The Randall FX Line (Late 70s)

☟

For just about 3 years (1977-1979) Randall Amplifiers got into the effects game with a set of 5 pedals; the RP-1 Phase, RP-2 Phase, RP-4 Phase, Notch Generator, and the Envelope Generator. 

So where did these come from and were they any good?

In late 1976 Seamoon engineer Jerry Pynckel decided to part ways with the brand, where he had developed a few of their best products; the Funk Machine II, the Controlled Tone Preamp, and the Studio Phase.

His first solo venture into the effects world was starting a brand where he could really flex his engineering skills. It was called Design Technology and featured an innovative roster of pedals; including the Flange Delay Line, the Notch Generator, the Phase Delay Line, and the VCO-VCA. (*as of now it is unknown whether this came before or after Seamoon)

If you look at the photo below I'm guessing you'll notice that the Design Technology pedals look strikingly similar to the Randall line. And also, some are literally the same exact product; the Notch Generator, the Phase Delay Line (RP-4), and the VCO-VCA (Envelope Generator).

And you would be 100% correct in your observation! Because in late 1977 Pynckel landed a deal with Randall to build their pedals, and it was a fairly easy transition as he simply adapted the Design Technology effects to the Randall aesthetic (or more accurately, the other way-around). 

In fact, the Notch Generator was an even earlier design he utilized during his Seamoon days, as the Controlled Tone Preamp (albeit, the Notch Generator kicks out a much grittier and crunchier tone). And the RP-2 Phase is supposed to be an adaptation of the his design for Seamoon, the Studio Phase (which was later modded and rereleased as the Studio Flanger, which itself was further adapted by Analog Digital Associates and released as the famous A/DA Flanger... but that's another post entirely).

Both the Design Technology and the Randall pedals are pretty rare, and some of them I can't even find photos of. But I do have the Envelope Generator, which is a super fat sounding auto-wah, and the Randall Notch Generator, which sounds amazing! It's like a giant cookie monster sounding fuzz with a fairly unique tone control.

In addition to the elusive Design Technology pedals, one effect from the Randall line I have not been able to find even a photo of is the RP-4 Phase. So if you happen to have one please reach out via Email or Instagram, or comment below and let me know! I would love to document their existence beyond just a catalog image.

thanks as always for reading!

-ed

Wait, who invented the Tone Machine ???

☟

So last week I finally broke down and bought a copy of the classic 1997 book "The Stompbox" by Art Thompson, and came across an interview with Steve Ridinger (who you probably remember from our last post on the Liverpool Fuzz, as the founder of fOXX). 

The book is actually pretty great; showing tons of old dealer ads, pedals that are still quite rare today, and a whole bunch of interviews with legendary effects builders. And while most of the information is stuff I had heard before, the quote below from Steve Ridinger hit me like a nuclear bomb...

I was involved in the design of our first wah-wah, but we got help from some other people for the rest of our products. The Tone Machine was designed by a classmate of mine from Hollywood High School. His name was Rob, but I don't remember his last name. As far as I know that was the first fuzz unit with a switch-able octave effect. I didn't even know how to spell octave then-that's why it's written "octive" on these boxes.

Wait, did Steve Ridinger just say that someone he went to high school with was actually the one responsible for inventing fOXX's greatest pedal? And also that he can't remember the guy's last name?!!!

Well after reading this my curiosity kicked in to overdrive and I immediately found the Hollywood High School yearbook from 1969. I honed in on anyone named Robert, and also Ridinger himself just to make sure I was looking in the right place.

well, the internet came through as it always does. :)

Ok, step two was to find anyone named "Robert". But this was going to be a much more difficult task, as apparently in 1951 naming your baby "Robert" was stupidly popular (in fact, it was the 2nd most popular name of that year). 

So it looks like my work's cut out for me; now having to sift through each one and tracing their lives via Google, 50+ years later to see if there are any engineers among them and who the most likely candidate could be.

But I actually feel pretty good that soon enough we will find who the true inventor of the Tone Machine really was.

wish me luck, and stay tuned...

-ed

Liverpool Fuzz Tone (fOXX)

☟

In November of 1968 a new fuzz box was introduced to the world through the pages of Billboard magazine. The pop publication ran a little blurb proclaiming a new fuzz-tone that "shatters sound" and can "last more than 1,000 hours without a battery change".

