to be the first wah wah pedal on the market for musicians. Two versions of this pedal were supposedly made: one in America and the other in the UK. It is speculated that Brad Plunkett, an engineer from the Thomas Organ Company, stumbled upon the design. Then came the Vox V846 wah pedal later in ’67, and in 1968 the famous Cry Baby hit the

scene. A host of Cry Baby pedals came out on the market through the late 1960s and 1970s, such as the Cry Baby Super, the Mr. Cry Baby, and the Thomas Organ Cry Baby. The gurus claim that the sound and tone of the wah is in its components, such as the inductors and capacitors. For instance, the American-made wah has different types of components than its British counterparts; hence, there is a strikingly different tone between the two. I definitely can vouch for that theory. I have tried so many wah pedals, and they all have their own sound frequency’s sweet spot. I never cared for the Vox wah because the tone sweep seemed limited compared to the Cry Baby; however, my favorite wah is the Snarling Dog series, with its excellent response to tone. But there are so many other tangibles involved: the guitar, the pickups, the amp, and most importantly, the player! It is believed that back in the 1967, both Hendrix and Clapton bought their first wahs at Manny’s Music on 48th Street in New York City. Some claim that Clapton was the first to record wah guitar on the 1967 Cream release Disraeli Gears. However, Hendrix released Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold as Love in 1967 with wah guitar recordings, so who really knows? Certainly, there is no doubt that Hendrix expressed himself and the guitar through the wah pedal better than anyone had at the time or now. Figure 1.6 The famous Cry Baby tone from the Hendrix signature wah pedal. I can hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” now!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.7 Vox Big Bad Wah pedal with distortion control and voicing to dial in that perfect tone for the audience.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Early Manufacturers In the 1950s, one of the first notable British manufacturers of instruments was Jennings Musical Instruments, whose founder Tom Jennings, together with Dick Denney, created the Vox AC15 amp. Later, Denney designed such pedals as the Vox Echo, Vibravox, Vox Distortion Booster, Treble Booster, Bass Booster, and Repeat Percussion. With the endorsement of the Beatles in the early 1960s, Vox became known worldwide as the premier British amp. Another UK company thriving with their design pedals was Dallas Arbiter with such devices as the Fuzz Face, Trem Face, Happy Face, Wah Face, Treble Bass Face, and Soundimension, which was an Echoplex of sorts. Then there was the Tone Bender made by Sola Sound, which later banded together with Vox, making the Tone Bender Professional MKII. Sola also manufactured the Marshall Supa Fuzz and Park Fuzz for Jim Marshall in the 1960s. The manufacturer that really spearheaded pedal making was Maestro, a Gibson division for stomp boxes. One of my favorites was the Ring Modulator (see Figure 1.9), which I still use to this day. I have an original 1973 form, and it is the most musical pedal, with slider controls for volume, pitch, and modulation, which enable you to dial in the exact tone. Other Maestro gems are Sustainer, Full Range Boosters, Fuzz Tone, Bomerang, Transducers, Phase Shifter, Echoplex, Envelope Modifier, and Octave Box. Figure 1.8 Dunlop Fuzz Face: a reissue of a classic sound, with two controls. Perfect for guitarists!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.9 The Classic Maestro Ring Modulator. Jeff Beck still uses this in his recordings. Can’t argue with that!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Fender also had a line of effects, and in 1958 Fender distributed the Ecco-Fonic. In 1967, they released the Soundette. They also had a line of solid-state reverb units called the Electronic Echo Chamber, Echo-Reverb, and Variable Echo Reverb. Later in the ’60s, Fender released the Phaser and the Vibratone for keyboardists. In 1968, they also jumped in the distortion-pedal pool and released a Fuzz-Wah and later a pedal called the Blender, which allowed the user to adjust tone, blend, sustain, and volume. Even the Mosrite guitar manufacturer threw their bid into the pot during the 1960s and released the Fuzzrite pedal. Figure 1.10 Electro-Harmonix Double Muff—just in case one muff isn’t enough!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

As we entered the 1970s, technology changed, which enhanced the capabilities of effects pedals. In 1969, F. Sangster and K. Teer of Philips Research Labs developed the technology of “Bucket Brigades,” meaning discrete-time analog delay line. Basically, this meant that effects such as flange and delay could be achieved without using physical reelto-reels, as I mentioned earlier with Les Paul. A perfect example of this is the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase, Electro-Harmonix’s Small Stone, ADA Flanger, and Final Phase, which carried this new technology to the consumer. No longer were these studio effect tricks; now the average guitarist could go to the corner music shop and buy the effects he heard on recordings. Like with the fuzz craze, companies reacted to the demand for chorus and phase with products such as MXR’s Phase 90, DOD’s Stereo Chorus FX65 (see Figure 1.11), Roland’s Phase Five, and Roland’s CE-1 Chorus Ensemble. Manufacturers started using this new technology to make effects more accessible to the consumer. This was also the era of the talk box, with manufacturers producing products such as Bob Heil’s Talk Box, Electro-Harmonix’s Golden Throat series, Voice Box, Mighty Mouth, and Dean Markley’s Da Box. It is said that in the early 1970s, Nashville guitarist Peter Drake created the talk sound and called it the Talkin’ Actuator. Drake claimed that later in the 1970s, he turned Peter Frampton on to the box, and we all know what happened next! Figure 1.11 DOD Stereo Chorus FX65: classic sound in a small package.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The California-based Kustom has claimed to be the first to manufacture a talk box for the consumer, calling it The Bag. It was a crazy-looking contraption, much like a bagpipe without the pipes. It had a strange plastic medical tube coming out of it and a shoulder strap, and it housed a 30-watt Atlas driver to create the sound. Bob Heil took this design and improved upon it by making it a true stomp box for guitarists. Bob Heil later met Joe Walsh, and together they created the famous commercial Talk Box. Figure 1.12 Bob Heil’s Talk Box creation. As Frampton said, “Do You Feel Like We Do?”

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.13 Heil Talk Box with plastic tube that goes into the mouth to create any vowel sound you can conjure up.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

One of the most important American pedal companies of the 1970s was ADA, whose founder, David Tarnowsky, was an electrical engineer. David was one of the first pedal designers to grasp the importance of the Bucket Brigade and incorporate it into his pedals —for example, the ADA Flanger. The ADA Flanger was way ahead of its time for the sound and was endorsed by Pat Travers. David used a chip called the Reticon (SAD-1024 Thompson), which achieved that famous flange sound. What really made the ADA Flanger unique was the wide-range sweep it gave the effect tone—much wider than any other pedal of its day. Tarnowsky designed the Final Phase the same way, using the Bucket Brigades, which gave the tone width of the bandpass filter sweeper. It was really a distortion box as well, because you were actually creating harmonics from the diode distortion generator. ADA also made the first harmonizer stomp box, called the Harmony Synthesizer. It generated an analog pitch from the note you played on the guitar; however, it was a synthesized pitch. It wasn’t very popular among the 1970s guitarists; however, Robert Fripp from King Crimson was a loyal user. In the 1980s, ADA went on to develop effects-rack gear, such as the STD-1 (multi-delay), TFX-4 (multi-effects unit), S-1000 (digital delay), and MP-1 (tube preamp). Figure 1.14 MXR Eddie Van Halen Phase 90. Let’s do a chorus of “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love.”

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.15 Ibanez Tube King with a real 12AX7 tube inside to give some grit to your solos.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

As you can see, technology plays a huge role in each generation of effects pedals. Some say that the dawn of the 1980s generation killed the old pedal companies. The 1960s and 1970s were truly the golden age for analog stomp boxes. However, many of the older companies did embrace the new digital age and create great pedals. Certain companies, such as DOD and ADA, did die out as the decade continued, but others, such as MXR and Boss, held on and grew stronger. Look at Electro-Harmonix: They died out in the early 1980s but made a huge resurgence in the 1990s and are now back stronger than ever, based in New York. If you look at any current guitar magazine, you’ll see a plethora of so-called boutique pedal companies with every advertisement page you turn. The important thing is to keep that tone in your sights and try all of the pedals on the market until one works for you.

Definitely keep stomping on that box! Figure 1.16 MXR Stereo Chorus. No battery here; this is an electrical plug. That’s why classic amps had outlets in the back.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.17 Vox Satchurator to get that heavy tone and squash the front row of the audience.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 1.18 Stomp-box stew! Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Moog Moogerfooger Phaser, Electro-Harmonix Black Finger Compressor, and Eddie Van Halen Signature Wah pedal.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

CHAPTER 2

Electro-Harmonix Having grown up in New York City in the 1970s and being a regular visitor to 48th Street, once known as “music row,” for the sheer excitement of the guitar stores, I distinctively remember the Electro-Harmonix showroom being right next to Manny’s Musical Instruments, a midtown landmark; you couldn’t miss it. All of the pedals were displayed in a dimly lit studio-like atmosphere equipped with various guitars and headphones for your testing pleasure—a wonderful idea that turned me on to the amazing sounds of the Electro-Harmonix firsthand. Figure 2.1 The Big Muff started it all in 1969 with its heavy overdrive.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.2 The Deluxe Memory Man with five knobs and a switch will blow your mind.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The Beginning Mike Matthews, considered by some to be the godfather of effects pedals, has had a long, illustrious career with Electro-Harmonix. Mike grew up interested in business, so after graduating from Cornell University, he landed his first job with IBM in New York City. In college, he was also bitten by the music bug and played in several bands during his days at Cornell. While at IBM, the Rolling Stones broke into the States with the single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” and Mike soon discovered that guitarists wanted that same fuzz guitar sound featured in the song. As fate would have it, an inventor on 48th Street in Manhattan by the name of Bill Berko was, in fact, building fuzz tones one by one and selling them to customers. After meeting Bill, Mike teamed up with him, but Berko soon dropped out, and the business was left in Mike’s lap. Through Mike’s ingenuity, he found a manufacturer in Queens that could make a large quantity of these pedals. At that point, the hand of fate struck again, and Guild Guitars became very interested in the pedals and bought all of them from Mike. Mike would pick up the pedals in Queens and deliver them to Guild, which at the time was in Hoboken, New Jersey. At the same time, he kept his job at IBM. Figure 2.3 The Screaming Bird Treble Booster will put your level through the roof.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.4 The Deluxe Memory Man—one of my favorites for extremely textured delay tones.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The Hendrix Factor At this point in history, Jimi Hendrix was propelled onto the scene with “Purple Haze,” and the demand for fuzz pedals increased tenfold. Interestingly, Mike knew Hendrix personally, under his original stage name of Jimmy James. Wearing many hats, Mike was also a rock promoter for live shows and worked with Chuck Berry. This is how he met Hendrix when he was playing with the band Curtis Knight and the Squires. Mike and Jimi hit it off and became good friends—and once the world was turned on to Hendrix, every guitarist wanted distortion-free sustain sound, hence the Sustainer was born.

Figure 2.5 The slimmed-down Memory Toy—not a man or a boy, but still a delay for the modern age.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

In the late 1960s, Mike got together with Robert (Bob) Myer, the genius engineer of Bell Labs, to start the distortion-free sustain. At the time, Hendrix was getting his sustain through sheer volume of the amps and the distortion created by both the output tubes of the amp and the overdriven sound of the speakers. But the public needed something more accessible, and Mike was happy to oblige. The problem they ran into was the low impedance of the guitar signal, so they needed something to boost the signal, much like today’s direct boxes. They hit gold and developed the LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster), which is still sold by Electro-Harmonix today. In 1968, this actually became Electro-Harmonix’s first product available via mail order, which took off—and so did Mike from IBM. Electro-Harmonix still sells 600 to 700 LPB-1s a month, boasting a few hundred thousand sold in the product’s lifetime. Figure 2.6 Electro-Harmonix Soul Preacher. Feel the compression that this pedal preaches!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.7 The Double Muff—a smaller package, but no less the punch.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.8 The LPB-1 still is a top seller and the pedal that launched Electro-Harmonix.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

In 1969, Mike struck gold again with the design of the Big Muff. Amusingly, while attending one of Hendrix’s recording sessions in NYC, Mike noticed that Jimi had a Big Muff at the studio. Later, he learned that Jimi had bought it from Manny’s Music. Gee, Mike, couldn’t you have given one to Hendrix and saved him a trip?

Figure 2.9 The Big Muff is still the classic, selling thousands a month.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Spearhead Designs Electro-Harmonix spearheaded a lot of new effects, including the Screaming Bird, the Mole, the Electric Mistress, and so on. For example, before the Electric Mistress, in order to get a flange effect, you had to do it manually in the studio, by locking two reel-to-reel analog tape machines together. The Memory Man, which was the first analog echo, was a huge stride for guitar effects at the time. Later, Mike developed the two-second digital delay unit and went to another level with 16 seconds, which at the time was unheard of, leading to the development of the effects looper. EH was also the first to come out with an affordable sampler, the Instant Replay. Figure 2.10 The Mini Q-Tron, a favorite among bass players with its filter wah sound.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Mike recalls, “In those days there was the Fairlight out of Australia, which was $40,000, and there was another company out of California for $5,000 that played samples, but we brought out the Instant Replay and sold it to the dealers for about $80. You could just record one sound and hit a drum pad and play it back. And then there was the Super Replay. We were the first with a lot of things.” Mathews goes on to say, “Even in the last few years, the Hog 2 adds fifths and thirds; the Freeze, which allows you to sustain whatever is playing; Superego, which is similar to the Freeze, but the user can invent their own effects; our Ravish Sitar pedal is the only one that can do emulating sitar, so we mix it up between analog and digital and inexpensive.” Figure 2.11 The Neo Mistress is a lush flange with a smaller imprint, but no less of a mistress than the original.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Electric-Harmonix has recently launched a number of overdrive pedals, with the Soul Food pedal leading the way in sales. Mike told me that the Soul Food pedal sounds very similar to the expensive Klon pedals, delivering the same tone for half the price. Mike went on to say that in the old days he used to specify all of the features he wanted for the pedals; nowadays all his engineers are musicians, so they contribute to the designs as well. But on the Big Muff, Mike tweaked the design himself to get that particular sound. Figure 2.12 The Freeze is the infinite sustainer. Who needs feedback today?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

According to Mike, “You gotta make money to hire more engineers to design more stuff. What I’m good at is deciding what to design.” He goes on to state that, “A good percentage of what we design hits, because I’m good at knowing what we can do and what the market is ready for. It’s always a mistake to design something too complicated, so you want something relatively simple and something you know you can design. A lot of it is up to the technology—what’s the latest integrated circuits out there and what new things you can do with it. For example, for the Electric Mistress flanger, this company called Redacom came out with what was called ‘Bucket Brigades’ (discrete-time analog delay line) that enabled you to get the flange effect by changing the time of delay.” The first Memory Man had this first generation of Bucket Brigades used in it and was a little noisy. Soon after, Panasonic came out with a better-quality, quieter Bucket Brigade, which was used in the Deluxe Memory Man. Figure 2.13 The Ravish Sitar will spellbind you like the Taj Mahal.

There is a big stress on technology when designing effects pedals at Electro-Harmonix. Effects pedals such as the POG2 and the Ravish pedal couldn’t have been accomplished in the ’70s because the digital technology wasn’t there yet. Mike told me, “It’s a matter of getting a good bet on a product and having a hit!” To this day, Electro-Harmonix still sells thousands of Big Muffs a month, and they have since it first came out in 1969. Figure 2.14 The Tone Tattoo for guitar junkies, combining the Metal Muff distortion, Neo Clone chorus, and Memory Toy analog delay.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.15 The East River Drive is a JRC4558 IC-based pedal that will get you downtown fast.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.16 The Small Clone, a real classic chorus tone, used by the teen spirit himself, Kurt Cobain.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.17 The Neo Clone, taking that classic chorus to an affordable garage-band level.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Reaching Beyond

In the 1980s, Mike brought out the Sovtek amps, such as the MIG-50, which were greatsounding heads. The “Amp Guru” Tony Bruno designed this amp by modifying a basic Fender amp. Mike recalls that he had orders for thousands of these amps, but the quality control was not up to par, and the potentiometers started to fall apart once on the market. Unfortunately, once a product becomes known for problems, dealers tend to shy away from it to save problems with returns. I have to say, I own a MIG-50, and that thing sounds great and has exceptional tone. It is smaller than a Marshall, more the size of a Fender Bassman, but it has a nice, fat overdrive tone when played through a 4 × 12 Marshall cabinet. We used to joke that it was made from old Soviet tank parts, which gave Marshall a run for its money. But Mike informed me that the market would soon be seeing new Electro-Harmonix amps again, as he is working on some new solid-state versions. He went on to explain that he has certain modules that can make the amp sound great, again sticking to tradition of using current technology. Figure 2.18 The Sovtek MIG-50, the amp that gave Marshall a run for its money.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.19 My Sovtek MIG-50 from the 1980s, which I still record with in the studio.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Electro-Harmonix also designed a stereo compressor called the NY-2A, which was very unique. It used three opto-couplers, which offered three distinct modes of compression for each channel (EL, LED, and incandescent lamp). Unfortunately, like the Sovtek amps, in the beginning there were problems with the compressor overheating, which was later compensated for by installing a cooling fan. But it was too late—once the product got a reputation for problems, the dealers and the public steered away from it. Hence, the NY2A suffered the same fate as the MIG-50 and was discontinued. Personally, I also owned the NY-2A, and it was a very unique-sounding compressor that sounded great on guitars. I used it with great results when mixing the Guitar Master series I produced and engineered, on guitar tracks by Steve Morse, Leslie West, Chris Poland (Megadeth), and Gary Hoey. In my opinion, they gave up too early on the compressor and probably should have lowered the price point a bit to appeal to the home recording market. Electro-Harmonix also came out with a ribbon microphone called the EH-R1, which was a figure-eight pattern that produced a natural and transparent sound. Again, it was fantastic on guitars, especially amp cabinets. However, this was not a design by the company; it was a rebranding on existing microphones made in Russia. According to Mike, “We tend to do better with things we design.” Figure 2.20 The Electro-Harmonix NY-2A dual tube compressor, overlooked by many but great when used for guitars.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.21 The Electro-Harmonix NY-2A with Lundahl transformers, multi-functional opto-tube compressor.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Russia and Reestablishment Mike Matthews owns the Sovtek vacuum tube factory in Russia and supplies tubes to a lot of amp manufacturers, repair shops, and tube distributors. In fact, after Electro-Harmonix closed up shop in the 1980s, the tube factory was the dominant part of the business for Mike. The whole Sovtek relationship came about back in the late 1970s, when EH was doing business with several communist countries such as Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Figure 2.22 The 44 Magnum power amp, something that Dirty Harry would be proud of!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.23 The Black Finger is tube compression in a small box to hype your tone. It’s great on acoustic guitars.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

