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EDITORIAL
CHIEF EDITOR Chris Vinnicombe
ART EDITOR John Thackray
MANAGING EDITOR Josh Gardner
PRODUCTION EDITOR Owen Bailey
SENIOR PRODUCT SPECIALIST Huw Price EDITOR’S LETTER
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sam Roberts
INSTRUMENT & COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Eleanor Jane POWER TO THE PEDAL
CONTRIBUTORS Gary Walker, Richard Purvis,
Joseph Branston, Reverb.com, Aaron Dorey

T
hanks for buying The Joy Of FX, the latest in the Guitar Classics
VINTAGE PEDALS courtesy of reverb.com/uk/shop/ series brought to you by the makers of Guitar.com and Guitar
bath-music-exchange
Magazine. Are you the type of player who’s satisied with a
HAVE A STORY? Email us at editors@guitar.com
simple wah-wah, drive and tuner (okay, and maybe tremolo and
a reverb, too…)? Or is your ISS-sized pedalboard in danger of taking
SALES up most of the stage? Regardless of your pedal preferences, it surely
ADVERTISING MANAGER Joe Supple won’t have escaped your attention that in recent years, there’s been a
joe.supple@guitar.com
revolution going on in guitar-effects to rival those in the disparate but
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Di Marsh parallel worlds of craft beer and modular synthesis.
di.marsh@guitar.com
The world’s boutique makers have been warming up their soldering
irons and putting in the late nights to deliver us a truly unprecedented
PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS choice of innovative stompboxes. Nowadays, if you can imagine a
PRINT William Gibbons & Sons Ltd guitar effect, you can bet someone, somewhere will be working hard
DISTRIBUTED BY Marketforce (UK) Ltd to make it a stompable reality – read our Builder Proiles to ind out
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what some of these pioneering pedalmakers have in store.
With such an overwhelming number of pedals on offer, which
BANDLAB TECHNOLOGIES should you buy next? Our monster Top 50 Effects In The World Today
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Meng Ru Kuok feature ranges from spectacular single-function vintage-style units all
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Ivan Chen the way through to the very latest ultra-creative guitar-synth hybrids.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Tom Callahan Have we included your favourites? Turn to p54 to ind out. Of course,
AVP, WEB TECHNOLOGIES Laurent Le Graverend a great many of the effects that make up this exciting new crop are
AVP, COMMS & PARTNERSHIPS Lauren Hendry Parsons standing on the shoulders of the giants of the past – and in our
SENIOR MANAGER, BRAND STRATEGY Krystle Hall rundown of the all-time greats on p14, we celebrate the timeless and
MANAGER, EDITORIAL STRATEGY Iliyas Ong much-imitated machines that altered the course of rock ’n’ roll history.
SENIOR ART EDITOR Michael John Fernandez Elsewhere, our All About features explain the distinctions between
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Terence Stanley distortion, fuzz and overdrive and help you sort your phasers from
your langers, while dispelling some myths along the way. And inally,
SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK ISSUES we take a look at the pedalboards of some high-proile guitarists for
shop.anthem-publishing.com an insight into how the professionals sculpt their sounds. Thanks for
Tel +44 (0) 1371 853 609 reading and enjoy your romp through the stompers…
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GUITAR CLASSICS 3
CONTENTS

4
 CONTENTS

THE JOY OF FX
CONTENTS
003 EDITOR’S LETTER
006 BUILDER PROFILE: 1981 INVENTIONS
008 ALL ABOUT: FUZZ
014 THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
042 BUILDER PROFILE: NANOLOG AUDIO INC
044 ALL ABOUT: ECHO
048 STAR PEDALBOARD: AARON DESSNER
050 ALL ABOUT: MODULATION
054 STAR PEDALBOARD: PAUL SAYER
056 THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
092 ALL ABOUT: REVERB
096 BUILDER PROFILE: THORPYFX
098 STAR PEDALBOARD: GARY CLARK JR
100 ALL ABOUT: TREMOLO
104 BUILDER PROFILE:
DAWNER PRINCE ELECTRONICS
108 ALL ABOUT: WAH
110 STAR PEDALBOARD: NALLE COLT
112 BUILDER PROFILE: JEORGE TRIPPS
118 ALL ABOUT: COMPRESSION
122 BUILDER PROFILE: KMA AUDIO MACHINES
126 SUBSCRIBE TO GUITAR MAGAZINE
128 STAR PEDALBOARD: NATHANIEL RATELIFF
130 INTERVIEW: MICK TAYLOR

GUITAR CLASSICS 5
BUILDER PROFILE

“I’ve been tinkering with this idea for about

four years, with much help from Jon Ashley
of Bondi Effects, who is a close friend. My
main goal was to make a pedal that was
unique and speciic to my sound, but still
with a vintage-minded approach. I decided
pretty early on that I wanted to release the
pedal. I thought that a few people might
be interested in it, but I had no idea that it
would reach as wide as it has. So to answer
your question, I released my irst run to the
public late one night this past June [2018],
and when I woke up I had completely sold
out. It was deinitely at that moment when I
thought that this could be a viable business.”

What was the biggest helping hand when

you were starting out?
“The main thing that has helped me has
been people within the industry reaching
out a helping hand. This started with Jon
of Bondi Effects, but it’s been very positive
that so many friends and colleagues were
willing to reach out and offer support/
encouragement/feedback/advice, and just
experience from doing it. My pre-order
model has allowed me to keep things
small, and to grow slowly. Also, I still
do the majority of the work myself, but
at the beginning, I was doing almost every
BUILDER PROFILE part of production.”

1981 INVENTIONS At what point did you feel like you ‘nailed’
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER your branding?
“I don’t feel like it was an ‘Aha!’ moment,
How did a pedal-builder from Nashville produce the most sought-after but more so growing attached to it over
new stompbox on the planet? We chat to 1981 Inventions main man time. My brain tends to take a long time to
Matthew Hoopes about how the DRV became an online phenomenon… attach to a decision. My logo and branding
concepts were made by a friend. I really
How did you get into guitar? collection. I always was interested in guitar liked it right away, but I kicked around the
“My mom taught me how to play guitar. She sounds and textures, building pedalboards, concept to a few friends who do graphic
had an old classical guitar around the house and endlessly tweaking knobs. At one point, design professionally. Ultimately, I felt that
and she would play kids’ songs at school and I picked up a reissue RAT pedal and I very the more I saw other options, the more sure
church growing up. She had a background much connected with it. I liked how I could I was in the right spot already. Minimal
in folk music, and she helped me learn my inally make my distortion sound dark design and negative space is very important
irst few chords and how to strum. I was enough. It wasn’t long after that I started to me, and also to have a sort of personality
immediately hooked. I wanted to learn my reading about tweaking the circuit, changing and vibe with it is important, and I feel like
favourite songs and come up with my own to the LM308 op-amp, LED mods, high this branding accomplishes that.”
stuff right away. I remember in high school gain, low gain, Ruetz… I picked up a few
having a guitar in hand all the time, playing modded RATs and then started doing things How did you come up with the DRV?
along with commercials on TV and songs on on my own. And then it actually wasn’t until “It’s a distortion pedal based on a 1985
the radio.” a few years ago that I came across a 1985 Whiteface RAT. It is designed and
Whiteface RAT that completely inspired me engineered by Jon Ashley of Bondi Effects,
When did you irst start building pedals? and helped solidify the direction of my irst and I owe a lot of the credit to him and
“I had an early interest in pedals, from my release with 1981 Inventions.” his ear. It isn’t the irst idea that I had for a
irst pedal – the fabled DOD Grunge – pedal and Jon and I threw out four or ive
to, later on, a wider range of vintage and What was the moment you realised that you ideas over the past few years. I ultimately
boutique pedals, as well as a growing Boss could turn your hobby into a business? felt very inspired by the RAT, and felt that

6

The 1981 Inventions DRV is inspired by Matthew
Hoopes’ 1985 Whiteface ProCo RAT distortion
it was a missing piece of available gear, even
for myself. There are a lot of interesting
things going on internally that give it a
different lavour than a RAT. It has a preamp
in front, which is a ixed level and always
on (which is how I run my pedalboard),
it has about 1/20th the amount of gain
from a traditional RAT circuit, but still gets
plenty fuzzy. What we weren’t expecting
when lowering the gain was the amount of
spectrum that opened up in the low-gain
regions, kind of a space where preamp meets
low-gain distortion, which I hadn’t heard
before in a guitar pedal. We adjusted the low
end, midrange, ilter sweep, level, switching
system, LED, and most notably added
iltering to simulate some of my favourite
LM308 chips, but it’s interesting because
I found that several other IC chips sound
good in the DRV, but not the 308. Anyway,
not to get into all of that, but it was a long
time in the design and tweaking phase, even
after choosing the direction. I feel that the
nuance of the sound is important.”
What’s your proudest moment as a maker?
“I feel most proud when I think of sending
off my irst batch of pedals. They went out
“I FEEL MOST PROUD WHEN I THINK OF
SENDING OFF MY FIRST BATCH OF PEDALS.
THEY WENT OUT INTO THE WORLD,
TO MANY PEOPLE I DIDN’T KNOW – AND
THAT WAS REALLY FULFILLING”
into the world, to many people I didn’t
know – and that was really fulilling. I also
really love being there when someone plugs
in my pedal for the irst time and dials in a
sound, and just smiles really big – nothing
beats that moment.”
What do you think are the biggest
challenges and opportunities for
the guitar industry in 2019?
“I see a lot of back-and-forth about digital
processing versus ampliiers. It will be
interesting to see where things land, but I
feel like for me, if I can play through tubes
and speakers, then I will always do that. I’d
like to someday get into digital design, such
as Pro Tools plug-ins, etc. Sourcing is always
an issue. I was not expecting that. I didn’t
realise that sometimes, you just couldn’t
BUILDER PROFILE
get a certain knob or part, and if you order
more, it will take months.”
What are your plans for the future?
“I have a few ideas that I’m working on, and
I do plan to make more pedal designs. My
line of thinking is to make things for my
personal pedalboard and then release the
ones that stay. I’m currently working on a
vintage-based preamp pedal, which is a type
of pedal that I am completely obsessed with.
I also plan on doing some really fun colours
for the DRV in the very near future. I plan
to widen my production base, and to be
able to create and send out more pedals
into the world!”
For more on 1981 Inventions, visit
1981inventions.com
GUITAR CLASSICS 7
ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
FUZZ
WORDS HUW PRICE
Fuzz wasn’t the irst type of effect, but it’s probably the one that’s
shaped the sound and evolution of guitar music more than any other…
A
part from their distinctive sounds,
have you ever wondered what
exactly it is that makes fuzz different
from distortion and overdrive?
In its purest form, the fuzzbox is intended
to create square-wave clipping, and audio
technicians use this term because it’s what
the waveform looks like on an oscilloscope.
It occurs when the harmonic overtones
are more or less equal in volume to the
fundamental frequency.
8
There is no single method to square the
wave. Some designs allow the circuit to run
out of headroom (voltage) so the loudest
parts – ie, the fundamental frequency –
cannot be ampliied beyond a certain point
and the transient peaks are sliced off. This
evens out the amplitude of the fundamental
and the harmonic overtones.
Diodes can also be used to force signal
clipping at a chosen voltage. Some pedals
combine both methods, and designers have
even used square-wave generators, but the
results are similar enough to fall under the
fuzz umbrella regardless.
Things get more interesting when you
start investigating dynamic response,
picking deinition, sustain and upper-octave
effects, because all fuzzboxes have unique
characteristics – often inspiring cultish
levels of devotion among their end users.
Some believe fuzz is at its best without
the softening effect of valve overdrive; so
plugging into a clean valve amp, or even
going direct into a mixer or interface, allows
you to hear the full effect. This brings us
back around to the fathers of fuzz tone.
COOL TO BE SQUARE
It’s accepted that the Maestro FZ-1 was
the irst commercially available fuzzbox. Its
 ALL ABOUT

origins can be traced to a Marty Robbins

country track called Don’t Worry, released
in 1961 and featuring guitarist Grady Martin
on a Danelectro six-string bass plugged
directly into a valve mixing desk.
During the session, one of the console
transformers started to fail, making the
Danelectro sound distorted and fuzzy.
Everybody liked it so much they even
recorded a solo with the fuzzed-out bass.
The record was a huge hit, and when
Nancy Sinatra booked into the studio
shortly after, she requested the same sound.
Unfortunately, the ‘magic transformer’ had
failed completely in the interim, so studio
engineer Glenn Snoddy teamed up with his
friend Revis Hobbs to recreate the effect
using transistors.
They pitched the idea to Gibson and the
irst fuzz appeared as an effect built into a
bass in February 1962. A loor-pedal version
known as the Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1
followed soon after, but the product was a
commercial failure – until Keith Richard
came up with one of the deinitive fuzz riffs
on the legendary Stones hit (I Can’t Get No)
Satisfaction, released in 1965.
ABOVE Xxxxx
The Beatles, Frank Zappa, The Ventures
and a handful of garage-band guitarists had OPPOSITE Xxxxx
already experimented with fuzz, but after
the initial 1962 production run of 5,000
units, Gibson shipped only three pedals in
1963 – and none in 1964.
After (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Mayer’s upgrade on the raspy and LEFT The Royal Jelly
everybody wanted to know how to get that percussive Maestro set a new standard overdrive and fuzz blender
tone, and soon Maestro sales were in the for fuzz tone, and in the fuzz frenzy that pedal from the hive mind
tens of thousands. Even so, interest in fuzz followed, everybody wanted some of at Beetronics runs two
separate circuits in parallel
had been building on the London studio the action. Rather than get into circuit
with options to mix them,
scene for a few years and many of the most speciics, it’s probably more illuminating to and your dry signal, to taste
iconic fuzz designs would subsequently be associate various players and their landmark
developed in the UK. recordings with the fuzzboxes they used. ABOVE Electro-Harmonix
Gary Hurst had already built some celebrated its 50th
FUZZ FRENZY custom fuzzboxes, and teamed up with the anniversary in 2018 with the
release of the Triangle Big
A 1962 track called The 2000 Pound Bee, Macari brothers to design the Sola Sound
Muf Pi, a recreation of the
by The Ventures, featured a custom-made Tone Bender. The Mk I featured on Rubber
original, circa-1969 circuit
fuzz, and so impressed a young Jimmy Page Soul by The Beatles, as well as Heart Full Of now housed in a pedalboard-
that he asked an electronics engineer called Soul by The Yardbirds, featuring Jeff Beck. friendly chassis
Roger Mayer to make him a fuzzbox with But the sound is most commonly associated
more sustain and smoother decay. This was with Mick Ronson, who used a Mk I
in 1964, and Mayer claims also to have made throughout his Bowie years.
fuzzboxes for Jeff Beck and Big Jim Sullivan Some players prefer the Mk II and Mk III
around that time. versions, with most of the Mk IIIs carrying

GUITAR CLASSICS 9
ALL ABOUT
FUZZ FACE SCHEMATIC
9V
INPUT
2.2uF
the Vox label. The Tone Bender was a
hugely inluential design and many of its
competitors – including the Marshall Supa
Fuzz and JHS’s The Zonk Machine – were
virtual clones. Some things never change in
the pedal world.
The Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face has
an equally important place in the fuzz
pantheon. Based on a Schmitt trigger
squaring circuit, the Fuzz Face was about
as simple and cheap as a fuzzbox could be,
but they were troublesome units. Good
ones can sound sublime, as Eric Johnson and
Stevie Ray Vaughan have demonstrated, but
originals were wildly inconsistent.
The early PNP germanium-transistor
fuzzboxes were wired with a positive
ground, which means you can’t power them
10
330 OR 470
33K 8.2K
Q2
Q1
100K
1K
with a conventional power supply along
with a bunch of negative-ground pedals.
You’ll need a supply such as the Voodoo Lab
Pedal Power 2 Plus, which has electronically
isolated outputs. You may also like the
voltage-sag feature of this supply, because it
simulates the effect of a worn battery and
sweetens the fuzz tone. Fuzzboxes with
NPN transistors can run alongside most
modern pedals with no dificulties.
Jimi Hendrix was obviously veed by
the inconsistency, because he asked Roger
Mayer if he could sort out his Fuzz Faces.
Mayer took a good-sounding example back
to his workshop for analysis. His idea was
to blueprint the circuit in order to make
it stable and reliable and before long,
Mayer had become Hendrix’s dedicated
0.01
500K OUTPUT
2ouF
full-time tech. Many of the fuzzboxes that
Mayer later produced under his own name
were based on the Fuzz Face circuits he’d
modiied for Hendrix.
IN THEIR ELEMENTS
Some people prefer the earlier Fuzz Faces
with germanium transistors for their warmer
and fatter sound. The brighter, more cutting
sound of the later version, with BC108
silicon transistors, can be heard on The Dark
Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.
Meanwhile, in America, Mosrite’s Fuzzrite
was used on Iron Butterly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-
Vida, and is generally thought to be the fuzz
tone on Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western
soundtracks. Out in Japan, Shin-ei developed
the Super Fuzz, with its upper-octave effect.

Pete Townshend used this huge and brutal-
sounding fuzz pedal on The Who’s Live At
Leeds album.
Fuzzboxes evolved as the 60s wore on,
moving from crude and raspy sounds to
smoother, fatter and more velvety tones.
Perhaps the ultimate example of the latter-
day fuzzbox is the Electro-Harmonix Big
Muff, so beloved of J Mascis, Billy Corgan,
Jack White – and even David Gilmour, who
used a Big Muff during the late 70s.
In the days before cascading, high-gain
valve preamps, fuzzboxes were the only way
to get serious sustain. As the nature of fuzz
developed, the music featuring it morphed
from the garage-band pop of the mid 60s
into psychedelic blues, proto metal, prog
rock, jazz fusion, shoegaze and alternative
ALL ABOUT
rock. Fuzz has never really been out of style. FACING PAGE The basic
These days, of course, most of the classic circuit diagram of the
models have been reissued and specialist much-beloved Fuzz Face
makers such as Analog Man and D*A*M
ABOVE LEFT Fulltone’s first
build fastidiously accurate replicas of the pedal, the ’69 fuzz, is updated
original circuits. DIY pedal builders have with this new MkII version
also found that fuzz pedals are usually quite with hand-picked germanium
simple to build, and commercially made kits transistors and Input Bias
are readily available. and Contour controls for
tone sculpting
For those players who can’t choose
between spluttery old-school sounds and
ABOVE RIGHT Dunlop’s
creamy sustain, many of the modern FFM3 Mini Fuzz Face is
boutique fuzzboxes have replaced preset less than half the width
components with controls on the exterior of of the original
the casing. Therefore, these days, there’s no
need to choose between one type of fuzz or
another, because you can have every variety
of the effect in the same enclosure.
GUITAR CLASSICS 11
BUILDER PROFILE
BUILDER PROFILE
MERIS
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER
Founded by veterans of Line 6 and Strymon, Meris has rapidly become a
respected name in high-end digital effects. We talk to founder Terry Burton
and Angelo Mazzocco about how they got to where they are today…
How did you both irst get into the guitar?
Terry: “When I was really young, I was so
fortunate that one of my uncles, Dave, lived
with us. He’s a songwriter and guitar player,
so I have early memories of wandering
into his room and being awed by all of
the recording gear.
“This was the early 80s, so there was an
Ibanez LP copy, Portastudio, reel to reel,
Yamaha SPX90 and pedals, including an
A/DA Flanger! He let me mess with all of
this stuff, but I didn’t actually start playing
until my parents bought me my irst guitar
when I was 13 or so.
“After that, he let me borrow everything
on a semi-permanent basis. That really
sparked my gear obsession.”
Angelo: “I loved woodworking as a little kid,
and my father and I built a crude miniature
guitar that we cut out on the bandsaw.
Once my mom saw how much fun I was
having, she bought me an acoustic guitar
the next Christmas. That acoustic eventually
led to a Stratocaster, and then it was all
over… from then on, all I wanted to do
is practise guitar.”
12
Angelo Mazzocco (left)
and Terry Burton of Meris
When did you start tinkering with gear?
Terry: “A couple of years later, I discovered
the Craig Anderton book (Electronic Projects
For Musicians) and built my irst distortion
pedal. I blew it up at least three times
before I ever got it to work, but after it
did inally work, I was hooked.
“My dad was always really supportive of
my interests and he loved music himself.
I had a terrible-sounding solid-state Marshall
that I also blew up by tinkering with and my
dad encouraged me to ask the local music-
gear repair person for a job. His name was
Pat Buley and I begged him to let me help
out with anything I could. After a week or
so, he said yes – it was a dream come true
and I was so grateful. I tore into every piece
of gear he had waiting to be ixed, studied
every schematic. That was really a fun time
and an invaluable lesson on how to engineer
music products.”
Angelo: “As a teenager, I was fascinated with
all of the amazing rack gear that was popular
at the time. While most of it was priced
out of my reach, I researched all I could
to understand how the devices and their
algorithms worked. When I started college,
I focused on Digital Signal Processing with
the aim of some day working in the music
industry. Between classes, I was a research
assistant for a professor studying the physics
behind optical computing. This gave me
access to an electronics lab and machine
shop, where I would build pedals after hours.
The irst pedal I built in that shop was an
overdrive pedal with selectable asymmetrical
clipping curves.”
How did you get into the business of
making pedals?
Terry: “After working in repair for a few
years, I applied for a job at Line 6, which
was only about a 30-minute drive from
where I lived in Ventura. I started out as a
tech in the engineering department and after
a short time, they gave me the opportunity
to become a design engineer. I worked
mostly on ampliiers. I’m so grateful for
that gig, I had many mentors there.
“After about seven years, I got the itch
to try my own thing, so I quit and my wife
Jinna and I started Strymon in our tiny
two-bedroom apartment. Fast forward to
2013 and I was ready to start something
new again. I contacted an old friend and my
favourite DSP engineer in the whole world,
Angelo, who was also ready to try something
new. Meris was born…
“I’d design the hardware, Angelo would
design the algorithms and Jinna would be
responsible for the look and vibe of the
brand and products.”
Angelo: “After I graduated, my wife
and I lew out to California and drove
up and down the coast interviewing at
telecommunications irms; along the way,
I stopped at both Digidesign and Line 6.
“I was lucky enough to catch Michel
Doidic during some rare downtime and
we bonded over Frank Zappa. Thankfully,
I was offered a job as a DSP engineer and
started soon after. And that is where I met
Terry! I am so grateful to team up Terry, who
is such an electronics wizard and Jinna, who
has an incredible artistic vision.”
How did you support the business in the
early days?
Terry: “We’ve always been self-funded,
which was extremely challenging. But the
upside of that is that you have complete
and total freedom on your designs. I think
that if you can make it past the painful
beginning, it’s the only way to maintain
creative freedom.”

