Epiphone Distorsionador Fuzz-Bass ???

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I'll be honest, a lot of times while digging through old catalogs and magazines I come across a pedal I've never seen before and it immediately sends me into a mental quandary; do I keep it quiet and try to find one for myself easily and cheaply, OR do I go ahead, write a post about it and risk making it significantly more difficult to find one, especially at a reasonable price?

I have been sitting on these photos for a while and really just haven't been able to find any more information than what I could in a couple of old forum posts, which sadly wasn't much at all...

This is the Epiphone Distorsionador Fuzz-Bass, built in Argentina, I'm guessing some time in the 1970s. It has almost no way of being actually related to Epiphone, which makes it way more amazing!

I have no idea how this thing sounds, and it's pretty hard to figure out what's going on inside, but it looks cool as hell with that pseudo Fuzz Face vibe and the giant footswitch that definitely makes it look like a landmine. 

Like I said above, as of now I have only been able to find photos of these two different units. Luckily the owners posted gut shots (I love when that happens). But it would be amazing to know more about these little round oddities.

Last year I really went deep into the Argentine pedal scene, one that started way back in the late 60s. And just like the stories I have come across from other countries like Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, it was near impossible to get gear imported from the US or Europe at the time. So electronics pioneers decided to start their own brands, oftentimes biting names and products directly from other companies abroad. (there's actually an entire scene of Electro Harmonix ripoffs from South America that are truly hilarious in how brazen they were)

So as it goes with most of my mystery pedal posts, if you happen to own an Epiphone Distorsionador Fuzz-Bass pedal, or happen to know any actual details about them, please send me a message via EMAIL or INSTAGRAM.

thanks for reading,

-ed

Is This The Earliest Big Muff Ad?

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There has been quite a bit of debate over the years about when exactly the Big Muff was released...

I first started collecting back in the early 2000s and most people thought then, based on Triangle Muff pot codes, that 1968 was the definitive answer to this question. But as collectors and other fellow nerds dug into it a bit more, 1969 seemed much closer to the actual year. 

But now with the endless amount of archived print media that exists there has yet to be a single ad or mention of the Big Muff before May of 1970 that anyone has been able to find; making that 1969 guess seem kinda wrong. And it's not just that the Big Muff didn't appear until that date, but that there are plenty of earlier EHX ads that show their full offering, minus the Muff.

Well, a few months ago I started buying up old copies of Crawdaddy, which was a bi-weekly Rock n' Roll newspaper out of New York that started in 1966 and ran through to 1979. And right there, on page 39, issue number 6, was the earliest ad I had seen showing a Big Muff! 

Being bi-weekly this issue either came out in the middle of March or beginning of April 1970, depending on when they started that year. But there are a few good clues, like ads for the upcoming releases of the "Isaac Hayes Movement" album and Booker T & the M.G.'s "McLemore Avenue" album, which were both released on Stax in April of 1970. 

But as cool as this is, in terms of Big Muff history, it does still leave the question unanswered as to when the legendary fuzz actually came out. I'm hoping to some day find an even earlier ad proclaiming the wonders of the "NEW BIG MUFF!!!", or something equally obvious. 

Until then I'm going to keep digging through old magazines, newspapers, and pdf's...

Thanks for reading! And if you happen to be sitting on potentially earlier Big Muff history, please reach out via email or an Instagram message.

-ed

Sam Ash Fuzz-Stainer (The Return)

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12 years ago I found a mysterious red pedal while sifting through ebay at 1am. I had no clue what it was, but the inside looked fuzz-esque so I went for it... After a few months of digging and extensive internet chatroom debates, I realized that I had actually stumbled upon an original Sam Ash Fuzz-Stainer; an insanely rare pedal from the early to mid-70s. 

If you've followed this blog for a while you may have come across the first article I wrote on that very pedal shortly after figuring out what it was. (HERE'S THE LINK)

Well, after this discovery I sent it off to the incredibly talented pedal-builder Jerms, who traced and cloned it for me. (maybe some of you are lucky enough to own one of his copies?)

Later on we both decided to make his schematic public; so I went back and added Jerms' work to the end of my article. Shortly afterwards the diy pedal scene exploded with Fuzz-Stainer clones! And while I was initially surprised at the reaction, this is pretty typical for discoveries of any "new" circuits that have been hiding in almost complete obscurity for the past 30+ years.