Known as the Liverpool Fuzz Tone, from Ridinger Associates, it was a fairly unique circuit for the time that utilized 3 germanium transistors and ran off of 9v. Primitive and raw, it was a hidden gem of American 60's fuzz. 

One month later the Liverpool Fuzz was given a similar treatment in the UK publication Beat Instrumental. Although lacking in classic American hyperbole, this small write-up served as the European introduction to one of the most prolific builders of the 1970s.

And finally, a few months later we would get to actually see the Liverpool Fuzz highlighted in a photo ad, seemingly associated with New England distributor Harris-Fandel, showing a small table-top unit with a hardwired output cable and an on/off switch. 

And while the late 60s were flooded with unoriginal copies and clones, the Liverpool Fuzz Tone immediately stood out, and still holds a very significance place in the history of guitar effects...

So what's the deal with this thing and why is it so important?

Well for those unaware, this is the first effect built and released by Ridinger Associates, or better known as Steve Ridinger of Danelectro fame, Arion Effects, and most importantly fOXX!

The story is that he originally built the first Liverpool Fuzzes in 1966 when he was just 14 yrs old. The lore goes on to say that as a young teenager he didn't have the money to buy a fuzz pedal, nor did he have access to any fuzz schematics, so he came up with a fuzz/drive circuit of his own. These early units were all hand-wired using perfboard. Around 1968 he did a deal with a US distributor and also outsourced the manufacturing to a third party who paired it down to a small black enclosure and incorporated a printed circuit board for a cheaper/faster build. 

Ridinger estimates between 500-1,000 were produced in this time (1966-1969). And while that seems like a large number compared to some other pedals we have discussed, the nondescript nature of the blank black enclosure combined with no labeling of any kind, has made it near impossible to track one of these down. And at this point I have only seen 2 in my 20+ years of collecting. 

Following the Liverpool Fuzz, Ridinger created and released the Fox Wa Pedal, which would be the first time he would use the "Fox" name, and ultimately lead to him starting the fOXX brand just a year later.

In the world of vintage guitar pedal collectors these two effects mean a lot. Without Steve Ridinger deciding to dip his toes into building, marketing and distributing stompboxes at such an early age, we may never have heard of fOXX or the best fuzz of all-time, the Tone Machine!

And it all started in 1966 with a little hand-built effect called the Liverpool Fuzz Tone.

As always if you happen to have one of these or any additional info, please feel free to hit me up via Email or Instagram

thanks for reading!
-ed

Crawdaddy Magazine Vol. IV No. 14 (1970)

☟

I'm hoping you can help!

A few months back I posted an article about one of the earliest Big Muff ads I have ever found. It came out of Crawdaddy Magazine, from either March or April of 1970, and features a nice quarter-page photo ad from Electro Harmonix. 

And while I have been able to acquire most of the Crawdaddy issues from that year, I am missing one. Volume 4, Issue 14 from October 1970.

Originally the main story was an interview with Ray Davies of the Kinks. But right as they were about to send it off to the presses, Jimi Hendrix tragically died. And so the cover was changed and a small tribute was added.

Interestingly I am looking for this issue not so much because of the Hendrix tribute, but because it contains a couple of ads that I'm desperately trying to track down.

If you happen to have a copy of Crawdaddy vol. IV no. 14 please contact me via Email or Instagram. 

Thanks for your help!
-ed

NO Demos. 📽️

☟

Well I went and did it, I started a YouTube channel that's essentially a video version of the blog.

And I wanted it to be just that, deep dives into obscure old pedals. But instead of my poor writing skills, you'll get my much poorer verbal communication skills. 😂

The show is called "NO Demos" and the first two episodes are live now! 

>>> Here's a link to the channel. <<<

So I hope you like em, and thanks so much for watching. 🙏
-ed

Vintage Guitar Pedal Print Media

☟ 

For about as long as I have been collecting pedals, I've also been collecting pedal related media; catalogs, ads, books, brochures, warranty cards, magazines, etc.

They were always just cool to look at and experience a small taste of what it was like when these were originally being released.

But it wasn't until this past year when I started writing again that I realized how much I actually relied on this old media to help tell the stories of when and where many of these pedals came from.