Read our review of the Meris Enzo
multi-voice instrument synthesiser
pedal at Guitar.com
At what point did you feel like you nailed
your branding?
Terry: “Jinna came from some of the top
design studios in LA and had already done
design and/or branding work for GM,
Disney, Dragonframe, Strymon and many
others, so I was always conident that she’d
nail it for Meris. She has a very clear vision
of how to relect all of our personalities
genuinely through the brand and I think that
shows in all of our work. She is a great artist
and we are lucky and humbled to have her
on the team.”
What’s your proudest moment as a pedal
maker to date?
Terry: “Probably the release day of our
irst two pedals, the Mercury7 and the
Ottobit Jr. We were a ledgling new brand
in an industry that loves historic brands.
Once the pedals started shipping, I was
conident we could really build something
that would last and be inluential.”
Angelo: “Having musicians connect with
something you’ve laboured so long on
and taken very personally is extremely
rewarding. It’s like releasing a new song.
You work for months and months on it,
pouring your heart and soul into every
detail. And then the nerve-wracking
moment comes where you release it and
hope it connects with the outside world.”
“THE GENERAL THEME WITH OUR GEAR
IS THAT WE ALWAYS WANT TO CREATE
SOMETHING THAT ACTS AS AN INSTRUMENT
IN AND OF ITSELF AND IS INSPIRED
BY A CENTRAL IDEA OR CONCEPT”
What’s your best-selling product so far?
Terry: “Well, right now it’s Enzo, which is
also the newest. It came from our obsession
with synthesisers, especially the CS-80 and
also Oberheim stuff. I had tried and failed
many times to achieve a guitar-synth setup
from existing gear and I was never happy
with it.
“Angelo really nailed the sounds and
tracking, which is insanely hard to do
without a special pickup.”
Angelo: “I’ve always admired the intense
creative tools that synth players have had
at their disposal. Chick Corea, Vangelis and
Keith Emerson were huge inspirations and
I wanted put those same tools into the hands
of guitar players. I actually started work on
the Enzo at the same time as our irst pedal,
the Ottobit Jr – the Enzo took more
time, since I was continually reining
the pitch-detection algorithms while
designing our other pedals.”
What do you think are the biggest
challenges and opportunities for the
guitar industry in 2019?
BUILDER PROFILE
Angelo: “I think the opportunities are
limitless. I feel like we’re just seeing the tip
of the iceberg as to what is possible with
expanding the palette for guitar players.
“Synth players have had a head-start
when it comes to the tools available to
craft their sounds, but the tools for guitar
players are catching up. We regard our
pedals as instruments and I ind it exciting
that the pedalboard is turning into an
extension of the instrument. It reminds
me of how synth players interact with
their modular-synth racks.”
What are your plans for the future?
Terry: “We always have multiple things on
the horizon. The general theme that we stick
to with our gear is that we always want to
create something that acts as an instrument
in and of itself and is inspired by a central
idea or concept. I think our team is really
grateful to be able to do what we do and to
be creative on a daily basis. I hope we get to
keep creating things for a long time.”
For more info, head to meris.us
GUITAR CLASSICS 13
THE
THE TOP
TOP 20
20 EFFECTS
EFFECTS OF
OF ALL
ALL TIME
TIME

THE

TOP 20
OF ALL TIME
For well over half a century, guitarists
of every stripe have been stomping on
effects pedals to take their sound to a
higher plane. Over time, some of these
units have stood out from the crowd
and become recognised as the most
iconic, the most inluential and the
most sought-after guitar effects of all.
You’ll ind them on hit records, at the
feet of the biggest-selling artists ever,
and maybe even on your pedalboard,
too. Let’s hit the loor…
WORDS JOSH GARDNER & SAM ROBERTS

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GUITAR CLASSICS 15
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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 20

DALLAS RANGEMASTER

I
t might not be a pedal in the conventional sense, but rest assured
the world of electric guitar would be very different if it wasn’t
for this nondescript little box. Designed to sit atop an ampliier,
the Rangemaster Treble Booster was created to cut through the
mush of dark-toned amps and murky 1960s live stages, yet guitarists
soon found it was capable of something much more interesting.
In the days before dedicated drive pedals and hot pickups, treble
boosters were a hit because guitarists realised they could help push
a valve amp into glorious overdrive and singing sustain. Clapton’s
revolutionary Bluesbreakers tone? Legend has it that a Dallas
Rangemaster was involved in driving Eric’s JTM45 for those ‘Beano’
sessions. And then, of course, there’s Brian May – inluenced by Rory
Gallagher, the Rangemaster’s most famous disciple couldn’t live
without his little box (pictured above), as the Queen legend told us
in 2016: “I plugged my Red Special and a Rangemaster that I’d found
into one of these amps [his Vox AC30] and the sound was just there.
It had that depth, the overtones, the sustain, and the throaty splutter.
I just knew that it was the sound I’d always been looking for, so we
bought two at £25 each, took them home and that was it.”

FAMOUS USERS RORY GALLAGHER, ERIC CLAPTON, BRIAN MAY

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE ELECTRO-HARMONIX SCREAMING BIRD

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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 19

STRYMON BIGSKY

T
he BigSky has exploded in popularity since it was irst
launched in 2013, bringing studio-quality reverb to
pedalboards with a remarkable amount of control, lexibility
and truly inspiring sounds. The team behind the BigSky
contains some of the modelling masterminds who had created the
Line 6 Stompbox Modeler range a decade previously, and the ethos
behind Strymon’s big-box pedal is similar, but more reined. The key
factor is its 333MHz SHARC processor – a chip more commonly
seen in studio and rackmount units – that gives the BigSky the DSP
horsepower to almost endlesly reine 12 onboard reverb algorithms.
In addition to traditional offerings such as Hall, Plate, Spring and
Room, you get modes that sprinkle anything you play with a heavenly
sheen. There’s the utterly beautiful Cloud – a huge ambient reverb that
works like a ‘better switch’ – and Chorale, which emulates an ensemble
of human voices accompanying your playing. Shimmer adds highly
adjustable pitch-shifted tones, while Swell brings the reverb or dry
signal in gradually like a volume pedal. With 300 presets, the BigSky is
well designed for live use, too, and all in all, it’s no wonder many players
consider it to be the greatest digital reverb pedal ever made.

FAMOUS USERS JAMES BAY, BEN HOWARD, LEE MALIA

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE STRYMON BLUESKY

GUITAR CLASSICS 17
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 18

BOSS DM-2

O
nly in circulation between 1981 to 1984, the Boss DM-2
now commands a high price on the vintage market. The irst
delay pedal to use Boss’s compact enclosure, the DM-2 is
now a bona-ide classic among pedal enthusiasts. Boss
technicians implemented a bucket-brigade device – as opposed to
the CDD used previously – in order to shrink the DM-1 circuit into
a smaller form factor. Boss tweaked the design on numerous
occasions, and there are now considered to be three different
versions, all revered for their warm analogue tone. The irst version
used the MN3005 BBD, which was soon switched to the MN3205
BBD, with the third iteration also seeing different PCB markings.
Featuring three dials for Repeat Rate, Echo and Intensity, this
analogue tone-machine is able to produce delay times ranging from
30 to 300 milliseconds and its limited frequency response gives the
pedal its warm characteristics and enveloping tone.
The DM-2 was discontinued in 1984 and the DM-3 swiftly
followed, remaining similar to its predecessor with a few internal
tweaks. The DM-3 comes in at a lower price point on the used
market, but some prefer the cleaner nature of its repeats.

FAMOUS USERS MARK KNOPFLER, GARY MOORE, BECK

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE WAY HUGE AQUA-PUSS

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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 17

MXR DISTORTION +

W
hen Keith Barr and Terry Sherwood owned an audio-repair
shop in Rochester, NY during the early 70s, they were
appalled at the standard of the effects their customers were
bringing in. They founded MXR pedals and circa 1974, the
now legendary M-104, aka Distortion +, was born. Featuring a simple
two-knob coniguration, no LED and a nine-volt battery, the
Distortion + became an overnight success.
Categorised as a mild, fuzzy distortion, the Distortion + allows
for cool and raunchy blues tone with the Output cranked and the
Distortion set low, all the way up to classic 80s hard-rock tones with
the Distortion maxed out. It uses a very simple circuit with a single
op-amp and two germanium diodes, while also outputting more gain
(46.5dB) than its competitors, namely the BOSS DS-1 (35dB) and
Tube Screamer (41dB). The pedal’s simplicity was not without its
drawbacks, though, and the irst ‘Box Logo Period’ ended in 1981,
when LEDs and 1/8-inch mains adaptors were introduced, and have
remained ever since. Made famous by Randy Rhoads, most notably on
the raucous solo in Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard Of Oz, the Distortion +
has ben used by Thom Yorke, Jerry Garcia and Dave Murray.

FAMOUS USERS RANDY RHOADS, JERRY GARCIA, THOM YORKE

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE DOD FX50

GUITAR CLASSICS 19
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 16

BOSS CS-2

T
he Boss CS-2 is the quintessential loor compressor, and also
happens to be a irm ofice favourite. First introduced in
1981, the CS-2 Compression Sustainer was a development on
the circuit found in the CS-1, and used a VCA (voltage-
controlled ampliier) instead of the photocouplers found in the
CS-1. The implementation of the VCA chip sped up the signal
processing of the circuit, which in turn made the attack faster than
that of the CS-1.
Sounding like a toss-up between a transistor compressor, much like
the MXR Dyna Comp, and an optical compressor, the CS-2 gives a
sweet and smooth sustain, without pushing your tone into ice-pick
territory. Following the success of the CS-3, which was introduced in
’86, the CS-2 was discontinued in 1989, but vintage iterations of this
iconic squeezebox can now fetch north of £200 on Reverb.com.
Early versions of the CS-2’s close relative, the CS-3, also featured
a similar VCA chip up until the early 1990s, when it switched to a
THAT2159. The CS-3 remains Boss’s only compression pedal still in
production, yet we remain hopeful for a WAZA Craft reissue of the
CS-2 in 2019.

FAMOUS USERS DAVID GILMOUR, THE EDGE, JOSH KLINGHOFFER

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE MOOER YELLOW COMP

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 THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
© Reverb.com

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 15

ELECTRO-HARMONIX
ELECTRIC MISTRESS

D
esigned by David Cockerell and irst released in 1976,
Electro-Harmonix’s Electric Mistress stereo langer was the
irst pedal version of an effect that initially came into being in
the 1940s and was discovered by Les Paul, before The Beatles
reimagined it using tape machines in the mid-60s. By slowing down
one of two playback reel tapes by around 20ms, the time delay causes
a langing effect. The Electric Mistress allowed players to take this
tape-manipulating sound out of the studio and onto the bandstand.
The irst iterations of the Electric Mistress, housed in Big Muff-
sized metal enclosures, were made between 1976-1981 and powered
by twin nine-volt batteries. There were numerous design changes,
alongside minor changes to the schematic and a varying range of
PCBs; the most commonly seen features a large green font. A ilter
matrix switch was added in 1977 and the introduction of the Deluxe
version followed in 1978, sold alongside the standard version until
the early 80s. Early models are famed for their luid characteristics
and chorus langing. Be warned, though, not all were created equal…

FAMOUS USERS DAVID GILMOUR, J MASCIS, PAUL GILBERT

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE EHX STEREO ELECTRIC MISTRESS, MOOER ELECLADY

GUITAR CLASSICS 21
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 14

BOSS DS-1

A
nother true classic of the effects world, the Boss DS-1 was irst introduced in
1978, a year after the company debuted its compact pedal enclosure. Famous for
its low noise and hard edge, the DS-1 initially featured a Toshiba TA7136AP
preamp chip, not an op-amp, during its early production days in Japan. This
model is easily distinguishable due to its silver screw and long dash. The D in DS-1 also
sits neatly under the second ‘T’ in Distortion.
This remained largely unchanged – despite the dramatic integration of a plastic
screw in ’81 – for 16 years, until the production plant moved to Taiwan, coinciding
with a revision to the DS-1 and a switch to ROHM op-amps. These chips were still
manufactured in Japan, but resulted in a lower output and more transparent drive. Its
more recent revisions have come within the past two decades: once in 2000, when both
the pedal and chip (Mitsubishi op-amp) were made in Taiwan, and inally in 2006, when
a New Japan Radio NJM2904L op-amp became the primary chip.
Made famous by Kurt Cobain, most notably as one of the main tone-shapers on
Nevermind, this utilitarian distortion has also been utilised by the likes of Steve Vai,
Joe Satriani and John Frusciante. Cheap, cheerful and ubiquitous, you’d be hard pressed
to ind a better meat-and-potatoes distortion at this price point.

FAMOUS USERS KURT COBAIN, JOHN FRUSCIANTE, STEVE VAI

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE BIYANG DS-10

GUITAR CLASSICS 23
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 13

MXR DYNA COMP

I
f you’re in the market for a transparent, colourless compressor, then you’re advised to
look elsewhere. However, if you belong to the school of thought that compressors
should add real texture and lavour to your tone, then look no further than this iconic
red stompbox from MXR.
Introduced in 1972, the MXR Dyna Comp marked a turning point in the compressor’s
move from the studio to the stage loor. Featuring two straightforward Output and
Sensitivity controls, for volume and compression respectively, the Dyna Comp became
an immediate hit, favoured by the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George, before
landing at the feet of David Gilmour and Andy Summers.
Vintage units are prone to producing considerable hiss with both knobs cranked, but
some would argue that’s part of their charm. Strum a big open chord and you’ll hear an
entirely different tone on top of the expected attack and decay.
Original script-logo Dyna Comps featured a ‘tin can’ CA3080 IC, but this changed
due to its scarcity, along with an update to the now-ubiquitous box logo. Both pedals,
particularly box-logo models from the early 1970s, have a sound that is close enough that
only the keenest compressor aicionados can tell the difference, resulting in a continuation
of the classic Dyna Comp sound.

FAMOUS USERS ERIC JOHNSON, BONNIE RAITT, KEVIN PARKER

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE BIYANG CO-10, MAXON CP101

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GUITAR CLASSICS 25
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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 12

MXR PHASE 90

M
XR’s debut pedal remains its most famous, and with good
reason. The little orange box is more than just a phaser, it’s
the phaser, and has become totally synonymous with the
effect. Don’t believe us? Open up your favourite digital
amp-and-effects modelling software and select the phaser – we’ll bet
it’s represented by an orange rectangle with rounded-off corners…
The secret of the Phase 90’s success is perhaps rooted in its
simplicity – one Rate knob is all you need to take you from subtle
shimmering to a thunderous jet-engine roar, and the original units
didn’t even complicate matters with such basic embellishments as
external power or an on/off LED. Most prized among collectors are
the ‘Script’ Phase 90s, which were produced from 1974 through to
their switch to the current ‘block’ logo around 1977. It’s a purely
cosmetic difference, however, and the two pedals were identical
under the hood. Certainly, Eddie Van Halen thought so – the Phase
90’s most famous proponent got his irst Phase 90 in the mid 70s and
used both block- and script-logo versions during Van Halen’s heyday.
The original MXR company went bankrupt in 1984, but Dunlop
produces a variety of Phase 90 variants and reissues today.

FAMOUS USERS EDDIE VAN HALEN

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE MXR CSP026 ’74 VINTAGE PHASE 90 REISSUE

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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 11

DIGITECH WHAMMY

T
here are few effects pedals as easily recognisable as DigiTech’s
Whammy. First introduced in 1989 by IVL Technologies,
the now ubiquitous Whammy was a gamechanger in the
stompbox world. A simple pitch-shifter controlled by an
integrated expression pedal, this revolutionary metal box introduced
guitarists to a new world of strange and esoteric guitar playing.
Pitch-shifters are generally octavers that enable pitch bends and
shifts in harmony and the Whammy took this to another level by
digitally processing these sounds through a range of presets, along
with the ability to further manipulate the results with a treadle.
Its popularity also stems from its simple functionality and
wide-ranging appeal: it’s been prominently featured by many
groundbreaking guitar players, from Jonny Greenwood, Tom Morello
and Jack White to John Scoield and Ichirou Agata of Melt-Banana.
Resplendent in Ferrari Red (excluding the Whammy II, which
came in a black enclosure), the DigiTech Whammy is now in its
seventh iteration – alongside the DigiTech Ricochet and Drop –
and continues to give guitar players both young and old a fresh
sonic palette.

FAMOUS USERS DAVID GILMOUR, JONNY GREENWOOD, JACK WHITE, TOM MORELLO
AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE DIGITECH WHAMMY RICOCHET

GUITAR CLASSICS 27
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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 10

PROCO RAT

P
roCo’s initial intention was to build simple connectors, cables and interface
devices. In 1978, however, its resident ‘Hippie In Charge Of Technology’ Scott
Burnham accidentally hooked up a 47-ohm resistor to the now-infamous
Motorola LM308N op-amp – and the ProCo RAT distortion pedal was born.
Holed up in the basement of his rat-infested Kalamazoo shop in 1978, Burnham
and his co-engineer Steve Kiraly built a custom-ordered prototype commonly referred
to as the ‘Bud Box’ RAT, of which there were only 12 made, all of them being hand-
drilled and featuring a silk-screened logo. With only this dirty dozen ever existing,
they’re extremely rare and if you were to stumble across this particular rodent, you
should immediately escort it to the Natural History Museum.
Once 1979 had come around, orders had skyrocketed, enabling the ProCo team
to mass-produce the RAT we’ve all come to know and love; featuring a bent-steel
enclosure, white logo and newly added Filter control. This model is commonly known
as the Whiteface RAT.
From spitting fuzz, edgy distortion to searing lead lines, the RAT has left its
footprints on some of rock’s most important records since its public release in
1979, including Metallica’s Kill ’Em All, Blur’s self-titled LP and Foo Fighters’ debut.

FAMOUS USERS GRAHAM COXON, RIVERS CUOMO, DAVE GROHL

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE BOSS DS-2

GUITAR CLASSICS 29
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
© Reverb.com

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 9

SOLA SOUND/VOX
TONE BENDER

T
he Maestro Fuzz-Tone might have been the irst widely
available fuzz pedal, but its close cousin, the Tone Bender,
became a true phenomenon. The Tone Bender was originally
designed and made by guitar technician Gary Hurst, who had
previously worked for Vox and later for the Macari brothers. Legend
has it that session ace Vic Flick (of James Bond theme fame) came
into the Macari’s shop complaining his Maestro Fuzz-Tone lacked
the sustain he needed, so Hurst offered to build him something
better. By taking the Fuzz-Tone circuit and beeing up the voltage
from three to nine volts, the result gave Flick the singing sustain he
wanted. Soon, other London session men – including Jim Sullivan
and Jimmy Page – were after one of his wedge-shaped wooden boxes.
Quite how much truth there is in that tale is debatable, but it
didn’t take long for the Tone Bender to become a hit. It has been
through many iterations, and made under many brand names,
including Sola Sound, Colorsound, JMI, Vox and Marshall (as the
Supa Fuzz), but whatever the name, it remains a quintessential fuzz.