As Mike recalls, “Late in 1979, I got a letter on my desk from Russia, an invitation for us to exhibit at the first consumer trade show in Russia open to Western companies. So I brought all of my favorite musicians to demo the pedals and called them the ElectroHarmonix Work Band. There were only two companies from America, us and the Levi dungaree company. So the Electro-Harmonix Work Band would go on and play three sets a day. Everybody in the whole fairgrounds heard it, and they came in and crammed our booth to hear these crazy Americans.” Figure 2.24 The Iron Lung Vocoder—now a guitarist can have as much fun as a keyboardist.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

But the problem with Russia at the time was that they had no hard currency to buy anything. So Mike starting thinking about what he could buy from Russia and started with cheap integrated circuits called “Jellybeans,” which he could resell at a greater profit. In 1988, Mike visited the Ministry of Electronics, got hold of Soviet-made tubes, and brought them back to America to resell. His golden touch worked again—they were a huge seller! Figure 2.25 Bass Balls will give your bass an envelope filter to mimic vocal sounds, plus an overdrive switch.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.26 The Soul Preacher was the first pedal compressor ever built for guitar, so you could sustain endlessly.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

In the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union had collapsed, Electro-Harmonix pedals were selling for two to three times their original price. So Mike resurrected the pedal business after a long lull that had begun in the early 1980s. He opened up a small military factory in Russia to make Big Muffs and Small Stones. Eventually, the business led him back to New York, where the headquarters are today, which made Electro-Harmonix come full circle. Figure 2.27 The Flanger Hoax can make a guitarist create over-the-top sound designs. It’s a real must-have for tone junkies.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Mike stated that today the problem is that “most of these boutique guys—now there are thousands of them—can’t get the volume, so product is expensive, and that holds them back from getting the volume. The pedal guys, it’s hard for them to break out and become big because they don’t have the engineers. They compete more with themselves.” I finally asked Mike what his favorite pedal is in the Electro-Harmonix line, and he answered like a true salesman: “The ones that keep selling!” Figure 2.28 The Steel Leather pedal lets bass players be heard, serving as a tone expander.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.29 The Crying Tone wah is a unique pedal, boasting a new wah design with no moving parts.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.30 The Bass Metaphors pedal meets the demands of the new computer recording age, serving as a DI and an effects pedal.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.31 The Ring Thing brings ring modulation to a new level, creating screaming banshee tones.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.32 The Poly Chorus is the classic overtop flange/chorus pedal that has been used by Adrian Belew of King Crimson. Can you say “Elephant Talk”?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.33 Ever want to play synth lines on your bass? Well, pick up the Bass Microsynth and crank out those Moog lines!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.34 The Microsynth will turn your Les Paul into a JUNO synthesizer so no keyboardist can touch you!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.35 The 45000—a new breed of looper/sampler up to 32 gigs. Take that, Akai!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.36 The Holy Grail reverb will surround you in lush reverb fit for Sir Galahad!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.37 The Soul Food overdrive pedal, bringing smooth distortion to the masses.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.38 The Electric Mistress is the iconic flange sound—one of my favorites from the 1970s.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.39 The Knockout is the true tone shaper, with multi-pole filters to sculpt guitar sounds.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.40 The Small Stone is the vintage phase pedal from the ’70s, featuring lush, swirling tones.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 2.41 The Superego allows guitar players to get huge synth tones with infinite sustain.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

CHAPTER 3

The MXR and BOSS Saga An American icon pedal company got its start in the basement of a Rochester, New York, apartment rented by two friends, Terry Sherwood and Keith Barr, in 1972. The basement also served as an audio repair shop. MXR became famous for their rugged Tonka Toy construction designed in die-cast boxes that could handle abuse by the largest guitarists’ feet.

The MXR Story Now, the thing to remember is that up until MXR’s sturdy design, effects pedals were usually flimsy and would often break down during gigs, so having a die-cast metal box was new and very much needed for the avid musician. Figure 3.1 MXR EVH Flanger—Eddie Van Halen signature sound “Unchained”!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

MXR also used op amps, such as the 74 Is, Raytheon 4558’s, and the Texas Instruments 4558. Their first creation was the orange beauty Phase 90, which came out in 1974 and instantly became a hit with guitarists like none other than the “Eruption” shredder himself, Eddie Van Halen. Figure 3.2 MXR Phase 90: the first design created by Terry Sherman and Keith Barr in their basement!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Next, MXR cranked out one of the most famous overdrive boxes, the Distortion +, followed by the Dyna Comp, and then the Blue Box. By early 1974, MXR had moved from Keith and Terry’s basement to a large industrial facility in Rochester. By the late 1970s, MXR had gotten into studio effects, releasing the rack units of the Digital Delay, the Flanger/Doubler, and the Pitch Transposer. By the early 1980s, the Distortion + was selling upwards of 20,000 units per year, and at the time they were the best overdrive pedals on the market! By then, MXR was quite wealthy and had quite a line of popular pedals, such as Analog Delay, Blue Box, Distortion +, Dyna Comp, Flanger, Graphic EQ, Noise Gate Line Driver, Phase 45, Phase 90, Phase 100, and Stereo Chorus. Figure 3.3 MXR Blue Box distortion octaves—awesome effect, and if it’s good enough for Jimmy Page, it’s good enough for you!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Interestingly, Keith Barr had different aspirations for MXR in the beginning. He designed a mixing console and thought there would be a market for it, but people didn’t seem to care—the big sensation was the phasers. It’s no surprise that Keith was an electrical genius, considering his father was a physicist and taught him from an early age. He also discovered phase shifting at a young age when reading The Radio Amateur’s Handbook. Originally, the circuit was designed to prevent radio receiver interference, but he discovered that when you chain these sections together, it causes phase shifting in music. Much like Les Paul 20 years earlier, MXR discovered that synchronizing a pair of tape recorders, simultaneously playing the same music, creates the flanging sound. Figure 3.4 MXR Bass Blow Torch. Put on your welding mask and set those controls to lethal!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Because of the demand of Keith’s guitarist clientele, he built the Phase 90, which produced two notches in frequency that could be adjusted up or down with the rate control. There is a second harmonic frequency that distorts when you push a guitar through, which gives it that fabulous sound. In the beginning, Keith and Terry would hand-drill the circuit boards, paint, and do the silkscreen graphics on the boxes themselves. Terry mainly handled the business side of MXR, dealing with the banks and all of the company finances. Another important figure in MXR was Richard Neatrour, the main designer and engineer. Figure 3.5 MXR Classic 108 Fuzz. Loaded with MXR’s BC108 Fuzz Face, delivers 1960s tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

In 1972, Neatrour graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and went straight to work for Keith and Terry as a repairman for their stereo shop, Audio Services. Richard moonlighted as an amp tech and started to work on Fender and Marshall amps. At the time, the shop would do sound support, such as live broadcast shows for bands, and had a mixer with a PA system. But that all changed when a client of Richard’s came in one day and needed the Maestro Phase Shifter repaired. Through repairing it, they discovered the wonderful world of phasers, which led to developing the MXR Phaser. Through this, Keith met a guy named Michael Laiacona who owned a Rochester electronic parts store called Masline Electronics. Now all the characters were set for MXR’s future success. Michael was a musician as well and was intrigued by the first MXR Phase 90, so he went out and started selling them. First he sold them one by one to musicians in clubs at night, and then to local music stores, eventually making his way across the state to Manny’s in New York City. Michael was a great salesman, and being a musician, he would perform the demo as well. Keith and Richard were building 50 to 100 Phase 90s at a time in the basement and then giving them to Michael. In turn, Michael would come back with the sales money and get more products to sell. Keith and Richard even had to hire some high school students to help build the pedals to keep up with demand. Figure 3.6 MXR Auto Q. It adds that envelope filter, auto-wah sound to keep the funk alive.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

By the later part of the 1970s, MXR was a full-fledged pedal manufacturer, reaching the largest guitar icons such as Jimmy Page and featured on such Led Zeppelin classics as “Night Flight,” “Achilles Last Stand,” and “Nobody’s Fault but Mine.” Ever wonder how the Rolling Stones got that cool guitar tone in their classic song “Shattered”? Well, it was Keith Richards using the MXR Phase 100. Around this same time, MXR abandoned the scripted MXR logo for the block-letter one. By 1977, they had become so large and well known that Lynyrd Skynyrd is reported to have actually performed in their plant. But with success comes copycat designers that try to make a quick buck, which was the case for MXR. Imitation Phase 90 and Distortion + pedals came out of the woodwork, but as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Figure 3.7 MXR Carbon Copy analog delay. This features up to 600ms of delay, like slap-back echo.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

According to Keith Barr, their former marketing director, Ron Wilkerson, abandoned ship at the end of the 1970s and went over to Roland to help develop their pedal line, which undercut MXR. However, the early ’80s took a hard toll on the company, with the economy slowing down and the outsourcing to Japan for manufacturing. The final blow was when foreign companies such as BOSS, Ibanez, and Roland started developing stomp boxes at more affordable prices for the consumer. As Keith Barr has stated in interviews, he started to lose interest in the business, and the large manufacturing space for the company was too expense to keep up. Figure 3.8 The MXR Six-Band EQ delivers +/–18 dB of cut or boost. Carve out that scooped metal tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

What followed in 1984 was a liquidation of MXR’s assets and ultimately bankruptcy. However, out of the ashes rose a phoenix when Terry Sherwood, Richard Neatrour, and a few other employees bought the rights to MXR. They named the new company Applied Research and Technology (ART) and continued to produce a few core pedals and rackmount units. Years later, Jim Dunlop licensed the name MXR and began reissuing the classic pedals. As for Keith Barr, he went on to form Alesis in Los Angeles, which revolutionized the home recording market in the 1990s. Figure 3.9 MXR Fullbore Metal distortion. Full metal shred in a box!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.10 The MXR Custom Comp has the legendary CA3080 “Metal Can” IC chip for smooth compression.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.11 The MXR Custom Badass Modified Overdrive, with 100 Hz cut and boost EQ control to dial in your tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.12 The MXR Custom Badass ’78 Distortion. Think of the Distortion + on steroids for soaring saturation.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.13 The MXR Boost/Line Driver solves a variety of mismatched line-level and signal-conditioning problems.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.14 The MXR Boost/Overdrive combines simple dynamic overdrive and a clean boost circuit—the best of both worlds.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The Roland/BOSS Story Japanese engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi founded the Roland Company in 1972. Ikutaro has been credited with inventing the programmable drum machine leading to the TR series drum machines. Before they formed BOSS, Roland released pedals such as the AW-10 Wah Beat, the AF60 Bee Gee Fuzz pedal, the AP-7 Jet Phaser, and the AG-5 Funny Cat, as well as the RE Space Echo series. They also dabbled in chorus effects, such as the DC-50, and they attempted to release wah and distortion pedals with the AD-50 Double Beat.

I had a very similar Cry Bay pedal in the late 1970s, which sounded terrible. Both of the pedals had a loose structure of distortion tone, very sloppy and undefining, and the wah had such a small frequency range—very primitive by today’s standards of overdrive/wah. I remember replacing it with an MXR Distortion +, which blew it away. BOSS became synonymous with affordability for the average street player. They tapped into a market and price point that had not been fully explored yet. In turn, they achieved great success and took over the consumer market in the 1980s with pedal sales. As BOSS proudly states, “10,000,000 pedals sold and going strong…BOSS is the number-one choice for musicians who want the best of the best. Carefully selected parts, uncompromised circuit design, road-tough construction—everything on a BOSS pedal is made with the professional in mind. Musicians who demand the best choose BOSS.” Figure 3.15 BOSS SL-20 Slicer—a great sampler for your guitar. You can create all sorts of soundscapes!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Some pedal connoisseurs consider the onslaught of Japanese pedal makers in the early 1980s as the end of the classic period for analog stomp boxes. However, these new Asian companies had completely different approaches to efficiency and economics. This is where the BOSS story starts in 1976, when they released their first pedal, called the BOSS CE-1 Chorus Ensemble. It was Tom Beckman, president of BOSS USA, who launched the revival of the BOSS line that undercut the U.S. competitors, such as MXR. In 1977, BOSS released the PH-1 Phaser, the OD-1 Overdrive, and the SP-1 Spectrum, and they followed the MXR standards of housing them in a die-cast box. The designs were innovative at the time—especially where the battery was located, held in place by one thumbscrew. So many times I remember looking for a screwdriver during band rehearsal, just to take out those four screws from the back of my Distortion + to replace the battery!

Other new features of the BOSS designs were a quiet electronic FET switch to engage the pedal and an LED status light. Remember in those days when you took your glorious solo, stepping on the switch of other pedals? And you heard that obnoxious click and hiss of the overdrive? Well, BOSS solved it all. In fact, 1978 was a big year for BOSS, with new releases such as the CE-2 Chorus, the TW-1 Touch Wah, the DS-1 Distortion, and the CS1 Compression Sustainer. Figure 3.16 BOSS Giga Delay. Get every sound delay imaginable, from tape echo to ping pong!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

BOSS was one of the first pedal companies to incorporate digital technology into their designs. For instance, sampling is something they used in the BOSS Digital Sampler Delay unit released in 1985. The record and playback controls gave you up to 800ms of delay. Also, the BOSS Loop Station LC-2 enabled you to record 11 phrases for up to 16 minutes and connect to a computer or an MP3 player via USB. Figure 3.17 BOSS Loop Station RC-3. A basic sample with up to 16 minutes of time to record your favorite riffs.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

BOSS distortion pedals have a devoted following from such guitar extraordinaires as Joe Satriani, Zakk Wylde, and Steve Vai. The list of distortion pedals goes on like a rock sorcerer’s book: Overdrive OD-3, Super Overdrive SD-1, Blues Driver BD-2, Dyna Drive DN-2, Overdrive Distortion OS-2, Bass Overdrive ODB-3, Distortion DS-1, Turbo Distortion DS-2, Metal Zone MT-2, Mega Distortion MD-2, Metal Core ML-2, and Fuzz FZ-5. Figure 3.18 BOSS overdrive pedals: Turbo Distortion DS-2, Distortion DS-1, Overdrive/Distortion OS-2, Overdrive OD-3.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Distortion Sound Guide from BOSS Figure 3.19 BOSS Distortion DS-1: Thump on it to saturate your gain tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

OD-3, SD-1, BD-2, DN-2, OS-2, ODB-3, OD-20. Simulate the sound of an overdriven tube amp and respond to playing touch. OS-2, DS-1, DS-2, MT-2, MD-2, ML-2, OD-20. Produce harder, metallic distortion with many upper harmonics. FZ-5. Delivers distortion that radically emphasizes the overtone. Figure 3.20 BOSS Adaptive Distortion: a multi-dimensional overdrive tone 3D distortion.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Modulation Sound Guide from BOSS CE-5, CH-1, Ceb-3 CE-20. Combine a slight delay signal with the original signal and modulate it to create a thick, shimmering sound. BF-3. Electronically creates a slight delay and combines it with the original signal for a swirling “doubled” effect. PH-3. Combines an out-of-phase signal with the original signal to produce a sound similar to the “spinning” sound of a rotary speaker. TR-2. Varies the volume of the original sound cyclically to create a pulsating effect. RT-20. Offers an authentic modeled reproduction of the classic rotary-speaker effect. Figure 3.21 BOSS Digital Delay DD-3, Chorus Ensemble CE-5, and Super Chorus CH-1. Double your tone with one stomp!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Figure 3.22 BOSS Phase Shifter: Great phasing with tonal controls that dial in just the right dimension.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Tonality Sound Guide from BOSS GE-7, GEB-7, EQ-20. Boost or cut a particular frequency band for flexible tone control. AW-3, PW-10. Produce a distinctive “wah wah” effect by boosting or cutting a specific frequency range. AC-3. Makes an electric guitar sound like an acoustic. SYB-5. Makes a bass guitar sound like a synthesizer. Figure 3.23 BOSS Acoustic Simulator AC-2, Compression Sustainer CS-3, and Dynamic Wah AW-3. Nice combination!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 3.24 BOSS Equalizer: Sculpt and mold your tone to your specific needs.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Regulate Gain Control Guide from BOSS CS-3. Reduces the output of sounds over a set threshold relative to the strength of the input signal, making levels consistent and improving sustain. PS-5. Limits the peak levels of sounds to precisely that of the threshold level.

Sound Pitch Guide from BOSS OC-3. Creates a signal one or two octaves lower than the original signal. PS-5. Provides intelligent, key-specific pitch shifting +/– 2 octaves, plus tremolo arm and flutter effects to give you convincing whammy bar–type sounds. Figure 3.25 BOSS Super Octave OC-3: Awesome box with a built-in overdrive, great on bass!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Noise Reduction Guide from BOSS NS-2. Eliminates noise resulting from connecting multiple effects units or using very high gain. Figure 3.26 BOSS Noise Suppressor: tame that noise resulting from high-gain effects.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Loop/Sampler Manipulation Guide from BOSS RC-50, RC-20XL, RC-2. Enables a variety of real-time loop effects, such as sound-on-sound layering, and so on. Figure 3.27 BOSS Loop Station: Uses multi-sample guitar phrases for creative songwriting.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Line Selection Guide from BOSS LS-2. Controls switching from solo to backing and also amp selection.

Amp Simulator Guide from BOSS FBM-1 Bassman. In conjunction with Fender, BOSS proudly unveiled the FBM-1, a compact pedal that re-creates the legendary tone of the 1959 Fender Bassman. FDR-1 Deluxe Reverb. Based on the Fender 1965-era Deluxe Reverb, a beloved tube amp known for its natural touch-responsive and distinctive snappy overdriven sound. Figure 3.28 BOSS Chromatic Tuner TU-2: Probably the handiest and most user-friendly tuner on the market!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

BOSS spearheaded the foreign takeover of guitar effects and has stayed true to its roots. They never changed their initial design footprint or the color coordination of the pedals. They even went to the extent of creating their Guitar Effects Guidebook series that explicitly shows diagrams of pedal settings for certain guitar tones. Yes, BOSS was the working man’s guitar pedal and reached out to so many musicians, both weekend warriors and professionals. In fact, BOSS claims that each unit is hand-tested at the factory to make sure it makes the grade before being shipped to stores. BOSS continued what MXR had initially started, which was a compact guitar effect built in a metal case strong enough to take the most extreme abuse from guitarists. The mother ship, Roland, has been one of the most successful foreign companies for musical equipment and has been a forerunner of technological breakthroughs, from JUNO/JUPITER keyboards, to drum machines such as the R-8 to the V-Synth, V-Drums, and beyond. It’s no wonder that BOSS was so successful, having the foresight and the instincts to make guitar effects pedals so lucrative. So go out, grab a piece of the pie, and start stomping! Figure 3.29 BOSS wall—so many choices, so little time!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

CHAPTER 4

The Players Enough of the technical stuff! This chapter explores the innovations that pedals offer players. It shows how such icons as Joe Satriani, Zakk Wylde, and others approach effects to push the envelope of guitar tone. From the whirling tones of Robin Trower to the shredding cries of ex-Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland, this section will travel the inside workings of tone madness. So sit back and read on to get inspired to learn more about the practical use of stomp boxes. Figure 4.1 Guitar pedal multi-effects. Come on—you know you want to stomp on them!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers’ Pedal Success Jimmy and Johnny Ryan have played guitar together for more than 40 years, and in that time they have honed their guitar styles to a razor’s edge. Being brothers, their relationship —combined with their love of guitar, music, and each other—creates a very special sound. While in high school, they began to exchange licks and jam together. They soon learned to work out harmony leads together and began writing and arranging guitar parts. Soon, their signature dual lead guitar harmony style was born.