The further you go back, the harder it is to determine exact dates with any of this stuff. And even some of the most important fx of all time, like the Big Muff, still have their true release dates shrouded in mystery. 

Which is exactly why I began to properly catalog all the media I have lying around; by date, publication, brand, and model. The stories of these pedals have been told and retold thousands of times over the years, and many of them are inaccurate at best, but oftentimes the most repeated pedal lore is a complete fabrication. So having an accurate database of images that show the Big Muff was available to buy in April of 1970, for instance, helps a lot in narrowing down what is true vs. what is not.

I assume that if you're reading this that you have a similar interest in the history of guitar effects pedals. And while there aren't too many of us out here digging for that history and making it freely available on the internet, we wouldn't be able to tell these stories accurately without this forgotten media.

So my ask for you all, is if you have any physical or digital copies of catalogs, trade journals, order forms, brochures, magazine articles, ads, warranty cards, etc., and would like to contribute to this site (and eventually a fully public database), please contact me via Email or Instagram.

I keep Tone Machines completely sponsor/ad free and make no money from doing this. It's purely a passion project. And while I love tracking this stuff down myself, I feel as though I have hit the end of what is currently available online. So any new scans or photos could be the missing key that helps unlock the true history of guitar pedals.

Thanks for reading,

-ed

Claybridge (pre) Fuzzmaster!

☟

Last month I received an email asking about a mysterious little fuzz box that had made its way into an Australian guitar shop. Neither the shop owner, Chris, nor the seller had any idea of what it could be or if it held any type of significance. And even though it looked like something somebody cooked up in a high school electronics class, it sounded great! 

And that was just enough motivation for Chris to buy it and enlist some local friends who could maybe help figure out what this thing was. Well after a couple months of digging, he was pointed in the direction of this article we wrote last year about the elusive Claybridge Fuzzmaster. And a few paragraphs in, it seemed as though they had cracked the case...

This is where I came in. 😁

On February 21st Chris' email landed at my inbox, and because of the time difference it arrived around 4am. Luckily for me, I had a terrible sleep that night and happened to glance over at my phone shortly afterwards. Seeing the notification, in a sleepy daze I opened it and began reading. 

After the first line of text I was hit with so much adrenaline that I jumped out of bed and immediately responded. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and part of me thought that it had to be some kind of hoax (a very niche and oddly obscure hoax). 

I quickly went back to my original article and pulled two ads, one from May 4th of 1966 and the other from May 16th of 1966. Both advertised different versions of the Claybridge Sound Systems Fuzz Box; one was describing a pre-Fuzzmaster circuit while the other seemed to be describing the Fuzzmaster, but before it was given that name.

I wouldn't know until I looked inside, but with what I was seeing this mystery pedal could be either.

So we exchanged emails for a few days and more photos starting pouring in. And after getting the all-important gut shots, it really seemed like this was indeed a PRE-Fuzzmaster, Claybridge Sound Systems Fuzz Box!

Everything was matching up: the two controls, the 15ft lead (or output cable), the sticker on the side that read the earliest name of the company; it was all there.

I was still a bit skeptical because this truly has to be as close to a 1 of 1 as possible, in terms of it "currently existing in the world".

So I went back over my old articles and database of photos. And then, all of the sudden, two major details jumped out as being definitive proof of its validity:

A. The small white knobs used on this "prototype" were also found on a legitimate v1 Fuzzmaster, in addition to appearing on the original Fuzzmaster ads!

B. The same label-maker seemed to be used on the MKIV Fuzzmasters!

So a deal was made, and now it was time to wait.

Unfortunately, and for reasons I can't figure out, getting mail from Australia always takes 10X longer than any other country. I can get packages from Japan in 2-3 days usually, and most parts of Europe a week/week and a half at most. But who knows?

Well, it's March 11th and the wait is finally over, because it is here!!! And holy shit this is cool.

The very first thing I did was open it up and take a look inside. It was hard to tell from the emails exactly what was going on in there, so my anticipation was insanely high.

Well, Ralph Bridges must have known he had something really special here because the circuit is completely encapsulated in an opaque epoxy resin.