FAMOUS USERS JIMMY PAGE, JEFF BECK, PAUL MCCARTNEY, MICK RONSON
AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE ELECTRO-HARMONIX SATISFACTION

30
 THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
© Reverb.com

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 8

BOSS CE-1

T
hough Japanese company Roland had been producing a range
of effects pedals since it was established in 1972 by Ikutaro
Kakehashi, 1976’s CE-1 Chorus Ensemble has the distinction
of being the irst effects pedal under the Boss brand, and also
the irst of any kind to use a Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) chip.
Housed in a large ‘baked crackle’ diecast-steel box, which contained
the same circuit as Roland’s 1975 JC-60 and JC-120 Jazz Chorus
solid-state guitar amps, the stereo-output CE-1 progressively proved
a hit with players. Its success paved the way for Boss’s all-conquering
line of compact pedals, including the mono CE-2 in 1979. Boss has
continued to update the CE series and in 2016, debuted a
modernised CE-2 in its high-end WAZA Craft range.
The CE-1’s sonic signature, offering independent chorus and
vibrato modes with just a rudimentary Chorus Intensity control for
the former, is most synonymous with Andy Summers of The Police
– the distinctive, dynamic musical modulation of the CE-1 (or his
JC-120) featured prominently in several early hits. Boss’s chorus
practically deines 80s guitar; use a vintage CE-1 today and you may
be surprised to ind it sounds every bit as beguiling as its successors.
FAMOUS USERS ANDY SUMMERS, ERIC CLAPTON, BRIAN MAY
AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE BOSS CE-5

GUITAR CLASSICS 31
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THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 7

LINE 6 DL4

T
here’s an argument to be made that 1999’s Line 6 DL4 is the most important and
inluential effects pedal of the last 20 years. Line 6 had only been around for three
years, and had enjoyed considerable success thanks to its revolutionary POD
amp-modelling unit, but the four-switch Stompbox Modeler range represented a
concerted effort to invade the pedalboards of serious musicians.
Ostensibly, the Stompbox Modelers did what they said on the tin. Each contained a
selection of digital sounds modelled on a library of classic effects units – a concept that
was pretty revolutionary back at the turn of the millennium. While the MM4 Modulation
Modeler and FM4 Filter Modeler have their fans, the DL4 Delay Modeler became an
unprecedented hit, and it wasn’t long before seemingly every guitarist on the planet
had this big green box on their pedalboards. Some went even further, basing their entire
sound on the DL4’s widescreen atmospheric capabilities and seemingly endless well
of inspiration.
The genius of the DL4 lies in its versatility, its idelity and its intuitive functionality.
Created by a crack team of modelling bofins – including Way Huge mainman Jeorge
Tripps – the DL4 digitally recreated 16 of the most iconic delay boxes of the past, with a
hitherto unseen level of tweakability and lexibility, including tap tempo and three presets.
There’s also the oft-forgotten looper function, which allows you to sample, reverse and slow
down your repeats as needed. More accurate and versatile units have followed, but there’s
something about the way the DL4 works that is enduring, and uniquely inspirational.

FAMOUS USERS JONNY GREENWOOD, DAVE KNUDSON, DAVE KONOPKA

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE TC ELECTRONIC FLASHBACK 2

GUITAR CLASSICS 33
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
© Mick Taylor

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 6

KLON CENTAUR

D
epending on who you talk to, the Klon Centaur is either the
greatest, most useful overdrive ever made, or the worst
example of guitarists losing all sense of perspective about how
much good tone should cost. This probably wasn’t what Bill
Finnegan envisioned when he had the ingenious idea to use a
high-idelity, low-noise preamp in an overdrive pedal back in 1990.
Other innovations include a charge-pump power supply that doubled
the operating voltage to increase headroom and a circuit that split the
signal into clean and overdrive paths and then recombined them. The
result was the Klon Centaur: a wonderful overdrive and boost that
offers a widescreen frequency range and addictive touch
responsiveness. For many players, it was the Holy Grail, and as the
word spread after its release in 1994, Finnegan could never build
enough to satisfy demand. The scarcity of supply (8,000 or so were
produced between 1994 and the end of production in 2000) meant
that they soon began to skyrocket on the used market.
Centaurs now go for a staggering £1,500-£2,000 ($1,900-$2,500)
a pop, and have spawned a whole host of clones (or ‘klones’). If you
can afford it and can ind one, you won’t want to switch it off.

FAMOUS USERS JEFF BECK, JOHN MAYER, JASON ISBELL

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE J ROCKETT AUDIO DESIGNS ARCHER

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© Richard Purvis

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 5

ELECTRO-HARMONIX
BIG MUFF PI

A
s the 70s approached, Mike Matthews had been doing okay
producing fuzz pedals for Guild, as well as the original Muff,
but wanted something more exciting. “I asked my buddy,
Bell Labs designer Bob Myer, to design a unit, one that would
have a lot of sustain,” Matthews recalls. “When I got the prototype
from Bob, I loved the long sustain. This was done by cascading the
circuit into additional sections, each one clipped by twin diodes.
However, when you clip, the tone can be a bit raspy. So, I spent a
couple of days changing capacitors to roll off distortion in the highs
and eventually found the best long sustaining tone that was a sweet
violin-like sound was done by having three capacitors in different
parts of the circuit rolling off the rasp… I brought the very irst units
up to Henry, the boss at Manny’s Music Store on 48th Street, NYC.
About a week later, I stopped by Manny’s… and Henry yelled out to
me: ‘Hey Mike, I sold one of those new Big Muffs to Jimi Hendrix.’”
Gilmour, Santana and others were early adopters of the Big Muff
and the number of players who’ve followed since is almost countless.

FAMOUS USERS DAVID GILMOUR, BILLY CORGAN, THURSTON MOORE

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE ELECTRO-HARMONIX NANO BIG MUFF PI

GUITAR CLASSICS 35
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 4

ELECTRO-HARMONIX
MEMORY MAN

T
he original Memory Man was released in 1976, and while nobody is quite sure
if it was the very irst analogue delay pedal, it was certainly one of them – and it
was also the most successful. The transition from unreliable and cumbersome tape
echoes to solid-state delay pedals was a huge beneit to guitarists.
Key to the Memory Man’s success were the warm, thick sounds that came courtesy
of the famous ‘bucket brigade’ delay chips inside. The BBD chips were responsible for
achieving an analogue warmth and tape-like echo that guitarists fell for, but Electro-
Harmonix didn’t stop there. Throughout the late 70s, Mike Matthews and his team
continued to develop the pedal with a stereo version (seen here) and arguably its zenith
– the now-iconic Deluxe Memory Man.
The DMM took everything that people loved about the original – namely those warm,
grainy analogue-delay sounds – and added a suite of new features to make the pedal even
more versatile than before. So in addition to an effected output, the Deluxe also sported
an output for the dry signal, and there was a Level control to tweak the intensity of the
effect. Perhaps most notably, there was also the ‘Chorus/Vibrato’ knob – twisting this one
way or the other would add varying degrees of modulation to your delayed sound.
The Deluxe Memory Man has been used by scores of guitarists over the years, but
none more famously than U2’s The Edge, who remarked that: “Suddenly, everything
changed…” when he irst plugged in to one – as War famously demonstrates.

FAMOUS USERS THE EDGE, ED O’BRIEN, MIKE EINZIGER

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE ELECTRO-HARMONIX MEMORY BOY

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GUITAR CLASSICS 37
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME
© Joseph Branston

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 3

ARBITER FUZZ FACE

W
ith its distinctive circular enclosure, the Fuzz Face is one
of the most recognisable (if a tad impractical) effects
pedals ever – and it’s also one of the most inluential.
First created by Arbiter Electronics in 1966, the Fuzz Face
has one of the most simple and affordable fuzz circuits you could
imagine, but they also sound sublime – just ask Jimi Hendrix.
Two distinct lavours of original Fuzz Faces existed – the early ones
used germanium transistors, while later examples switched to BC108
silicon transistors. Germanium models have a sound that’s generally
regarded as being warmer and fatter, while the latter has a more
cutting and brighter tone.
A silicon Fuzz Face was famously used by David Gilmour on the
all-conquering behemoth The Dark Side Of The Moon, while Hendrix
used both germanium and silicon models in his career – though he
also struggled with the Fuzz Face’s notorious unreliability. This hasn’t
stopped the venerable pedal occupying a place in rock ’n’ roll history,
however, and that famous round pedal, now owned by the Dunlop
company, is still in production today, in a variety of model types –
including signature Hendrix versions.

FAMOUS USERS JIMI HENDRIX, DAVID GILMOUR, DUANE ALLMAN

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE JIM DUNLOP FUZZ FACE MINI

38
 THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 2

DUNLOP CRY BABY

T
he easily copied nature of electronic circuits means the history
of many effects pedals can be quite complicated – and so it is
with the most iconic wah of all, the Cry Baby. The wah pedal
was irst designed by Vox/Thomas Organ Company employee
Bradley Plunkett in 1966, and came to the market the following year
as the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah Pedal – endorsed by the famous
jazz trumpeter, on the insistence of Thomas Organ/Vox boss Joe
Benaron, who thought it should be a trumpet pedal. This didn’t
detract from the pedal’s popularity with guitar players, however, and
Vox was soon marketing it in both the UK and the USA. These early
wahs were beloved by many players, not least Jimi Hendrix, but they
were often unreliable and inconsistent. Enter Jim Dunlop.
In the early 1980s, Thomas Organ had stopped making the
Cry Baby and had the brand up for sale. Seeing an opportunity to
expand Dunlop Manufacturing’s remit from accessories to effects,
Jim bought the brand and, alongside engineer Sam McRae, set about
ixing many of the build and reliability issues, while preserving the
all-important tone. The reborn Cry Baby remains a staple effect, and
Dunlop claims it’s the best-selling pedal in the world…

FAMOUS USERS STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, SLASH, KIRK HAMMETT

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE DUNLOP GCB95 CRY BABY

GUITAR CLASSICS 39
THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

40
 THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME

THE TOP 20 EFFECTS OF ALL TIME NO. 1

IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER

I
f you’re reading this, chances are that at some point in your life, you’ve owned an
Ibanez Tube Screamer. There might be one of the iconic little green boxes on your
pedalboard right now, or one of the countless copies, clones and modded recreations
that have been produced over the years – such is the ubiquity of Ibanez’s most
successful guitar pedal.
Designed by Susumu Tamura (an employee of the Nisshin company, who designed
and manufactured pedals for Ibanez at this time) to compete with the popular Boss
OD-1 and MXR Distortion +, the Tube Screamer had several distinctions that made
that original TS808 a very different animal. Key among these is the symmetrical clipping
pattern – meaning that the top and bottom of the soundwave distort in the same way –
compared to the ostensibly more ‘tube like’ asymmetrical clipping of the OD-1. The Tube
Screamer also sported a tone control, and perhaps most importantly, an integrated-circuit
chip instead of a transistor.
Talk to a Tube Screamer aicionado, and it won’t be long before they start talking about
IC chips – original TS808s and early TS-9s used the JRC4558D op-amp chip, and many
users contend that it’s this that gives those original Tube Screamers the sweet, vocal
midrange they became famous for. Many variants of the Tube Screamer have followed,
often with different chips – including the later TS-9 and TS-10 variants – but something
all Tube Screamers have in common is the wonderful and musical manner in which they
drive a valve amp, and the way their famous ‘mid hump’ tightens labby bottom-end and
helps you cut through a band mix.
From Stevie Ray Vaughan to Steve Vai and everyone in between, the Tube Screamer is
a near-universal weapon in any guitarist’s pedal arsenal, and the greatest overdrive pedal
of them all. If you only own one stompbox, it’s probably a Tube Screamer.

FAMOUS USERS STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, JOHN MAYER, GARY MOORE

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE IBANEZ TS808 REISSUE

GUITAR CLASSICS 41
BUILDER PROFILE

involved Dr Scientist and it was a great

honour to work with such a great builder.
They even made him sign an NDA – we
couldn’t talk about the ‘prototype’ project
until all of the patent ilings went through.
Such a great experience in my life and it
all went by so fast, with so many things to
worry about, that I look back with an equal
measure of wonder and amazement!”

Were there any investors/schemes/grants

etc, which provided a springboard?
“We’re fortunate that a few partners put up
some money, and we were able to leverage
the Alberta Innovation System through
some grants. This was especially important
for getting devices made in a scaled-up way
(still working on that!), as well as helping
to bring onboard our rockstar VP of sales
and marketing.”

At what point did you feel like you ‘nailed’

your branding?
“After Adam Brown took over our efforts
here, I feel like we’re in great hands. Our
new Carbon Series is a great step in a new
direction, and the feedback we’ve gotten so
far has been phenomenal.”

Tell us how your best-selling product so far

BUILDER PROFILE came about?

NANOLOG AUDIO INC “Our best-selling product is our overdrive,

which is a combination of features that Dr
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER Scientist included in the original prototype
(like the ability to switch clipping options).
Founded by a pair of PhD research oficers from the National Institute It is also inspired by some of my favourite
for Nanotechnology in Alberta, Canada, Nanolog is bringing cutting-edge types of overdrives, like the Timmy. I’ve
science to analogue effects pedals. Founder Adam Bergen tells us more always liked overdrive… so that’s where
things really started for us.
How did you initially get into guitar? I didn’t get too seriously into that until “We needed a way to have multiple
“I have been into guitars ever since my around 2010, when I started building clipping options to show off our carbon
father brought home his old Kent electric fuzz pedals to my liking.” Nanolog Devices: that was the main thing,
when I was about 10. I learned to play using being able to choose between silicon,
a wall chord chart, and just kept going! Then What was the moment you realised that you germanium, and carbon. When you select
when I was in high school, I began playing could turn your hobby into a business? a particular clipping option, the only thing
with friends in bands. This continued into “When I was working on improving that changes is that one Device. We had
graduate school, where guitar tinkering the sound of a Boss SD-1 for my own to really work to get the bass entering the
was what kept me sane pursuing a PhD use, I realised what I’d been researching clipping section as well as the gain structure
in Analytical Chemistry by researching scientiically could be useful in the pedal! of the clipping section just right, so there
electrochemical methods to use nano- At irst, on paper at least, it looked like this is some balance between the four different
modiied electrodes.” new carbon device would give me the exact clipping options. But, for me, I’m always
sound I was looking for. So, when I tried it thinking about what can be better, so I am
When did you irst start building gear? on my home rig, I was blown away when it hopeful that our next run will include even
“While I was in graduate school, that’s when worked. I igured since I was a tone geek, more tweaks… always a work in progress!”
I irst built my own guitar. I also rebuilt that others people who were into tweaking
some amps then, my prized jewel being a things would also like it. What’s your proudest moment as a maker?
1979 Fender Champ. It was around that “It really helped that the National “There are a few here, actually. When a
time that I started to build pedals, too. But Research Council sponsored a project that customer writes in to let us know that they

42

Nanolog Audio Inc’s range makes use of proprietary
‘quantum tunnelling’ and ‘carbon clipping’ technology
like the product, I always smile and enjoy
that our efforts can bring people joy. But
really, when Tom Cram from Spiral Electric
Effects wrote in to tell us that he loved how
our devices sounded in a circuit he was
developing, I felt very much understood.
And just being a part of doing something
so crazy and out there has to be the top
moment for sure… But working with
Dr Scientist and playing that irst chord
through a breadboard prototype in his
workshop was something I’ll never forget!
What do you think are the biggest
challenges and opportunities for the
guitar industry in 2019?
“A big challenge is the sheer number of
things out there. So many great builders,
so many great products! But I guess, in a
way I feel that this is a good thing, and
that it is also an opportunity. Finding ways
to make things that people enjoy is what
this is all about!”
Can you give us any details of your plans
for the future?
“We have big plans for 2019, for sure. We’re
working on new products of all types, but
BUILDER PROFILE
“WORKING WITH DR SCIENTIST
AND PLAYING THAT FIRST CHORD
THROUGH A BREADBOARD PROTOTYPE
IN HIS WORKSHOP WAS
SOMETHING I’LL NEVER FORGET!”
starting irst with a ‘mini’ series that will
allow people interested in our carbon
technology to get involved without taking
up much board real estate and in a lower
price range. We also have some limited-run
special-edition products in the pipeline that
will feature a new upgraded ‘N3’ carbon
setting. And we’re always looking for other
builders to collaborate with. Now that we’re
a little more established and have had other
builders like Dr Scientist, Southampton,
Spiral Effects, Red Sun FX, and Lauren
Audio experiment with our carbon devices,
we’re really hoping to get one of the bigger
builders onboard, like EQD or Wampler.
And maybe this will be the year we inally
experiment with some amp building!”
For more on Nanolog, visit nanologaudio.com
GUITAR CLASSICS 43
ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
DELAY/ECHO
WORDS HUW PRICE
Whether it’s rockabilly slapback, psychedelic feedback or crystalline
delays, echo effects are fundamental to the sound of electric guitar
T
he term ‘echo’ is often used
interchangeably with ‘reverb’.
Although related, they’re really quite
different. An echo is a distinct repeat
of the original sound – like a handclap
bouncing off a canyon wall. Reverb is
comprised of multiple echoes that are so
close together they sound continuous.
Since echo occurs in the natural world,
it’s hardly surprising it was among the
irst ‘effects’ engineers tried to simulate
electronically. There are several methods
to achieve echo effects, but the parameters
are usually the same and may include any
combination of delay time, sustain/feedback,
wet/dry, modulation and record level.
44
REEL ECHO
To create an echo, it’s necessary to record
the sound, then play it back after the event.
Reel-to-reel tape machines were the irst
high-idelity recording devices, so they were
used to create the earliest echo effects.
Tape recorders usually have two or more
heads. One head ‘prints’ the sound to tape
and another head plays it back. These heads
are physically separate, so if you monitor the
recorded sound rather than the audio input,
there will be a delay before playback occurs.
Tape speed and the gap between the
heads determine the delay time. Most tape
recorders run at 7.5 or 15 IPS (inches per
second), so if the gap between the print and
playback heads is one inch and a machine
is running at 15 IPS, the resulting delay is
1/15th of a second – about 66 milliseconds.
At 7.5 IPS, you get 133 milliseconds –
perfect for rockabilly slapback.
For additional repeats, some of the
playback signal must be sent back to the
tape-machine input. Turning the return
beyond a certain point will induce runaway
feedback, which takes us from the 50s
into the BBC Radiophonic Workshop of
Delia Derbyshire, the psychedelic 60s of
Pink Floyd and beyond. When the space
between the heads is ixed, the only way to
adjust delay time is to vary the speed of the
tape machine. Before long, engineers were
building varispeed control units. Les Paul
was one of the trailblazers for tape-based
studio echo and pitch effects.
There are limits to delay times achievable
with a single tape machine, because audio
quality deteriorates as tape speed decreases.
With the tape travelling between two tape
machines, one can print the sound and the
other play it back.
 ALL ABOUT

ABOVE, LEFT The Electro-

Print and playback heads placed 15
Harmonix Memory Man
inches apart, with tape running at 15 IPS, emerged in the mid 1970s
produces a one-second delay time. Double and was one of the irst
the distance and you get a two-second delay. stompbox-format echo units
Studios often had long ‘echo shelves’ for this
very purpose. The tape can also be looped, ABOVE Stone Deaf’s
versatile all-rounder
and exponents of this include Terry Riley,
Syncopy marries digital
Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.
control with analogue
bucket-brigade technology
TAPES AND DRUMS and modulation
An Illinois music-store owner called Ray
Butts made a guitar ampliier with a built- LEFT The Gurus Echosex 2 is
in echo effect running on a short loop of among the ultimate, feature-
packed modern emulations of
tape. By 1953, he was selling EchoSonic
vintage tape echoes such as
amps to big-name players. You can hear the the Binson Echorec
EchoSonic on Chet Atkins’ Mister Sandman
and Elvis’ Mystery Train. LEFT, BELOW
By 1958, standalone echo machines were Strymon’s TimeLine is a
becoming commonplace. The WEM Copicat ‘multidimensional’ delay
allowed the selection of various delay times incorporating powerful
SHARC DSP processing
by activating different playback heads.
Combined, multiple heads can produce
complex echo effects. The Maestro Echoplex
had a very long tape loop in a replaceable
cassette with one moveable playback head.

GUITAR CLASSICS 45
ALL ABOUT
THIS SPREAD The beguiling
– yet unreliable – physicality
of this selection of classic
vintage echo machines is
all that’s missing from
modern recreations
46
Early machines were valve, but many
prefer the sound of later solid-state tape
echo machines – especially those with
variable tape speed. Other notables
include the Klemt Echolette, the Dynacord
Echocord and Roland’s RE series. Other
vintage devices used rotating magnetic
drums rather than tape. David Gilmour
made extensive use of the Binson Echorec
and Hank Marvin used a Meazzi Echomatic.
PASSING THE BUCKET
Tape echos need regular maintenance,
and eventually they wear out. Today, we
can appreciate their quirky characteristics
because other options are readily available,
but by the mid 70s, most guitarists were
ready for something different.
Bucket-brigade devices (BBDs) are
integrated circuits containing numerous
transistor/capacitor cells. Transferring
packets of charge from one cell to another
takes time, which delays the signal, and the
BBD output is mixed with the dry signal
to create an echo effect.

