Hi all
I have hardly posted since I joined, but I noticed there isn't much talk of vintage pedals, and that's one of my things. I'm a fan of early fuzz in particular but let's say anything up to 1980-ish - first wave fuzz, distortion, wah, phaser, trem/whatever.
Makes sense to start in the late 1940s with the Dearmond Tremolo Control, the first ever stand-alone guitar effect (originally intended to for organs) - it's a mechanical tremolo, as used memorably by Bo Diddley:
this one is an en early, pre-patent example, the vid (not mine) shows how it works:
Handmade, high-impact, great-looking 1960s-inspired germanium fuzzboxes. All-new circuits, no clones.
Comments
What would an all 1940s pedal board look like, and how soon can I sell everything I own to get one?
https://www.vintageguitar.com/18545/dearmond-tremolo-control/
I guess there were standalone valve reverb units around the same time in the US, but they were more like the size of a small amp, not exactly pedalboard friendly!
https://i.imgur.com/em87b9X.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wdDl5PX.jpg
I bought this in 1989 or 1990 (just in time for Grunge...)
Not far from where Merchant City Music is in Glasgow, there was a junk shop run by someone who looked like Max Wall's Glaswegian cousin.
I paid £10 for it and had NFI what it really was until I got back into playing guitar a few years ago.