During the remainder of the 1970s and 1980s, they continued to develop and refine their dual lead harmony approach, as well as their individual guitar styles, in a number of bands, most notably Westfall, Nutcracker, and Axis. They opened for the top touring acts of the day, including Styx, Kiss, and Survivor, won every “Battle of the Bands” they entered, and developed a loyal following along the way. In the 1990s, Johnny designed and built a recording facility in his home, aptly named “the Garage.” From those humble beginnings through to the present, Jimmy and Johnny (a.k.a. the Flyin’ Ryan Brothers) wrote, produced, arranged, and recorded a string of stylistically diverse independent CD releases deeply rooted in their signature dual lead guitar harmony style. Their smoking double lead arrangements can only be described as “amazing.” Jimmy and Johnny’s music has earned them consistent critical acclaim worldwide, including multiple Grammy nominations, numerous “Best Of” awards (including being voted one of Billboard’s “Independent Music World Series Top 15 Acts from the Midwest” in 2006), and a prestigious 2007 Telly award for their soundtrack work. They also earned song placements on two of my internationally acclaimed Guitar Masters CDs (the only independent artists to make the cut), featuring legendary players such as Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen, among many others. As a child of the ’70s, Jimmy saw the evolution of effects from the beginning. “There was a lot of experimentation and an ‘anything goes’ mentality that was the order of the day, both from manufacturers and players alike. I remember when I first chained together a Univox Super Fuzz and a Cry Baby wah into a secondhand Vox Royal Guardsman amp. Yikes, it was insane. It was 1970, and I was 15. It changed my life forever for the better. I couldn’t get enough, and all the money I earned went to feeding my habit…it still does!” Johnny recalls. “Our first pedal was the original Univox Super Fuzz; we each had one. The sound was so heavy and dirty…like Black Sabbath in a box. It was unreal. My first ‘pedal board’ was something I built in high-school woodshop. It had an MXR Distortion + and a Phase 90 mounted on it. We were also among the first to install master volumes in our amps. Nowadays, it’s all about innovation and refinement, and the technology that exists today is making it easier and cheaper to create fantastic-sounding effects.” Today, Jimmy’s default pedals are some kind of wah and a delay. “They’re always in there somewhere! Some vintage gems that have made the cut over the years are a Systech Phase Shifter, an A/DA flanger, a Joe Meek ‘Green Brick’ compressor, a Pete Cornish TB-82 treble booster, a silvercase Klon Centaur, a Roger Mayer Octavia, an Ampeg Scrambler, a Colorsound wah, a Foxrox Captain Coconut 2, and a Rockett Pedal Phil Brown Signature Led Boots Overdrive. Why? In my opinion, each of them does one specific thing extremely well, and in some cases better than anything offered by their contemporaries. That’s what makes them ‘keepers’ in my book.” Johnny, on the other hand, loves the M13 Stompbox Modeler by Line 6. “It has an entire encyclopedia of vintage and modern effects in one self-contained unit. I like the idea of an ‘all in one’ unit, and the M13 is the best I’ve found. It’s great to have everything right there in front of you.” The essential things Jimmy looks for in pedal effects are “sound quality, reliability, and a

road-worthy bulletproof build. Most importantly, it should have your sound. That sounds a bit cryptic, but it’s all about what sounds great for you. It’s essential to critically examine your own style of playing and align the effects in your pedal chain to enhance what you’re naturally doing. You have to figure out what you can use to elevate your sound and then move forward from that perceptual foundation. Information overload and slick marketing abound; there’s so much stuff out there now, you’d be lucky to just keep boxing it up, much less using it all. My three commandments for pedal effects: (1) experiment and evaluate; (2) analyze and incorporate; (3) engineer and execute. Use your ears, your head, and your heart. If you always do that, you’ll never go wrong.” Johnny goes on to explain, “Big sound, reliability, and ease of operation. When you plug in, you need to know it’s going to deliver every time. True bypass is an important consideration. When you chain a bunch of effects together, you can end up ‘loading’ the signal and degrading your tone. Loopers work well for keeping the signal as pure as possible if you use a lot of pedals.” Jimmy describes his current live rig: “I run into a dual-input Korg Pitchblack tuner [it allows you to toggle between two guitars], a Pigtronix Philosopher’s Rock compressor, a Roger Mayer Octavia, and a DrNo-Effects’ Holy Wahcamoly wah; this chain runs into the amp’s input. Then there’s a separate chain made up of a vintage A/DA flanger, an early version of the Mojo Tone Vibe, and a Vox Time Machine delay, which I run through the amp’s effects loop, keeping the modulation and delay signals as clean as possible. I use George L.’s cables and Voodoo Labs’ power supplies. I love designing and building pedal boards, and I have several that I’ve built over the years and use them for different things: a Retro ’70s board, a Jimi board, a Kitchen Sink board, among others. It’s fun to do them, but I’m running out of space! In the studio, it’s a different mindset, as you don’t need everything in front of you at once. We have a whole arsenal of various effects pedals we’ve acquired over the years, and we tap into them as the situation dictates. You name it, we probably have it or had it.” Johnny goes on to say, “For the past few years, I have been using the Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler live. So I have many great sounds and options in one self-contained package. It’s even got a reverse guitar solo effect that’s really cool! In the studio, we will experiment with various pedals, depending on the vibe of the track and what we’re trying to go for. Some favorite ‘Swiss army knife’ multi-effects units that are always on deck are an old Digitech RP-10, an old Ibanez SDR-1000+ digital delay, a BOSS GT-3, a Rocktron Intellifex, a TC Electronic G-System, and the otherworldly Axe-Fx Ultra by Fractal Audio Systems. It’s truly an incredible and groundbreaking effects processor. If it doesn’t have it, you don’t need it.” Jimmy’s influences vary, as he states, “When I first heard Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile,’ that was it, man. Game over. It was glorious, supercharged, soul-powered sonic mojo, and it knocked me out completely. From that moment on, the wah, vibe, and delay became very close friends. I always dug the tones of Jeff Beck, Phil Brown, Robin Trower, Frank Marino, Jimmy Page, Pat Travers, Carlos Santana, Tommy Bolin, SRV, Larry Coryell, Rick Derringer, and the Edge. Ritchie Blackmore and Rory Gallagher killed me with what they did with the Dallas Rangemaster treble booster. All of them made a big impact on me as to what to use and how, when, and where to use it.” Johnny explains, “Without a doubt, Jimi Hendrix. The sounds and effects he used were

groundbreaking. That blew the lid open on what pedals and effects could do to the sound of the guitar. I also loved Jeff Beck’s early work with the talkbox and octave divider, a true pioneer. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave also broke some new ground with some insane sounds.”

Phil Brown’s Led Boot Pedal Phil Brown, a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, was standing in the shadows as a guitarist until his release of Cruel Intentions in 2003, which pushed him to the forefront. He discusses his background and his signature pedal Led Boots for J. Rockett Audio Designs. “I am a classically trained violinist from the age of 7 to 13. Became a saxophonist and then studied tuba. My first guitar was an acoustic that my neighbor had traveled with throughout his time in the Air Force during World War II. I mowed five yards at 10 cents a yard—50 cents for the guitar. Found my heaven on earth! First electric was a Silvertone with two pickups; then to a music store in Santa Fe, where I bought an Airline double cutaway 3/4-size bass. More heaven. My cousin lent me a Gibson 175 with a Danelectro amp. I was 14 in the summer of ’64—the Yardbirds’ ‘I’m a Man’ with Jeff Beck on guitar came out.” Phil continues, “I bought a fuzz tone from England called London Fog in San Clemente that same year—I was hooked! Played a gig at a sock hop in eighth grade… My second pedal experience—the Gibson Maestro. High school: bought an original Clyde McCoy wah wah in ’68, along with a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz and Echoplex. Had an old booster called an LPB-1. Blew up every amplifier I played through—drat!” “Years later, I was living in Los Angeles and had acquired a bit of a reputation as an upand-coming guitarist, writer, and singer. I hadn’t utilized a fuzz or distortion box for years. Got an original Ratt. Hooked again. Then a Roland CE-1 Stereo Chorus along with assorted echo delay pedals by Roland. I went in and out of the distortion-box thing; Zen Drive became a constant companion while in Austin. I still have a pro type that Zen Drive made called ‘Distortion.’ More and more I like the old Dallas Arbiter, which is a very ambient distortion—amazing overtones. Lee Jackson also builds some great EFX pedals. I have his original Gain Booster along with an Octavia that combines a Tycobrahe and Colorsound high-octave pedal circuits.” “For years, I was a plug-straight-in cat. No cheating. You either had a sound or you didn’t, and with the advent of high-end guitars amps, I was a purist…but always suspected I need something else. Several years ago, I met the Rockett Pedals guys at NAMM. We began discussing a custom pedal for me. I ran through their Animal pedal—makes any amplifier sound like a Plexi, I swear. Finally, one fine day the ‘Phil Brown/Led Boots’ pedal arrived. Freaking incredible! Here was a lifetime of playing in one box—OD with fuzz and distortion. By far the most expressive ambient pedal I have ever used. It’s smart, sassy, sexy, and a whole lotta fun—just like my women!” Phil expresses his feelings about his search for the best pedal: “I think the pedal thing is a great tool to utilize. I let it [the sound/feel/expression] find me. It’s purely an adventure— what are the overtones that are trying to come out? It ought to be comfortable at the opera as well as the gas station. Sex appeal is a huge component. Talk to me, baby! In the studio

I am plugged straight into one or two or three of my amps most of the time. The Jimi Project has no overdrive pedals—just a Line 6 DL4. Over the years, I am always aware of a processing quotient during recording. It ought to sound like a viola/violin. A human voice quality is paramount to me. As a vocalist, I am keenly aware of how much I have modeled my guitar playing after a human voice. My guitar and voice are working toward one. Years of classical training and songwriting have given me great options.” “My setup now is as follows: 1. Rockett Pedal Phil Brown/Led Boots 2. Rockett Pedal Animal 3. Rockett Pedal Alien Echo 4. Lee Jackson’s Gain Booster 5. Zen Drive “Distortion” 6. Electro-Harmonix POG 7. Line 6 DL4 8. Line 6 DL4 9. Line 6 M13 (it has a buffer—last in the line)” Phil goes on to explain his typical guitar setup: “I use Asterope cables exclusively. After using many different guitar cables all these years, when Asterope’s CEO Dariush Rad (courtesy of BB Morse) found me in Austin, my old life was over! These are by far the best cables I have ever used. There are many great cable companies, but when you get serious you will be forced to take the next step and make a big switch. There is a 40 percent reclamation/increase of ‘lost’ tone.” “I use Lollar pickups on most of my guitars. I am a Fender endorsee, along with Player Built Guitars, David Ryan and Don Ramsay Linear Trems, Taylor Guitars, Ampeg VL1002, Bogner’s 20th Anniversary Shiva and Goldfinger 90, Marshall Amplifiers, a 3 Monkeys’ Zé that I got from my buddy Jimmy Ryan, and Lee Jackson’s XLS-500 amp. Seymour Duncan also has a special place with my pickup hardware, as does John Suhr pickups (courtesy of Wildwood Guitars along with Michael DeTemple). I use Curt Mangan strings exclusively.” Figure 4.2 Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer: industry standard for overdrive tone to make you moan!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Eric Johnson’s Pedal Man The man who defines outstanding guitar tone, Eric Johnson, shares his pedal setup. The first time I heard Eric was back in 1985, when he did a guest appearance on Steve Morse’s solo record, Stand Up. He contributed vocals on the song “Distant Star,” in addition to his signature guitar tone. The following year, Guitar Player magazine showcased Eric’s song “Cliffs of Dover” on their promo vinyl record that came with every issue. Spinning that song for the first time on the record player had a very powerful effect on me and prompted me to see him at the China Club in New York City the very same year. For me, that song in particular felt like Eric’s signature tone, evoking that violin tone. Eric has a keen sense of songwriting and composition, and that has always placed him head and shoulders above other guitarists, which is very important for a rock instrumentalist. Eric’s typical setup is a B.K. Butler Tube Driver or an AC Booster through a Marshall JMP Super Lead and a Dunlop Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, or an old Ibanez Tube Screamer through a Marshall JTM45. “I have a couple of different Marshalls with a little different circuitry. Some are more Hendrix rhythm, big Fender-sounding and not as grainy, with bigger, thicker rhythm tones and overdrive. Then I have some that are more Super Lead JMP that have a lot of gain within the amp. I’ll crank that up and get a lot of distortion from the amp. I also have a Twin Reverb that has Eminence speakers, and when you crank it up it has an interesting type of lead tone.” Eric uses a Strat with the Butler Tube Driver through a JMP Marshall. He will sometimes use two amps at a time with a switcher to get a stereo effect, but when overdubbing he likes to concentrate on one amp at a time. Eric says that the B.K. Butler works really well with the Marshall.

Joe Satriani: Pedal Tones One my favorite projects that Joe did was back in 2000 with his release of Engines of

Creation, which blended electronica with rock guitar elements without losing that characteristic Satriani sound. Combining such disparate influences as Jeff Beck’s Who Else! and You Had It Coming with ’90s electronica artists such as Apollo 440 and the Chemical Brothers, Joe was able to inject live rock guitar elements into electronic music. On Engines, Joe takes some great jungle grooves, like the opening track, “Devil’s Slide,” and blends them with synths and overdriven guitars to create a melee of contoured, driving tones. On the cut “Attack,” Joe deftly matches the rhythm figure with the drum-and-bass groove, resulting in the perfect marriage of two genres typically thought to be incompatible. “The Power Cosmic 2000, Pt. 2” aptly demonstrates Joe’s sense of guitar work over funky loops and features a synth tone reminiscent of Jan Hammer’s ’70s fusion work. Joe explains his guitar setup: “We had much success with the Moogerfooger pedals, the Fulltone Ultimate Octave, a Digitech Whammy pedal, and a preamp called a Hafler Triple Giant. I would plug my Ibanez JS1000 guitar into these pedals and into a variety of amp heads, then into a Palmer speaker simulator. The Hafler Triple Giant had the most robotic distortion, totally devoid of warmth and feeling. But, in the context of a song like ‘Borg Sex,’ it was perfect! I enjoy using the SansAmp designs, both their plug-ins and rackmount preamps. Then I used a few different mic pres—Neves, V72s, etc. Sometimes we would aim for traditional sounds, other times not. Sometimes a plug-in would do the trick, and other times it’s just all the pedals we found on the floor plugged in and turned up! I enjoy making stylistic left turns with each recording project; Engines was the most radical of turns.”

Neal Schon: Recording with Pedals Guitar giant Neal Schon from the band Journey made his musical debut at age 16 as rhythm guitarist with Santana in the late 1960s. What’s wonderful about Neal is that he has always remained musically active with his side projects outside of the mega-hitmaking machine Journey. Who could forget his great collaboration with Jan Hammer in the 1980s? That’s why I wasn’t surprised to find his solo release on Favored Nations entitled I on U to be creative and refreshing. Working alongside Russian keyboardistsequencer Igor Len, they put together 12 tracks showcasing Neal’s classic rock tones with the modern drum-programming flair of Igor. Neal’s guitar-driven melody tracks have a feel of sophistication and cinematic flare. Neil explains his pedal setup: “It was mostly direct. I used a lot of Roland gear, the GP-6 and plug-in amp simulators. It was all done on Pro Tools. I did a lot of programming on the GP-6. When you do not have access to a large studio where you can set up a couple of great-sounding amps, the GP-6 is a great alternative. I didn’t have a working studio at the time, so we just used an empty room and set up shop and laid down the tracks. Then we sent it out to Gary Cirimelli at Amulet Music in Nashville.” Figure 4.3 Moogerfooger Phaser EVH wah, EH Big Muff, EH Black Finger: Get your tone by one stomp!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Robin Trower: Pedal Tone Master Robin Trower is a perfect example of tone extraordinaire, from his early beginnings with the band Procol Harum in 1967 to his iconic solo release of Bridge of Sighs (1974). Then, in 1980, Trower teamed up with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Bill Lordan for the magnificent self-titled release B.L.T., an outstanding retro Hendrix experience. Who can forget Trower’s heavy univibe guitar tone heard meshing with the distinctive voice of Jack Bruce? Robin explains his typical setup on his last release, Seven Moons: “I used two Cornell Plexi 18/20 amps—these are the 20 watt 1 × 12 combos. I would split from my pedals, running one clean and one more overdriven. On the track ‘Just Another Day,’ I used my DejáVibe going through one amp and the other straight. My pedals were a Fulldrive2 and a Clyde wah, both by Fulltone, as is the DejáVibe. The guitar was my signature model Stratocaster from the Fender custom shop, built by Todd Krause. This model is really quite a vintage-type Strat (saddles) with a ’70s neck with large frets and locking tuners. I thought the larger headstock might possibly give the guitar a bit more resonance. The neck pickup is a ’50s reissue, the middle is a ’60s reissue, and the bridge pickup a modern winding for more oomph.”