BBD-based delay units were small, and
needed no maintenance. However, they were
noisy, lacked fidelity and delay times were
limited. Some classic BBD delays include
Boss’ DM series, the Electro-Harmonix
Memory Man and the Ibanez AD9, and
many remain popular with players.
ON THE RACK
BBDs also provided the basis for countless
flanger, chorus and phaser pedals, but for
echo, they were essentially a stop-gap
until full-on digital delays became more
affordable. It helps to think of digital media
in terms of storage rather than recording.
An audio signal is converted into digital
information, where it can be stored in a
buffer until required and converted into
the analogue domain for playback.
At first, digital delays were expensive
rackmount effects seen only in high-end
recording studios. Like analogue synthesisers,
they had switches and control knobs for
every parameter – and no presets. The
most exciting aspects of these units were
unprecedented user control, clear sound
quality and long delay times.
LED panels showed the delay time in
milliseconds. Most engineers carried delay
charts in their personal organisers to match
delays to the tempo of any song that had
been recorded to a click track. From simple
quarter beats to dotted triplets or 3/16s,
setting delay effects had become easy and
exact. Previously, engineers had to rely on
their ears to set delay times.
Effects loops became commonplace
on guitar amplifiers, because rack effects
worked at line level. Early examples seen in
period guitar racks included the TC 2290,
Roland SDE-3000 and the glorious but
notorious AMS DMX15-80S.
ACCEPTABLE IN THE 80S
By the mid 80s, digital delay pedals were
starting to appear on the market – most
notably the Boss DD-2. Having such
accurate control over timing enabled
guitarists to build up rhythmic patterns of
great complexity and sonic interest from
ALL ABOUT
the simplest of ideas: The Edge from U2 is
perhaps the most well-known exponent of
this approach to the guitar.
Consider how echo effects have evolved.
The initial drivers were extended delay
times and improved audio quality, then
for a while, players were more concerned
with convenience and reliability. Digital
technology eventually provided users with
outstanding audio quality, reliability and
controllability, but we have come full circle.
Today, we guitarists have the luxury of
choosing the best type of echo for any given
application. Our own individual definition
of ‘best’ is more subjective than ever and
lo-fi audio, distortion and erratic pitch often
win out. The use of cutting-edge modelling
technology to replicate the sounds and
peculiarities of yesteryear is one of the
great ironies of our era.
Yet it’s also the most fun, and we can
thank Line 6 for blowing guitar-echo effects
wide open with the DL4. Now everybody’s
at it, with other digital players including
Strymon, Catalinbread and Cicognani.
GUITAR CLASSICS 47
STAR PEDALBOARDS

BOSS DD-3
STAR PEDALBOARD
AARON DESSNER
THE NATIONAL

ELECTRO-HARMONIX
DELUXE MEMORY BOY

SARNO
MUSIC SOLUTIONS
LINE 6 DL4 EARTH DRIVE PROCO RAT
48
 STAR PEDALBOARDS

WALRUS ELECTRO- BOSS GE-7 TC ELECTRONIC BOSS TU-3

AUDIO HARMONIX HALL OF FAME
JUPITER MICRO POG

IBANEZ TS9
BOSS TR-2 TUBE SCREAMER BOGNER WESSEX ERNIE BALL VP JR
GUITAR CLASSICS 49
ALL ABOUT

50

ALL ABOUT
MODULATION
WORDS HUW PRICE
A number of classic effects come under the umbrella of modulation.
Here, we explain how to tell your vibrato from your chorus and
your phaser from your rotary speaker…
M
odulation, in stompbox terms,
generally means adding inaudible
electronic information to
components in the signal path to
create audible effects. In our feature on
tremolo on page 100, we explained how an
oscillator circuit generates a varying voltage
to modulate valve bias or a light source
alters volume.
This is called amplitude modulation, but
when we use the term ‘modulation’, we’re
usually referring to pitch. Parameters such
as phase, frequency and delay can also be
modulated to create effects such as vibrato,
chorus, phasing, langing and more. So, let’s
look at the way modulation effects evolved.
ROTATING SPEAKERS
Pitch modulation is commonly known as
vibrato. Designed to be used with Hammond
organs, the irst electronic vibrato devices
were rotating speakers. Introduced in 1940,
Leslie speaker cabinets featured onboard
valve ampliiers with a spinning horn and a
rotating cylindrical bafle for the bass.
Rotating speakers rely on the Doppler
effect and the result is a spectacular and
complex mash-up of pitch modulation,
tremolo and phasing that sounds amazing on
electric guitar as well as organ. Check out
the arpeggios in Badge by Cream, Hendrix’s
Little Wing solo and Buddy Guy’s playing on
Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues.
ALL ABOUT
Several other companies have made
rotating speakers, with Fender’s Vibratone
having been used by some high-proile
players and the Yamaha RA-200 a favourite
of David Gilmour. Leslie fans not served
by a team of roadies might check out the
Strymon Lex, Boss RT-20 or the valve-driven
Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere instead.
VIBRATO EFFECTS
Like tremolo, vibrato can be produced
electronically as well as mechanically. Just
after World War II, Hammond engineer
John Hanert developed a vibrato using an
electronic delay line to modulate pitch.
Although Gibson introduced a standalone
vibrato-effect unit called the GAV-1 in
1956, most vibratos were built into amps
and employed valve circuitry. Most revered
is the Magnatone vibrato used by Duane
Eddy and Lonnie Mack, but the effect
sounds closer to a pitch-shifting tremolo
or a rudimentary chorus.
Compared to tremolo, valve vibrato
circuits were complex and expensive to
GUITAR CLASSICS 51
ALL ABOUT
PREVIOUS PAGE, LEFT
Pyramids by EarthQuaker
Devices is a stereo langer
with ive presets and eight
langer modes, tap tempo,
tap subdivision and more
PREVIOUS PAGE, RIGHT
Eventide’s ModFactor
covers the entire range of
modulation – 100 presets
cover everything from phaser
and chorus to ring modulation
ABOVE, LEFT The Fulltone
Mini DejáVibe 3 reimagines
the Uni-Vibe efect in a
small footprint
ABOVE, MIDDLE Rotary-
speaker efects are the
Strymon Lex’s speciality, with
eight parameters to tweak
ABOVE, RIGHT TC
Electronic’s SCF Stereo
Chorus Flanger is 33 years
old and still loved by pros
52
make. Transistors made it possible to build
smaller and cheaper vibrato effects into
stompbox enclosures. Typically, these pedals
had only speed and depth controls.
In their simplest form, vibrato pedals
use an array of capacitors to create a very
short analogue delay. There will also be an
oscillator that modulates the delay time.
Much like the Doppler effect, as the delay
time increases and decreases, the pitch
changes accordingly; vibrato was popular
with surf and 60s garage bands. For a
vintage Magnatone-type vibrato, the Bigfoot
Magnavibe has a lot of fans. Vibrato enjoyed
a low-key comeback among shoegazers and
Brit-poppers, with the Boss VB-2 featuring
on a lot of 80s and 90s records.
CHORUS
Many players have discovered they can
get good vibrato effects from their chorus
pedals because vibrato and chorus are so
closely, related. Chorus pedals are based
on John Hanert’s work during the 1940s
when he created a simple ‘chorus’ effect for
Hammond organs. The trick is to combine
the pitch-modulated and dry signals.
The Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble was
the irst Boss stompbox, as well as the irst
commercially available chorus pedal. The
circuit irst featured in the Roland JC-
120 ampliier, with the stompbox version
following in 1976. The depth and rate
controls still came under the vibrato
bracket and the chorus/intensity control
balanced the wet and dry signals. It even
had a second footswitch to toggle between
chorus and vibrato.
Before long, the sizeable mains-powered
CE-1 enclosure had evolved into the smaller
CE-2 – minus the vibrato option. By the end
of the 70s, almost every pedal manufacturer
was making a chorus of some sort.
All this was made possible by the
development of bucket-brigade devices
(BBD). These were chips that could store
packets of charge and move them along
a line like buckets of water. The number
of storage cells and the clock frequency
determine the delay time.

Previously, engineers had been forced to
use multiple capacitors to delay the signal,
but classic BBDs – such as the Philips
TDA1022 – held several-hundred stages
on a single chip, and so achieved longer
delay times.
Many of the chorus pedals that followed
these were great in their own right, but
all are derived from the CE-1. The chorus
effect was intended to add richness and
complexity to guitar tones, in much the
same way that a 12-string guitar differs
from a six-string instrument.
Thanks to the efforts of Andy Summers
and others, chorus became one of the
cornerstones of 1980s electric-guitar
tone. As such, it divided opinion like no
other effect until the EHX Small Clone
on Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit made
chorus cool once again. Well, sort of…
FLANGERS AND PHASERS
Flanging started as a studio trick engineers
performed with tape machines, and you
may have heard it on Itchycoo Park by
the Small Faces. With two reel-to-reel
machines playing the same material in sync,
one machine is slowed using gentle hand
pressure on the tape spool.
This introduces an extremely short time
delay – much shorter than vibrato and
chorus. Comb iltering results, where some
frequencies are phase cancelled and others
are reinforced. If the frequency response is
plotted, comb iltering shows up as a series
of narrow notches – like the teeth of a comb.
At this point, the effect isn’t like langing,
but you can hear what it sounds like by
using the ‘ilter matrix’ setting on an
Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress.
Tape langing worked because it’s
impossible to maintain consistent inger
pressure and the delay luctuates. To achieve
a swooshing langer effect electronically, the
delay must be modulated and the delayed
and comb-iltered signal is then mixed in
with the dry signal.
Phasing is closely related to langing,
but more complex. Delay-induced phase
shift is combined with all-pass iltering, so
ALL ABOUT
the delay time is not constant across the
audio spectrum. Phasers generally have
multiple stages that are added to the delay
line – hence the MXR 45, 90 and 100.
Modulating the ilter frequency creates the
phasing effect and as ilters are capacitor/
resistor networks, that means modulating
the resistance value.
AND THE REST
We’ve covered the main modulation effects,
but there are others. The Shin-ei Uni-Vibe,
for example, has played a huge part in the
history of rock guitar and was a favourite of
Hendrix, Robin Trower and David Gilmour.
Although there was a chorus/vibrato switch
on the front, it was also a four-stage phaser
with photo resistors.
As perhaps the earliest attempt to
simulate a Leslie sound in a stompbox, the
Uni-Vibe is a modulation pedal that’s hard
to categorise. Honourable mentions must
also be given to ring modulators, vocoders,
auto-wahs, panners and octave generators.
It’s a mod, mod world…
GUITAR CLASSICS 53
STAR PEDALBOARDS

STAR PEDALBOARD
PAUL SAYER
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

FULLTONE
TRUE-PATH ABY

STRYMON FLINT
54
 STAR PEDALBOARDS

ANALOG MAN
BAD BOB

SONIC RESEARCH
ANALOG MAN TC ELECTRONIC TURBO TUNER
SUN LION ALTER EGO X4 ST-200
GUITAR CLASSICS 55
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

EFFECTS
From boxes of weird-and-wonderful
noise to faithful recreations of iconic
vintage units, the world of stompboxes
has never been more exciting and
varied. With so many pedals out there
to choose from in 2019, it’s hard to
know which box of joy will be the one
for you, but the chances are you’ll ind it
in our in-depth roundup…
WORDS JOSH GARDNER & SAM ROBERTS

56
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

GUITAR CLASSICS 57
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
OVERDRIVE, DISTORTION AND BOOST
CONTINUED
HUDSON ELECTRONICS BROADCAST
TYPE OVERDRIVE/BOOST
Hand-built on stripboard using top-of-the-line
components in Hudson Electronics’ Yorkshire
workshop, the Broadcast might look like it’s come
straight out of a 1960s recording studio, but the
ideas displayed inside are innovative and original.
Effectively a preamp based on the classic Neve
recording consoles of the 1960s, the Broadcast can
behave as both a tone-enhancing clean boost, or
a raucous overdrive pedal depending on whether
you choose the high- or low-gain option. At its
most extreme, it’ll even sound a bit like an old
fuzzbox, but without ever losing its refined
sonic enhancement and superb touch dynamics.
ALSO TRY KEELEY D&M DRIVE, FENDER SANTA ANA
58
XOTIC EP BOOSTER
TYPE BOOST
The Echoplex EP-3 is one of the most beloved
vintage tape-echo pedals around, but while its
solid-state echoes might have been the main event,
many guitar players were equally charmed by the
tone-enhancing effect of the unit’s FET preamp, and
the likes of Brian May, Andy Summers, Jimmy Page
and even Eddie Van Halen were all fans of running
the EP-3 without any echo at all, for just this reason.
The EP Booster takes that boost circuit and puts it
in a mini-pedal housing that delivers up to +20dB of
boost, giving you shimmering highs, powerful lows,
and all the warmth and sparkle you could ever need.
No wonder it’s become a pro-pedalboard staple in
recent years.
ALSO TRY JIM DUNLOP EP101 ECHOPLEX PREAMP, CHASE TONE SECRET PREAMP

THORPYFX WARTHOG
TYPE OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION
Adrian Thorpe’s pedals have rapidly acquired
a reputation for rigorous build quality and
monster tones, and the Warthog might be the
most uncompromising of the lot. Effectively
Thorpe’s take on the classic ProCo RAT, the
Warthog takes those fabulous overdrive-meets-fuzz
tonalities, but ditches the RAT’s over-compressed
response that means you’re in danger of disappearing
in the mix when playing live. Instead, you get raw,
loud and obnoxious rock tones by the bucketload,
which will leave 90s alternative-rock fans
wishing they’d owned one in 1994.
ALSO TRY CATALINBREAD KATZENKÖNIG, TC ELECTRONIC DARK MATTER
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
ANALOG MAN KING OF TONE
TYPE OVERDRIVE
The King Of Tone’s reputation is as much about its
scarcity as it is the undeniable quality of the pedal
itself. If you want one of Mike Piera’s creations,
you’d better not be in a rush – the waiting list is
approaching two years and if you can find one
second-hand, expect to pay at least double the price
of a new one. Why all the fuss? Well, the likes of
Brad Whitford and Jimmy Herring have long prized
the King Of Tone for its clear, uncoloured overdrive
that enhances, rather than masks, the tone of your
signal chain. The difference between the KoT and
that other mythical transparent overdrive, the Klon
Centaur, is you can still buy one, though that might
not be the case for long, as Piera admits once
his stock of required diodes and capacitors are
exhausted, he won’t be able to make any more…
ALSO TRY FULLTONE OCD, J ROCKETT AUDIO DESIGNS ARCHER
GUITAR CLASSICS 59
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
OVERDRIVE, DISTORTION AND BOOST
CONTINUED
EARTHQUAKER DEVICES WESTWOOD
TYPE OVERDRIVE
It takes a lot to really stand out in the world of
overdrive pedals, but the EarthQuaker Devices
Westwood certainly has done since its launch
last year. Taking the Tube Screamer as its basis,
the Westwood sets itself apart from other green
overdrive pedals, offering a wonderfully flattering
and subtle natural overdrive sound that compresses
like you’d want thanks to its superbly effective
tonestack, but without colouring the EQ in any
discernible way. There are plenty of ‘transparent
overdrives’ out there, but the Westwood is designed
to be ‘translucent’ – and with its sweet, smooth and
responsive sound, it’s one of the finest drive pedals
on the market today.
ALSO TRY FULLTONE OCD, PAUL COCHRANE TIMMY
60
FULLTONE OCD
TYPE OVERDRIVE
Michael Fuller debuted the Obsessive Compulsive
Drive all the way back in 1994. It’s gone on to
become one of the biggest-selling boutique
overdrives on the planet, and a go-to for professional
players of every stripe. Its party trick is to essentially
recreate the sound and (importantly) the feel and
response of a cranked amplifier in a pedal. The OCD
has a large dynamic range and offers a continuum of
usable sounds – from clean boost to gritty,
harmonic-laden fuzzy distortion. The clarity of the
OCD has seen players as varied as Robin Trower,
Keith Urban, Joey Santiago and Paul Gilbert
attracted to its addictive charm and crunch – we’re
pretty sure you will be, too.
ALSO TRY ANALOG MAN KING OF TONE, EARTHQUAKER DEVICES WESTWOOD

IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER MINI
TYPE OVERDRIVE
Earlier in this decade, the pedal market experienced
what can only be described as a mini-pedal craze,
with loads of different brands offering bite-sized
versions of their most renowned circuits. Ibanez’s
first entry into the format was the Tube Screamer
Mini, which crams the classic overdrive circuit into
a bijou box for a ridiculously good price. The best
part is, it sounds pretty damn close to a TS808,
too. So whether you’re using it as a boost or full-on
overdrive, if you’ve ever wanted to find out what
all the fuss is about with Tube Screamers, this is a
must-buy.
ALSO TRY ELECTRO-HARMONIX SOUL FOOD, BOSS SD-1
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
J ROCKETT AUDIO DESIGNS ARCHER IKON
TYPE OVERDRIVE
For sensible money the Archer Ikon is about the
closest you’re going to get to the hallowed sounds of
the Klon Centaur, discontinued in 2009. That’s
partly because it was created by Chris Van Tassel
and Jay Rockett, who worked with Bill Finnegan on
his Klon KTR – the follow-up to the Centaur. As a
result, it has a wonderful clean boost that adds a
stellar high-end sheen and there’s also plenty of grit
on tap if you want it. It’s not cheap, but it offers
95 per cent of the Klon experience for 10 per cent
of the price.
ALSO TRY ELECTRO-HARMONIX SOUL FOOD, RYRA THE KLONE
GUITAR CLASSICS 61
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62

OVERDRIVE, DISTORTION AND BOOST
CONTINUED
RYRA THE KLONE
TYPE OVERDRIVE
The Klone is the brainchild of Texan solo builder
Shane Logan (aka Rock Your Repaired Amp), and
as its rather transparent name suggests, its intent
is to replicate the famous Klon Centaur overdrive
pedal. The Klone gets closer than pretty much
all the others, however, perhaps because it’s
painstakingly crafted using identical components
to the legendary original. For an overdrive pedal,
it’s not cheap, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than
a real Klon will cost you these days.
ALSO TRY J ROCKETT AUDIO DESIGNS ARCHER IKON, ELECTRO-HARMONIX SOUL FOOD
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
JHS PEDALS MORNING GLORY V4
TYPE OVERDRIVE
The Morning Glory is JHS Pedals’ most popular
pedal, and the one that first made Josh Scott’s name
as a boutique builder to watch when it was created
all the way back in 2009. It’s since won Scott a
bucketload of awards on the back of its wonderfully
transparent quality, which adds everything you’d
want to your amp’s sound – sweet overdrive,
improved tonal nuance and responsiveness – while
retaining the fundamental character of the amp
that made you buy it in the first place. The current
fourth iteration also adds a gain-boost toggle to
ramp up your solos and lead parts, which can be
independently switched with the addition of JHS’s
Red Remote.
ALSO TRY J ROCKETT AUDIO DESIGNS ARCHER IKON, RYRA THE KLONE
GUITAR CLASSICS 63
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
OVERDRIVE, DISTORTION AND BOOST
CONTINUED
BOSS JB-2 ANGRY DRIVER
TYPE OVERDRIVE
Boss has been making compact effects pedals
for 40 years now, and while the company’s iconic
stompboxes continue to be a staple of boards the
world over, the rise of the boutique builder has
made the compact pedal seem a little bland by
comparison. In 2018, however, the Japanese giant
decided to capture a bit of boutique kudos itself by
teaming up with Josh Scott of JHS Pedals to create
the Angry Driver. Effectively a hybrid of Scott’s
Angry Charlie and the iconic Boss Blues Driver, the
JB-2 is a dual-mode drive pedal that offers a huge
palette of overdrive sounds thanks to independent
tone-shaping controls for both voices, and the ability
to run them independently, in series or parallel.
ALSO TRY BOSS BD-2W, PAUL COCHRANE TIMMY
64
KEELEY D&M DRIVE
TYPE OVERDRIVE/BOOST
Created with the input of That Pedal Show hosts
Mick Taylor and Daniel Steinhardt, the D&M Drive
is a twin-voiced overdrive and boost that offers
remarkable tonal versatility in a relatively compact
two-switch pedal. The boost side of things offers
everything from a rich, midrange bluesy boost all the
way to a dynamic overdrive with wonderful touch
sensitivity, while the drive side of the equation runs
the gamut from valve-like overdrive to searing rock
leads. With the ability to alter their signal order as
you run them together adding even more sonic
options to the mix, the D&M Drive could replace
two or even three pedals on your board.
ALSO TRY EARTHQUAKER DEVICES PALISADES, THORPYFX THE DANE

THORPYFX THE DANE
TYPE OVERDRIVE/BOOST
Created with the input of YouTube star and
session guitarist ‘Danish Pete’ Honoré, The Dane
is a combined overdrive and boost pedal that
offers fabulous tones with Thorpy’s usual level
of military-grade build quality. The overdrive is
a low/mid-gain affair, but offers plenty of tonal
flexibility, while the powerful boost channel also
benefits from a tweakable bass control. All in all,
it offers fantastic tones and impressive versatility
from just five knobs.
ALSO TRY KEELEY D&M DRIVE, EARTHQUAKER DEVICES PALISADES
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
BEETRONICS ROYAL JELLY
TYPE OVERDRIVE/FUZZ
If you were rating pedals on looks alone, the Royal
Jelly would top our list, but happily its beauty is
more than skin-deep. The pedal’s overdrive and fuzz
circuits run in parallel, giving you the potential to
create a massive array of dirty tones by blending
them together using the ‘Queen’ and ‘King’ controls.
Both are footswitchable, meaning that you can have
two blended sounds on tap, or have all fuzz on one,
all overdrive on the other, and all stations in
between. It offers a positively massive level of
versatility, and when yuu factor in the ability to
blend in your dry sound as well, it makes the Royal
Jelly something very special indeed.
ALSO TRY WAY HUGE RED LLAMA, EWS LITTLE FUZZY
GUITAR CLASSICS 65
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66