This is not unlike the infamous "brick" inside of an Ampeg Scrambler, and also not any less of a kick in the stomach for pedal nerds like myself. 

That initial disappointment aside, what is notable about the guts is that the enclosure seems entirely too small to hold a true Fuzzmaster circuit (which is essentially a 2 transistor fuzz that's smashing a treble booster). So even though this pedal matches most of the details described in the May 16th ad, I can't see how it would be possible to fit both the "improved" fuzz circuit and the "inbuilt treble boost" into such a tiny space.

The other thing to note are the components we can see, like the two resistors and that big yellow cap hiding below the wires. Including the pots, jack and switch, everything matches up pretty well with a 1966 release.

So, let's see how it sounds.

GODDAMN!!!

Well the first thing to note is that this generates an enormous volume boost. Even with the fuzz set to its lowest, this is loud as hell. I compared it to my original MKIV Fuzzmaster and my d*a*m Fuzz Supreme, which is a clone of an original green Fuzzmaster. And when it comes to pure volume it blows both away.

The actual tone is different too. 

Against my MKIV, this is much more aggressive. In addition to being louder, it's also gainier, fatter, and kicks out more midrange. The MKIV also gates in a really cool way, sort of in the vain of an FZ-1; but this other pedal sustains for days, not unlike a Big Muff or a Rat.

Compared to the d*a*m Fuzz Supreme, the overall tone is bit closer, but still pretty different. There is just something "organic" about this that's hard to describe. The closest thing maybe, would be how a real MKI Tone Bender would sound if it had a baby with a perfboard Muff; just raw, pure, and a bit unhinged. The d*a*m version is much more articulate and does a bit of that scooped-mids thing we associate with a Civil War Muff, while this pre-Fuzzmaster spews its thick crunchy midrange from every orifice.

No joke, and hyperbole aside, this is one of the best fuzz pedals I have ever heard.

While I have you here, I wanted to take a second and point out something that I noticed recently.

This is my MKIV Claybridge Fuzzmaster. As you can see it's gold. And I have always thought that Claybridge used gold, in addition to the silver hammerite paint. But then I really looked at it again, and this very spot made me rethink my original assessment.

Notice how the gold paint goes up over the metal plate? And how you can see silver peaking out underneath. Well, I'm an idiot, and this has almost certainly been repainted at some point.

I will throw myself a bit of grace as only 3 of these have surfaced over the years. Although the other 2 are definitely silver. :) So I apologize for any confusion my gold Fuzzmaster has caused.

Alright, thanks for reading.

-ed

Aria Distortion Sustainer RE-102 (1975?)

☟

Aria, a brand that is mostly known in the stompbox world for their 80s Dual Stage Series (which happen to be some of my favorite vintage effects), initially began manufacturing pedals in the mid-70s with their RE Series. Releasing different types of phasers, boosts and distortions, arguably the greatest of them all was the RE-102 Distortion Sustainer.

Aria Electronics (aka Arai & Co. Inc.) has an interesting history when it comes to effects. In 1968 they released their first pedal, an unlabeled OEM version of the infamous Sekova wedge fuzz. The following year they released another OEM series, this time built by Thunder Electronics, that utilized the Royal Fuzz and Wah/Fuzzes. And finally, under the Aria Diamond label they contracted Maxon/Ibanez to build another set of Fuzzes and Wahs, which are probably recognizable to even the casual pedal collector.  

All of this jumping around does make sense for the time, as Aria had been a guitar brand since the mid 50's. And just like countless others in the late 60s, they decided to dive into the burgeoning pedal game in the easiest way possible, by paying to have their logo slapped on someone else's creations. 

That is of course until the mid 1970s...

In 1974(?) Aria released a new line of effects known as the RE Series. No longer outsourced, and going with the trend of the time (lead by brands like MXR, Univox and Maxon), they featured enclosures with a smaller footprint. And while they initially came in a generic yellow-colored project box, Aria quickly wised up and switched over to a much cooler custom metal enclosure that had a textured black paint job similar to Electro Harmonix. 

*One odd fact to note is that Aria not only began building their own pedals at this time, but they completely flipped the script and began licensing them out to other brands! There was even at least one Royal branded pedal, in addition to a few other notable OEMs like Arbiter and Vox.

So how good was the RE Series?