Randy Coven: Bass to Pedal Randy was a good friend and a remarkable bass player, only matched by the talents of

such giants as Billy Sheehan and Jaco Pastorius. I was very saddened to learn my friend had passed way in 2014. I had produced his last release, Nu Groove, and had worked with him on several other projects. Randy had played with the cream of the crop, such as Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, and Steve Morse, just to name a select few. Steve Vai and Randy had gone to Berklee College of Music in Boston together in the late ’70s, and Randy had lent Steve the money to make a phone call to Frank Zappa, which led to Steve getting the gig of Zappa’s personal musical transcriber. Figure 4.4 Randy Coven recording in Jungle Room Studios. God rest his soul in rock-n-roll heaven!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

When Randy first came over to record his solo record, he brought with him two incredible signature handcrafted basses and an Ashdown mini amplifier stack. I miked the bottom cabinet that housed a 10-inch speaker with an AKG D112, going to a channel on the Trident console. I also used a Radial J48 active direct box and took the signal of the bass itself to another channel on the console. Both signals were recorded down to analog tape, the trusty Ampex MM-1200 24-track tape machine. We used many different pedals, such as the Octave Mistress, Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer, MXR Flanger, and an ElectroHarmonix Mini Q-Tron. The Q-Tron is a very versatile pedal with a cool envelope filter containing a high-pass and a low-pass mode that works well on bass. The high-pass filter helps the bass cut through a mix, especially when it comes to soloing. By setting the actual filter type, drive, and Q controls, you can actually get a vowel-sounding tone, which is great for funk guitar and bass. The colorful Bootsy Collins uses this quite a bit in his recordings. By using the Q-Tron in this manner, Randy’s solos turned out to be extremely expressive. Figure 4.5 Ibanez pedal board: So many pedals, so little time!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Gary Hoey: Signature Pedal Skull Crusher Gary Hoey is a good friend and a guitar shredder god! We’ve jammed on a number of songs together, and we most recently traded solos for the new release I produced on Cleopatra Records, Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends: Guitars for Wounded Warriors. He has five Top 20 Billboard hits and is listed in the top 100 greatest guitar players of all time. A lot of us remember his 1993 hit “Hocus Pocus” from the band Focus on Warner Bros. Records, which landed him a Top 5 position on the Billboard charts. The Bostonraised guitarist also recorded his unforgettable Ho! Ho! Hoey Christmas releases. Gary told me about his setup: “My live setup is the same as the studio except I don’t print effects when recording guitar. I like it dry and add FX later; I may have some reverb and delay on the playback for fun, but it’s not getting printed. My live setup is Dunlop Cry Baby wah, two Distortions, one Rocktron Intimadator, two HBE Skull Crushers, EVH Flanger, and two guitar tuners—first is Rocktron Unity Tuner, and second is Boss Tuner. I use one tuner as a mute for guitar changes, and the other stays on all the time so I can check my bends or a certain string if I’m out of tune. I run all my BOSS RV-5 reverb and my Vox Time Machine delay in the FX loop so the distortion doesn’t wash out the delays and reverbs. And I have a small clock to see what time the set ends; I bought it at an autoparts store.” Figure 4.6 Rocktron Intimidator Gary Hoey Signature overdrive pedal: camouflaged and ready for battle!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Gary created his own signature distortion pedal, as he explains: “I wanted a mix between the Ibanez Tube Screamer and the MXR Distortion +. Heavy but smooth compression and sustain. I wanted to create my own distortion pedal for years. The first one I did was the Skull Crusher for HomeBrew Electronics; it’s discontinued but you can find it on eBay. My new one, the Intimidator with Rocktron, is a very heavy distortion. The Skull Crusher is more subtle. My love for foot pedals, stomp boxes, panic pedals, whatever you call them, started in 1975 when I heard Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Tom Scholz. I had every cool pedal you can name—the Fuzz Face, the Rat, all the Mu-Tron stuff, Vox, MXR Phase 90 and 100—and I wish I had a few of them now. The quest for the killer pedal never ends. That is what keeps us going; a pedal board is part of your personality, and it always changes, and that’s a good thing. Sometimes at a jam session, I will just bring a Tube Screamer in my gig bag for the amp that has no gain. Happy stomping!” Figure 4.7 Gary Hoey pedal board: locked, loaded, and ready to take no prisoners!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Zakk Wylde: Pedal Crusher The Guitar Prince of Shredding Doom has rocked the largest arenas in the world with Ozzy and Black Label Society. But I remember back to New Year’s Eve 1992, I saw Zakk at the Coconut Teaser on the Sunset Strip with his southern rock band, Pride and Glory. I was able to see what an amazing showman he was and hear his great vocal talents as well. What struck me was the huge overdrive tone he had through a half stack Marshall JCM800 that filled the room and vibrated the floor. He also appeared on a Randy Coven album singing the Stevie Wonder remake “I Wish,” sounding very much like Gregg Allman. Zakk told me what his usual weapons are: “I have a milk crate full of all sorts of pedals. I always bring my pedal board that I use live, the Dunlop Chorus pedal, the MXR ZW-44 Wylde overdrive pedal, the Van Halen MXR Phase 90, the Dunlop Uni-Vibe, and the Dunlop Wah pedal. Whether it’s for Ozzy or Black Label Society, they all work great for me. For guitars, I’ll bring the Les Paul and the Rock Replica Randy Rhoads polka-dot V guitar made by GMW Guitar Works that I like to use on solos. I will also use a 12-string and 6-string acoustic—I bring the whole arsenal. I like to go through different amps to see what works, but I’ll usually use just one. I’ll bring the Marshall JMP, JCM800, and JCM2000, but usually use the 800. I will also bring a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. You bring all your crayons with you; it’s not like you’re going to use all 64 of them, but if you need them, they’re there.” Figure 4.8 MXR Zakk Wylde Berzerker distortion: Get on the crazy train!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Chris Poland: Pedal Shredder Chris Poland is probably best known as the former lead guitarist of Megadeth, during the group’s early years on the releases Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! and Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying? Chris has an incredible flowing technique and a great dimension as a guitarist, which can be heard in his power trio OHM. After replacing Kerry King on lead guitar in Megadeth, Chris found himself among the metal heavyweights of the day: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Metallica. Chris’s playing can be heard on such metal classics as “Devil’s Island” and “Good Mourning/Black Friday.” I worked with Chris on a track called “Tarquinius Maximus,” released on Guitar Masters, Volume 3 & 4: Les Paul Dedication, and it showcased some fantastic chops and tone that made the song a standout. I have shredded with Chris a few times, and on the new release Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends: Guitars for Wounded Warriors, we are together again on the tracks “Haji Hunting” and “Charlie Surfs,” shredding ourselves silly! Chris explains his history with pedals: “My first pedal was a Jordan Boss Tone. I guess that’s not really a pedal, as it plugged into the guitar itself. To this day, I hear that sound in my lead tone even though all the gain is in the amp and preamp. My second pedal was a Big Muff Pi, then a Maestro Sustainer pedal and a real Uni-Vibe for a bit. I also used a Halifax wah and a Morley delay pedal, but it wasn’t until years later that I saw Mike Landau live, and that started a pedal quest thing. I must say that when Mike Fuller first started his company, he was kind enough to let me come by and try his pedals. I never have a problem with Mike’s stuff. I always find myself going back to his gear, especially the ’69 and the DejáVibe. Desert Island choices those two units.”

Figure 4.9 Chris Poland’s pedal board: armed and dangerous to get ultimate tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Chris told me that his favorite pedals are “Number one: Noise Suppressor. A must to stop hum and hiss. Number two: (True Bypass) Loop pedals—I need them to combine pedals two or three at a time, and it only takes one step to shut all of them off. Number three: TC Electronic Shaker—I love the momentary vibrato. It is a must, and the tone knob works for added shaping. Number four: Wah with a loop box—just a great effect even when using the buffer with no wah. I use the loop to save time turning on and shutting off the wah. The loop also works for setting the wah up for that center wah effect. Number five: Uni-Vibe—I love the sound, and it brings on inspiration during solos. I use lots of pedals, but these are my mainstays right now. This can change at any moment if I find something I like. Just started using an E.H. Superego that really helps in a trio situation. It either sounds great or it doesn’t. Always hoping it’s not too noisy. Also not all ‘true bypass’ is the same. My favorite true bypass is by a company by Mike Fuller, the Fulltone Bypass. Any pedal is just a tool and best not to be overused, although I’ve been accused of just that. I try to check myself. I guess what I look for in any pedal is not wanting to turn it off. That’s when you know you have a new keeper pedal. I think a lot of players like Beck, Page, and Clapton used Germanium Boosts or fuzzes, and that’s the sound I go for with a fuzz. Figure 4.10 Jimmy Ryan’s Jimi pedal board: Feel the voodoo in the vibe!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 4.11 The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers’ mod pedal board “Kitchen Sink”: Mr. Mojo rising.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 4.12 Jimmy Ryan’s live rig: Keep on stomping those pedals!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 4.13 Johnny Ryan’s live rig: Line 6 no-fuss setup for tone monsters!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 4.14 The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers’ Retro ’70s pedal board: Notice the classic Colorsound wah.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 4.15 Phil Brown’s pedal board: The orange pedal to the right is the Rockett Phil Brown “Led Boots” Signature overdrive pedal.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

CHAPTER 5

Pedal Designers This chapter contains a list of effect pedals manufacturers throughout the world. Some are small, young boutique companies, while others are well-established companies, famous in the guitar world. The important thing is that you should always try effects pedals out first in your local music store or from the manufacturer. Even though many companies may have the same effect name for pedals, that doesn’t mean they sound the same or even do the same thing. So check out the list, do your homework, and start creating!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Alairex In 1991, Alex Aguilar opened Aguilar Electronics, specializing in tube guitar amplifier design and modification. Alex holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and a B.S. in management, and he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the field of digital switching and communications. In 1995, he co-founded Aguilar Amplification with partner Dave Boonshoft. Alex served as head design engineer and chief technical officer. Some of his landmark designs include the DB 680 tube preamp, the DB 750 hybrid amp head, the AG 500, and the critically acclaimed TEC award–nominated Tube Direct Box. Figure 5.1 The Alairex Halo pedal is extreme distortion with much control and flexibility for tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Analog Alien Alien who? Analog Alien is made up of two brothers: Jack Napoli, who has been playing the guitar since 1972, and his brother Joe Napoli, who started playing the drums about a year after. They formed a band and began playing at clubs in the New York City area. In the early 1980s, they built a small recording studio in their parents’ home. It grew into a large studio in a very short time. Although they built it just to record themselves, the word eventually got out, and they started recording local bands there, too. Today, it is a professional recording studio, and they call it Cloud 9 Recording. They record all styles of music and have worked with local bands and international rock stars such as Joan Jett. As time went on, they acquired not only quite a large collection of guitars, drums, and amps, but also a large collection of effects pedals. Figure 5.2 The Analog Alien Twister pedal comes in a wooden box with hot sauce. How can you say no to this fuzz pedal?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

They got started in the pedal-making business by modifying some of the pedals in their collection so that the pedals would better suit their needs in the recording studio. That eventually led to them coming up with their own designs, the first of which was the FuzzBubble-45. As Jack states, “After we came up with the idea for the FB-45, it took us about a year before we were satisfied with the results. After that, we built two prototypes and started using them in the studio. They were in plain gray boxes with no markings on them. After a while, a lot of the guitarists that were recording in the studio asked to use our pedal. They then asked us if we would build one for them. With that, we decided to go into production. What really sets our pedals apart from other pedals on the market is the fact that our pedals are inspired by and conceived in the recording studio. We saw a need for pedals to sound and respond a certain way based on our own recording needs and the needs of the artists who were recording in our studio. This gave us good insight as to what guitar players really needed in a pedal, as well as a big advantage when it came to designing them.” Figure 5.3 Analog Alien FuzzBubble overdrive pedal. It reproduces classic tones from the ’60s and ’70s. I wonder if you get a free bottle of bubbles with this one?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

According to Jack, the FuzzBubble-45 was not inspired by another pedal. The ideas for their pedals really come from the recording studio. He goes on to say, “When we feel we have a need for a certain sound in the studio and we don’t have a pedal that will give us that sound, we make it ourselves. So other pedals do not inspire our pedals at all, but [we are inspired] by our needs and the needs of guitar players we work with. The only exception to this is the Alien Twister. The Twister was inspired by an original César Díaz ‘Texas Square Face.’ While the Square Face sounded very good, it wasn’t very versatile. You had to turn it up full in order to get the fuzz to sound right. As soon as you manipulated the controls in any way, the fuzz just died off, which is typical of most classic fuzz pedals. So we set out to build a fuzz pedal that could get that sound but would also be more versatile. But our circuit is not based on the Square Face—it’s totally different. After we came up with the circuit, we built a prototype and used it in the studio for a while. We continued to adjust the circuit until we were satisfied. The whole process can take a long time. Both the FuzzBubble-45 and the Alien Twister took several months of recording and testing before we were satisfied with the results.” For the most part, the brothers prefer analog for overdrive, distortion, and just about everything else, too—with the exception of some digital circuits that sound very good when it comes to delay and reverb pedals. The delay and reverb sections of their pedal the Rumble Seat are a mixture of analog and digital technology. It was this combination that gave the pedal the right sound. The analog circuit gave it the warmth they were looking for, while the digital clock kept the delay repeats and reverb trails tight and articulate. At the end of the day, if the pedal sounds good and meets their qualifications, that’s all that really matters. They just finished work on a multi-effects bass pedal called the Alien Bass Station (ABS). The ABS has three effects built into it: Limiter/Compressor, Amp Generator, and the Gamma Fuzz.

Figure 5.4 Analog Alien Rumble Seat pedal. A multi-effects pedal, overdrive, delay, and reverb. No hot sauce needed with this one.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

“In five years,” Jack said, “we see ourselves doing the same thing we’re doing now— building pedals that allow guitarists to take control of their sound, while at the same time allowing them to truly express themselves. From the first pedal we ever created, the FB45, right up to our latest, the ABS, that’s what all of our pedals do. We’re also going to continue to grow this company one pedal at a time. We have no intention of stopping or slowing down, and of course we’ll continue to let Cloud 9 Recording and the guitar players we work with inspire us.”

Audiotech Audiotech may not be a monster company like MXR or BOSS, but they have monster users, such as Carlos Santana, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Johnny Lang, Joe Perry, Andy Summers, Steve Stevens, and the list goes on. It all started with Eric Roberts, president of Audiotech, who was born in the early 1970s and grew up in northeast Ohio. Eric was exposed to music at a very young age. His mom played some piano and had a baby grand in the house. His grandfather and his brothers would come over with the accordion and play and sing. When Eric was two years old, his mom bought him one of those toy Mickey Mouse nylon-string wind guitars from the dime store. He became immediately hooked and loved it, even though it wasn’t a “real” guitar. It was something he wanted to do all the time, just play and sing. Like the John Lee Hooker song “Boogie Chillen’,” his parents realized they had to “let that boy boogie woogie.” Figure 5.5 The Pro-Verdrive Monster overdrive pedal gives that amp the extra boost for killer tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

His parents decided to buy him a better, more serious guitar, because he would go through those dime-store guitars quickly, and the strings would pop. So when Eric was five, his parents bought him a nice acoustic guitar. Then one of Eric’s other brother’s friends brought over the first Van Halen album, and that was it. He was blown away! And totally into it. “I couldn’t believe some of the stuff Eddie was doing on guitar. And the guitar effects on that album were unreal! The phase shifter, flanger, and echoes. That Univox EC-80 Echo Chamber sounded like the end of the earth. I started reading up on every Eddie Van Halen interview I could get, not only to learn more about his playing, but also to see how he was getting that incredible tone. And how he was using the effects. At the same time, my brothers brought home other albums that had a huge influence on me at the time, like the Cars, Boston, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Aerosmith, AC/DC…then later on it was Judas Priest, Scorpions, et cetera. Then around age 11, I finally got another guitar for Christmas; it was a guitar from Sears, made overseas. I don’t remember the exact model, but it was definitely a student-type guitar. Meanwhile, my brother got another (better) guitar and started playing with some of the guys in the neighborhood. I can remember him bringing home effects he borrowed from friends or ones he bought at the music store. One of the first effects he bought was the Muff Fuzz by Electro-Harmonix, and then he got an Ibanez FL-301 flanger, the yellow one. Which I thought sounded really good. It seemed more affordable and just as good as the MXR flanger; they sounded very similar. I thought these boxes making these cool sounds were the greatest. This was my first experience with effects pedals.” When Eric was around 17, he started to buy some of his own guitars and effects pedals, like the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man. He also had a Rocktek Distortion and the nowsought-after Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus, which sounded really good. Around this time he started taking his guitars apart to see how they were made and what went into them. He says, “But at that time, being influenced by Eddie Van Halen, it seemed like hey, it was okay to work on your own gear, and you didn’t have to go to MIT to do it. It gave me a

little confidence to work on guitars to get ’em where I wanted. I can remember buying a Kramer Pacer from a place called West Park Music. As soon as I got that guitar home I played it. It seemed a little off, so then out came the screwdrivers. I did it for the same reasons as Eddie, too; it just seemed like the guitars at the music store were always lacking something or needed to be modded (i.e. Floyd Rose, Duncan’s, etc.) to get them where you wanted them. At this time, I think I did start to develop a small curiosity in electronics. I’d spend a lot of time in RadioShack, looking at parts, wondering what the various components do. Then as the whole ’80s hair thing was going on, I started listening to other guitar-oriented bands, like Ratt, Dokken, Mr. Big, et cetera. Some of the tone guys like Warren DeMartini and George Lynch were getting just blew me away and left me wondering how they were doing it. I later realized, as my playing started to improve, that most of it was simply coming from their hands, pick attack, and just their playing style in general.” Even though Eric designs, manufactures, and sells effects pedals for a living, he does subscribe to the theory that “tone is in the bone.” He actually doesn’t use a lot of effects in his own rig except chorus, delay, and maybe some wah here and there. He always wanted to play as clean as Eddie Van Halen or Warren DeMartini and not use effects as a crutch, but more as an enhancer. He saw this happen with a lot of guys when growing up and playing in bands. A lot of guys came to rely on the fact that a certain distortion box or fuzz gave them 10 tons of gain, so nobody could hear what was going on. To Eric, effects pedals are like spices: “a little here, a little there; not too much or it’ll just ruin the whole thing, meaning the song or whatever music you’re trying to make. It ends up overpowering the music. Like with amps, too; there are a lot of amps out there with gobs of gain and no character. This is why I’ve always liked and used Marshalls, especially the early ones, because with most of them you’re pretty much naked out there, and you can’t hide behind all that gain. And Marshalls have character. Fenders, too. You know that Fender clean when you hear it. It always kills me when guys throw a gain pedal in front of a Marshall or similar tube amp. It’s like, what did you buy the amp for? [Laughs] You could have just bought a standalone distortion or multi-effects unit or something.” Eric goes on to say, “So as I was reading what a lot of these guys in the ’80s were using gear-wise, I kept seeing this Bob Bradshaw guy’s name mentioned all over with these custom guitar racks and pedal boards. And I was intrigued; the idea of a custom rack and/or pedal board built around a guitar player’s needs was pretty cool. Of course, you’d see Bradshaw in all the magazine ads back then, too. But I still wasn’t quite sure how it all worked. I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to know what was under the hood of some of these switchers, how they worked, and more importantly, did it affect the overall tone? Then I found myself in a hard rock/heavy metal band playing lead guitar; did this for a few years. So that kind of shifted my focus away from learning more about gear. But I was now using things like the Scholz R&D Chorus, DOD Delay, Rocktron HUSH (the half-rack one), those kinds of effects. This was in the early ’90s, when the whole Nirvana/Pearl Jam thing started happening, and it was no longer popular to be in a hard rock/heavy metal band. I actually don’t care for the whole categorizing thing; I just think music is music, and if it’s good and people enjoy it, it’s just good music period. But people seemed to be tuning out of what we wanted to do. I think it was obvious to the other guys

in my band at that point that if we went to LA and tried to get a record deal, it would probably be an exercise in futility. [Laughs] So I thought to myself, well, if this doesn’t happen I’d like to at least own a music store or do something that’s still related to music career-wise. After the band thing was over, I was in a bookstore and saw pictures of Yngwie Malmsteen’s Bradshaw rig in a magazine called Guitar Shop, which is not around anymore. I think that’s when I got bit by the gear bug a little more.” Eric started getting into the Craig Anderton books. In the mid-’90s, he would just sit there for hours reading through his book. He wanted to get a better understanding of electronics, so he picked up some other books at the library and started studying and learning more. He spent a lot of time in libraries reading—in particular, a book by a British author named John Watson, titled Mastering Electronics—to learn as much as he could. So Eric went on to start Audiotech Guitar Products because he noticed a renewed interest in more of a stomp box pedal-based approach coming out of the ’80s and early ’90s, as opposed to all of the rack stuff. “I saw a gap in the market for high-quality, affordable guitar effects products. Especially the switching stuff. I think what sets us apart is we try to come up with products that are simple, easy to use, and practical. When designing a new product, I always say to myself, is it practical? Will people use it? Is there a need for it? And I also try to make products that nobody has really thought of before. For instance our PD-1 ProVerdrive is based on a lot of the classic overdrive tones from the 1970s. I wanted that classic warm overdrive tone from back then that complements a nice tube amp and also cleans up well when you back off on the guitar’s volume control. It’s perfect if you’re looking to push your amp over the edge. Or you can use it as a basic stand-alone overdrive pedal.” As far as his theory on analog versus digital technologies, Eric thinks they’re doing some interesting things with digital technology these days. “I actually like digital delay/echo better than analog. I know that’s pedal purist blasphemy nowadays, and I’ll probably get beat up for having that opinion, but I think it sounds great. I think digital gets a bad rap. Now when it comes to overdrive gain or distortion, I prefer analog; I think the differences are obvious to the ears. I think you lose some of the humanness with digital.” As far as future plans for the company, Eric told me, “Right now we’re doing a new take on the guitar cable that nobody’s really thought of and we feel is pretty innovative. We’re also working on a new wah-type thing, which I can’t really get into, and some other pedal board-mounted stuff. We’re also working on a new tremolo, octavia, and envelope filter. And we’re always developing new switching stuff that we hope to have out soon. In five years, we’d like to be doing more pro-audio type stuff. We’ll always do pedals, but we want to expand our product line in that market a little more.”