FUZZ
CONTINUED
BIGFOOT ENGINEERING KING FUZZ
TYPE FUZZ
With just big ol’ gain and volume dials on its
canary-yellow chassis, you’d be forgiven for thinking
that this is a fuzzbox with a limited range, but
you’d be wrong. Hand-built in West Sussex by
Bigfoot main man Rhys Stubbs, the King Fuzz was
inspired partly by the vintage fuzz tones of Dan
Auerbach of The Black Keys. Step on the pedal
and ride your guitar’s volume control for everything
from small-valve-amp-style break-up to visceral,
Jimi-style fuzz that’s rich in midrange attitude.
You won’t want to switch it off.
ALSO TRY ANALOG MAN SUN FACE, ELECTRO-HARMONIX GREEN RUSSIAN BIG MUFF
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
DEATH BY AUDIO FUZZ WAR
TYPE FUZZ
When you call your pedal ‘Fuzz War’, you’re letting
people know that you’re not messing around – and
as soon as you plug in, Death By Audio’s creation
is taking no prisoners. There’s no space for subtlety
and nuance in this three-knob box of dirt: instead,
what you get is a bludgeoning onslaught of glorious
noise. It’s a versatile beast, however – every minor
tweak of the knobs jolts you into a new world of
aural aggression. Okay, it’s not the most polite pedal
around, but for purveyors of uncomplicated havoc,
this wins the battle every time.
ALSO TRY ZVEX EFFECTS FUZZ FACTORY,
CHASE BLISS AUDIO BROTHERS ANALOG GAINSTAGE
GUITAR CLASSICS 67
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
FUZZ
CONTINUED
ELECTRO-HARMONIX OP-AMP BIG MUFF PI
TYPE FUZZ
The original 1970s EHX Op-Amp Big Muff has
long been revered by fans of grunge and alternative
rock for its uniquely aggressive and biting fuzz style
compared to transistor-based Muffs – as used
famously and devastatingly by Billy Corgan on
some of the Smashing Pumpkins’ biggest hits. Now,
however, EHX has revived the pedal in compact
form, and even got Mr Corgan onboard to ensure
that this new model delivers all those classic 90s
alt-rock sounds – and a whole lot more besides.
ALSO TRY ELECTRO-HARMONIX BIG MUFF PI, JHS PEDALS MUFFULETTA
68
FENDER THE PELT
TYPE FUZZ
It’s always seemed strange that Fender never quite
managed to nail the effects-pedal thing, but its latest
range of effects – first released in early 2018 and
expanded later in the year and again at NAMM 2019
– has (finally) established the company as a major
player. The cream of the second drop was The Pelt
– an affordable one-stop solution for a wide variety
of contemporary fuzz sounds, paired with excellent
build quality and clever design.
ALSO TRY JHS PEDALS MUFFULETTA, ZVEX EFFECTS FUZZ FACTORY

OLD BLOOD NOISE ENDEAVORS ALPHA HAUNT
TYPE FUZZ
OBNE isn’t the first indie pedal company to
specialise in weird and esoteric artwork mixed
with wigged-out product descriptions, but the
Oklahomans do it better than most, and the sounds
that are produced by the Alpha Haunt are equally
potent. With EQ sliders and a low-pass filter,
the Alpha Haunt gives you massive flexibility
for tone sculpting, which in turns leads to lashings
and lashings of smooth fuzz sounds – from fluffy
to fiendish.
ALSO TRY FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS CAT KING, ZVEX EFFECTS FUZZ FACTORY
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
THORPY FX FALLOUT CLOUD
TYPE FUZZ
Adrian Thorpe’s second bomb-proof pedal release
was a take on the early ‘triangle’ Big Muffs built
between 1969 and 1973. Because it doesn’t suffer
from the overcooked distortion levels of some
modern Big Muffs and Muff-derived circuits, the
Fallout Cloud makes it possible to retain a great deal
more control, and stays responsive to picking-hand
dynamics. The active treble and bass controls also
make it much more versatile, making this a beast
that can do anything from Floyd to QOTSA and
everything in between.
ALSO TRY ELECTRO-HARMONIX TRIANGLE BIG MUFF REISSUE, RYRA TRI-PI MUFF
GUITAR CLASSICS 69
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

FUZZ
CONTINUED

ZVEX EFFECTS FUZZ FACTORY VEXTER

TYPE FUZZ

For over two decades now, the Fuzz Factory has been
the crowning achievement of Minneapolis effects
wizard Zachary Vex and has since been adopted by
scores of experimental guitarists with a passion for
chaos, including Matt Bellamy, Stephen Malkmus,
Nels Cline and J Mascis. What makes the Fuzz
Factory special is its ability to warp the classic fuzz
effect via a series of highly interactive controls, and
conjure up unique and unholy chimeras of greasy
oscillating demonic distortion, too. The Vexter
version retains everything that made the classic
Fuzz Factory special while dropping the price –
an unbeatable combo.

ALSO TRY FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS CAT KING, STONE DEAF FIG FUMB

70
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

GUITAR CLASSICS 71
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
COMPRESSION
CONTINUED
WAMPLER EGO COMPRESSOR
TYPE COMPRESSOR
Widely regarded as one of the best new compressors
in the business, Wampler’s Ego Compressor brings
new levels of control to the Ross/Dyna Comp style
of compression with the inclusion of an ingenious
blend knob. With the ability to cover all types of
compression, from country squish to tube sag and
studio-grade parallel compression, the Ego ensures
your playing dynamics are retained without
colouring your tone. With comprehensive controls
and a tonal purity thanks to its OTA compression
circuit, you’ll be hard pressed to find another pedal
that works just as well as an ‘always on’ effect as it
does a traditional squeeze box.
ALSO TRY KEELEY COMPRESSOR PLUS, BOSS CS-3
72
ORIGIN EFFECTS CALI76 COMPACT DELUXE
TYPE COMPRESSOR
Origin Effects has handily created an impressively
convincing tribute to the classic UREI 1176 studio
compressor in the form of the Cali76. With
miniaturised components and stacked circuit boards,
the Cali manages to deliver Class-A circuitry and
low-noise transistors, for true FET compression.
It can run at nine or 18 volts, with the latter
recommended for greater headroom, and features an
added ‘Dry’ knob for even more tweakability. It’s an
outstanding compressor that seems to work with you
rather than against you and almost every time you
switch it off, it’s to the detriment of your tone.
ALSO TRY EMPRESS COMPRESSOR, KEELEY COMPRESSOR PRO

KEELEY COMPRESSOR PLUS
TYPE COMPRESSOR
Arguably responsible for igniting the boutique-pedal
revolution, Robert Keeley’s two-knob compressor
is a pro-level stompbox that some argue is better
than the original Ross compressor it’s based upon.
Also available in a four-knob format, which includes
the same metal-film capacitors as its younger
brother, the addition of Attack and Input Gain
controls gives you even more control over the
now infamous Keeley squish. Keeley’s line of
compressors has now developed into a robust range,
featuring Pro and Plus versions, the latter including a
switch to tailor your comp to single-coil or
humbucker guitars. With over 52,000 compressors
now made by the Oklahoma brand, it definitely
knows a thing or two about squish.
ALSO TRY MXR DYNA COMP, XOTIC SP COMPRESSOR
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
DIAMOND CPR-1 COMPRESSOR
TYPE COMPRESSOR
Released back in 2004, Diamond’s goal when
creating a guitar compressor was to emulate a studio
vocal channel for the six-string: a ‘guitar channel’
with dynamics and simple tone-shaping tools to
front your signal chain. The EQ knob is extremely
versatile, musically shifting frequency balance,
allowing you to tailor your sound to your guitar
more accurately. The optical compression is smooth
and organic, so much so that they’ve even made a Jr
version, a version for audiophiles called the SE, and
an affordable version of the SE called the SL. Also,
it’s yellow. Gloriously yellow.
ALSO TRY TC ELECTRONIC HYPERGRAVITY, FREE THE TONE SC-1 SILKY COMP
GUITAR CLASSICS 73
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

74
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

GUITAR CLASSICS 75
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
REVERB
CONTINUED
BOSS RV-6
TYPE REVERB
Back in 1987, the Boss RV-2 became the world’s
first digital reverb stompbox, and three decades
later, the sixth edition of the pedal still flies the
Boss flag high. Like the legendary original, the RV-6
is an affordable, unfussy compact digital ’verb that
produces an impressive array of tones, with eight
versatile modes on board, including a decent
shimmer effect. With just three controls and the
usual bomb-proof Boss build quality, the RV-6 is
the perfect digital reverb for people who want
great sounds without too much hassle or tweaking.
ALSO TRY TC ELECTRONIC HALL OF FAME, NEUNABER AUDIO IMMERSE REVERBERATOR
76
TC ELECTRONIC HALL OF FAME
TYPE REVERB
Do you need one small form-factor pedal to cover
all of your reverb needs and then some? Look no
further than the Hall Of Fame from Danish pedal
wizards TC Electronic. Featuring 10 different
reverbs, along with TC’s innovative TonePrint
system, there’s no limit to the number of algorithms
the Hall Of Fame can provide. Now in its second
iteration – plus a Mini version, which features one
knob and is only tweakable via the TonePrint app –
it’s easy to see why they nestle on so many players’
boards, and why TC Electronic have been making
reverbs for film production and high-end recording
studios for years.
ALSO TRY MXR M300 REVERB, ELECTRO-HARMONIX HOLY GRAIL

STRYMON BIGSKY
TYPE REVERB
If the Hall Of Fame doesn’t quite have the amount
of reverb you were looking for, then Strymon
has the answer. Famed for its 12 different reverbs
and 300 presets, the BigSky is the mothership
of multi-faceted reverb pedals. Introduced as an
updated and expanded version of Strymon’s blueSky,
the BigSky provides all of the essentials you need,
plus Strymon’s own formulas, sure to satisfy both
enthusiasts and professionals alike. Also included are
press-and-hold Infinite Sustain and Freeze functions,
plus Spillover and Reverb Persist modes, which are
all saveable to presets.
ALSO TRY EMPRESS EFFECTS REVERB, EVENTIDE SPACE
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
NEUNABER IMMERSE REVERBERATOR
TYPE REVERB
Some might argue that price alone puts the likes of
the BigSky and Eventide Space completely out of
reach, and with good reason. Enter the Neunaber
Immerse Reverberator, a compact reverb pedal with
eight different modes and stereo outputs – all for
under £230. Four knobs control level, time/tone,
depth and varying types of modulation, and although
things can get decidedly epic, you never become
truly swamped. A richly atmospheric ’verb with lush
modulation controls, this might be the best reverb
unit available at its price point.
ALSO TRY EVENTIDE H9, SOURCE AUDIO VENTRIS DUAL REVERB
GUITAR CLASSICS 77
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
REVERB
CONTINUED
MXR M300 REVERB
TYPE REVERB
The M300 was an instant success at Winter NAMM
2016. Featuring a simple three-knob configuration,
the tone knob also allows you to cycle through six
algorithms, from Plate, Spring and Room emulations
to the more esoteric Mod, Epic and Pad modes. The
M300’s low noise floor is also impressive, and while
MXR took longer than expected to introduce a
reverb to the market, it was definitely worth the
wait. It’s relatively affordable, too.
ALSO TRY NEUNABER AUDIO WET STEREO REVERB, BIYANG RV-10
78
EVENTIDE SPACE
TYPE REVERB
Described as “reverb and beyond”, the Eventide
Space lets you explore the depths of the cosmos
with 12 different reverb-and-delay combination
effects, including BlackHole reverb with Gravity
and Anti-Gravity features. It also covers your
more rudimentary reverb needs back here on
Earth, with spring, reverse and modulation types
all included. This small metal box also includes over
100 presets, some of which have been generated by
the likes of Justin Meldal-Johnsen and John Agnello
(Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.). With its studio-quality
reverbs based on the company’s flagship rackmount
processors, there’s little chance the wonders and
intricacies of Space will be unexplored for long.
ALSO TRY STRYMON BIGSKY, BOSS RV-500
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

GUITAR CLASSICS 79
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
DELAY
CONTINUED
CATALINBREAD BELLE EPOCH
TYPE DELAY
The Belle Epoch is effectively a digital/analogue
hybrid of the famous Echoplex EP-3, and emulates
it with remarkable fidelity. Catalinbread’s aim was
to capture the ‘deficiencies’ of a classic tape delay
that so often combine to produce unpredictable but
wonderful results, and from the moment you switch
it on, the results sound ‘right’. The crowning glory
is the way the Mod control emulates the wow and
flutter in an authentically random and haphazard
way, that leaves you in no doubt why Echoplex
obsessive Eric Johnson calls this the best EP-3
recreation around today.
ALSO TRY JIM DUNLOP EP103 ECHOPLEX DELAY, DAWNER PRINCE BOONAR
80
CHASE BLISS AUDIO TONAL RECALL
TYPE DELAY
The core of the Tonal Recall is built around a pair
of reissued MN3005 bucket-brigade delay chips,
resulting in an unmistakable analogue character
and velvety tape-like modulation. But the digital
functionality of the Tonal Recall really sets it apart
– while the guitar signal remains 100 per cent
analogue, the digital side means you get modern
amenities such as tap tempo, optional bypass,
expression control over any parameter and the
ability to save presets, all while retaining the
fidelity of the pedal’s classic analogue delay tones.
Simply put, it offers everything you could ever
dream of from an analogue delay pedal, and much
more besides.
ALSO TRY MXR CARBON COPY, NEUNABER IMMERSE MK II

DAWNER PRINCE ELECTRONICS BOONAR
TYPE DELAY
When you’ve got the likes of John Mayer and David
Gilmour putting your vintage-style echo on their
pedalboards, you must be doing something right. So
it is with the Boonar, crown jewel of up-and-coming
Croatian boutique builder Dawner Prince. The
Boonar is a digital simulation of the classic Binson
Echorec multi-head drum echo, with the valves and
drum replaced by FETs and DSP. But while digital
recreations sometimes lack the organic nature
of an analogue device, the Boonar is endlessly
fascinating, occasionally unpredictable and never
less than beautiful sounding, all in a tiny footprint.
ALSO TRY CATALINBREAD BELLE EPOCH, JIM DUNLOP EP103 ECHOPLEX DELAY
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
LINE 6 DL4
TYPE DELAY/LOOPER
Despite being over 20 years old now, the Line 6 DL4
remains a staple of pro and amateur pedalboards the
world over. Okay, so it might not be the best-
looking, most reliable or most space-efficient pedal
in the world by modern standards, and these days
digital delay pedals have much more DSP power
under the hood to model authentic-sounding
repeats… but yet, there’s something amazing about
this green monster. Whether it’s the ease of use,
the affordable price, the compelling sounds or
the remarkably creative onboard looper, the DL4
continues to capture the imagination long after it
might have been rendered obsolete.
ALSO TRY STRYMON TIMELINE, BOSS DD-500
GUITAR CLASSICS 81
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
DELAY
CONTINUED
MXR CARBON COPY
TYPE DELAY
It seems like every year, delay pedals are constantly
getting more complicated and more involved, and
while for some of us that’s a great thing, many
guitar players don’t need a vast array of buttons,
knobs, modes and sounds – they just want a simple,
great-sounding delay pedal that doesn’t require
you to read the manual beforehand. And that’s
why the MXR Carbon Copy remains one of the
most beloved and popular delay pedals around –
with 600ms of delay time, a modulation switch and
just three controls, there’s almost nothing to get
between you and all the warm, lush analogue-delay
sounds you want.
ALSO TRY TC ELECTRONIC FLASHBACK, ELECTRO-HARMONIX MEMORY BOY
82
STRYMON TIMELINE
TYPE DELAY
Many Strymon fans argue that the TimeLine is the
best delay pedal in the world… maybe even the best
of all time. That’s all subjective of course, but
there’s no denying that the TimeLine has brought an
unprecedented level of versatility, control and
straight-up processing power to the world of
floor-based effects. Utilising powerful SHARC DSP,
the TimeLine delivers studio-quality sounds on your
pedalboard via 12 ‘delay machines’, with a granular
level of tweakability that means you may well find a
use for all 200 of the user presets. A delay pedal for
those who really do want everything.
ALSO TRY EVENTIDE TIMEFACTOR, LINE 6 DL4

OLD BLOOD NOISE ENDEAVORS DWELLER
TYPE MODULATED DELAY
It’s hard to describe exactly what the Dweller
does – OBNE describes it as a ‘phase repeater’
modulation and delay, but it’s probably best just
to categorise it as one of an increasing number of
‘extreme soundscaping’ pedals out there. Smashing
together delay and modulation creates a whole range
of curious and compelling sounds, and if you add an
expression pedal to the equation, things get crazy
very quickly – in a good way. Hugely inspiring.
ALSO TRY EARTHQUAKER DEVICES SPACE SPIRAL, T-REX REPTILE
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
SOLIDGOLDFX ELECTROMAN MKII
TYPE MODULATED DELAY
The second generation of SolidGoldFX’s popular
oscillating delay monster takes everything people
loved about the original unit and adds on even more
features and functionality. The core of the
Electroman MKII is a pair of cascaded delay lines
which, when melded together via the mode switch,
blur the lines between analogue warmth and digital
spaciness. Crucially, the ‘Warp’ switch has been
retained, now switchable to control just how much
it sends repeats ramping up to self-oscillation for
ambient textures and spatial soundscapes. With all
that, plus an effects loop, true bypass and more, it’s
a great choice for space cadets.
ALSO TRY T-REX REPTILE, SEYMOUR DUNCAN ANDROMEDA
GUITAR CLASSICS 83
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
MODULATION
CONTINUED
CHASE BLISS AUDIO WARPED VINYL MKII
TYPE CHORUS/VIBRATO
While most modern chorus pedals are designed to
modulate at a perfect pitch, the Warped Vinyl
was designed to do something a little bit different,
and a little bit more organic. As the name indicates,
the Warped Vinyl was designed to emulate the
sound of a warped vinyl record, with all the
unpredictable chorus and vibrato effects that this
entails. As is the way with Chase Bliss Audio, the
combination of analogue circuitry and digital control
delivers a staggering amount of flexibility and
options, giving you the ability to create chorus
effects that you won’t find in either a fully digital or
wholly analogue design.
ALSO TRY WALRUS AUDIO JULIA, BOSS CE-5
84
WALRUS AUDIO JULIA
TYPE CHORUS/VIBRATO
Fully analogue and packed with interesting features,
the Julia is a one-stop shop for all your wobbly
modulation needs. Key to the Julia’s vast selection of
sonic possibilities is the fact that, unlike many
combined chorus and vibrato pedals, you don’t have
to choose which single effect to have on at any one
time – thanks to the Dry-Chorus-Vibrato knob,
you can blend just the right amount of wet and dry
signal to give you the perfect effect for your needs.
All this, combined with a Lag knob that lets you set
the centre-delay time that the LFO effect modulates
from, makes the Julia a wonderfully musical box to
have on your board.
ALSO TRY CHASE BLISS AUDIO WARPED VINYL MKII, MXR M68 UNI-VIBE

ALEXANDER F:13
TYPE FLANGER
The olive-drab finish, faux-old-school label maker
scripts and ruggedly retro knobs give the F:13 an
unmistakably vintage military vibe, and that’s not by
accident – this flanger is designed to sound like
“alien mojo meets military tech, circa 1958”. A
flanger is, of course, the perfect pedal to take
inspiration from Area 51 and in reality, what you get
is an exciting and feature-packed box that includes a
dynamic mode that changes the nature of the
flanging effect based on playing intensity.
ALSO TRY KEELEY BUBBLE TRON, ELECTRO-HARMONIX ELECTRIC MISTRESS
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
MXR M290 PHASE 95 MINI
TYPE PHASER
Part of a wave of mini-pedals to come out over the
past few years, the Phase 95 takes the classic Phase
90 template, shrinks it down a bit, and adds two
different toggles to channel different periods of
MXR’s phasing past. For one, you can select between
the standard four-stage phaser of the Phase 90 or
the slightly subtler two-stage phasing of the Phase
45. The ‘script’ toggle refers to two different eras of
vintage Phase 90 production. Engaging that button
will remove some feedback from the mix, creating a
somewhat mellower tone.
ALSO TRY EARTHQUAKER DEVICES GRAND ORBITER, MXR EVH90
GUITAR CLASSICS 85
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
MODULATION
CONTINUED
ELECTRO-HARMONIX NANO POG
TYPE OCTAVER
Since the 1960s, octave effects have been a part
of the guitar wizard’s arsenal, especially when
combined with fuzz – just ask Jimi Hendrix.
But when EHX released the Polyphonic Octave
Generator, it was manna from heaven for creative
guitarists, offering four distinct octave voices to
ornament the dry signal. The likes of Jack White
and Nels Cline wasted no time in putting the
POG to good use and since then, it’s been available
in smaller and smaller packages, culminating in the
Nano POG, which also sports improved tracking
and silent switching to make it an even more
powerful creative tool.
ALSO TRY DIGITECH WHAMMY, EARTHQUAKER DEVICES ORGANIZER
86
STONE DEAF TREMOTRON
TYPE TREMOLO
The Tremotron is unlike any tremolo pedal you’ve
seen before. With a fully analogue signal path under
the hood, it also has additional digital controls,
allowing two VCA-based tremolo controls to play
at once (if you don’t attempt How Soon Is Now?
with this pedal, you’re missing a trick). It also
includes nine different waveshapes and switchable
presets and a MIDI Out, too, for when you want to
push your onset headache into migraine territory.
It’s not cheap, and you’ll need 250mA to power it,
but the Tremotron is unmatched for its versatility
and innovation.
ALSO TRY MOOER TRELICOPTER, FULLTONE SUPA-TREM ST-1

VOX V847 WAH PEDAL
TYPE WAH
Based on the pedal built by Lester Kushner and Brad
Plunkett that helped soundtrack the Summer Of
Love in ’67, the reissued V847 is a lovingly created
homage to the wah pedal that started it all. Updated
to include a buffered input jack for smoother tone
when not in operation, the V847 also features SMD
resistors and a redesigned inductor for a truer
replication of Vox’s vintage wah-wah tone. Despite
its sub-£100 price point, this treadle is not to be
sniffed at; it’s built to exact vintage specs to ensure
your Hendrix or even Clyde McCoy impressions are
second to none.
ALSO TRY VOX V845, XOTIC XW-1 WAH
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
MERIS ENZO
TYPE MODULATION/SYNTH
Meris’s Enzo pedal is difficult to categorise. Is it
a synth? Is it a modulation pedal? What we do
know is that it sounds otherworldly. Offering mono
and polyphonic synth modes for guitar, it also
features an arpeggiated-synth feature and perfect
tracking. With just six knobs and two switches, the
Enzo also features an Alt button, providing each
control with a secondary function. If that’s not
enough, it also includes a six-mode filter, built-in
compression, a dual delay line and tap delay, ring
modulation, MIDI controls and an expression-pedal
option. The Enzo isn’t so much a guitar pedal, but
more an entire musical instrument in itself.
ALSO TRY PIGTRONIX MOTHERSHIP, ELECTRO-HARMONIX HOG
GUITAR CLASSICS 87
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

MODULATION
CONTINUED

STRYMON FLINT
TYPE TREMOLO/REVERB

Fish and chips, lager and crisps… tremolo and

reverb. It just works. Some argue it’s all any
guitar player needs in their arsenal. Strymon’s
Flint provides exactly that, and then some. Based
on the classic amps coming out of the Fender
factory in the early 60s, Strymon’s digital processing
impressively recreates the sultry throb of three
great analogue tremolos. Married on the other
side by three reverbs based on a 60s spring reverb,
a 70s plate and the hall reverb from an 80s rack,
the Strymon Flint leads the way in stompbox
recreations of vintage-amp effects.