Since then I only knew of one other original unit that existed, owned by Matt Wright of Wright Sounds. He had one for over a decade and ended up cloning it and releasing his version in 2010 as the Fuzz-Stang.

Well, after 12 long years of hunting, searching, and scouring, I have finally found a 3rd Sam Ash Fuzz-Stainer!

And while I was hoping to finally crack the code of the exact history of these pedals, I now have even more questions...

We still do not know (even after reaching out to the Ash family) just how or why these exist. We don't know when they were sold, how many were made, which stores they were available in, who invented/built them, etc.

So hopefully at some point in the future more info will begin to pour in. But what we can do now, at the very least, is look at the 3 existing units and compare them: 

The first thing I noticed is that the same pcb was used for all 3 pedals. And for the most part, it is the same effect in each. But there are definitely differences between them, some more glaring than others.

For a while I thought that my red pedal, since it was missing the original label, was most likely an updated version of the circuit; a "Mark III" possibly. And my main reasoning was based on the open holes in the pcb and the internal trimpot. It's easy to see this and conclude that there must have been an update to the circuit design at some point.

And if you look at my new Fuzz-Stainer, that conclusion seems even more plausible, as it's clearly the same pcb but with components in every slot and no trimpot in sight... 

But here's where it gets really interesting; the 3rd unit seems to be a hybrid of the other two, and the board is facing downward!!!

AND it's labeled as "Mark II", just like my newer unit. Which leads me to believe that all three pedals were "Mark II" Fuzz-Stainers. 

So then the question becomes, why were all three made differently? Was there a "Mark I" of the circuit? Were these possibly kits of some kind? Did Sam Ash have a pedal building class and this was the project? Or was each pedal really just built to sound its best based on the available components at the time, regardless of consistency?

Well, as you can see there is literally a ton of information that's still very unknown about these. Obviously they came from Sam Ash (who, until this pedal, had outsourced all other branded gear to a 3rd party manufacturer). At least two of these have stories from original owners who remember buying them from the legendary 48th St. Sam Ash in NYC. And they are most likely from the early to mid 1970s. 

But other than what we've touched on above, I got nothing! We've reached out to members of the Ash family, who have kept meticulous records and paperwork all these years, but as of yet no mention of the Fuzz-Stainer anywhere.

So if you happen to come across this article and happen to own, have owned, or know anything about the Sam Ash Fuzz-Stainer, please contact me via EMAIL or INSTAGRAM. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading,

-ed

Sentry Fuzz-A-Tort (1968)

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By the late 60s the sweet sound of fuzz was in full bloom, and it seemed like every music magazine had a an endless supply of stompbox-related ads, articles, and reviews. A popular offshoot of this hysteria was the diy guitar fx project; which outlined for the layman exactly how to piece together their own gear.

And one of the true gems of this era came in the form of a small rectangular desktop fuzz box, the Fuzz-A-Tort, designed by Sentry Manufacturing Company and released to the world January of 1968.

The first real introduction of the Fuzz-A-Tort was actually a month earlier, when Elementary Electronics magazine ran this teaser ad in their December 1967 issue; proclaiming that the new "way out" project will bring the reader "way in weird sounds"...

The article itself explains the circuit, essentially how it works, and how to build it. 

Any interested person with a bit of soldering experience could order one of these kits and build themselves a working FZ-1A style fuzz. It was a cool idea for the time, and one that pops up quite a bit throughout the late 60s and early 70s (see our article on the Knight Fuzz Box).

In fact, many brands from the 2nd wave of pedal makers site these magazines and do-it-yourself projects as being the catalyst to looking deeper into pedal design, and ultimately starting their own companies.

I won't post the entire article here, but if you're interesting in checking it out, HERE IS A LINK. 

So you're probably wondering how it sounds...

Well as we mentioned above, and if you know fuzz circuits at all, you probably recognize the 3 transistor / 1.5v configuration as being a Maestro FZ-1A. And in this case, it's bit closer to the LRE Fuzz Sound, which itself was an early FZ-1A clone of sorts.

And if you know how those ratty little bastards sound, then you pretty much know how this sounds. One thing that's fun to experiment with, when it comes to germanium transistors, is how the pedal reacts to temperature changes.

At a cold/room temp the Fuzz-A-Tort is a cross between a lower gain classic 60s fuzz and a nice crunchy primitive overdrive, i.e. the Astro Amp Astrotone. 