BBE Headquartered in sunny California since the 1980s, the conglomeration of BBE Sound consists of many musical products they manufacture and distribute, such as G&L Guitars and an array of pro audio gear. However, they have a good market share in the stomp box market with some cool effects, such as the distortion pedals by Paul Gagon; the 427 FD427P, the modern muscle car of distortion pedals, with a big, meaty tone; and the

Blacksmith, which features Paul’s LED-based distortion circuit paired with his PLEX-EQ tone stack. And let’s not forget the Sonic Maximizer or the Two Timer, a classic analog Bucket Brigade delay with that warm, haunting reverb and tape-like echoes. Figure 5.6 The BBE Sonic Stomp pedal: Get low-contour tone for pure metal meltdown!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.7 The BBE Two Timer pedal: How many slap backs can you handle?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Figure 5.8 The BBE Soul Vibe pedal: Get that Hendrix rotary Leslie cabinet sound.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.9 The BBE Boosta Grande pedal: Want a clean boost? Well, here it is, up to +20 dB!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Blackstar Originally launching amplifiers in 2007 from their company headquarters in Northampton,

England, Blackstar has widened its horizons to include a line of effects pedals. Four fellow bandmates created the company, looking for a new challenge. Having worked together previously at other amp companies, they wanted to create innovative guitar amplifiers and pedals of their own. Such pedals are the LT Dual overdrive pedal, which features their patented ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) circuit, giving you infinite adjustment over the characteristics of the tone control, and the HT-REVERB pedal, which consists of valve compression and harmonics that are added using the Dwell control, plus the ability of switching the reverb time from short to long. Figure 5.10 Blackstar Dual: Double the boost punch, and double the chance your neighbors will hate you!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.11 The Blackstar HT-REVERB will take you from small room to Albert Hall in one dial!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.12 The Blackstar LT Drive’s patent-applied-for clipping circuit delivers amazing valve-like tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.13 The Blackstar LT Metal delivers the metal goods.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.14 Blackstar HT Modulation: From fierce flange to tremolo, you’ll get those psychedelic sounds!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Bogner Bogner amplifiers have been known in guitar circles for a generation now, but Reinhold

Bogner has expanded into designing pedals as well. The story goes that in the ’80s, Reinhold arrived in LA with a heavily modified Marshall JCM800 and had to take three city buses to get to Andy Brauer’s Studio Rentals in North Hollywood. Andy’s thriving gear-rental business was the crossroads of incredible vintage equipment and pretty much every A-list session and touring guitarist of that era. Andy was extremely impressed with Reinhold’s amp designs, and as word spread, so did his amp designs. The icing on the cake was that Eddie Van Halen gave $600 and a Frankenstein Strat to Reinhold for the heavily modified JCM800. Way to go, Reinhold! Figure 5.15 The Bogner Ecstasy pedal has incredible crunch like the Bogner hand-built amps.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Caroline Guitar Company Philippe Herndon, the brainchild behind Caroline Guitar Company, got his start touring as a player throughout much of the late 1990s and again in 2003–2004. “I’d always been an echo and modulation guy as well, because we were always trying to find ways to remove the ‘shredder’ stench from my playing and get me expressing parts in different ways. Most of the time I preferred using the gain on a two- or three-channel amplifier, until one day my favorite amp blew a speaker. The amp I had for a backup was a cleaner amp, so I took it and a couple basic drive pedals to fill in for a show. After soundcheck, our sound engineer told me, ‘Leave your other amp at home!’ From that point on, it became an obsession. When you have a solid base foundation for your tone, mixing and matching pedals becomes a real adventure. You get to see how things react to your playing and the effect they have on your amp and the rest of your chain.” Figure 5.16 Caroline Kilobyte lo-fi delay: Party like it’s 1984. I know I did!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.17 Caroline Wave Cannon: Their flagship pedal, named a Top 10 pedal of the year by Guitar World magazine!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Originally, Philippe had a provisional patent for a design idea he wanted to do for a guitar, but it didn’t happen. Everywhere Philippe went was an exercise in futility; he just kept encountering salesmen who wanted to talk in circles about the entrepreneurial spirit and negotiate consulting contracts for themselves. At some point, he was totally fed up and was about to throw in the towel, when his friend Pat suggested that they set up shop in his garage with some tools, electronics breadboards, and a soldering station and see whether they could build the first prototype of a guitar pedal they had in mind. “At worst, we’d

waste time with angle irons and drink beers with sparks flying in his workspace.” When asked if there were classic pedals that influenced his designs, he replied, “I really liked some things about a classic old Pro Co RAT I had from 1978, but there were things I wished for. The bass was very much rolled off, the highs a bit too sizzling, and I couldn’t get an ‘in-between’ kind of tone where I was getting the help and compression I liked. With a moderately hot guitar, once the gain went past 12, I could see on the scope that any hard attack basically just squared off. I wanted a bit more dynamics, more response to rolling down the volume control, more of the bass response I used to really like from the Ibanez SD9 Sonic Distortion, some of that definition you heard from a DOD 250. So like a lot of other pedals I’ve seen, Wave Cannon shares much of that RAT frame, but there were changes throughout that made a lot of difference. Now, it’s kind of embarrassing— there are things with Wave Cannon that I kind of kick myself about. For example, looking back I wonder why we used a single op-amp layout with the JFET buffer. ’Cause that’s how Pro Co did it, and I liked my old RAT! I’ve made a point to try and study and learn what we can do differently from pedal to pedal, to be more efficient and try different things to pursue sonically.” Figure 5.18 The Caroline Icarus Clean Boost pedal will soar you into the sun without being overcooked.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

When asked his preference between digital and analog, Philippe said, “I’m not orthodox about this. We make a low-fidelity digital delay with the 2399 chip because I think it’s a pretty cool circuit to cook with, and it’s a kind of crummy device—it’s used in karaoke machines! And I think there are really interesting things that can be done in the digital sphere with regard to modulation and with digital control of analog effects. My disappointment with most digital technologies for guitars and pedals is that the industry is just focused on emulation and re-creation of old effects, as opposed to any kind of wave shaping, synthesis, or other innovation. I’ve seen digital effects as pedal or amp emulators for nearly 30 years now. I’ve lost track of the number of times some device has arrived

that claims this time, this product will finally completely nail classic sound ‘X.’ There’s certainly money to be made in there, but when we’re looking at that slope, we’re now out on the far edge of the diminishing returns scale. Is this new digital pedal 99 percent accurate of a tape echo or a rotary speaker? Wasn’t that thing that came out 10 years ago about 95 percent accurate? Are we going to spend 10 more years with 10 more companies competing to be 99.9 percent accurate? And really, if you’re in a studio with a genuine tape echo machine or a big spinning Leslie cabinet, won’t you just use the real thing instead?” Figure 5.19 The Caroline Olympia pedal honors the original ’60s fuzz roots. Hammer of the Gods!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

When it comes to drives and fuzzes, Philippe agrees with other designers: “I think analog is just so much better when it comes to feel. You have voltage and current; the frequency response and feel can be influenced by the input impedance of the circuit. The clipping directly responds to the amplitude of the alternating current created by the player and the gain factor dialed up. There is immediacy and dynamic control there. Whenever I see a guy using a digital drive or gain device, it seems like they are always really dirty and compressed, or totally clean. It’s almost as if the binary device seems to only work at its best in either of those states, and that’s what the player sensing its shortcomings will dial up. The in-betweens are where a good analog device can shine and can give a good player a range of expression.” I asked Philippe what lies on the horizon for the Caroline Guitar Company. “The challenges for us will be in the modulation sphere. I’m kind of a tremolo and phaseshifting junkie—lately just buying classic units, gutting them and putting them under the scope, and finding out what I like and don’t like. The challenge is to come up with something that is inventive and fresh, while acknowledging that the market for effects depends on users being able to dial up things that are familiar or comforting to them.” “This industry has almost zero barriers to entry and constant threat of substitution. I’ve

heard that five new effect companies get announced and launched every week, and from what I’ve seen and heard, most are just making clones, banging their social networking drums, and trying whatever they can to create a name for themselves. Then they discover in running a business that there’s a lot less money in this industry than people think; actually doing the work day in and day out takes a lot of energy and time; and it was a lot more fun making those first 20 pedals and calling yourself a sonic genius than it is doing repairs, learning new things, organizing a remotely sensible workflow, or building that fuzz pedal for the four-hundredth time. I think the weeding-out process is going to come, and it will come from innovation, customer service, and being able to consistently deliver on your promises. Or somebody will just buy us out, and I’ll have to go find a real job!”

Circus Freak Hailing from Grand Rapids, Michigan, not much is known of this designer, but they seem to have a sense of humor and good taste for graphic designs. Their product line consists of the Bearded Lady fuzz tone pedal, the Tattooed Lady overdrive pedal, the Pickled Punk distortion pedal, and the Lion Tamer compressor pedal. Plus, all of their pedals come with the Circus Freak Music lifetime warranty—not bad, considering that musicians stomp on them all night long! Figure 5.20 Circus Freak’s Bearded Lady fuzz tone: Adjust your fuzz with this bearded beauty!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

DigiTech DigiTech has always been an innovative company. I remember buying their pitch shifter one-rack space unit for guitar harmonizing in the late ’80s because they were the only

company at the time that made an affordable pitch shifter—the Eventide Harmonizer cost a few thousand dollars. DigiTech became well known for their Whammy pedal, which made foot-controlled pitch-shifting effects. Since then, they have gone on to make more multi-effects units and now have downloadable apps, such as the iStomp, working in collaboration with smartphones. Believe it or not, it has come to this—allowing users to download effects onto their smartphones to use in iStomp. We are way beyond Buck Rogers now! Figure 5.21 The DigiTech Whammy pedal: glissando to octaves into the stratosphere!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.22 The DigiTech HardWire SP-7 stereo phaser offers seven phaser types, pleasing the most fickle pedal junkies!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.23 The DigiTech HardWire CM-2 tube overdrive: Choose from two types, Classic and Modified, to rectify your sound.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.24 The DigiTech Whammy DI, with the new addition of drop tuning and momentary footswitch for hammer-on and pull-off effects.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Jim Dunlop Founded in 1965 by Scottish immigrant Jim Dunlop Sr., the Dunlop company originally created the Vibra-Tuner, a small device that attached to a guitar to tune the strings, and the 1100 series capo. The business was first part time out of Dunlop’s garage, while he was still working as a processing and chemical engineer. In the early ’70s, he moved the business out of his garage and to an industrial park in Benicia, California. At this time, he started manufacturing guitar picks, which were made out of nylon. Since his humble beginnings, Dunlop has acquired such brands as the Cry Baby wah, MXR, Uni-Vibe, and Heil Talkbox. In 2008, Dunlop resurrected Way Huge Electronics, which was originally started in 1992 by Jeorge Tripps. Way Huge was a popular boutique pedal company in Southern California, but it closed shop in 1999, when Tripps went to work for Line 6. Figure 5.25 The Dunlop Eddie Van Halen wah: Super dope with that paint job!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.26 Dunlop Jimi Hendrix wah: ’Scuse me while I kiss the sky!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.27 Way Huge Ringworm: crazy ring modulation with a stomp of your foot.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.28 Way Huge Angry Troll linear boost amplifier: Never make a troll angry!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.29 Way Huge Pork Loin: distortion that will cook your loins!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.30 Way Huge Swollen Pickle: complete jumbo fuzz to curl your hair!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.31 Way Huge Echo-Puss: organic analog delay pedal that gives up to 600ms of delay.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

EarthQuaker A relative newcomer in the pedal industry, Jamie Stillman started EarthQuaker Devices in 2004, proudly building them in Akron, Ohio. It all started when his DOD 250 level control

stopped working and he went on to fix it himself. He found the schematic for it on generalguitargadgets.com (a DIY pedal site), and it opened up a whole new world for him. “I became obsessed with DIY electronics real quick; it seemed to combine everything I was interested in (tinkering, DIY, music, and design) under one umbrella. I built a couple pedals for friends and threw a few up on eBay around 2005 and really thought nothing of it. Word started to spread on forums like Harmony Central, and that got it all started. Eight years later, EarthQuaker has turned into a pretty successful small business built entirely on word of mouth, a ton of hard work, and a lot of dedicated friends to help move it forward. As far as setting us apart from others, I’m not quite sure. There are a ton of pedal companies out today, and there are thousands of choices; somehow we seem to stand out. We basically do what anyone running a business should do—build quality products we like and treat our customers well.” Figure 5.32 EarthQuaker Devices’ Rainbow Machine: the experimental pitch shifter!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Some EarthQuaker pedals have their roots in classic circuits, mainly their fuzz pedals like the Tone Reaper, Dream Crusher, and Hoof. But a majority of their line consists of original ideas—at least, as original as you can get with electronics. “There will always be standard building blocks with all electronics, whether it’s toasters, TVs, or effect pedals; it’s pretty much unavoidable. It’s really how you hook those building blocks together and mold them into your own thing that matters.” As far as analog versus digital, they use both in their pedals, so they are not opposed to digital in any way. “That said, I do not like ‘perfect’ sound. I like the ability to basically do anything with DSP, but I hate it when it has that perfect, stiff, flawless sheen to the top end. When we use DSP, I try to make it as low fidelity as I can get away with. I prefer the hissing and crackling of old analog delay units and the like. They just feel better to play through. I try really hard to make all our digital pedals have that same sound and feel, even working hard to make sure they have

the right kind of hiss.” Figure 5.33 EarthQuaker Devices’ Hummingbird gives you choppy tremolos of yesterday from Vox and Valco.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

I asked Jamie what the future holds for EarthQuaker Devices, and he replied, “I am constantly working on new things, and we have about 10 projects in the works at the moment. The next two releases will be a three-part polyphonic harmonizer called ‘Pitch Bay’ and a blown-out fuzz pedal called ‘Terminal.’ Both feature some awesome art done by Matt Horak, a local comic book artist. I have been taking a break from doing the art lately, and Matt has basically taken over. I really like the direction he has taken with all the new pedals; we’ll be keeping him busy for a while!” Figure 5.34 EarthQuaker Devices’ Dream Crusher: a germanium fuzz crusher that will put some hair on your chest!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

EBS In 1988, Bo Engberg and Mats Kristoffersson founded the Swedish music company EBS. They became a top high-end bass amp manufacturer dedicated to making the best bass equipment for such bass giants as Billy Sheehan. Mats Kristoffersson started to play bass at 10 years old, which sparked an interest in music, sounds, and electronics. “I believe my first experiments with designing my own stuff were in those years, before being a teenager. At that time, designing effects was limited to the circuits available on the market, and some circuits were hard to find, having been obsolete for many years. However, I did manage to do some basic chorus, flanging, and phaser circuits, as well as some distortion pedals. That was the beginning.” Figure 5.35 The EBS Billy Sheehan Signature Drive comes with built-in compression. Go, Shy Boy!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

EBS was created when “I got to meet my current associate Bo Engberg back in 1985, who also was a bass player. We decided to start cooperating and building primarily bass amps. The first product for bass was launched in 1988, and this year also set the birth of the brand name EBS. Not until 1992 did we release the first stand-alone effect pedal, the OctaBass, which was a spinoff product from the first combo amp released earlier [EBS Taurus] with built-in effects like octave divider and chorus. Having the focus on bass instruments, there are some design requirements, such as specifying high headroom and wide frequency range, especially for the low end. This is where other pedal companies fail —i.e., effects could sound good on guitar but on bass or other instruments not too impressive. Another aim we have is to select the components used, achieving a higher quality for the electromechanical components such as jacks, pots, switches, and so on. For instance, we designed the UniChorus primarily to work good with bass instruments. When it worked out well with bass, using it with guitar turned out to be even better. This is also true for most of the designs. The guitar has normally a much richer spectrum of overtones than a bass, so bass can be tweaked with effects.” Confronted with designing pedals with digital or analog circuitry, Mats said, “The digital domain allows you to do effects not even possible with analog techniques, but unfortunately the platform needed is normally a lot more expensive if you compare the performance with a similar comparable analog design, such as compressors and shorter delay line applications [chorus, flanging, and phasing effects]. An analog design is preferred when making overdrive and distortion pedals where a similar digital platform requires a lot of computation and modeling. An interesting idea here is to digitally control an analog circuit as a few companies do today, getting the best of both worlds, but again these pedals are mostly in the upper price range.” EBS has some new and exciting pedals in the future. “We recently introduced the wider stomp box launching the Billy Sheehan Signature Drive, having four control knobs instead of the former template of two. The second one, the FuzzMo, was launched back in

September last year, so I believe we will see some other designs in this package in the future. As a designer, I cannot tell what I’m working on right now, as my lips are sealed. But I promise you’ll see some news out there.”