ALSO TRY MR BLACK DELUXE PLUS, FENDER TRE-VERB

88
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY

GUITAR CLASSICS 89
THE TOP 50 EFFECTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
MISCELLANEOUS
CONTINUED
TC ELECTRONIC DITTO
TYPE LOOPER
Sometimes the best things do come in the smallest
packages. While you can buy much bigger
and more complicated loopers, TC Electronic’s
pocket-sized unit has found its way onto thousands
of pedalboards because frankly, looping doesn’t get
much more intuitive than this. 24-bit uncompressed
audio and unlimited overdubs mean you never
have to stop playing along with yourself, while
true bypass and analogue dry-through mean
that it won’t mess up your core tone.
ALSO TRY HOTONE SKYLINE SERIES WALLY LOOPER, PIGTRONIX INFINITY LOOPER
90
EVENTIDE H9
TYPE MULTI-EFFECTS
Packing reverb, delay, modulation and pitch-shifting
effects into a box smaller than a CD case, the H9
offers everything that a budding effects astronaut
could want. And when those sounds come direct
from Eventide’s studio-quality TimeFactor,
PitchFactor, ModFactor and Space units (plus the
bespoke UltraTap delay), you know that you’re
in for a good time. It’s not even tricky to get to
grips with, as the H9’s one-knob interface makes
navigation a dream. There’s also an iPad app for
deep editing. One of the finest multi-effects units of
all time and a go-to for professionals.
ALSO TRY LINE 6 HELIX FLOOR, MOOER BLACK TRUCK
FOR A UNIVERSE OF FEARLESS MUSIC EXPLORERS

DELAY FUZZ BO OST

ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
REVERB
WORDS HUW PRICE
Reverb is the guitarist’s go-to effect. But exactly what is it, and how
many types are there? Let’s set off in search of endless shimmer…
C
onsidering human beings started out
living in caves, reverb must have
been enhancing our musical
endeavours from the beginning.
Unlike many guitar effects, reverb actually
occurs in the natural world – so it’s an
acoustic phenomenon that it’s possible to
simulate electronically. But what actually
constitutes reverb in the irst place?
When I started out as a studio engineer,
some of the old-timers would ask for ‘echo’
on a guitar or vocal. This caused confusion,
because they often used ‘echo’ when
referring to reverb – but when they actually
wanted an echo effect, they preferred the
terms ‘slapback’ or ‘ADT’.
92
Technically, they weren’t wrong – because
reverb is created by multiple echoes that
occur so close in time to the original sound,
they aren’t perceived as separate or delayed
repeats. Instead, these multiple short echoes
gel with the dry tone to form a composite
sound, which lingers on after the original dry
sound has faded to silence.
You can try this for yourself. If you have a
slapback delay, tape-echo simulation pedal
or even an actual tape echo, set the delay
time to minimum and turn up the repeats
control. You should hear a reverb effect
that sounds like the acoustics of a tiled
bathroom or an empty room. You can get
a natural reverb in stairwells and big open
spaces like churches and cathedrals, too. The
effect should be intense and long lasting,
due to the space’s increased volume and the
relectivity of the stone surfaces.
To measure reverb, acoustic engineers
refer to RT60, which is the time taken for
the signal level to drop by 60dB – aka the
‘reverb time’. When designing concert halls
and public spaces, acousticians can ine-tune
and control reverb characteristics through
an understanding of how size, shape and
materials affect sound.
This is important, because excessive
reverb can obscure the dry sound, reducing
intelligibility and creating a sonic soup. It
may be ine for serious surfers or ambient
rockers, but it’s otherwise disadvantageous.
Again, the type of reverberation synonymous
with larger spaces can be simulated
electronically, but more sophisticated
devices are needed to do so convincingly.
Why would we need to? The
simple answer is that pleasing acoustic
environments inspire people to make
 ALL ABOUT

music. Have you ever enjoyed singing while FACING PAGE The Immerse
showering, or playing acoustic guitar in an Reverberator from Neunaber
empty room stripped out for redecoration? is a compact yet feature-
packed take on natural
Assuming the answer is yes, it’s perhaps
and ethereal reverbs
surprising that so many rehearsal spaces and
recording studios are acoustically dry. The ABOVE MIDDLE Keeley’s
guitar amp that sounded amazing in the Caverns combines delay
big room at last weekend’s gig may sound and reverb into one chassis
dull and uninspiring in the corner of the for spring, modulation and
pub this week. shimmer ’verbs combined
with tape-style delay
The missing ingredient could simply
be a touch of reverb and if you’re not ABOVE RIGHT And the same
getting it from the room, you’ll need to company’s Omni combines
add some yourself. This is where things get classic room, spring and
complicated but also interesting, because the plate reverb lavours
various devices used to create reverb effects
all have their own sound and character. LEFT TC Electronics’ Hall Of
Fame Mini may have only
In extreme cases, the reverb effect can deine
one knob, but TonePrint
a piece of recorded music just as much as technology allows you to load
the arrangement and instrumentation. So diferent customised reverbs
let’s examine the various types of reverb and in via a smartphone app
ind out how they work.
Although this article is primarily intended
for guitarists, I’m starting with studio reverb

GUITAR CLASSICS 93
ALL ABOUT
ABOVE TOP Fender’s
6G15 Reverb Unit has
been reissued as the ’63
Tube Reverb
ABOVE LEFT A 1964 Fender
Twin Reverb, with its built-in
valve-driven spring reverb
ABOVE RIGHT EHX’s Holy
Grail (now in Nano format)
came out in 2002
FACING PAGE LEFT
Afterneath from EarthQuaker
Devices ofers an imaginative
take on the efect: it’s ‘a
wizard in a cave in a box’
FACING PAGE RIGHT
Strymon’s BigSky ofers
a world of musical reverb
94
because most of us have been inspired by
guitar sounds on records. We may discover
what amp, guitar and pedals were used, but
we shouldn’t disregard studio processing. In
fact, any guitar sound with added reverb on
a pre-1975 recording is likely to have been
sent through an echo chamber, spring or
plate reverb.
To add room reverb to recorded sounds,
early studio designers placed powered
speakers inside acoustically reverberant
rooms. Dry signals were sent out into the
room, with microphones capturing the
sound and returning to the mixing desk.
These ‘echo chambers’ were often specially
designed and carefully tuned. Another studio
trick is to send sounds back out into the
recording room and use microphones to
capture the room sound during mixing.
Studios also traditionally used spring
reverbs that were similar to the ones we
ind in amps, but far more sophisticated and
controllable. The most famous was the AKG
BX20, housed in a rectangular box the size
of a cupboard. The BX15 and BX10 are
smaller versions and they all sound fantastic
on guitars. Another device, called the Great
British Spring, also has a loyal following.
The big boy of classic studio reverb is the
EMT plate – in particular the 140. A small
transducer – a bit like a speaker motor –
was used to set a sizeable metal plate in
motion. The plate was tensioned within a
frame and a contact microphone was used
to sense the vibrations. Stereo plates had
two microphones. Dampening pads were
used to adjust the reverb time and could be
operated by remote control.

In 1976, a trail was blazed for digital
reverb with the EMT 250 – aka The Dalek.
Other landmark digital reverbs followed,
such as the Lexicon 224, 448 and PCM
models, the Ursa Major Space Station and
the AMS RMX 16.
All were used to great effect with guitars,
but valve-amp tones and lesser digital
reverbs didn’t always combine so well.
However, digital reverbs afforded engineers
unprecedented control over speciic
parameters such as pre-delay, equalisation,
reverb time and diffusion.
SPRING HAS SPRUNG
Laurens Hammond’s patent for a spring
reverb device was granted way back in
1939, but it was impractical for guitar
use. Everything changed in 1961 when a
Hammond engineer named Alan Young
developed a ‘miniaturised’ and enclosed
spring-reverb tank. Reverb-equipped amps
from Ampeg, Gibson and Danelectro
followed in 1961, along with Fender’s
standalone 6G15 reverb unit.
Although some regard the Ampeg
Reverberocket as having the inest guitar
reverb of all, the spring-reverb sound is
associated most closely with Fender. It’s the
sound of surf, early 60s guitar instrumental
groups and Spaghetti Westerns, and the
electric blues players of that era would often
crank the reverb control up to 10.
Some guitarists became distracted by
digital rack-mounted reverbs in the 80s,
but spring reverb has, for the most part,
remained the de facto reverb of choice for
electric guitar.
ALL ABOUT
Modern DSP (Digital Signal Processing)
technology is geared towards emulating
classic analogue tones, in practical and
affordable stompbox form. Some pedals
are dedicated to speciic vintage effects,
while others allow you to choose from a
bewildering array of reverbs. If you can’t
decide between spring, plate, room or
chamber reverbs, why fret over it when you
can have them all in a single box?
Try using your amp reverb to provide a
hint of space and three-dimensionality, and
then augment it with a stompbox for more
extreme and dramatic reverb effects. You
may also choose to feed stereo reverb
outputs to separate amps, or route the dry
and reverb signals to separate amps. Reverb
may not have been the irst guitar effect,
but it will probably be the last.
GUITAR CLASSICS 95
BUILDER PROFILE
BUILDER PROFILE
THORPYFX
INTERVIEW GARY WALKER
Adrian Thorpe MBE is an expert in explosive ordnance disposal, so he
knows plenty about bomb-proof build quality… he tells us about his range
How did you start in guitar effects?
“When I irst commissioned into the Army, I
found myself living away from home with a
lot of spare time, so I started to experiment
with buying pedals and it quickly became
an obsession. I was trying all sorts of pedals,
but I was desperate to nail the vintage
tones of Brian May, Eric Clapton and Tony
Iommi. All three legends seemed to share
the same secret, the Dallas Rangemaster!
So I decided to build one. I sourced all the
parts, including the OC44 transistor, vintage
caps, etc. I was blown away by the result!
This started a different obsession – I wanted
to build as many circuits as I could. Quickly,
I built up a massive amount of self-built
pedals, so I started getting requests from
friends to build certain circuits. Eventually,
the pressure to build my own designs
became too strong an urge to resist, so the
96
day after our wedding, Georgia and
I agreed to start ThorpyFX.”
Your components and workmanship are of a
high grade. Is that a key part of your ethos?
“Well, I am obsessive over details. I like to
‘sweat the small stuff’. I wanted to ensure
my pedals were as well built and consistent
between units as they could be. To do this
involved using basic engineering principles;
one was to reduce variation between units
by narrowing the percentage difference
between components. I also wanted to
reduce the noise loor of the circuits to
ensure the effect isn’t covered in a wash of
hiss. This sort of attention to detail doesn’t
come cheap. However, it’s worth it for me
and it’s something I will not compromise on
at all. If the pedal design doesn’t meet my
exacting standards, then I will not release it.”
Talk us through some of the pedals…
“Well, the Gunshot was our irst pedal
and is our take on a British-style drive. It’s
articulate, mid-focused and amp-like, owing
to the cascading gain stages. The Warthog
has similar cascading drive stages to the
Gunshot, but has a more American tonality.
It can get a lot dirtier, and a lot cleaner
than the Gunshot. The Fallout Cloud is
our take on a four-transistor silicon fuzz,
but with a much more powerful active EQ.
The Peacekeeper is our take on a low-gain
overdrive and has a split active EQ with
the mids/presence control sat pre-drive and
the bass and treble post-drive. The Chain
Home is our take on the vintage Vox Repeat
Percussion tremolo circuit, coupled with
a versatile booster. The Fallout Cloud has
been immensely popular. It’s designed to
overcome some of the frustrations we all
experience with many fuzz pedals.”
Is it your biggest achievement so far?
“I’d say so, yes. It’s our lagship pedal, it has
been universally praised and has won awards
on both sides of the pond; we are massively
humbled and grateful to our customer base.
We had a real eureka moment when we
 BUILDER PROFILE

managed to get the EQ we wanted to solve

all the shortcomings of that style of fuzz.
The best bit, though, was when I was able
to set the EQ to match the vintage unit I
had to test against, I genuinely couldn’t stop
playing the thing! Thankfully, thousands
of the guitar-playing community share the
same joy with this pedal as I do.”

The Warthog reminds us of a ProCo RAT,

but it doesn’t disappear in a band mix…
“A vintage RAT is a joyous pedal to behold,
but I found the compression within
somewhat frustrating. The Warthog utilises
some of the same ideas, but it’s designed
to be a lot more open. I have done this by
reducing the gain in the overdrive section
and designing the clipping circuit to have
much higher headroom. The Warthog also
has a cascading-gain arrangement similar
to the Gunshot. So despite the lower gain
in the drive section, adding the calibre (up
to 25dB of boost) increases the distortion
available, but allows the circuit to remain
open. Doing things this way means the
Warthog can go from a clean boost all the
way through overdrive, distortion and into
fuzz territory. The end result is probably one
of the most versatile pedals on the market
and it sounds stellar in a band situation, too.” “WHEN I FIRST COMMISSIONED INTO THE
What inspired you to make a tremolo? ARMY, I WAS LIVING AWAY FROM HOME
“I’d been listening to a lot of Spacemen 3
and wanted to get that interesting tremolo WITH A LOT OF SPARE TIME, SO I STARTED
sound, but didn’t want to clone anything.
So the Chain Home was a nod to the
TO EXPERIMENT WITH BUYING PEDALS AND
vintage circuit, but wrapped around a really
fantastic clean booster. This means you
IT QUICKLY BECAME AN OBSESSION”
can get some subtle trem-wash sounds and
give your amp a kick in the backside, too –
unusual for a tremolo as they often seem to
lower the perceived volume of your signal.
I also wanted to give people a solution if
pedalboard real estate is an issue.”

You’ve collaborated with Dan Coggins…

“I’ve been great friends with Dan [designer
of Lovetone pedals] for years. In 2016, we
got together and collaborated on a number
of modulation designs. These are going to
be unique takes on classic analogue
modulation effects like chorus, lange, phase,
etc. I am in the inal stages of getting these
nailed down… [Fresh fruit from this
collaboration was released at Winter NAMM
2019 in the shape of the Deep Oggin
chorus/vibrato – Ed].”

For more info, visit thorpyfx.com

GUITAR CLASSICS 97
STAR PEDALBOARDS

STAR PEDALBOARD
GARY CLARK JR

DUNLOP GCB95 CRY

BABY (CUSTOM
COPPER FINISH) STRYMON FLINT
98
 STAR PEDALBOARDS

FUNCTION F[X] TC ELECTRONIC

THE CANNON POLYTUNE 2 NOIR

HERMIDA AUDIO FULLTONE

ZENDRIVE OCTAFUZZ 2
GUITAR CLASSICS 99
ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
TREMOLO
WORDS HUW PRICE
Tremolo is the daddy of guitar effects and we’ve used it since the
1940s. But there has always been confusion about what it really is…
T
hose of us who experienced the
unremitting tedium of formal music
lessons may recall long lists of Italian
terms that had to be memorised for
theory exams. Among them might have been
the words ‘tremolo’, or maybe ‘tremolando’.
The musical use of tremolo predates
electronic effects by several hundred years
– at least. Tremolo was almost certainly irst
produced by string players moving bows
back and forth rapidly using very short
strokes. Since sound is generated only when
100
the bow is moving, the volume level must
drop as the bow changes direction.
This results in a series of volume peaks
and troughs and, if the player’s technique is
good, then the effect will sound smooth and
regular. The intro of Bruckner’s Symphony
No. 9 is a good example. Tremolo is a key
technique in mandolin playing, too. A
plectrum is used instead of a bow, but the
rapid back and forth movement is the same.
In both cases, a playing technique is
employed to create the tremolo, but
tremolo as an added effect was irst heard on
church organs during the 16th century. The
effect was produced mechanically, with a
diaphragm opening and closing to modulate
air pressure – but pitch luctuated along
with volume.
Rhythmic pitch luctuation is called
vibrato, which is different to the volume
luctuations of tremolo. Nevertheless, both
terms have long been used interchangeably
and incorrectly – in the musical world as
well as the patent ofice. So Leo Fender can
be excused to some extent. By the 1930s,
electronic musical instruments were being
developed, and the irst electronic tremolo
effect appeared on the market in 1941.
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL TREMOLO
Most electric instruments have volume
controls so that you can create your own
 ALL ABOUT

ABOVE LEFT ThorpyFX’s

tremolo effects. Hit a chord and turn the
Chain Home tremolo is
volume knob back and forth and you’ll get
inspired by Vox’s Repeat
tremolo – but would you really want to do Percussion unit from 1968
that all the way through an entire song?
It makes a great deal more sense to ABOVE RIGHT The
automate the process, because it’s far less Tremotron from Stone Deaf
exhausting, it sounds better and importantly, is a digitally controlled
analogue unit that can
both hands are freed up to deal with the real
run two diferent tremolo
business of playing.
efects simultaneously
It’s well known DeArmond developed
the irst electronic tremolo, but they were LEFT Voodoo Labs’ version is
initially installed in the electric Storytone a photocell-based unit with
piano in the 40s. Before long, DeArmond’s a slope control to tweak
‘Tremolo Control’ became available as a the waveform from smooth
to stuttering
standalone unit that can legitimately claim
to be the irst guitar effect.
A motorised spindle shook a canister
containing electrolytic luid. As the luid
sloshed around, it conducted varying
amounts of signal to ground, which

GUITAR CLASSICS 101

ALL ABOUT

BANDMASTER MODEL 6G7 VIBRATO SCHEMATIC

VIBRATO SPEED
PEDAL .01 .01 100K

4M-RA

.02
1M

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470K

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100K

TREB.
100K

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68K

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500K-L
VOL.
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250K-A

A D
6800
1M

BASS

56K
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10K

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20-600P.
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220K 470K
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250MM .01
220K

ABOVE LEFT The circuit made the guitar volume luctuate. Many and Fender inally boarded the tremolo-train
diagram for Fender’s of these units were discarded after the in 1955.
tremolo-equipped electrolytic luid dried up, but they can It’s interesting to note how Fender’s
Bandmaster amp
be rejuvenated with an injection of implementation of tremolo evolved over
ABOVE RIGHT A Fender
Windex cleaning luid. the years. In the 1955 Tremolux, a 12AX7
Tremolux from 1955, the year Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters used this valve was used as an oscillator to generate
the model was introduced. tremolo, as did Duane Eddy on Rebel Rouser. a varying voltage that was applied to the
The inclusion of the tremolo Billy Gibbons is also a fan and tells some cathode of the phase-inverter valve. This
efect was the irst time the great DeArmond anecdotes, but it’s wise varied the bias, which partially turned the
company had released an
to perhaps take most of what he says with phase inverter valve on and off and caused
amp with a built-in efect
a generous bucket of sodium chloride. the volume to rise and fall.
For the later Vibrolux, the oscillator
AMP TREMOLO voltage acted on the bias of the power valves.
Mechanical tremolos, like tape echoes, Many aicionados regard the Brownface-era
require maintenance, and invariably wear ‘harmonic vibrato’ as Fender’s best design. It
out. This made the move to purely electronic achieved a pseudo-vibrato effect by splitting
tremolo inevitable. By the late 1940s, the signal into high and low frequencies
Danelectro, Multivox and Gibson were and modulating one with low-frequency
selling tremolo-equipped amps. Magnatone oscillators working in opposite polarity. The