But when you start warming it up, things get real interesting... It begins to morph and take on all of those classic characteristics of an FZ-1A; hairy, gnarly, 60s Garage fuzz! 

So who was Sentry Manufacturing Co.? I asked myself this question because other than the Fuzz-A-Tort, that's not a name I recognize from anywhere else in the guitar fx or amplifier world.

Well it turns out that Sentry is mostly known to ham radio enthusiasts for their crystals (which I will let Wikipedia do the explaining HERE), and other radio related parts.

So the tie-in to electronics hobby magazines makes total sense. And I'm sure if I did a bit more digging I would come across other collaborations between Sentry and Elementary Electronics.

But as it stands, this seems to be the only time they did anything guitar related.

I feel like I'm always encouraging you to collect and hoard this stuff, but I swear, the Sentry Fuzz-A-Tort is a cool find! And I do recommend picking one up if you come across any; if for no other reason than it's an important, but often overlooked part of fuzz and stompbox history.

thanks for reading,

-ed

The Effector Book Magazine

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For over a decade I have been seeing these really cool looking magazines out of Japan that appeared to be exclusively about guitar pedals, with a an extra focus on vintage. 

I first came across The Effector Book on the Effeken Blog, who lends his collection and words to each issue. The covers were always super striking to me, and the fact that enough people cared about old guitar pedals to keep a print publication going this long, I knew they had to be good. 

So after more than a decade I finally picked up the two issues I was most interested in, Japanese Fuzz and Upper Octave Fuzz. Being written completely in Japanese I knew I would need some assistance from my old friend Google Lens. And it seems to work pretty well! 

Each issue has a main topic that is given a full deep dive and a good amount of dedicated pages. In addition to that they review newer pedals, have interviews, and generally nerd out on all things stompbox. 

I highly recommend checking these out if you're a fan of this blog. Japan has a pedal legacy almost as long as the US, and depth of amazing circuits and brands that is unmatched. 

And hey, if the Japanese can support such a venture, maybe we can too... 🤔

Thanks for reading,
-ed

The CODE for Metal 🤘

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I just wanted to pop in and drop this little devil of pedal for you all. This is the CODE Metal Mate, I'm guessing from the 80s, out of a country yet to be determined. 

A friend was selling this on Facebook last week, and the combination of me never seeing one before and that there was zero information on these anywhere, I knew I had to grab it. 

The Metal Mate is probably meant to be a copy of the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal, but honestly it's wayyyyy better sounding than that. 

The "High" control has a real nice sweep to it, not unlike a lowpass filter. And the "Low" control pumps out a nice round bass. There's a lot of gain on tap, but to me it's not in HM-2, Metal Zone or DOD Death Metal territory at all, but closer to a angrier sounding Rat. 

It's labeled as being a "stereo" effect, but just like the 80s Aria pedals it has 2 outputs, 1 is wet and the other is dry. 

I have been able to find a few more pedals by CODE online, like the Compressor, Distortion / OD, and an Analog Delay that looks pretty nice. Other than that though, I got nothing. 😂

Alright, that's about all for this post. A cool little unknown Metal pedal is always welcome here. And if you happen to come across a CODE Metal Mate yourself, you might as well pick it up. They actually sound surprisingly good!

Thanks for reading, 

-ed 

Satronik Fuzz Sustainer, The Polish Big Muff?

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While the 1970s saw a flood of notable Big Muff inspired pedals (Ace Tone FM3, Hohner Tri-Dirty Booster, Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar) the 1980s seemed to turn its back on the wooly beast, and instead builders started focusing on clones of distortion and overdrive pedals (mainly the Boss DS-1, MXR Distortion+, and of course the Ibanez Tube Screamer). But luckily a few brands kept the fuzzy flame burning, and as a result some really badass pedals were  born...

Today we're checking out one of these, the Satronik Fuzz Sustainer, a Polish built pedal from the early/mid 80s.

So what exactly is this thing?

If you were a guitar player in Poland in the 1980s there weren't a lot of options when it came to buying pedals. The brand EXAR was king of the Polish pedal hill, and while they made some really cool fx, many of them were modeled after Boss and Ibanez.

What was interesting about the Polish knock-offs is that inside a lot of them was an attempt at approximating the sound of another pedal without copying the circuit outright. It's almost like they didn't have a schematic or an actual unit in their hands, so instead they got creative and figured something out.