Emerson Custom Guitars Started in 2009, Emerson Custom Guitars prides itself in being a family-owned American company located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They offer hand-built and wired guitar effects and pedals, prewired assemblies, and quality guitar components/parts. As they state, “We’re constantly dreaming, tinkering, testing, and building to create unique products that inspire sonic creativity. Our products are built by musicians for musicians.” Figure 5.36 Emerson EM-Drive: light boost to screaming overdrive, right from Oklahoma!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Eventide Eventide has a full history with effects in professional recording-studio applications. I love their racks and have the classic H3000, GTR4000, and the Eclipse, all of them being absolute gems. But when they started making pedals, I was elated. I have used the PitchFactor pedal in the studio with great results. Eventide kept its great-sounding effects and was able to transfer them into a stomp box—total quality! However, the prices of these pedals are not for the faint of heart or the weekend-warrior budget. They are $400 to $500 devices, but completely worth it. It all started in the early ’70s, with Eventide engineer Tony Agnello, who designed the famous H910 Harmonizer. This was the first Eventide product to achieve almost instant fame. Selling thousands, the H910 put Eventide on the studio industry map. Then came the H949 Harmonizer brand effects processor that introduced a finely controllable, very small pitch change capability, used for doubling vocals along with other effects. Then in

the ’80s, the Eventide SP2016 was introduced to the world with its “Stereo Room” and other unique programs, and it quickly became legendary. Eventide introduced the recording world to time and pitch-related effects and true digital signal processing, both for reverb and for other effects. They showed that realistic digital reverb without large mechanical apparatuses or an enormous space was unachievable in the ’80s and designed an entire line based on their ingenuity. Figure 5.37 The Eventide ModFactor: ring modulation to flange to chorus. Finally a high-quality studio effects pedal!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.38 The Eventide TimeFactor emulates all types of delay, from tape to multi-tap!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.39 The Eventide PitchFactor: pitch shifting from diatonic to the Classic H910.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Framptone In 2000, Peter Frampton opened up a new company offering high-end handmade accessories for guitarists. Users include Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, and Prince. The pedals include the Framptone Talkbox, the 3-Banger, and the Framptone Amp Switcher. The Amp Switcher in particular is fantastic, and I have used it in the studio many times. You can either switch between two amps for live performances or use two different amp heads through two different cabinets, which is my preferred way. I like a stereo image for guitar melodies and solos, so I’ll use a Marshall Plexi through a Marshall cabinet on one side and a Fender Prosonic through a Legacy cabinet on the other side. I use different mics on each cabinet and pan one amp left and the other right. Huge sound image! Figure 5.40 The Framptone Amp Switcher: Switch between amps, a Fender to a Marshall. Pure genius!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Fulltone Another Southern California pedal company—who knew?! Founded by Michael Fuller in 1991, Fulltone was born out of his love for music, tone, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. In Michael’s words, “Early on, I developed a love for fine vintage pedals, and my frustration at the inconsistencies and the often fragile nature of old gear drove me to start Fulltone. Rich, fat-sounding tone tools with a reliable build quality is the goal. I have manufactured my own custom potentiometers because what has been offered as ‘industry standard’ has a 20 percent failure rate within two years—not acceptable.” Figure 5.41 The Fulltone Clyde Deluxe wah: Three-variable switch for wah tone, including Jimi!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.42 Fulltone GT-500-Discrete F.E.T.: High-gain distortion and overdrive booster in one box—watch out!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.43 The Fulltone Secret Freq gives you juicy overdrive to freq out to.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.44 The Fulltone ’69, with two germanium transistors to boost your tone rolling forward.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.45 The Fulltone OCD: Like it says, if you are obsessed with tone, this is the pedal for you.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Axcess by Giannini In November 1900, Italian luthier Tranquillo Giannini moved to Brazil to start an acoustic musical instrument factory. His little factory bearing his family name grew larger in the ’30s to meet the demand for stringed instruments. This Brazilian company still thrives today, and the Giannini family continues to oversee production and new development. Like many instrument manufacturers, they have branched out to design effects pedals, exporting them across the world. Figure 5.46 The Axcess by Giannini Mystic Drive comes equipped with scoop control for you death metal guys!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.47 Axcess by Giannini Tremolo: Controls for rate, depth, and wave will make your guitar sound spin!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.48 Axcess by Giannini Vintage Compressor: Sustain, Attack, and Level control knobs will take you back to the ’70s.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.49 Axcess by Giannini Hot Boost: Add some mojo to your tone and fire it up!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

GNI GNI is another pedal company from Brazil, this time located in São Paulo. They have developed a boutique line of effects pedals. They have two lines of pedals: the “big” line,

with two-in-one effects, and the “pocket” line, which is more affordable but made with the same quality and components. They export to the U.S., Italy, Japan, and several countries of East Asia. They have been making strings for more than 50 years using imported wires and raw materials from around the world. Figure 5.50 The GNI Shred Pro SP1: Carve your sound with three different modes and shred ’til you’re dead.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Ibanez Ibanez has more than 50 years of innovation under their belt, being one of the prominent guitar manufacturers in the world today. They began in Japan with the entrepreneur Matsujiro Hoshino, who cleverly took the company’s namesake from a nineteenth-century classical guitar builder in Spain, Salvador Ibáñez. Ibanez began early in the twentieth century, eventually opening the Hoshino Musical Instrument Store. They really came into their own in the ’80s with such iconic pedals as the TS-808 Tube Screamer, Flying Pan, and Jetlyzer. Figure 5.51 The classic Ibanez Tube Screamer makes any tube amp sing like a buzzy bird.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.52 Ibanez Jet Driver: shrieking distortion from the USA to Brit metal.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.53 Ibanez Bottom Booster: Get that “Fat Bottomed Girls” sound that makes the world go ’round.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.54 Ibanez Sonic Distortion Mod: straight into the death-metal hinterlands.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.55 Ibanez TS9 Anniversary: Celebrate the Tube Screamer’s 30th anniversary with this gem!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.56 Ibanez Bass Tube Screamer: Multi-controls will get you the fuzz you need.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.57 Ibanez Paul Gilbert Airplane Flanger: Two-in-one pedal for chorus and insane flange.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Jet City Douglas White, product manager of Jet City Amplification, has been making guitar amplifiers for several years now, but JCA is the first company he has owned—with his partner, Michael Soldano, Jr. “The current range of JCA pedals is the first I have ever done, and I feel very proud of how they turned out.” When asked what prompted him to move into the pedal business, Douglas replied, “A few things prompted me. I suppose firstly, a love of all things guitar related causes us to think of other products we can do in addition to amps. Also, a few of our important customers were enjoying our products and suggested we should expand the product range. So pedals were a pretty natural extension. Like our amps, our pedal philosophy is to make something very simple and robust, with a high priority on making the user sound great. I think if compared to similar products in the same price range, our pedals would be rated highly for build quality and durability.” Douglas went on to say that his pedals are not particularly innovative; they just sound great. “A year or so back, Guitar World magazine listed our Shockwave Distortion as one of the five best distortion boxes under $50. But it wasn’t because of the feature set— there’s not much to it. It was about the purity of tone and strong construction. It’s a very classic tone, too.” And like so many designers, he thinks “digital technologies are great for pedals, especially in the areas of delay, pitch, chorus, et cetera. Give me analog distortion and overdrive every time, though!” Figure 5.58 The Jet City Afterburner: two stages of boost taking you straight into the stratosphere.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Line 6 Line 6 introduced the world’s first digital modeling amp and introduced the POD multieffect as an all-in-one effects box for guitarists. Their other innovations have been the Variax guitars; StageScape, a live sound workstation; StageSource loudspeakers; and AMPLIFi amps. These products have become very handy for the home musician to record many different amp tones directly into their computers without having a collection of amps and effects. Figure 5.59 The Line 6 Delay Modeler DL4 boasts that it models every famous delay pedal of the past.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.60 The Line 6 Filter Modeler FM4: From wah to guitar synth tones, this box takes you to the outer limits.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Maxon In the 1970s, Maxon was a large OEM manufacturer who made effects pedals for many different brands, such as Ibanez, Greco, and Aria. It is part of the Nisshin Onpa Company, which got its start making pickups and then in 1969 went into the effects-making business. In 1974, they partnered with the Hoshino Trading Company (Ibanez) and licensed the designs from Maxon for worldwide distribution under the Ibanez name. Up until 2002, Maxon was responsible for the design and manufacturing of such Ibanez products as the legendary TS-808 and TS-9 Tube Screamers, the rare and collectible Flying Pan, and the popular Soundtank series. Finally, in 2002, Maxon decided to market several of the original Nine Series models under their own Maxon brand name and stopped making the TS-9 Reissue for Ibanez. Figure 5.61 The Maxon OD-9 Overdrive is the classic Tube Screamer manufactured for Ibanez.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.62 Maxon AD999 Analog Delay: warm and organic analog delay up to 900ms delay time.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.63 Maxon OD808 Overdrive: This is the real deal—Stevie Ray Vaughan tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Mesa/Boogie In the 1960s, Randall Smith started out as part owner of Prune Music in San Francisco. His unbelievable list of clients included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Doobie Brothers, and Carlos Santana. In fact, it was Santana who coined the name Mesa/Boogie when he played the first amp, saying, “That little thing really boogies.” The name stuck! The amp was built from a stripped-down 12-watt Fender Princeton amp, modified with 60-watt Fender Bassman circuitry and a 12-inch JBL speaker. This turned the cleansounding Fender amp into a fat, high-gain-sounding amp that can be heard on Santana’s 1970 Abraxas album. This marked the introduction of the new era of high-gain amps, which had not yet been tackled by other companies at the time. Today, Mesa/Boogie is still pushing the boundaries of high gain with their pedal line. Figure 5.64 Mesa/Boogie Throttle Box: Serve yourself up a healthy portion of high-gain distortion.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Figure 5.65 Mesa/Boogie Tone-Burst: similar to a clean boost and can take your tone beyond.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.66 Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer: the expressive overdrive pedal with attitude.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Mooer Audio Even China has started manufacturing guitar effects pedals—we’ve conquered the world now! Shenzhen Mooer Audio Co., Ltd., is the home for electronic musical instruments and audio equipment, ranging from synthesizers, sound and audio processors, digital audio effects, and wavetable synthesizer technology to digital audio effects technology. As they say, “We listen to technology and have constant technological innovation and pursuit of

excellence.” They manufacture a host of pedals, from flangers to overdrive to phasers. Figure 5.67 Mooer Blues Crab: No high gain here; just lovely, easy overdrive for singing the blues!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.68 The Mooer Reecho: Get warm classic analog delay in a small package.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.69 The Mooer Rage Machine: Micro size packs a huge fuzz punch.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.70 The Mooer Acoustikar: Finally, a pedal for acoustic guitar shredders! Choose from three settings—Piezo, Standard, and Jumbo.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.71 The Mooer ShimVerb: This small pedal gives you a choice of three reverb modes: Room, Spring, and Shimmer.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Moog Bob Moog is a pioneer in effects, having designed the wedge-shaped Maestro Phaser and the Fuzztain effects back in the 1970s. The Moogerfooger effects were released in 1998 to bridge the gap between stomp boxes, studio-quality analog effects, and modular synths. Trent Thompson, marketing manager at Moog, explains, “The Minifoogers sprang out of requests from our guitar and bass customers who love Moogerfoogers but wanted smaller and simpler devices. The Moog design team has some great guitar players and effects nuts on board, so Minifoogers were designed with the electric guitarist and bassist in mind— they are rugged, quiet, great-sounding, and versatile, without hogging too much space on a pedal board. They also each feature an expression jack that expands each pedal’s performance and sonic capabilities significantly.” In designing the MF-102 Ring Modulator, Trent said, “We looked at a lot of ring-mod designs out there and ended up choosing our own MF-102 as the basis for the design, because it is well loved by those who use it. On the other Minifoogers, we listened to other products for comparison but went with our own vision in terms of design, voicing, and features. And as far as their view on the debate between analog and digital, we share Bob Moog’s view that analog and digital circuits are both valid tools—and it’s good to pick the right tool for the job. Digital technology is not necessarily tonally inferior, but it is a different tool than analog technology. It sounds and feels different, and that is okay. On a pedal board, we prefer the sound and feel of our analog circuits because of their unique characteristics. Ultimately, it’s a musician’s quest for their personal sound and rig that determines what they use to make music.” Figure 5.72 The Moogerfooger 12-Stage Phaser: If you can’t find the phase you like here, then it doesn’t exist.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.73 The Minifooger MF Ring gives you everything from octaves to choral dissonance.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Morley

Bill Wenzloff, Morley’s sales and marketing manager, has worked at Morley Pedals since 1989, when Accutronics (a reverb and printed circuit board manufacturer) acquired Morley from Marv and Ray Lubow. “I was the factory production manager at the time but started helping out in engineering with the development of many pedals, including the Steve Vai Bad Horsie wah and the Mark Tremonti wah. I have played guitar since I was nine and played in many bands over the course of my life. Mostly cover bands and a few tribute bands playing in bars, clubs, and festivals around the Chicago area. Being a working musician gave me hands-on experience with effect pedals as well as the realworld application of using them. It also allowed me to test new pedal ideas at gigs to make sure they were musical, useful, and well built.” Through the years things have changed, inevitably driven by technology. “Many things have changed from the early days of Morley pedals [in the ’70s] until now. The use of power adapter/battery option versus putting a transformer in the pedal was one huge change. Obviously, the materials used—circuit boards, components, IC chips, jacks, and switches—have all improved over the years. Our electro-optical circuitry is still very similar but done in a more efficient manner than how it was way back when. Technology changes, music and equipment tastes go through cycles, but one thing never changes— musicians want great-sounding gear with usable features that are well built. Those simple requirements are always and will remain at the top of our engineering list of priorities.” Figure 5.74 The Morley Steve Vai Little Alligator volume pedal: You don’t need a volume knob to switch between rhythm and lead.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

“When we design any new pedal, we always have a musical tone we are going for. The Morley Man FX Distortion Boost is one such example. We were thinking along the lines

of a great-sounding overdriven tube amp, kind of like the ol’ Les-Paul-through-a-Marshall sound. The kind of tone where you hit an open E chord and it makes you smile. The boost feature was added out of necessity; all guitarists know the feeling of wanting that extra boost for solos. You can just kick it in with a footswitch instead of having to reach for the amp’s volume knob. It is the same for wah pedals; we all know the wah tones achieved by Hendrix and Clapton with the wahs of that era. Other wahs were designed to achieve those tones but add features to expand its tonal palette. Other features were designed to solve certain issues that those wah designs had, like optical circuitry rather than a pot, switchless design versus having to click a switch, alternate wah designs that did not require an inductor to avoid the noise sometimes associated with inductors. Each new pedal is born from a specific need or a suggestion made. If we believe there is value in such comments, a new pedal will result.” When Bill was asked about the analog versus digital question, he was prompted to say, “It’s funny that there are debates like analog versus digital or tube versus transistor. Digital and analog both have their place, but we should understand that analog effects give you a certain tone, and digital effects give you a certain tone. Not that one is necessarily better than the other; they are just different. Earlier I mentioned about having guitar heroes that we look to for inspiration; since most of them used analog devices, those are the tones we are used to hearing all these years. Recently, however, more and more music has been created with digital effects or recorded digitally, so there is a generation today that has been hearing digital their entire life. I guess the important thing is to use the equipment that is right for the music. The song is the important thing. While digital opens up the door for very precise tweaking and offers an abundance of features, we still prefer analog tones for pedals. Who’s to say what the future will bring, but we will always gravitate to the type of designs that sound best to our customers and us.” For the future, Morley will be introducing more artist-series pedals. “Again, most musicians are inspired by another musician and want to achieve tones produced by those musicians. This always paves the way for signature pedals, which we like doing as long as we’re bringing something new to the table. At any given time, we probably have a dozen or so things we are working on. Most never see the light of day for a list of reasons, so it would be hard to reveal anything we are working on. Just know that it continues to be our goal to create great tools for musicians to create great music with.”