102

7025
Y
100K
470K
4700
2-25
100K
470K
1M
X
20-600P.
56K
1W
result falls somewhere between tremolo,
vibrato and phasing.
During the Blackface and Silverface eras,
Fender used a photocell resistor – essentially
a resistor that reacted to light. Simply put,
the oscillator drove the light source and
the resistor acted like a light-driven volume
control. This type of trem is characterised by
an asymmetrical response, where the volume
rises and falls occur at different rates.
TREMOLO PEDALS
Amps with built-in tremolo tend to be
bigger and more complicated. The tremolo
circuits occasionally fail, and where there’s
a ‘Normal’ channel and a ‘Vibrato’ channel,
the former is often considered to sound
superior. If tremolo is an occasional treat
for you, a tremolo pedal will be cheaper,
less hassle and your core tone may be better
if you’re not obliged to play through a
‘Tremolo/Vibrato’ channel.
With ampliier tremolo, you’re stuck with
the basic characteristic of the circuit, but as
we’ve discovered, tremolo is a more subtle
and nuanced effect than simply a volume
pulse. If you would prefer Brownface
tremolo with your tweed amp or optical
trem with your Brit-inspired Class A combo,
pedals allow you to mix and match.
Most amp-tremolo controls are limited
to speed and depth – or variations on this
kind of theme. Choosing the right tremolo
is about feel as much as sound, so the
waveform of the oscillator makes a huge
difference. Some pedals enable you to
set the waveform to taste for a variety
of tremolo sounds and feel.
ALL ABOUT
The Electro-Harmonix Super Pulsar
offers adjustable sine, triangle and pulse
waveforms. Remember how Johnny Marr
matched his trem speed to the tempo of
How Soon Is Now? It’s hard to achieve
using an amp, but some trem pedals have
tap tempo and even subdivision switching.
Maybe you prefer fast swell and slow
decay, or vice versa? There are pedals that
will allow you to do both, or even select a
symmetrical shape.
Modern tremolo pedals come in many
forms, with op amps, JFETs and even valves.
Some of these pedals have photocells, just
like Blackface Fenders, and you can even
choose between mono and stereo. Unlike
chorus and phasing, tremolo has a timeless
quality, and the choice has never been better
for occasional users and obsessives alike.
GUITAR CLASSICS 103
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BUILDER PROFILE
DAWNER PRINCE ELECTRONICS
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER
Dawner Prince’s digital and analogue fusions have seen the Croatian effects
company build an impressive reputation. Founder Zoran Kraljevic charts
his firm’s growth from a uni side project to working with David Gilmour…
How did you first get into making effects?
“I was always into music, but I always played
drums. When I went to college to study
electronic engineering, I also played in a
ska-punk band and my college guitarists
were spending more on entertainment than
on musical equipment! So, strapped for
cash, they asked me if, as a future electrical
engineer, I could build them some amps or
effects. That’s when I first got into audio
electronics, and I decided to build them
a guitar pedal – it was a RAT clone in a
clumsy enclosure, but it set me on the path!”
Tell us about how Dawner Prince
Electronics evolved as a company…
104
“After I built that RAT, I completely fell
in love with audio electronics and started
doing pedal and amp clones and mods for
my friends. The results were great; people
loved that my modifications gave sonic
improvements to their gear, so I said to
myself I should design my own pedal.
After spending some time designing and
fine-tuning, the Diktator preamp/overdrive/
distortion was born.
“That was eight years ago. Soon, orders
started pouring in, we had great feedback
and started building a reputation. Then I
designed the Starla and Red Rox pedals,
and that was when my girlfriend Jelena and
I decided to properly start the company
– Dawner Prince Electronics Ltd. Jelena
has been a part of the Dawner Prince story
from the very beginning, but it was not until
recently that she has become the official
general manager of the company, and now
I don’t think I’d manage to run the business
without her! She has a Masters Degree in
Psychology, and so we like to say that she
is the brain that overrules the heart in the
decision making! [laughs].
“I didn’t have some entrepreneurial
masterplan when I started out, nor did I
design pedals based on what the market
demands. I just fall in love with a particular
sound, get obsessed with it, and then work
on the design until I get it just right – my
only guide is my ear. The funny thing is, that
I am not a guitarist and I still can’t play it
well… and I am left-handed!”
Why should people be interested in Dawner
Prince effects pedals?
“Our effects pedals are high-end devices
and we strive to maintain that level in
every aspect. New approaches and
innovative electronic ideas are incorporated
into the circuits, making them more reliable,
and endowing them with studio sound
quality. We also put an emphasis on high
versatility without sacrificing simplicity –
so Dawner Prince pedals are designed
to operate equally well on stage or in
the studio.”
What’s your proudest achievement to date
as a pedal maker?
“Looking back to the fact that I started from
scratch without anyone’s financial support,
only had one basic soldering station and
multimeter, but great passion and faith in
myself, making a living now from doing
something I love is my greatest success.
“But if I would be forced to choose one
particular story, it would certainly be an
opportunity to cooperate with one of the
biggest artists and guitarists of all time –
Mr David Gilmour.
“I always hoped to have such big names
on our artist list, but I never actually spent
much time trying to contact musicians and
offer them pedal endorsements. Instead,
I directed all my energy into developing
top-quality products that would hopefully
find their way to the top artists eventually.
“It was quite exciting moment when
I received a call from Gilmour’s guitar tech,
Phil Taylor, asking about our products… or
when we found out John Mayer got himself
 BUILDER PROFILE

ABOVE The Boonar

captures the magic of
the Binson Echorec in a
compact stompbox

LEFT The Viberator is

a photocell-driven
take on the Uni-Vibe

NEXT PAGE, MIDDLE

The two-channel
Diktator combines
preamp, overdrive
and distortion in one
versatile package

NEXT PAGE, BOTTOM

Stage-ready tap-tempo
tremolo is the analogue
Starla’s stock-in-trade

GUITAR CLASSICS 105

BUILDER PROFILE
“I’M A HUGE FAN AND COLLECTOR OF
VINTAGE GEAR – OLD AMPS, LESLIE
SPEAKERS, TAPE ECHOES… THE SOUND
THOSE ANALOGUE DEVICES PRODUCE IS
UNIQUE, THAT’S WHERE I FIND INSPIRATION”
our pedal for the new tour pedalboard!
They are both vintage-sound lovers and
they use the Boonar Multi-Head Drum
Echo – Gilmour has it on both his studio
and tour boards.”
Could you tell us some details about any
future releases you have planned
for Dawner Prince?
“I’m a huge fan and collector of vintage
gear – old amps, Leslie speakers, tape echoes
and anything with tubes! The sound those
analogue devices produce is unique, and
that is where I find an inspiration for my
creations. Besides the great sound, they had
quite a few limitations, due to the available
technology of that time.
“My goal is to revive those legendary units
in the form of a stompbox, to model and
106
reproduce the exact sonic characteristics and
to blend it with today’s modern technology
by means of combining both analogue
and digital electronics making them more
reliable, more versatile and avoiding all
those limitations.
“We’re currently engineering a
microprocessor-based digital-control
platform that includes modern
controllability features such as full MIDI
implementation, preset options, an OLED
screen and even wireless updates – that
will be included in our future products.
“We’re also working on a new vintage-
inspired pedal, and the testing will be done
with Phil Taylor and David Gilmour!”
For more information about Dawner Prince
Electronics, visit dawnerprince.com
ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
WAH
WORDS HUW PRICE
Wah pedals helped shape the sound of psychedelia, defined
the cop-show soundtrack and formed the foundation of funk…
T
here are various accounts of the wah’s
invention, but nobody disputes that
Thomas Organ engineer Brad
Plunkett worked on the circuit in
1966. Back then, Thomas Organ distributed
Vox products in the US; Plunkett adapted
a midrange boost circuit from a Dick
Denney-designed Vox Super Beatle amp.
He replaced the three-way switch with
a potentiometer to reduce manufacturing
costs, and employed an Armstrong oscillator
on the advice of colleague Les Kushner.
Session guitarist and Vox endorsee Del
Casher liked what he heard when turning
the frequency-select knob and figured it
could sound good with electric guitars.
Casher claims he suggested using a Vox
organ volume pedal instead of a control
knob, so guitarists could use the effect
108
while playing. After a day of swapping
components, Plunkett and Casher ended up
with the basic design for the wah.
According to Casher, that’s when Vox/
Thomas Organ CEO Joe Benaron dropped
in for a listen. Drawing on his business
experience in the mattress industry, Benaron
decided the wah pedal was unsuitable for
guitar. However, he was convinced he could
sell millions of wahs to electric trumpeters.
Trumpeter Clyde McCoy was then offered
$500 to endorse a wah pedal he had never
used and the earliest US-manufactured
Vox wah carried McCoy’s likeness on the
baseplate. Later McCoy ‘signature’ wahs
had just an inscription, and both are highly
sought after – albeit not by trumpet players.
Thanks to Hendrix, Clapton et al, the
wah quickly became the accessory no
self-respecting psychedelic guitarist could
be without. As for early proponents, treat
yourself with a listen to Earl Hooker’s
Wah Wah Blues – Hendrix probably did.
The Vox V846 appeared in 1967,
followed by the first Cry Baby in 1968, and
soon the Thomas Organ and Vox wahs were
being made by EME in Italy. Brad Plunkett
and Les Kushner’s names appear on a
patent application filed on 24 February
1967, but the patent wasn’t granted until
22 September 1970. By that time, copies
were being made. During 1969, Jen
Elettronica took over production of the Cry
Baby. These wahs are collectable, and the
various inductors used during manufacture
are crucial to the allure of vintage wahs.
THE CIRCUIT
The wah pedal is a band-pass filter that
rolls off the treble and the bass and creates
a resonance peak at the low-pass filter
frequency point. The result is a boost
targeted at a very narrow frequency band.
If you want to know what this ‘stuck
wah’ sounds like, check out some of Mick
Ronson’s early recordings with David Bowie.
Moving the pedal sweeps the resonance
peak up and down the frequency range and
makes your guitar go ‘wah’. It’s not unlike
a parametric-equaliser boost with a narrow
‘Q’ setting, but most equalisers of that era
switched between multiple inductors and
capacitors to target various frequency points.
The clever thing about the wah circuit is the
way it moves the low-pass frequency point
using a fixed inductor and a single capacitor.
A potentiometer, transistor and fixed
capacitor combine to trick the inductor
into ‘thinking’ it’s connected to a variable
capacitor. The pedal adjusts the amount of
current flowing through the capacitor, which
makes the value of the capacitor appear
greater than it really is, so the position of the
resonance peak is determined by the amount
of current passing through the capacitor.
Various inductors have been used, and
although none were expensive or esoteric
items, some have acquired legendary status.
The earliest inductor, and the one used in
the Clyde models and the earliest V846s,
is called the ‘halo’. A metal-cased halo
inductor – aka the ‘trash can’ – was used in
the earliest Italian wahs, but JEN wahs had
red Fasel inductors. All are well regarded,
just like the brown epoxy-covered ‘stack
of dimes’ inductor, but the least popular of
vintage type is the cube-shaped TDK.
 ALL ABOUT

Copies of many of the vintage inductors
are now being made, and upgrading wah
inductors is a simple and popular DIY pedal
tweak. You can get red and yellow Fasels
from Dunlop, and halo types from Small
Bear Electronics, Arteffect, Mojo Tone and
others. Banzai Music sells halo and stack-of-
dimes repros.
There are plenty of opinions on how each
inductor sounds, and there are several other
components that impact the tone of a wah
pedal, too. Simply soldering in a replacement
inductor is not a guarantee of tonal nirvana.
KEY COMPONENTS
It helps if you can identify the various
components and understand how they
inluence the wah response. After-market
potentiometers can change the feel of the
wah, and you can sweeten the characteristics
of modern pedals by installing lower-gain
transistors. Resistors that have drifted
in value can effect Q width, frequency
response and signal level. Replacing out-of-
spec resistors with ones that test well will
restore the ‘vintage’ sound. Alternatively,
you can use different values to ‘tune’ the
wah to your taste.
how to alter the voicing to create speciic
wah tones and responses.
These days, it’s not uncommon to ind
Q controls and frequency-range switches
on the side of the casing; so you can go for
bassy or trebly wah tones and emphasise the
‘vocal’ quality by narrowing the Q. You can
even switch between inductors.
Some pedals feature switchable output
buffers and LED indicators, and true bypass
is commonplace. Since potentiometers and
switches wear out, some manufacturers
have dispensed with them altogether.
However, one thing has never changed –
they all go WAH!
FACING PAGE Dunlop’s
modern Cry Baby is faithful
to the original Clyde McCoy-
sponsored design
BELOW TOP Xotic Efects’
XW-1 adds Bias, Treble/Bass
and Q controls to the
classic recipe
BELOW BOTTOM The
fabled red Fasel inductor in
an early JEN Cry Baby. The
multi-coloured box directly
in front of the inductor is
a ‘tropical ish’ capacitor

BUFFER ISSUES
Vintage wah pedals were never true bypass,
and the load they put on guitars sucks treble
– even when they’re off. Wahs made from
the mid 90s onwards have input buffers to
cure this and those wanting vintage specs
often remove the input buffer.
Wah plus fuzz is regarded as being a
classic combination, but the impedance
mismatch when Fuzz Face and Tone Bender-
type fuzzes are used results in a reduced
wah effect and a squawking oscillation that
sweeps with the wah pedal.
None of the various solutions are perfect.
Much of the magic of vintage fuzz pedals
comes from touch dynamics and their ability
to clean up from the guitar volume control.
Placing a buffered pedal between the wah
and the fuzz, or installing a buffer stage
inside the wah, may solve the squawking,
but the trade-off is that some of the fuzz’s
best qualities will be lost.

MODERN WAHS
Wah customising dates back to the
beginning, when Hendrix retained Roger
Mayer as his personal tweaker. Although
most wahs are still based on the old Clyde
circuit, modern pedal builders understand

GUITAR CLASSICS 109

STAR PEDALBOARDS

BOSS RV-6 BOSS OC-3

STAR PEDALBOARD
NALLE COLT
VINTAGE TROUBLE

BOSS DD-500 BOSS ES-8

110
 STAR PEDALBOARDS

HERMIDA AUDIO VOODOO LAB TC ELECTRONIC LOVEPEDAL

ZENDRIVE PROCTAVIA POLYTUNE 2 PICKLE VIBE

J ROCKETT AUDIO
DESIGNS ARCHER
CATALINBREAD RAH JOSH SMITH BOSS FV-500H
GUITAR CLASSICS 111
BUILDER PROFILE

112

BUILDER PROFILE
JEORGE TRIPPS
WORDS CHRIS VINNICOMBE
He’s worked with Joe Bonamassa, Eric
Johnson, Eddie Van Halen and the Jimi
Hendrix Estate and designed an effects
pedal that spawned whole new genres of
music. Not bad for an engineer who began
his career as a self-confessed “pain in the
ass” to the big boys. We meet Way Huge
main man Jeorge Tripps…
“I
remember thinking, ‘I wonder if in 20 or 30
years my shit will still be around, or if
anyone will care!’” laughs Jeorge Tripps,
founder of Way Huge Electronics, designer
of the now-legendary Line 6 DL4 and the man
responsible for some of the most exciting pedals
ever to hit the mass market during his 12 years
(and counting) at Dunlop Manufacturing. When we
catch up with him, the California resident inds
himself jet-lagged in snowy Birmingham as Dunlop’s
UK distributor Westside has organised a Q&A event in
BUILDER PROFILE
the city’s impressively cavernous Guitar Guitar ABOVE One of only
retail store. We ask the affable Mr Tripps how his 10 Way Huge Mister Box
relationship with stompboxes began. limited-edition Michael Landau
overdrive pedals, designed by
“Literally accidentally!” he recalls. “I’m a guitar
Jeorge Tripps
player, and I would noodle around with ixing stuff
and whatnot. I moved to LA in 1991 and I had a copy
of Craig Anderton’s Electronic Projects For Musicians
and broke it out again and just started messing with it,
making pedals for fun. For a couple of years, it was just
really for fun and for friends.
“I was working in a place called Andy Brauer
Studio Rentals and then I met Dave Friedman and
ended up working for him and working on racks and
building pedals and then somewhere in ’94 I went:
‘I’m just gonna build these pedals full time.’ People
were wanting them and it seemed like a smart move,
I guess! It was not like a planned thing, I was just
idgeting around reading books. So that was Way
Huge, then in January 1999, I shut it all down and
went to Line 6 and did seven years at Line 6 and then
jumped to Dunlop; it’s been 12 years at Dunlop now.”
GUITAR CLASSICS 113
BUILDER PROFILE
“WHEN I FIRST STARTED THE
INTERNET WAS AROUND, BUT
IT WAS ’95… ME AND ANALOG MAN,
MIKE PIERA, WE USED TO TRADE
SCHEMATICS VIA THE MAIL”
THIS SPREAD The Classic We wonder what it was like to be around at the
108 Fuzz, Sugar Drive, Blue dawn of the boutique pedal business. “People weren’t
Hippo, Aqua-Puss and really doing Big Muff clones or Tube Screamer clones
Cry Baby Mini 535Q Wah
back in 1995,” says Tripps. “There was a handful of
are Tripps’ answer to the
us. But everyone is a competitor now, and that’s the
seemingly insatiable demand
for ever-smaller pedals internet. It’s a different world. It’s great, and it’s hard.
The guy who is building pedals in his garage because
he put up an Instagram page… he’s sold five and it
doesn’t seem like much, but there are hundreds of
those guys.
“When I first started the internet was around, but
it was ’95. People definitely weren’t buying pedals
often over the internet. The information wasn’t there.
Me and Analog Man, Mike Piera, I’ve known him since
the early 90s and we used to trade schematics via the
mail. We might have talked via email briefly, but
most of it was letters and like, okay I’ll trade you,
I’ve got these cool Boss schematics and you’ve got
all those cool Electro-Harmonix ones. A lot of stuff on
114
the web, I’d bet a lot of money it either came from me
or him.
“Early on, you’d have to be nice to people! I’d call
up Ibanez and get the local tech on the phone and be
like: ‘Hey, can I get a schematic for this or that?’ Now
you can’t. I used to call up Dunlop and I would talk
to Sam McRae, who’s still there. He would send me
Rotovibe schematics, MXR schematics… I still have
faxes. I’d get faxes sometimes. Now they are all old
and fading!
“It’s different times. You can look like a really big
pedal company. You can put together good social
media and it can become a big pedal company,
’cause all of a sudden, you looked proper. It’s totally
different. I shut down Way Huge ’cause it was hard,
and I got an offer to work on cool pedals at Line 6
with a team of people. It’s not just me having to do
everything and all I have to do is the fun part, dinking
around and coming up with things? Making sure
it sounds good? Great! I don’t have to sell stuff or
market it or build it? I was like, count me in.”
MAKING HISTORY
At Line 6, Jeorge was responsible for all of the
4-series floor units, including the now legendary DL4
Delay Modeler, a stompbox so influential that music
listening website Pitchfork recently referred to it as
“the most important guitar pedal of the last 20 years”
thanks to its use by a whole host of experimental
musicians including members of Radiohead, Battles,
Minus The Bear and countless others. Two decades on
from its launch, the unmistakable green unit still helps
create soundscapes on pedalboards the world over.
“It’s pretty cool being part of that project and how
pervasive it’s been,” acknowledges Tripps. “They still
make it. Literally the only thing that I’m aware of
that’s changed, and that happened when I was still
there, is the logo on the box. Which is great, I like that
kind of stuff. You make it once, you make it right and
walk away!”
Since moving to Dunlop, Tripps has not only
designed such stage stalwarts as 2009’s MXR Carbon
Copy delay, but he’s also collaborated with a host
of stars. We wonder how the translation process
takes place between what the artist wants and the
final result.
“I think they all know what they want – it’s their
ability to articulate stuff,” he explains. “I remember
working with Satriani. Before he went to Korg,
I worked with him at Dunlop. He was very articulate,
it was great. He’s like: ‘I hear 1K’ and I’m like: ‘Oh,
cool! I can figure that out!’ Other people will be like:
 BUILDER PROFILE

‘More purple!’ That’s really the trick – it’s about

how well they can communicate and how well
I can understand.
“The Hendrix stuff was fun, ’cause we can make
Fuzz Faces. We went up to the Experience museum
and looked at the Octavia they had. Van Halen’s stuff
was cool in that regard as well, it’s like cool, you
used stuff that we made, we’re just going to make
a special version for you. It would be great to work
with someone like Jimmy Page, but I want what
Jimmy Page used on Led Zeppelin II – ‘You used a
Tone Bender and that’s what I want to see you use.’
I’m kind of a purist.”
How does a purist deal with modern safety
legislation when it comes to designing new circuits?
“You just don’t use stuff that’s problematic,” he
admits. “Using old parts… we just don’t do it. Every
now and again we do, but we know it’ll be a pain in
the ass. We’ll have to strip lead off and it’s always
going to cost a lot more money. You go: ‘Okay cool,
I’m taking this old part, I’ve gotta go send it off to
have lead taken off…’ which inevitably means stuff
breaks, so you send out 1,000 pieces and get 800 back.
Great. The small companies can get away with it, but
we’re too big of a target.”

GUITAR CLASSICS 115

BUILDER PROFILE
DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
Tripps on the unique challenges of designing his tiny new Way Huge pedals
“The big change between the ‘Smalls’,
as we call them, and the regular ones?
The regular ones have relay true
bypass and the Smalls go back to the
original 3PDT mechanical switch
’cause the relay true bypass has extra
circuitry and I have a lot less space!
You could do that on some, but on
others, there’s no room.
“It kind of started with: ‘How close
together can I get these three jacks?’
The input, the output and power.
So I igured that out and then it’s
like: ‘Let’s put a box around it!’. The
116
Smalls run on batteries, too. They all
use surface mount – not completely,
on the Russian Pickle it’s a hybrid
between the two. It’s all surface-
mount resistors, but the caps and
transistors are through-hole.
“I wanted very speciic ones for
the sound. A surface-mount resistor
or a full-size resistor? It’s still just a
resistive element. Hey, we’re tying
low voltage. It’s a resistor. But other
than the switches and making them
small, I didn’t change any of the
values in the circuit.”