And this brings us to the Fuzz Sustainer. Currently there's not much info (if any) out there about Satronik; who built them? how long were they around? how many pedals did they produce??? And as of now I have only seen two different fx they put out, not including a white version of the Fuzz Sustainer. Additionally the only other potential link is this Polish Doctor Q from a brand called Lab Sound, that used the same enclosures and basic layout as Satronik.

So you're probably guessing that the Fuzz Sustainer almost has to be a Big Muff then... And it IS, kinda.

If you were to plug into it and close your eyes you would swear it was one of the beefiest and buzziest and wooliest of Muffs you ever heard! And it did all that while still retaining articulate, thick bone-crushing harmonics.

The sound sits somewhere between a late 70s IC Muff and a Civil War Muff. And honestly is one of the better BMP copies I've ever played. But that's what's crazy; inside the Fuzz Sustainer is not a copy, and not really derivative of anything (I can think of, at least)!

It's running off a 741 chip (*see DOD 250 or Seamoon Fresh Fuzz), and a duo of silicon transistors, a metal can BC109 (I've also seen a unit with a BC108C in its place) and an oddly shaped BC149.

If you're familiar at all with Big Muff circuits you can tell right away that this is something totally different. So it's pretty cool that they were able to achieve an almost identical tone and texture.

Makes me wonder what other Big Muffs of the world have we yet to discover, simply because the circuit looked like a Rat with too many parts...

So definitely add this one to your search list because it's an awesome and obscure oddity that can give you all the Muffy tones you want, but do it with a slightly different edge.

For a bit more info and photos, check out this post on diystompboxes.

thanks for reading!

-ed

Fuzz King(s)?

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The Amplifier Corp. of America (aka Unicord) Fuzz King was first introduced in the summer of 1967 and was a cool take on the Maestro FZ-1A, sounding just as ratty and primitive. The pedal was released in North America and could be ordered directly from various electronics catalogs, in addition to simply walking into your local shop and picking one up. Judging by the components and general build style, it seems like the pedal was manufactured in the US, but I'm not 100% sure on that. 

One cool thing I have noticed after going through the history and connection between Univox/ LRE/ Honey/ Shin-ei, is that the ACA Fuzz King could be ground zero for how all of these brands came to be connected. 🤔

In the LRE catalog from Fall of 1967 the Fuzz King was also released as the "Fuzz Sound" (see below), for a whopping $26.95 (remember to add 9 cents for the battery), and promised to "make your guitar or bass produce the harmony of several wind instruments!".

A year later LRE would release the version of the Fuzz Sound that you're probably more familiar with, made in Japan and sporting a circuit that was almost identical to the 1967 ACA Fuzz King, it was released under multiple brandings here in the US. Funny enough, one variation of this pedal, released by the brand Apollo, would ironically be labeled as "Fuzz King"...

But before you get a headache doing the calculus of what you just read, kick back and relax with the sweet sounds of the demos below ///

 

thanks for reading!

-ed

Fuzz Master, not that one...

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Here's a weird one for you

So I know I've mentioned this before, but I have a couple decades-worth of photos saved on my hard drive of anything I deemed to be awesome and pedal related. One such photo (apparently saved in 2003) was a generic ad shot of a woman on the phone, and then for zero reason I can think of, this pedal just randomly cropped into the corner. 

The image was so tiny and pixelated that I had to do my best to blow it up to what you see above. And what you see is another mystery pedal, I'm going to guess from the mid/late 60s, called the "Fuzz Master".  It appears to be green, with knobs for Volume and Attack on opposite sides of the enclosure, and Input and Amplifier jacks at the top (although it seems like there is a jack of some sort visible on the side, so it could be possible that the labeling is just in a weird place?). The knobs remind me of the ones used on the Sekova wedge fuzzes, and the font and layout choice remind me of something else, but I can't quite place it...

If I had to put money on it, I would guess that this is a (Japanese?) Maestro FZ-1/1a clone, but sadly there's no way to know for sure. The term "Fuzz Master" was used other times in the 60s (i.e. the Claybridge Fuzzmaster from Australia, the Acetone Fuzz Master from Japan, and the Olson Fuzz Master from the US/Japan).  

One thing we definitely know is that starting around 1966 there were ads in every electronics magazine selling different fuzz build-it-yourself kits, and articles detailing how to build a fuzz from common components you could find at any hardware store. So it's possible that this is nothing more than a home project fuzz.

