Got a stompbox book for Christmas

TheGoodTexan · December 30th, 2003, 01:55 AM

I just got a cool book as a late Christmas gift. Its titled "Stompbox: A History of Guitar Fuzzes, Flangers, Phasers, Echoes & Wahs" by Art Thompson. 1997.

Very Very Very cool for folks that are interested in the history of companies such as MXR, Boss, DOD, Ibanez and a ton more. How the effects were invented, and how each company got started.

It seems that effects for guitar were invented/discovered/designed in roughly this order - reverb, echo, flanger, phaser, fuzz - then everything else.

11 Gauge · December 30th, 2003, 02:09 PM

...i have a copy of a vintage pedal shootout that i believe is by him. good balance between informative and having a sense of humor.

it's funny how the stompbox market has evolved. early on they didn't seem to know how to cater to a guitarist's needs, because most likely the guitarist didn't even know what those needs might be.

the free spirit of the early designers allowed for some pretty extreme pedals - that's cool, and just won't work today, unless you're Zachary Vexx.

by the 70s there started to be a semi-saturation of certain style of effects.

by the 80s IMO they started killing off the crazier, more interesting facets of certain effects. plus the whole rack fad was taking off. pedals like the tube screamer got 'optimized' for solid state amps.

by the 90s we had come full circle. alt rock bands started using vintage pedals exclusively. the fuel for the boutique pedal fire was there at last. the average guitarist became with names such as Fulltone and Prescription electronics.

now at the 00s it's total over-saturation, with mainstream pedals, boutique pedals, people who modify pedals... companies like Way Huge have come and gone... Visual Sounds got real lucky just to stay afloat... EH and MXR are not the little companies that they started out as, and probably aren't even connected in any way to their forefathers...

at least this is my take on things. care to elaborate on the book at all? i'm certainly interested, especially about ANYTHING about fuzz pedals...

da dougster · December 31st, 2003, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

It seems that effects for guitar were invented/discovered/designed in roughly this order - reverb, echo, flanger, phaser, fuzz - then everything else.

My take would be on-board reverb first, then came fuzz boxes. I think echoplex tape delays came after the fuzz, but since they were so darn expensive at the time ( and now come to think on it..) we didn't worry too much about them.

In '69 the Univibe came out and while it was sort of a combo phase shifter/chorus/vibrato thingie and was more a sum of the parts rather than the individual effects deal.

The real electronic phase shifters came out in '72-73 with the Maestro Phase Shifter and the MXR Phase 90. The MXR was a real groundbreaker because it had (then) state of the art electronics, the size of the thing was a knockout. Compared to the Electro-Harmonix stuff which looked like a bunch of parts thrown into the cheesiest "enclosure" you could imagine, it was really high-tech..

After that it was a free for all....

Tim Swartz · December 31st, 2003, 01:20 PM

First efx? The DeArmond trem unit thingys with the spinning canister of mercury beat reverb by about 10 years. Many amps had trem before there was spring reverb. As far as I can tell reverb was in Gibson amps about 2 years before Fender.

I was lucky to have a bunch of pictures of some of my odd pedals put in the book. I do amp repair for Elderly, and some guy came in taking pics for the book, one of the guys asked me to bring in some oddballs....I kick my self for not buying that red, white and blue Fox Tone Machine for $100 a few years back... The pics of my junk include the Echorec on pg 23, the 3 Vox wahs in the middle on the bottom of pg 28, the Arbiter Soundimension on pg 42, the Wah Face and Fuzz Face on pg 43, the Colorsound wah+fuzz on pg 137, the grey Tonebender on pg 153, the 2 wahs on the ends, the grey Tonebender and the Treble Bass Booster on pg 157.

genelovesjez · December 31st, 2003, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Swartz

I was lucky to have a bunch of pictures of some of my odd pedals put in the book. I do amp repair for Elderly, and some guy came in taking pics for the book, one of the guys asked me to bring in some oddballs....I kick my self for not buying that red, white and blue Fox Tone Machine for $100 a few years back... The pics of my junk include the Echorec on pg 23, the 3 Vox wahs in the middle on the bottom of pg 28, the Arbiter Soundimension on pg 42, the Wah Face and Fuzz Face on pg 43, the Colorsound wah+fuzz on pg 137, the grey Tonebender on pg 153, the 2 wahs on the ends, the grey Tonebender and the Treble Bass Booster on pg 157.

Cool!!!!!!!

December 30th, 2003, 02:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
11 Gauge Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The East Coast Posts: 3,015 10 Photos	somewhere... ...i have a copy of a vintage pedal shootout that i believe is by him. good balance between informative and having a sense of humor. it's funny how the stompbox market has evolved. early on they didn't seem to know how to cater to a guitarist's needs, because most likely the guitarist didn't even know what those needs might be. the free spirit of the early designers allowed for some pretty extreme pedals - that's cool, and just won't work today, unless you're Zachary Vexx. by the 70s there started to be a semi-saturation of certain style of effects. by the 80s IMO they started killing off the crazier, more interesting facets of certain effects. plus the whole rack fad was taking off. pedals like the tube screamer got 'optimized' for solid state amps. by the 90s we had come full circle. alt rock bands started using vintage pedals exclusively. the fuel for the boutique pedal fire was there at last. the average guitarist became with names such as Fulltone and Prescription electronics. now at the 00s it's total over-saturation, with mainstream pedals, boutique pedals, people who modify pedals... companies like Way Huge have come and gone... Visual Sounds got real lucky just to stay afloat... EH and MXR are not the little companies that they started out as, and probably aren't even connected in any way to their forefathers... at least this is my take on things. care to elaborate on the book at all? i'm certainly interested, especially about ANYTHING about fuzz pedals... __________________

December 31st, 2003, 01:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
Tim Swartz Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Michigan - Tweenst the Great Lakes Posts: 1,883	First efx? The DeArmond trem unit thingys with the spinning canister of mercury beat reverb by about 10 years. Many amps had trem before there was spring reverb. As far as I can tell reverb was in Gibson amps about 2 years before Fender. I was lucky to have a bunch of pictures of some of my odd pedals put in the book. I do amp repair for Elderly, and some guy came in taking pics for the book, one of the guys asked me to bring in some oddballs....I kick my self for not buying that red, white and blue Fox Tone Machine for $100 a few years back... The pics of my junk include the Echorec on pg 23, the 3 Vox wahs in the middle on the bottom of pg 28, the Arbiter Soundimension on pg 42, the Wah Face and Fuzz Face on pg 43, the Colorsound wah+fuzz on pg 137, the grey Tonebender on pg 153, the 2 wahs on the ends, the grey Tonebender and the Treble Bass Booster on pg 157.