Pigtronix Dave Koltai, founder of Pigtronix, was introduced to pedal building in 2001 via Craig Anderton’s Electronic Projects for Musicians book. “My first builds were his optical compressor and envelope-controlled phase shifter. After that, I built clones of most classic pedal effects using various Internet resources. In 2004, we launched Pigtronix at Summer NAMM, and I’ve been designing original products ever since then. Pigtronix pedals have won awards from every major guitar magazine and have been used on stage and in the studio by many of my musical heroes. I call it living the dream. I was playing professionally in NYC and working in the record industry in the early 2000s as that industry was collapsing. I wanted an intriguing gig in music without having to go on the road full time. I have always loved gear, particularly effects. Once I started building,

modifying, and eventually designing effects, it was quite clear that this was my calling.” “When we started in 2004, there were two prevalent trends in pedals—guys like Fulltone and Analog Man building high-quality reproductions of the classics, and companies like BOSS and Line 6, who were pioneering digital modeling of classic sounds. I saw an opportunity for my company to fill an open niche of forward-thinking analog designs. It was this mindset of ‘Futuristic Analog Technology’ that set us apart from the start and has served us very well. Z.Vex was doing something different, yet still analog, at that time, but the chaotic ethos of his pedals did not appeal to me as a working player. Our pedals make some otherworldly sounds, but they maintain dynamic range, low noise performance, and touch sensitivity that makes them usable across a wide range of musical applications.” Figure 5.75 Pigtronix Echolution: a hybrid of analog and digital technology, up to 12-seconds delay.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

“Another major advantage we have enjoyed is employing the legendary analog designer Howard Davis as our chief engineer. Howard designed the EHX Deluxe Memory Man [and many others], as well as all of our analog stuff that followed the debut Envelope Phaser. The first design that Howard and I collaborated on was the Pigtronix Disnortion, which is still in production today [nine years later] and in use by famous players like Tony Levin, Brad Whitford and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Adrian Belew, and many others.” Figure 5.76 The Pigtronix Mothership guitar analog synthesizer, featuring VCO, sub-octave, and intelligent ring modulator.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

I wanted to see if any of the classic pedals influenced Dave’s new creations, and he said, “As a rule, I try to stay away from that completely. Admittedly, the Pigtronix EP-1 Envelope Phaser was heavily influenced by Craig Anderton’s ’70s DIY design but was made to sound more like the bastard child of a Uni-Vibe and a Mu-tron III. Once we got our company up and running with Howard on board, we redesigned the Envelope Phaser [EP2] with completely original circuitry to achieve a more unique sound. That version is still in production today, with thousands of units sold worldwide.” “Each Pigtronix pedal has many classic sounds in it, but everything we make has a reason to exist, in that it does something that no other pedal can do. This is often realized through parallel audio processing, envelope control of one or more parameters, or other unique ideas, like using the Golden Ratio to make polyrhythmic multi-tap delay patterns. One example of Pigtronix re-creating an obscure classic sound is when Dweezil Zappa asked me to achieve the envelope-controlled flanging from Frank Zappa’s Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar album. This two-year quest resulted in the Quantum Time Modulator pedal, which nails that elusive ‘Dyna Flanger’ Zappa sound but also can do the Dimension C and TC 1210 double chorus sounds as well as vibrato and some all-new, bizarre variations by combining LFO and envelope modulation in parallel.” Figure 5.77 The Pigtronix Infinity Looper features instantaneous record, playback, dub, undo, and redo.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

In 2014, Dave changed the Pigtronix motto from “Futuristic Analog Technology” to “Futuristic Audio Technology” to reflect the shift in his design focus toward hybrid designs that combine programmable DSP with his unique analog approach. “The Pigtronix flagship Infinity Looper and Echolution 2 pedals are the most advanced of their kind and would not be possible without extensive digital engineering. The fact remains that analog, when done properly, sounds smooth, buttery, and fantastic. My approach is to let analog do what it does well [make things sound good] and let digital do what it does well [MIDI, tap tempo, programmability]. Rather than digitally model an analog sound, I use real analog filters, discrete limiters, and nonlinear tape emulation to warm up the digital processing that we do end up using where needed.” Figure 5.78 The Pigtronix Disnortion features parallel fuzz and overdrive circuit, and gain sky high!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.79 The Pigtronix Philosopher King: It’s a compressor, sustainer, distortion, and polyphonic amplitude synthesizer. OMG!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.80 The Pigtronix Tremvelope features high-fidelity optical tremolo with stereo panning outputs.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Pro Co/RAT In 1974, Charlie Wicks founded Pro Co in Michigan, making audio interface products as simple as guitar and microphone cables, to complex 256-channel digital snakes, in-ear monitor controllers, and facility distribution systems. Their customers are from both musical instrument retailers and sound contractors. As they state, “We are basically ‘plumbers’ to the audio trades and provide 550 different products a day to service their needs.” But the RAT was their real contribution to effects pedals, created in the basement of the Pro Co Sound factory in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. The family lineage goes as follows: “Bud Box” RAT 1978, The RAT 1979–81, The RAT (ver. 2) 1981–83, Small Box RAT 1984–88, R2DU 1984–88, RAT 2 1988–present, Turbo RAT 1989–present, Vintage RAT 1991–2005, Brat 1997–2001, Deucetone RAT 2002–present, You Dirty RAT

2004–present. Figure 5.81 The Pro Co RAT: The original was on every stage floor from LA to NY in the ’80s.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Radial Back in 1976, musician Peter Janis, president of Radial, was trying to get more sound options from what was available at the time. “BOSS had just begun to make inroads in the market with their effects, and of course we had MXR. But there were no tube overdrive pedals. Denis Rozon [electronic tech] and I made our first pedal around 1977, and it was a disaster! Fast-forward to 1998; Denis came up with a combination tube and solid-state distortion pedal called the Tonebone Classic and then the Hot British. He was selling these online from his home. In 2001, we took over the distribution of the Tonebone pedals and expanded the line with ABY, head and cabinet switchers, power booster…and the rest of the Tonebone line. In 2007, we purchased the Tonebone brand from Denis, and today Denis continues to work for us on the engineering side.” Figure 5.82 Radial Hollywood Distortion: big sound for big hair!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

“Part of the deal with Denis bringing Tonebone to the table was to have him work full time for Radial. The original J48 [direct box] was actually designed by a fellow in Toronto. We enhanced it and made it into a commercially viable product. As with all of our pedals and electronic products, I present the feature set, layout, and ergonomics; then our engineers take the ball and bring my concepts to reality. Denis, Dan Frazer, and a few others [outside guys] do the work for us, depending on the direction of the product and the affinity of the designer. The J48 came out right around the same time we launched the Tonebone range.” Peter went on to explain the overdrive pedals. “The Trimode and Plexitube were simply dual-channel versions of the Classic and Hot British. I felt that having two channels in a pedal could enable rhythm and lead performance without having to change the settings or channels on an amp. I also added an effects-loop concept to allow the guitarist to stomp on the pedal and have a delay go on at the same time as the lead channel distortion.” Peter discusses the choice between analog and digital and what works. “From a player’s perspective, analog pedals like tube amps have a certain character and feel that seems to connect the player with the instrument and the amplified sound. When you go digital, it almost feels too easy to play. The downside: When you dig into a note, the sound tends to be too uniform or compressed. It is the imperfection of the analog circuit that makes it interesting and musical. From a designer or manufacturer perspective, digital is exciting, as the options are unlimited. And with technology changing all the time, as components become obsolete, you have no choice but to look for digital options. Bucket Brigade chips are a good example. They are hard to find and noisy. So for a delay, digital may be a better option. It so happens I approached Eventide to have them build a delay pedal for us some 10 years ago. I remember the fellow asking me if there was a market. Although they may never admit it, I think my idea saved that company and brought them more success than

ever.” As far as new pedals in the future, “We are about to launch a next generation Bassbone OD with built-in overdrive. We sent this two-channel bass control preamp to a number of top players, and the response has been terrific. On the guitar side, we will be launching the Elevator—a Class-A buffer/booster that lets you set a base signal level and then add boost for soloing. The intent here is to provide the purist with a solid foundation to drive the front end of his low-watt guitar amp and then push it harder into overdrive for soloing. We also have a load box called the Headload and a few other goodies in the works.”

Seymour Duncan I’ve been a long-time endorser of Seymour Duncan pickups since ’94, and they are simply the most musical pickups on the market. So when I heard a few years back that they were introducing stomp boxes, I was really excited. I tried several, and they live up to Seymour’s commitment to tone and quality. In fact, I have a rare 1984 Seymour Duncan Convertible tube head, which has a super-sweet overdrive tone. So it was natural that Seymour used tube technology in his new pedals, which really sets them apart from the fray. Figure 5.83 Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue: two-channel guitar preamp pedal that puts the B in blues.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Snarling Dogs To my ears, Snarling Dogs simply is one of the best wah pedals ever made. Very musical and very user-friendly—and how could you not dig the big foot-shaped pedal? Unfortunately, they have gone defunct with the death of their founder, Charlie Stringer, so the only place you can find them today is on eBay. They have three different tone choices: White Room (thick and creamy), Voodoo (midrange growl), or Shaft (sharp and funky).

Very-Tone Dog was the first pedal in the industry to offer a varitone-in-a-box feature. Just by switching the tone selector, the user could instantly switch to any of his 10 favorite guitar sounds. Then there is the Bootsy Collins Bootzilla wah, which leaves the low end in place yet still gives you wah and filtering effects even on your low B string. Figure 5.84 Snarling Dogs’ Whine-O wah gives you a choice of 12 different wahs. Can’t argue if Jeff Beck uses it!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.85 Snarling Dogs’ Mold Spore wah/ring modulator: absolutely out of this world—got to try it to believe it!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

T-Rex Effects Lars Dahl, owner of T-Rex Effects in Denmark, was educated as an old-fashioned radio mechanic, where he was one of the last students repairing tube amplifiers and tape recorders in the early ’90s. “I have been an active guitarist since I was six, so it was obvious that I had to make my own effect pedals. Afterward, I graduated as an engineer. My final academy project was a big loop/switch system, which later gave the basics for TRex Big Foot and MAC-1 MIDI system. Sebastian Jensen, my childhood friend, also worked with electronics, so we decided to start our own business in ’96. I had already modified most of my old BOSS pedals, so why not make pedals with better components to accomplish better sound and versatility—and maybe a little sexier than the existing pedals? As we say in this business, most distortions are based on a TS-808! We have always tried to make our own designs, such as the Mudhoney, Replica, et cetera. But reinventing the wheel is difficult.” As for analog- and digital-based designs, Lars said, “We use both technologies; T-Rex has invested a lot of time and money in a hardcore digital platform, which sounds fantastic. However, we stick to the rule: Always mix the signals so the guitarist gets the analog feeling.” Figure 5.86 T-Rex Tonebug auto wah wah: Let the pedal do the work; no need for the foot!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.87 T-Rex Tonebug chorus/flange: big chorus, crazy flange, and big ’80s hair.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

TC Electronic TC Electronic, another Danish pedal company, has been producing stomp boxes since the ’70s, when they produced the classic Stereo Chorus (pitch modulation) and the Sustainer (parametric EQ—in the ’80s). The brand was founded by two brothers, Kim and John Rishoj, in 1976. Since then, they have been releasing well-made effects products with multiple purposes. They have a large assortment of pedals they manufacture, such as the Dark Matter distortion, Flashback delay, Nova repeater, and Spark booster. Also, their rack effects processors are very popular, such as the G-Major 2, G-Force, and the classic Finalizer, only found on eBay today. Figure 5.88 TC Electronic’s Spark booster: clean booster with active EQ to shape your tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.89 TC Electronic’s Dark Matter distortion: made with an analog-drive circuit that takes you into PlexiTone territory.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.90 TC Electronic’s Rottweiler distortion: monster of metal. Like the name states, attack of the crunch tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Tech21 Tech21 is a New York City–based company that was started by B. Andrew Barta in the late ’80s and introduced his unique direct recording device, the SansAmp. He was years ahead of his time, pioneering the direct recording movement and creating an entirely new category of signal processing. In fact, I used this revolutionary SansAmp device when I was sent to London to record my solo release Last Kiss Goodbye in the mid-’90s. I couldn’t take my amp on such a long journey from LA to the UK, and I wasn’t sure what kind of shape the amps would be in at the recording studio, so the logical thing to do was to take something small I could rely on in the studio. The clean sounds were great, very reminiscent of a Fender, and the overdrive was on the early Mesa/Boogie side. Remember, this was before amp modeling and computer recording had been widely introduced, and we were recording on an Otari MTR-90 2-inch-tape 24-track analog, so no plug-ins or cutand-paste features; you had to get the performance and tone right! Since then, Tech21 has come out with a full line of effects pedals. Figure 5.91 Tech21 Bass Driver SansAmp DI: Not your ordinary direct box, but this one has attitude for bass.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.92 Tech21 RotoChoir: a rotary Leslie cabinet in a box. Start jamming!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.93 Tech21 Liverpool: It’s the ’60s all over again with mop-top Fab Four and jangling guitars!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.94 Tech21 U.S. Steel: Pittsburgh overdriven steel that Carnegie himself would be proud of!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Visual Sound Located in Tennessee, Visual Sound was started by Bob Weil, a self-taught pedal guru in electronics, mechanical engineering, and patent law. Bob says he started by making “a couple of prototypes and showed them around, and eventually certain musician friends of mine wanted one of their own. So, I patented the whole ‘Visual’ concept for pedals [another learning curve], and at the January 1995 NAMM show, I jumped into business with one product—the Visual Volume.” But as with all businesses, there are low moments, as Bob explains. “Through a miraculous set of circumstances in my darkest hour, I suddenly was given the opportunity to have a bunch of orders paid for up front, which normally never happens. Believe it or not, that turned everything around by giving us the exact amount of money we needed to start over. Right then, I recognized the hand of God was on my business. At that time I actually thought I would close up shop, but evidently God wanted me to keep going. How could I say no?” Since then, Bob and chief engineer R.G. Keen have created very successful products, such as Jekyll & Hyde, Route 66, H2O, and the 1 SPOT. Figure 5.95 Visual Sound’s Dual Tap Delay: Two separate channels with tap tempo will give lush delay echoes.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Voodoo Lab Josh Fiden originally started Voodoo Lab in 1986 as Digital Music Corp in the Los Angeles area. His background was in physics and computer science. He started the company in his spare bedroom, making RAM cartridges for DX7 keyboards. That led to MIDI patchbays and eventually the creation of his first guitar-centric product, the GCX Guitar Audio Switcher and Ground Control MIDI foot pedal. James Santiago, vice president of Voodoo Lab, started playing guitar at an early age, and by 15 he was in a working cover band that gigged constantly. He also loved tearing all his

gear apart, learning how it worked, and trying to fix it himself. James goes on to explain, “If I wasn’t playing guitar, I was ripping my gear apart! The next major career step for me was working for Guitar Player magazine when I was around 20. It was there that I spent many late nights helping Art Thompson test all the gear that came in the door for reviews. For the next roughly eight years, I did that along with fly dates and short tours with a number of bands. I was also making my own pedals around this time, just as an experiment. One of them did become an official product called the Sparkle Drive. My longtime friend Josh Fiden [who still owns Voodoo Lab] asked me sometime in the late ’90s if there was something I really wanted in a pedal. Done!” Figure 5.96 Voodoo Lab Giggity: a super overdrive that gives you a new sonic tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

The next phase of James’ career was spending several years working at Line 6. “I was considered part of the creative department. That allowed me to float a little between areas in the company. Some days I would help write presets for various products, do testing in sound design, attend product development roundtables, shoot video and record audio demos, write copy, and more. It was there that all my various skills collided into a single job. I loved my time there, but I was also burnt out. It was around 2007 that I left Line 6. After chatting with my friend Josh, we both decided it would be fun to get back to analog gear. I’ve been with Voodoo Lab since. We also support many other pedal companies on a daily basis. We make the best-selling power supply, and our audio switching gear is used by some of the biggest touring acts ever. So, there are many days when we’re on the phone with other pedal companies, helping them make their pedals sound great in an artist rig. Hey, I love pedals and constantly buy everyone else’s stuff, too!” Figure 5.97 The Voodoo Lab Tremolo re-creates the buttery, juicy tone of a vintage tube amp tremolo.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

When designing pedals, some of the early Voodoo Lab pedals started life as a classic sound. “For instance, when the Micro Vibe was released, there really was no other small format, 9V pedal that could give you a true Uni-Vibe phase sound. Josh and his engineers were able to shrink and update the circuit but still maintain the key elements, which were the photocells and lamp, found in the original. Wahzoo started as the vintage Clyde McCoy wah but can do things the original could never do. It can go from standard wah use to almost vintage keyboard-like patterns with a tap tempo.” When it comes to using digital versus analog technology, James said, “I use both and enjoy them for different reasons. Plus, having worked heavily in the DSP field for years, but also as a hardcore vintage amp, guitar, and effect nut, I’m for whatever inspires people to make great music. I can get just as inspired by playing through my 1966 JTM-50 Marshall with an Arbiter England Fuzz Face as I do my Fractal Axe-Fx II. Just different things for different days.” Voodoo Lab’s focus at this point is designing power supplies and small-format, pedal board–friendly switching systems. “We now have many versions of the Pedal Power mostly because high-current DSP pedals are everywhere now. And many of them don’t even take a 9V battery anymore. With audio switching systems, our goal is to help players integrate their vintage pedals with studio-quality DSP effects. Over the next few years, we will be releasing more things like PX8 [pedal board audio loop strip with MIDI] and HEX [small-format audio switcher].”

Walrus Brady Smith of Walrus Audio started messing with effects pedals early on while learning the guitar. “My first guitar pedal was a BOSS RV-3 reverb, not the conventional first pedal purchase. A friend of mine was offloading a bunch of pedals, and I wound up with that

one. After college, I jumped around a few formal jobs and finally had the opportunity to work for a pedal company in Edmond, Oklahoma. After a couple of years learning how to build pedals and seeing different sides of the business, it felt right to break away and try to make things in the fashion that appealed to me. I had some different thoughts on sounds that I wanted to use in my own playing, as well as the aesthetics of pedals. There are a lot of great pedals and pedal companies out there, but with Walrus we were aiming to create some sounds that we hadn’t really discovered in any other pedals, especially at an affordable price point. So we made them.” When designing his own pedals, Brady commented, “I always think in reference to what I already know. For instance, the Big Muff fuzz is great, and I know that sound. I know its limitations and its strengths. For our Jupiter Fuzz, we wanted to pull from that but fill in the weak parts. For the tremolo on the Janus, we needed a simple, functioning tremolo circuit. We started closer to an EA trem and discovered some different ways to capture a fuller tremolo sound. We have the Descent reverb coming out in late April and an analog delay later in the summer. I think the graphics are some of the best that Nathan Price [local artist, drummer for BRONCHO] has done for us up to this point.” Figure 5.98 The Walrus Janus: a dual joystick–controlled tremolo/fuzz pedal to create your own tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.99 The Walrus Voyager: Boost your tone with this gain/pre amp overdrive pedal.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Wampler Like many of the other designers I’ve spoken to, Brian Wampler has been an ardent guitar player since he was a kid. Thanks to the influence of his older brothers, “I grew up listening to a lot of the classic rock bands of the time. Growing up without a lot of money for different gear, I was always trying to find guitar effects that might turn the sound of my guitar into what I was hearing on the radio. I think one of my first pedals ever was an Electro-Harmonix pedal. I also used some Arion and some BOSS pedals as well. I was never totally sold on their sound, though. I was the type of kid that was constantly tweaking things. If we were in the car, I was constantly trying to change the EQ. When I started driving, I was always changing speakers and stereo equipment. Honestly, I was just obsessed with the sound and quality of everything I was hearing. In addition to constantly looking for better sounds and tones, I was also one of those kids that liked to take almost everything apart and see how it worked. Around the year 2000, a friend of mine had modified a BOSS DS-1 pedal and let me borrow it. Instantly, I was blown away at how much better it sounded compared to my stock pedal. I had asked him what he did that was different, and he told me that there were some websites at the time that detailed how to change a few parts to make the pedals sound different or better. So, I went out and bought a couple of inexpensive BOSS pedals and tried to do some modifications myself. I was hooked!” Figure 5.100 The Wampler Hot Wired Brent Mason Overdrive: Get your country on with this chicken pickin’ guitar tone!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Like his contemporary electronic nerds, Brian started learning and reading everything he could get his hands on that related to the electronic side of guitar effects and how it related to tone. “I built a breadboard and locked myself away for many months, obsessing over tones and what I could change in those stock pedals to get the specific sound, feel, and response I was looking for. Essentially, what I was doing was building up my chops, so to speak, and learning what sounds good and what didn’t, what works best in specific situations in the world of guitar pedal electronics. Fast-forward a few years later: I was getting a lot of questions about the modifications I was doing. More particularly, what exactly those mods were. So I wrote a book, self-published it, and it kind of became a cult favorite among many DIYers at that time. Today it is no longer in print. Sometimes you can find copies of it on eBay that go for several hundred dollars!” Figure 5.101 The Wampler Paisley Drive, with tonal controls, presence, and mid-contour switches to get you that Brad Paisley tone.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Wampler was started out of Brian’s hobby for designing pedals. “It was a hobby in the sense that I couldn’t find the tones I was looking for, so I made it my mission to find them. What I really wanted, more than anything, was an overdrive and distortion that didn’t sound like a pedal, but sounded more like an amp, felt like an amp, and reacted to a player’s touch and response like an amp. After modifying pedals to do that sort of thing, people started to ask me to modify their pedals the same way. After modifying lots and lots of pedals, I realized that I wasn’t truly able to get the sound that I wanted without starting from the ground up and designing my own circuits and pedals, so I did.” This leads us to discuss why Wampler pedals are set apart from the crowd. “What sets our pedals apart from other companies’ pedals is that our pedals are very accurate to the tones they’re trying create. They sound and feel completely realistic compared to their amp counterparts. Each of our pedals is handmade in America. I am absolutely meticulous about every aspect of the pedal design, including the exact type of components, as well as rigorous testing procedures to make sure that all of the independent parts we use are the best they can be. We actually throw away many components because they don’t stand up to my standards and specifications. When a person buys one of my pedals, I want each one to be consistent from pedal to pedal, with each one sounding great right out of the box— with any guitar and amp setup, even solid-state amps!” When designing pedals, Brian doesn’t like to take old designs and improve upon them. “I’m really not a fan of taking existing overdrive circuits, slapping a new name on it, and putting it into a different box—I prefer to design all original circuits. Most of our overdrive and distortions were designed around the feel, response, and tonality of an amp or recorded guitar tone. For example, the Pinnacles are designed around an EVH type of tonality, but I’ve added a lot of control over the various aspects of the tonality so it can do way more than just the brown sound. The Euphoria was designed to do more of a

transparent type of overdrive but have more of a feel and response of a particular Dumblestyle amp that I had played.” Brian goes on to explain, “We have designed both analog and digital effects. Although for anything related to overdrive, distortion, or fuzz, I totally prefer analog rather than digital circuits. There is ‘realness’ and a response to analog that I’ve never heard replicated in the digital world. I’ve heard some digital tones that sound decent, but when I play them, I have always felt a bit of a disconnection between the ears and the hands, almost like a very slight lag or delay; it just makes it feel fake to me. I’ll take analog dirt and a good tube amp any day of the week. However, it’s just not practical to make an analog reverb, for example, so with our digital-based effects I keep the signal analog and just layer the effect on top of it. It just sounds way better to me doing it that way instead of using digital-to-analog convertors and all that.” Wampler Pedals has big plans for the future, and Brian discusses his five-year plan. “We actually have a ton of things in the works right now. I’m getting ready to release a bass line of effects, as well as another delay and another reverb pedal. I would love to do a limited run of several different overdrives and distortions that I’ve designed as well. As far as five years from now, I really don’t project that far out. For example, five years ago there was no way I would have predicted that we would be doing the pedals we’ve released recently, just because of the ever-changing market. Ultimately, five years from now I don’t want to lose perspective on things that are the most important to me: building great-sounding and high-quality pedals and continuing to grow great relationships with our customers and the people I work with.”