But it's also possible that there is some type of hidden fuzz history here... something that ties this pedal to a bigger brand! or a builder who went on to do something classic! or who knows what else! 

But what I do know, is now I must find one. :)

thanks for reading!

-ed

A quick update!

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I just wanted to stop in and say Hello! to the readers of the blog. I realized recently that I haven't posted here in a while. I am still collecting and finding cool stuff! *see below But I haven't been able to carve out the time for my usual obsessive digging and pedal research....

Above you'll see my most recent finds; a super rare Nomad Rogue Fuzz, an almost as rare late 60's YACK Fuzz Box from Japan, a rare Nu-Fuzz variant from their initial run under the Sierra Electronics brand, and finally an early 70s Exel Shatterbox made by B&M.

I have been stockpiling photos of awesome pedal related stuff since the Spring, so expect some deep dive posts in the near future!

Thanks as always for reading,

-ed

Super Identity Crisis...

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Most pedal nerds know some history about the legendary Super Fuzz and that it got its humble start in 1967 as a stand-alone unit called the "Baby Crying" Fuzz, made by the Japanese brand Honey. 

What is a bit less known is that, 

A: the original designer of the Super Fuzz is still a mystery! (yes, Fumio Mieda, designer of the Univibe, did NOT also design the Super Fuzz) 

B: production of the FY-6 (Super Fuzz) ran for 10 years! And, 

C: in that time they were licensed to an almost endless list of brands, small shops, importers, and distribution companies.

So part of my ongoing (and super nerdy) research into the true history of this pedal is this little photo list of some of my favorite (and lesser known) variants, in a somewhat chronological order of Super Fuzzdom throughout the years. I hope you enjoy! 🙏

Honey Baby Crying Fuzz (The original, made from 1967-1969, produced by Honey. As of now it's still unclear how long, or if at all, Shin Ei continued with the Honey branding after they purchased the company)

LRE Super-Fuzz (It's starting to look like the gray LRE might be the first OEM, made by Honey, Super Fuzz. But I have some pieces of evidence I still need to find to confirm that)

Univox Super Fuzz (the Univox version either came right after or right before the LRE. Also note that these are the only two with that oval-shaped logo plate, and the only two made in a gray enclosure)

Companion FY-6 Super Fuzz (In 1969 Honey was purchased by Shin Ei, who began to produce the pedal under their house brand "Companion")

Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz (The only version with a left-leaning badge!)

Apollo Deluxe Fuzz Tone Expander 

JAX Fuzz Master Unit

Factone - Fuzz Machine (One of the rarer examples, there have only been two Factone pedals to pop up, and both in Japan) 

Mica-Tone Super Fuzz (the Musical Instrument Corp of America, aka MICA, imported and sold three different fuzzes in the mid-late 60s. The MICA Wailer [same as the LRE Fuzz Sound] the MICA-Tone Fuzz [which was a rebranded Manny's Fuzz] and this)

LRE Super-Fuzz (1970 sees the LRE version go black and also sees Univox most likely ending their contract with Shin-Ei, taking over production in-house with the release of their big box orange & blue Super Fuzz. One year later LRE would end their own deal with Shin-Ei and begin to sell rebranded Univox/Unicord pedals through their catalogs and in stores)

Shin-Ei Companion FY-6 Super Fuzz (Shin-Ei begins to rebrand their Companion line with their own name)

JH Experience Fuzz (V1, I actually love that janky sticker label. Also, while I can't confirm that "JH" isn't an attempt at a subliminal Jimi Hendrix reference, I also can't deny it) 

Tempo TR-6 Fuzz (V2)

May Fair Model No. 9540 Super Fuzz

Crown Super Fuzz

Rands FY-6 Fuzz

Mana FY-6 Super Fuzz

JH Experience Fuzz (V2)

Hohner MF-50 Master Fuzz Control

As you probably noticed I don't have cool little details for most of these, and some of them I'm guesstimating the date. But the point really is that the most retold story about the wedge-shaped Super Fuzz being produced in the late 60's, until Univox changed everything with their big Orange & Red version, is actually... not true.

We find plenty of Super Fuzz wedges dated well after 1970, with the latest I've come across is 1977! And that's a pretty insane revelation considering that most of us thought they were somehow all made between 1968 and '69. 

So hopefully this was somewhat informative for you all, and definitely let me know what your favorite version of the FY-6 Super Fuzz is or what crazy obscure branding I may have missed. 

Thanks for reading,

-ed