FAST-FORWARD
Although Jeorge is armed with a selection of new-
for-2018 MXR and Dunlop pedals for tonight’s event,
we wonder if he’s able to give us an insight into what’s
on his workbench back in Burbank.
“What am I working on at the moment? I’m
working on a nap!” he laughs. “We’re tight-lipped
about anything coming out. Usually, I’m really far
ahead. The stuff that’s coming out now, the stuff I
have to talk about, I’m like, shit… we’re shipping this
in a week and I forget how it works! It’s like a band
having to rehearse their new record because they’ve
forgotten how to play it. Same kind of thing. I’m a
year ahead, I’m kind of done with stuff for Summer
NAMM so I’m thinking about January 2019 already.”
Luckily, Jeorge’s rehearsals have paid off and he
reels off a list of his latest designs to hit the streets. For
2018, the Way Huge mainman has been responsible
for a series of pedals that are well, way smaller…
“This year, there was the MXR Sugar Drive, the
108 Classic Fuzz Mini – we just made it small because
that old one was pedalboard-friendly when we did it
probably eight years ago, but now people want tiny.
I’m like, yeah, shrink it!”
There’s also the Sugar Drive, MXR’s first klone:
“The Sugar Drive is our version of the… mythical
overdrive!” Jeorge grins. “You guys can say the
name. We try not to be so blatant, but it blatantly is.
Everyone else is doing it so I’m like, okay. With Way
Huge I did a line of smaller-series Blue Hippo, Aqua-
Puss and Russian Pickle pedals. Then we did a Cry
Baby Mini 535Q Wah and the Pork & Pickle, which
BUILDER PROFILE
is the first Way Huge bass overdrive, which literally is ABOVE Bass players aren’t
the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in one box. Bass left out, either – the Pork &
players really like that and you can switch between Pickle combine the Pork Loin’s
overdrive and Russian Pickle’s
the two, but there’s no cascading. Everyone was like,
fuzz flavours in one enclosure
why not? And it’s like, well, you’d have to have three
more knobs, so it would have to be bigger!”
Finally, we ask Jeorge how an effects designer who
was at the bleeding edge of modelling technology in
his Line 6 days feels about the recent wave of do-it-
all digital rigs from the likes of Kemper and Fractal:
“I’m not anti-modelling, but the thing that has always
driven me nuts is digital products that are deep,” he
says. “It’s not that they are bad, but if you walk up to
an amp that has six knobs and you plug in, twiddle
those six knobs for a few minutes and don’t find
anything you like, you’re done.”
“On a modeller, whether it’s a Fractal or a Line 6
or a Boss or anybody… I’ve pitched people towards
that stuff when they’ve been talking about a super-
sophisticated rig that’s got to have lots of controllers
and things that break. But very rarely are you able to
plug into that stuff and just play. You’ve gotta deep
dive and learn how to use it. It’s like getting a new
cellphone – oh shit! I knew how to work this thing
and now I’m starting all over…
“The beauty of the POD and the DL4 was that it
was finite. But when you’ve got a display and you can
go in deep… how many layers of this onion do I have
to pull back until I’m happy? But for some people it’s
great. It depends what you are trying to do.”
Follow Jeorge’s work at wayhuge.com and jimdunlop.com
GUITAR CLASSICS 117
ALL ABOUT
ALL ABOUT
COMPRESSION
WORDS HUW PRICE
Put simply, compression reduces dynamic range, making quiet
notes louder and loud notes quieter. Yet it’s often misunderstood…
F
or many of us, compression remains
shrouded in mystery. We more or less
understand what it’s for, but we’re not
quite sure how or where to use it.
Don’t feel bad, because there are
professional audio engineers who ind
compression just as confusing as guitarists
– although they’d never admit it. As with
all effects, there is no ‘right’ way to set a
compressor, but lots of us get stressed about
doing it wrong.
In this feature, we’re taking a close look at
compressors, how they work, what they do
and ways that they can help your tone. Even
if you’ve never felt the need for one, it’s
worth considering that every guitar sound
you have ever heard on record has probably
118
gone through two or three stages of
compression during the production process.
LOWERING THE ROOF
The difference between the quietest and
loudest parts of a piece of music is its
dynamic range. With orchestral music and
jazz, the dynamic range can be very wide
and dynamics are viewed as an integral part
of musical performance and expression.
However, as music production became
increasingly sophisticated, it quickly
became apparent that wide dynamic range
was creating problems for broadcasting
and recording media. Audio compressors
were initially developed to perform an
entirely technical function – to restrict
dynamic range and avoid overloading
transmitters, disc cutters and tape. Simply
put, audio compressors are like automatic
volume controls that can ‘turn down’ peak
levels and reset themselves as soon as the
peak has passed. They weren’t designed
to provide an ‘effect’ as such, and high-
quality compressors were once considered
to be those that could control dynamics
unobtrusively.
That all changed in the 60s, possibly
because so many pop and rock musicians
felt their songs sounded better on the
radio than they did on record. No
doubt somebody realised that broadcast
compressors were changing the sound of
records for the better by making them
louder, punchier and more exciting.
But consider that last sentence. How can
a device that limits volume actually make
something seem louder as a result?
PEAKY BLINDERS
Think about the dynamic range as being
a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the

loudest. Let’s say the volume peaks reach
10 and are louder than the average level by a
factor of three. Once the peaks are lattened,
you can theoretically raise the average level
by a factor of three without exceeding the
previous maximum. Our perception of
loudness is based on the average level and
not peak levels, so by making up the gain of
a compressed signal, we make it seem louder
to our ears, even if the peak level is lower
than it was previously.
Studio engineers found compression
useful because it allowed them to maintain a
higher average recording level to mask tape
hiss without overloading the tape machines.
At irst, the powers that be took a dim view
of rock ’n’ rollers using compression. At
Abbey Road, the management would try to
restrict access to the studio’s compressors by
obliging engineers to book them in advance.
No doubt egged on by assorted longhairs,
the use of compression became increasingly
prevalent in recording and mixing.
A compressor can be used to make a
vocal sit properly in a track, bring out
ALL ABOUT
subtle details of a guitar part, solidify a ABOVE Origin Efects’ Cali76
bassline or make a drum kit sound as if it Compact Deluxe is based on
was recorded in a massive room. Built with a classic recording-studio
staple from 1968, the Urei
valves, transformers and early transistors,
1176 Peak Limiter
vintage-style compressors all have distinct
sonic characteristics that become more
apparent when they’re being pushed hard –
or abused, if you prefer. For some audio pros,
compression is about as anal as analogue
can get. Even in the dark ages of digital,
when everybody started using rackmounted
reverbs, delays and modulation, compression
remained exclusively analogue.
GUITAR COMPRESSION
As we’ve seen, compression can be used to
overcome technical issues, improve signal-
to-noise ratio and enhance sound quality. So
there are various ways in which compressors
can beneit guitarists. Whether you’re aware
of it or not, if you play through a valve
amp, your tone is getting some compression
from the amp and speakers. This is most
noticeable with valve rectiication when
the amp is turned up suficiently to hit the
GUITAR CLASSICS 119
ALL ABOUT
THIS SPREAD The MXR
Dyna Comp, among the
first guitar compressors,
was released in 1972; the
Ross-like Keeley Compressor
is a pro-pedalboard mainstay;
Boss’s CS-3 (from 1986)
helped bring the efect to the
mass market; and the rare
70s Ross Compressor is much
coveted by vintage-gear
collectors for its warmth
and sustain
120
sweet spot. Everything gels together, notes
don’t jump out and it feels easier to play.
Used subtly, a compressor can give you
this sweet-spot response without having to
turn up the amp. Picking sounds smoother,
there are no transient spikes and you can
get more sustain. Most country pickers find
compressors indispensable – and in general,
light compression can bring out the finer
details in your tone and your playing, and
you’ll be able to hear yourself better.
Heavier compression can give clean guitars
a very punchy quality, where funky chords
and single-note rhythm patterns cut right
through a mix at relatively even volume
levels. Also, check out Roger McGuinn’s
12-string Rickenbacker tone; there are many
guitar sounds which depend on compression
for their impact.
Very heavy compression can sound
unnatural and make rhythm parts feel odd.
However, some players use it to achieve
fuzzbox levels of sustain with clean tones.
David Gilmour’s solo sound on Another Brick
In The Wall (Part 2) is a standout example.
It works because the compressor squashes
the front of the note so hard that it’s barely
perceptible. Then the compressor gradually
releases its grip and fades up the volume
while the note would normally fade away.
This results in notes that barely seem to fade
at all.
ORDER, ORDER
Regarding whereabouts you should place
your compressor pedal in your signal chain,
convention dictates that compressors should
be pre-boost/overdrive. This makes sense,
because the compressor will resist any
intended volume hikes if it is placed post-
boost/overdrive.
However, applying compression post-
boost/overdrive can provide really long
sustain without the need for heavy overdrive
or distortion. So long as the compression
effect is light, it won’t clamp down too hard
when you do want more volume.
One of the simplest ways to understand
how a compressor works is to examine
each of the common controls. Although
pedal makers still offer plenty of one-
knob compressor pedals, some stompbox

compressors are conigured more like
sophisticated studio compressors.
THRESHOLD, COMPRESSION AND SUSTAIN
Regardless of the name on the dial, this
control determines the level at which
the compressor starts to work. Lowering
the threshold – or turning up compression –
means that the compression will be triggered
at lower signal levels.
RATIO
This deines the strength of the compression,
and a 2:1 ratio means that a 2dB increase
in input level is needed to increase output
level by 1dB. Similarly, a 20:1 ratio requires
a 20dB increase in input for a 1dB increase
in output. This control works in conjunction
with threshold, but it’s one that’s rarely seen
on stompboxes.
ATTACK AND RELEASE
These determine how quickly a compressor
responds when the input signal exceeds the
threshold and how quickly it resets once the
input signal falls below the threshold.
MAKE UP/GAIN/LEVEL
Heavy compression may reduce overall
signal level. This control compensates for the
level drop – or even provides some boost.
COMPRESSION TYPES
Although all compressors do the same thing,
they don’t necessarily do it in the same way.
Compressors can be roughly divided into
four categories.
The earliest compressors were ‘vari-mu’
designs, where a valve was used for gain
control. In fact, ‘mu’ is just old-school
speak for ‘gain’. The signal is split to form a
‘sidechain’, which provides a control voltage
to constantly re-bias a valve in the signal
path. In principle, it’s similar to bias tremolo,
but the bias modulation comes from the
audio signal itself rather than an oscillator.
Opto-electrical compressors have photo
resistors placed in close proximity to a
light source such as a bulb – or, these days,
an LED. Again, the input signal is split to
provide a sidechain signal that’s routed to
the light source. The light source glows
brighter with higher signal levels, which
ALL ABOUT
increases the resistance of the photo resistor.
The photo resistor acts like a light-driven
volume potentiometer.
During the late 60s, engineers discovered
that Field Effect Transistors (FETs) could be
used as gain-control elements. Bill Putnam of
UREI used FETs as voltage-variable resistors.
A voltage derived from the audio sidechain
is applied to the FET’s gate, in order to alter
the resistance value between the drain and
the source.
VCA stands for ‘Voltage Controlled
Ampliier’ and VCA compressors are
renowned for lightning-fast attack and
release times. The audio signal passes
through an ampliier stage that’s controlled
by an external voltage derived from the
audio signal.
OTA compressors (the acronym stands
for ‘Operational Transconductance
Ampliier’) are similar to VCAs, but the
chip is used to generate variable current, not
voltage. The OTA response works superbly
for guitar, and many of the classic and
modern boutique stompbox compressors
use this type of circuit.
GUITAR CLASSICS 121
BUILDER PROFILE

Enrico Preuß in the

KMA Audio Machines
workshop in Berlin

122

BUILDER PROFILE
KMA AUDIO MACHINES
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER
German pedal builder Enrico Preuß explains the evolution of his company,
KMA Audio Machines, pedal builds of convenience and the beneits of
having tolerant latmates while you handcraft and test out your range…
How did you irst get into building guitar
effects pedals?
“It started when I joined my band, called
Ampliied Backdoor Creatures, and I needed
new pedals for certain sounds and textures.
To this end, I bought a lot of different
pedals, but I wasn’t really happy with
most of the sounds I was getting, or the
prices I was paying for what they were.
At the time, I was studying mechanical
engineering and my budget was pretty
tight, so I decided to try out some DIY kits,
and while waiting for the kits to arrive, I
found stacks of info on the web talking
about tagboard and vero layouts. That was
where I dived into the whole pedal-building
universe. My irst two self-built pedals
were an SHO Booster and the awesome
Skreddy Pedals Screw Driver. I swapped
the germanium transistor with a silicon one,
which gave me the sound I was looking for,
and showed me I could get everything that
I wanted by doing it on my own.”
When did that at-home tweaking become a
proper effects-building company?
“Before I founded KMA Audio Machines,
I did some one-off customs for friends and
musicians that I met while I was on tour in
summer 2014. It was such a fun thing to do,
to build pedals for other musicians and help
them to ind their sound, that I decided to
start building effects as a real business, but
it took another half a year to get it
underway. The starting point was marked
by building a Jordan Boss Tone clone with a
bias control and a wider frequency range.
I called it the Fuzzly Bear, because after the
mods, it was capable of getting both skinny
distortion sounds and also nice thick and
meaty fuzz tones.
“Karlowitsch, who’s a close friend and an
absolutely talented graphic designer, asked
me if he could do a design for that pedal.
I was so stoked about his approach that we
decided to work together – he designed
KMA’s corporate look, programmed
BUILDER PROFILE
the website and in December 2014, we
launched the brand. We did everything in
my shared lat at the Karl-Marx-Allee in
Berlin [hence ‘KMA’ – Ed], from populating
the PCBs, silk-screening the enclosures and
the product packages, drilling and testing the
pedals and so on.
“I have to give a big thank you to my three
latmates for their understanding, because
the silk-screening with solvent paint and
testing the pedals at a decent volume wasn’t
the easiest thing to deal with!
“We got our very irst dealer on Christmas
eve, which was such an amazing thing, as we
only launched the brand three weeks before.
Since then, KMA Audio Machines has been
growing and growing, moving to a real
workshop, getting more and more dealers
onboard and with every new dealer, it has
showed us that we are doing things right,
releasing more and more pedals.
“It’s strange to imagine that we started out
almost three years ago with just one pedal
and an initial production run of 10. Now we
have over eight models in runs of 50 pieces
at a time, which sell really quickly. That is
so amazing and we are so proud of where
we are now, we have customers all over the
planet! I never expected that we will get this
far so quickly.
“I am pretty bad in being proud of what
we’ve done, but as we got several reviews in
GUITAR CLASSICS 123
BUILDER PROFILE
“WIELAND, THE DRUMMER OF MY BAND,
JOINED A YEAR AGO AND OUR AIM IS TO
GET ALL OF US THREE IN A PAID FULL-TIME
JOB. HONESTLY, IT’S THE GREATEST JOB
I’VE EVER HAD; I LOVE WHAT WE’RE DOING”
different magazines, I realised that it’s time
to being proud of what we achieved.
“But we have a long way to go still, as
we are only three people running the
business currently. Wieland, the leader and
drummer of my band, joined one year ago
and our aim is to get all of us three in a paid
full-time job. But honestly, it is the greatest
job I ever had and I love what we are doing.”
Talk us through the current KMA Audio
Machines pedal range…
“Well, our range consists of eight pedals
right now. We have some really nice fuzz
pedals like the Fuzzly Bear – a silicon-
transistor-based pedal – and our tribute to
germanium fuzzes is the Minos, which is a
hybrid between a classic Tone Bender MkII
and a Supa Fuzz. The Dead Stag is our fuzz/
124
distortion hybrid that features a Red Army
Overdrive-based circuit with an active
three-band EQ section… it’s like the most
versatile Big Muff you can ind.
“We recently added the Wurm distortion
to our range – it’s basically a Boss HM-2,
but even better. And I mean way better.
We lowered the noise loor, improved the
gain control and added two more EQ bands.
Another new addition is the Astrospurt,
a four-stage JFET phaser, that can also
offer vibrato-like sounds or dial in a nice
‘Uni-Vibe-ish’ effect. The last current
pedal in the line is the Moai Maea, which
is a beast when it comes to analogue
octaving sounds.”
What would you say sets KMA apart from
other boutique pedal makers out there?
“I think it’s the symbiosis of the artwork and
the quality of our pedals on the one hand,
and the versatility of each of our pedals on
the other. We don’t want to offer a pedal
that’s a one-trick pony, because I like to
swap amps and guitars and I know that our
users do that, too.
“So, we’re always looking to add intuitive
features and controls to offer a wide range
of versatility – like the active EQ of the
Dead Stag, or the footswitchable octave
sections and mixing controls on the
Moai Maea. To cut a long story short –
versatility, with high-quality handcrafting
for modern musicians.”
You also do custom-pedal solutions for
customers – what’s the most unusual or
tricky custom job KMA Audio Machines
has had to handle?
“That’s true, we did a lot of custom
pedals, especially in the beginning of the
company’s history. I once got a request from
a synthesiser player who wanted a stereo
version of the Fuzzly Bear, with the gain
controlled by a LFO, where the positive
cycle modulates the gain of the left channel
and the negative cycle modulates the gain
of the right. It has different waveshapes,
a peak detector and so on. That was a
crazy project!”
What new products can we expect to see
from KMA in the near future?
“Our next release is the Tyler – a signal
splitter where one signal path has a variable
low pass and the other has a variable high
pass. Each signal path has a footswitchable
effects loops to insert any pedal you like,
followed by a mix control to bring both
paths together. That means, you can split up
your frequency range into highs and lows
and do whatever you like with them and
mix it back together, offering a nice and
very nuanced sound, without overlapping
frequencies. We’ll also be launching a new
germanium Rangemaster-style treble booster.
We’ll also introduce a voltage converter
that will be fed with nine volts and delivers
negative nine volts for old PNP-transistor
pedals, such as old fuzz pedals, and 18 volts
for those that need it.
“Oh yes, next year we’re also planning to
come up with a delay, a harmonic tremolo
and a reverb – so stay tuned!”
To ind out more about KMA Audio Machines
pedals, visit kma-machines.com
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STAR PEDALBOARDS

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128
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GUITAR CLASSICS 129
TALKBOX

versions of those in as many original custom

colours as humanly possible. There’s literally
nothing I could contribute that my heroes
haven’t done already.”

What’s the irst thing you play when you

pick up a guitar?
“Usually some combination of an open G
major with the D on the B string, open E
major, D and A chords. I can usually tell if
I’m going to like a guitar within about 10
seconds of that.”

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

“When you practise, practise, but when you
play, play! Shameless namedrop warning –
it was Robben Ford, and he was explaining
that you should be fearless when you play
and leave the practise frame of mind at
home. Remove the middle man, play
from the heart. I’ve been my happiest
musically when I’ve been able to bring
that to fruition.”

Have you ever had a ’Spinal Tap’ moment,

either onstage or off it?
“Many. My favourite was probably stepping
out onto the stage, top of the bill when I was
about 16 or 17. I walk out to the front, go
for the massive opening solo, step forward
and right off the front of the stage. I was less
worried about looking like an idiot and more
INTERVIEW that my Mark III Boogie would be landing

MICK TAYLOR on my head. EV speakers are heavy.”

If you could go back in time and attend one

The co-presenter of That Pedal Show, effects guru and guitar-industry legendary gig from history, what’d it be?
veteran invents the sushi-and-scrumpy combo, explains how to “I’d have just moaned about the sound at
evaluate a guitar in 10 seconds lat and exits stage front… most of them. So it’s probably the Prince
Purple Rain Tour, because that would have
What was the moment that started it all Have you ever sold or lost a guitar that sounded and looked utterly epic. Argh,
for you, in terms of guitar? you wish you could get back? A proverbial or Johnny Cash at San Quentin, then
“Probably seeing a photo of Elvis looking ‘one that got away’... I wouldn’t have to drive home.”
totally cool playing a Martin acoustic. “Nothing of any signiicant value or rarity.
I didn’t know it was a Martin acoustic, There have been plenty I should have It’s that headline stadium tour of your
because I was only about seven years old. bought and didn’t: my friend Neville’s ’67 dreams... what’s on your rider?
Or that it had a leather cover on it, which ES-335 and his Lake Placid Blue ’63 Strat. “Proper fresh sushi, every day, with a geezer
I saw many years later at the Martin Both would have meant bank loans, but to make it. A decent Nuits-Saint-Georges
Museum in Pennsylvania. It was either history shows it would have been a good and a gallon of rough scrumpy. And dark
that, or Quo rocking Teles in at least decision. I sold a bunch of stuff after the chocolate Bounty. Triple pack, mind.”
double denim. Maybe triple.” inancial crisis of 2007. It was a welcome
declutter. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.” Is there any song or style of music that
What’s the one guitar or piece of gear that you’d love to be able to play, but can’t?
you can’t live without? If you ever had a signature guitar designed, “Jazz for sure. It’s the ultimate musical
“I genuinely don’t think there is one, but what would it be? understanding alongside a proper classical
the last piece of gear I will ever part with “It wouldn’t interest me. The ’59-’64 Strats; discipline. And it’s all there to learn…
is my Collings CJ35. It means more to me ’50-’64 Teles; Bursts; dot-neck 335s… they but rock ’n’ roll is just too easy, and
than anything I’ve ever owned. And most were just perfect. Well, the good ones were members of the opposite sex actually
humans, for that matter.” perfect, so all I’d want is period-correct like it. No contest, really.”

130
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