XOTiC XOTiC Effects is part of a much larger conglomeration called Prosound Communications in LA, which deals with exporting products overseas to Japan. They started the XOTiC brand in 1999 with a few products boasting the moniker of being “Handwired in the USA.” Part of the line produces the BB Plus, BB Preamp, RC Booster, X-Blender, and the original production of Robotalk envelope filter/arpeggiator and the new innovative Robotalk-RI. Figure 5.102 The XOTiC BB Plus: a transparent guitar preamp that will clear up those cloudy days.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.103 The XOTiC Bass BB preamp has myriad gain structures for any bass player to get his groove on.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography. Figure 5.104 The XOTiC BB Preamp: With 30 dB+ clean boost and adjustable ±15 dB two-band active EQ tones, the possibilities are endless!

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

Zoom Zoom, a Japanese multi-technology company, manufactures digital recorders, effects pedals, and all sorts of music production tools exported worldwide. In 2000, they released the GFX-8, which was the flagship of the Zoom GFX series. It had an opto-based pedal on the right and a red LED display on the top left. It used the Variable Architecture Modeling System (VAMS) technology, and there were three modes: drive, modulation, and delay. The drive mode incorporated effects such as compressor, overdrive, distortion, and fuzz. There was also an amp simulation module, which allowed users to choose from various guitar-amp simulations. The modulation mode incorporated effects such as wah, phaser, chorus, ring modulation, tremolo, vibrato, flanging, and pitch shifting. Finally, the delay mode used effects such as delay and reverb. Zoom’s footprint now is much smaller, being housed in a small box design like the MultiStomp MS-100BT Multi Effects and the MS60B for bass. Figure 5.105 Zoom MultiStomp MS-100BT: Multi-effects, amp modeler, Bluetooth—what more could you ask?

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hughes, Tom. Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects. Foxon, CT: For Musicians Only Publishing, 2004. Hunter, Dave. Guitar Effects Pedals: The Practical Handbook. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 2004. Pittman, Aspen. The Tube Amp Book. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 2003. Thompson, Dave. The Stompbox: A History of Guitar Fuzzes, Flangers, Phasers, Echoes and Wahs. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 1997.

© 2015 Erik Christian Photography.

INDEX Numerics 12-Stage Phaser 44 Caliber Magnum power amp 1960s artists 45000 looper/sampler

A Acoustic Simulator AC-2 Acoustikar pedal AD999 Analog Delay pedal ADA Flanger ADA manufacturer Adaptive Distortion DA-2 Adineko Memory System Agnello, Tony Aguilar, Alex Airplane Flanger pedal Alairex pedal designer Alien Twister pedal amp simulator guide (BOSS) Amp Switcher Analog Alien pedal designer Analog Delay Anderton, Craig Asterburner pedal Asterope Cables Atkins, Chet Audio Services Audiotech pedal designer

Auto Q Axcess by Giannini pedal designer

B Bag, The Barr, Keith Barta, B. Andrew Bass Balls Bass BB preamp Bass Blow Torch Bass Booster Bass Driver SansAmp DI pedal Bass Metaphors pedal Bass Microsynth pedal Bass Tube Screamer pedal BB Plus preamp BB preamp BBE Sound pedal designer Bearded Lady pedal Beatles Beck, Jeff Beckman, Tom Berko, Bill Berry, Chuck Big Muff Billy Sheehan Signature Drive pedal Binson Echorec Black Finger Compressor Blackstar pedal designer B.L.T. Blue Box Blues Crab pedal Bogner pedal designer

Boonshoft, Dave Boosta Grande pedal Boost/Line Driver Boost/Overdrive BOSS Acoustic Simulator AC-2 Adaptive Distortion DA-2 amp simulator guide CE-1 Chorus Ensemble CE-2 Chorus Chorus Ensemble CE-5 Chromatic Tuner TU-2 Compression Sustainer CS-3 CS-1 Compression Sustainer die-cast box designs Digital Delay DD-3 Digital Sampler Delay Distortion DS-1 distortion guide distortion pedals DS-1 Distortion Dynamic Wah AW-3 Equalizer GE-7 FET switch foreign takeover of guitar effects Giga Delay Guitar Effects Guidebook series incorporation of digital technology line selection guide LOOP Station LC-2 LOOP Station RC-3 loop/sampler manipulation guide

modulation sound guide noise reduction guide Noise Suppressor NS-2 Overdrive OD-3 overdrive pedals Overdrive/Distortion OS-2 Phase Shifter regulate gain control guide release of first pedal Roland/BOSS story SL-20 Slider sound pitch guide Super Chorus CH-1 Super Octave OC-3 tonality sound guide Turbo Distortion DS-2 TW-1 Touch Wah Bottom Booster pedal Brian Tarquin & Heavy Friends: Guitars for Wounded Warriors Bridge of Sighs Brown, Phil Bruno, Tony Buchanan, Roy Bucket Brigades Burlison, Paul

C capacitors Carbon Copy Caroline Guitar Company CE-1Chorus Ensemble CE-2 Chorus Chorus Ensemble CE-5

Chromatic Tuner TU-2 Circus Freak pedal designer Clapton, Eric Classic 108 Fuzz Cloud 9 Recording Clyde Deluxe wah Compression Sustainer CS-3 Copicat tape echo machine Coven, Randy Cruel Intentions (Brown) Cry Baby pedals Crying Tone Wah pedal CS-1 Compression Sustainer Custom Badass ’78 distortion Custom Badass Modified Overdrive Custom Comp

D Dahl, Lars Dallas Arbiter Dark Matter distortion Davis, Howard DeArmond Tremolo Control box Delay Modeler DL4 pedal Deluxe Memory Man Denney, Dick Digital Delay Digital Delay DD-3 Digital Sampler Delay DigiTech pedal designer Disnortion pedal Distortion + Distortion DS-1

distortion sound guide (BOSS) distortion-free sustain sound DOD manufacturer DOD Stereo Chorus FX65 Domino Double Muff Drake, Peter Dream Crusher pedal DS-1 Distortion Dual Tap Delay pedal Dunlop Fuzz Face Dunlop, Jim Dunlop pedal designer Dyna Comp Dynamic Wah AW-3

E EarthQuaker pedal designer East River Drive pedal EBS pedal designer Ecco-Fonic tape delay unit echo pedals, history of effects Echocord Echolution pedal Echo-Reverb EchoSonic amplifier Ecstasy pedal Eddie Van Halen wah pedal Eddy, Duane effects history EH-R1 ribbon microphone EHX Deluxe Memory Man Electric Mistress

Electro-Harmonix 44 Caliber Magnum power amp 45000 looper/sampler Bass Balls Bass Metaphors pedal Bass Microsynth pedal Big Muff Black Finger Compressor Crying Tone Wah pedal Deluxe Memory Man Double Muff East River Drive pedal EH-R1 ribbon microphone Electric Mistress Flanger Hoax Freeze history of effects Holy Grail pedal Iron Lung Vocoder Knockout pedal LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster) Memory Toy Microsynth Mole Neo Clone pedal Neo Mistress NY-2A compressor overdrive pedals POG2 pedals Poly Chorus pedal Ravish Sitar pedal Ring Thing pedal

and Russia and reestablishment Screaming Bird Treble Booster Small Clone pedal Small Stone pedal Soul Food pedal Soul Preacher Sovtek amps spearhead designs Steel Leather pedal Superego Tone Tattoo Electro-Harmonix Work Band Electronic Echo Chamber Electronic Projects for Musicians book EM-Drive pedal Emerson Custom Guitars pedal designer Engberg, Bo Engines of Creation Equalizer GE-7 Eventide Harmonizer pitch shifter Eventide pedal designer EVH Flanger

F Fender company Fender Model 6G15 Reverb FET switch Fiden, Josh Filter Modeler FM 4 pedal Final Phase Finalizer processor flange effects, history of effects Flanger

Flanger Hoax Flanger/Doubler Flashback delay Flyin’ Ryan Brothers Frampton, Peter Framptone pedal designer Freeze Fripp, Robert Fullbore Metal Fuller, Michael Fulltone pedal designer Fulltone (Trower) Fuzz Face, Dunlop FuzzBubble pedal Fuzz-Tone

G G-Force processor Giannini, Tranquillo Gibson company Giggity pedal G-Major 2 processor GNI pedal designer Graphic EQ Grid Slammer pedal GT-500 F.E.T. Guild Copicat Guild Echorec Guitar Effects Guidebook series guitar pedal multi-effects

H Halo pedal

Hammer, Jan Hammond, Laurens Hammond organ Hardwire CM-2 tube overdrive pedal Hardwire SP-7 phaser harmony effects, history of effects Harmony Synthesizer Harrison, George Heil, Bob Hendrix, Jimi Herndon, Philippe history of effects Ho! Ho! Hoey Christmas release Hoey, Gary Hollywood Distortion pedal Holy Grail pedal Hoof pedal Hot Boost pedal Hot Wired Brent Mason Overdrive pedal Howe, Steve HT Modulation pedal HT-REVERB pedal Hummingbird pedal

I I on U Ibanez pedal designer Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Ibanez Tube King Icarus Boost pedal imitation pedals inductors, history of effects Infinity Looper pedal

Instant Replay sampler Iron Lung Vocoder ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) circuit

J Janis, Peter Janus pedal Jellybeans circuits Jennings Musical Instruments Jennings, Tom Jet City pedal designer Jet Driver pedal Jimi Hendrix wah pedal Jimi Project, The Johnson, Eric

K Kakehashi, Ikutaro Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good! Kilobyte lo-fi delay pedal Klemt Echolette Knockout pedal Krause, Todd Krieger, Robby Kristoffersson, Mats Kustom manufacturer

L Laiacona, Michael Lambert, Gary Last Kiss Goodbye Led Boots pedal Led Zeppelin Leslie, Don

Let It Be (Beatles) Line 6 pedal designer line selection guide (BOSS) Little Alligator volume pedal Liverpool pedal logo, MXR Lollar pickups LOOP Station LC-2 LOOP Station RC-3 loop/sampler manipulation guide (BOSS) LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster) LT Drive pedal LT Dual pedal LT Metal pedal

M Maestro Fuzz-Tone Maestro manufacturer Maestro Ring Modulator manufacturers, history of effects Marshall, Jim Masline Electronics Matthews, Mike beginning of Electro-Harmonix career history distortion-free sustain sound and Electro-Harmonix spearhead designs and Jimi Hendrix and Russia and reestablishment Sovtek amps Maxon pedal designer McCoy, Clyde Meazzi Echomatic

Memory Toy Mesa/Boogie pedal designer MF-102 Ring Modulator Microsynth MIG-50 amp (Sovtek) Mini Q-Tron Minifoogers ModFactor pedal modulation sound guide (BOSS) Mold Spore wah/ring modulator Mole Mooer Audio pedal designer Moog Moogerfooger Phaser Moog pedal designer Moogerfooger effects Moore, Scotty Morley pedal designer Morse, Steve Mothership ring modulator MultiStomp MS-100Bt amp modeler Mu-Tron Bi-Phase MXR Analog Delay Auto Q Bass Blow Torch Blue Box Boost/Line Driver Boost/Overdrive Carbon Copy Classic 108 Fuzz Custom Badass ’78 distortion Custom Badass Modified Overdrive

Custom Comp demand of pedals Digital Delay Distortion + Dyna Comp Eddie Van Halen Phase 90 EVH Flanger Flanger Flanger/Doubler Fullbore Metal Graphic EQ liquidation of assets and bankruptcy logo Noise Gate Line Driver op amps overdrive boxes Phase 45 Phase 90 Phase 100 Phaser Pitch Transposer Six Band EQ Stereo Chorus Myer, Robert Mystic Drive pedal

N Napoli, Jack Napoli, Joe Neatrour, Richard Neo Clone pedal Neo Mistress Noise Gate Line Driver

noise reduction guide (BOSS) Noise Suppressor NS-2 Nove repeater Nu Groove NY-2A compressor

O OCD pedal OctaBass pedal OD-9 Overdrive pedal OD808 Overdrive pedal Olympia pedal op amps overdrive boxes Overdrive OD-3 overdrive pedals Overdrive/Distortion OS-2

P Page, Jimmy Paisley Drive pedal Paul Gilbert Airplace Flanger pedal Paul, Les Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying? pedal designers Alairex Analog Alien Audiotech Axcess by Giannini BBE Blackstar Bogner Caroline Guitar Company

Circus Freak DigiTech Dunlop EarthQuaker EBS Emerson Custom Guitars Eventide Framptone Fulltone GNI Ibanez Jet City Line 6 Maxon Mesa/Boogie Mooer Audio Moog Morley Pigtronix Pro Co/RAT Radial Seymour Duncan Snarling Dogs TC Electronic Tech21 T-Rex Effects Visual Sound Voodoo Lab Walrus Wampler XOTiC Effects Zoom

Phase 45 Phase 90 Phase 100 Phase Shifter phase shifting Phaser Philips Research Labs Philosopher King synthesizer Pigtronix pedal designer Pink Floyd Pitch Bay pedal Pitch Transposer PitchFactor pedal Plunkett, Brad POG2 pedals Poland, Chris Poly Chorus pedal Pro Co/RAT pedal designer Pro-Verdrive Monster pedal

R Radial pedal designer Rage Machine pedal Rainbow Machine pitch shifter Ravish Sitar pedal Redacom company Reecho pedal regulate gain control guide (BOSS) Repeat Percussion Reticon chip Ring Modulator Ring Thing pedal Roberts, Eric

Rocktron Intimidator Roland company Rolling Stones RotoChoir pedal Rottweiler distortion Rozon, Denis Rumble Seat pedal Rumble (Wray) Russia pedal business Ryan, Jimmy Ryan, Johnny

S S-1000 Santiago, James Satriani, Joe Schon, Neal Screaming Bird Treble Booster Secret Freq Seven Moons Seymour Duncan pedal designer Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles) Sherwood, Terry ShimVerb pedal Shred Pro SP1 pedal Six Band EQ SL-20 Slicer slap-back tape echo Small Clone pedal Small Stone pedal Smith, Brady Smith, Randall Snarling Dogs pedal designer

Sonic Distortion Mod pedal Sonic Stomp pedal Sonovox Soul Food pedal Soul Preacher Soul Vibe pedal sound pitch guide (BOSS) Sovtek amps Spark booster spearhead designs, Electro-Harmonix spring reverb, history of effects Stand Up STD-1 Steel Leather pedal Stereo Chorus Stillman, Jamie Stolle, Ray stomp boxes, history of effects Stringer, Charlie Super Chorus CH-1 Super Octave OC-3 Super Replay Superego Sustainer

T Talk Box Tarnowksy, David TC Electronic pedal designer Tech21 pedal designer Terminal pedal TFX-4 Thompson, Trent

Throttle Box pedal TimeFactor pedal tonality sound guide (BOSS) Tone Bender Tone Reaper pedal Tone Tattoo Tonebone Classic pedal Tonebug pedal Tone-Burst pedal Travers, Pat Treble Booster tremolo effects, history of effects Tremolo pedal Tremolux Tremvelope T-Rex Effects pedal designer Trower, Robin TS9 Anniversary pedal TS9 Tube Screamer Tube Screamer Turbo Distortion DS-2 TW-1 Touch Wah Twin Tube Blue pedal Two Timer pedal

U–V UniChorus pedal Uni-Vibe U.S. Steel pedal Variable Echo Reverb Very-Tone Dog pedal Vibra-Tuner Vintage Compressor pedal

Visual Sound pedal designer Vocoder Voodoo Lab pedal designer Vox Distortion Booster Vox Double Deca delay Vox Echo Vox Satchurator Vox V846 wah wah pedal Voyager pedal

W wah wah pedals, history of effects Walrus pedal designer Walsh, Joe Wampler, Brian Wampler pedal designer Watkins, Charlie Wave Cannon pedal Way Huge Angry Troll pedal Way Huge Echo-Puss pedal Way Huge Pork Loin pedal Way Huge Ringworm pedal Way Huge Swollen Pickle pedal Weil, Bob West, Leslie Whammy DI pedal Whammy pedal Whine-O wah pedal White Album, The (Beatles) Who Else! Whole Lotta Love (Page) Wicks, Charlie Wray, Link

Wright, Gilbert Wylde, Zakk

X–Z XOTiC pedal designer You Had It Coming Zoom pedal designer