Their phasers aside, the first distortion effect they put out was called the Distortion Booster. It was much closer to an overdrive / Distortion+ than a full-on fuzz. Cool, but unfortunately nothing to write home about. 

Then came the Power Booster, which was pretty much exactly what it sounds like. And while it's not going to take the place of your Uni-Drive any time soon, it does do a nice job of slamming the front of your amp (i.e. an LPB-1). 

And finally a Treble and Bass boost were both added to the mix. Again, no Rangemasters here, but both pedals accomplish what it is advertised.

So this brings us to the first real fuzz in the RE Series; the Big Muff-inspired RE-102 Distortion Booster. *this release date is a bit of a mystery, but my best guess is 1975, and at the very earliest, late '74. It featured a modified Triangle Muff circuit that removed both the recovery gain stage and the tone control found in a typical Big Muff. This created a beautiful, crunchy and wooly fuzz that sounds like a lower gain Muff going into a dirty tube amp. To me it's closest sonic cousin isn't even a Muff at all, but one of my other favorite fuzzes, the Italian Vox Distortion Booster. 

So after completely nailing a very cool interpretation of the Big Muff you would think that Aria would just have stopped there.

But obviously they didn't, because released at the very same time as the RE-102 was the RE-203 Super Fuzz Sustainer.

This was essentially the same exact pedal, but contained the missing tone control portion of the circuit, complete with a "Tone" pot (just like a real Big Muff!).

Unfortunately in doing so it did affect the overall sound a bit. The Super Fuzz Sustainer lacks in both the volume and gain that the Distortion Sustainer seems to kick out in the final turn of the knobs. And it is precisely in this spot where the real Muffy magic happens.

So while the cooler looking, bigger boxed, better named pedal (that also happens to be much more common) is fun, it just misses the mark on BIG fuzziness and playability. 

What is really cool/interesting is that both pedals share the same circuit board. But even though the Distortion Sustainer was first in serial numbering, it actually uses the RE-203 board and not the other way around!

Another thing to note about the board is that they both have a series of unused holes. Which raises a couple of questions: 

-Was there a 4 transistor/true Big Muff version that has just not surfaced yet? 

-Was it a financial/business decision where they decided they could get 90% of the way there and save some cash on less parts? 

-Was yet another 3rd party responsible for this Aria line, and did they produce a "true" Big Muff for someone else???

It also could very well be nothing. 😂

What is true is that by the mid 70s Japan was flooded with Big Muff style pedals. Brands like Elk, Guyatone, Mirano, Sekova, and Ibanez all had their version of the circuit. And while most of them took a more straight-up approach, Aria and Guytone where the two stand-outs, with their modded lower gain offerings.

I'm definitely more of a "more gain is better" kind of person when it comes to fuzz. But when done well, a pedal can really shine in the lesser of extremes. And the Aria Distortion Sustainer is 100% that.

If you happen to come across one, don't hesitate because they are not easy to find. But they are pretty damn awesome when you do!

thanks for reading,

-Ed

Elk Big Muff demo time / /

☟

This has been online for a few years, but never featured here.

So check out one of my favorite mid 70s Japanese Big Muff copies, the ELK Big Muff Sustainar!

Thanks for watching!

-ed

Kurosawa The Fuzz

☟

As we like to do here at Tone Machines, today we're going to look into another pedal of mysterious origin. This is The Fuzz, or as the internet has dubbed it, Kurosawa The Fuzz. It's a 6 transistor monster, that for the most part, is a Super Fuzz copy. All things point to an early 80s build, and definitely from Japan. But unfortunately that is where our solid(ish) information ends...

So today we're going to do as deep a dive as possible and grab from all of the currently existing info to see what we can come up with!

So first, the things we do know 100% from holding two of these in my hands: 

A. They sound and act just like a Super Fuzz / FY-6.

B. The circuit board has "PRAT-7" and "Kurosawa" printed on it.

C. The circuit itself has 6 transistors and a single op-amp. Although the op-amp doesn't seem to do too much tone-wise.

D. The components are all consistent with other early/mid-80s Japanese builds. 

E. The bottom plate has "Japan" embossed on it.

I was really hoping that some day an ad, or old magazine article, or even an actual box would pop up and we would get a clue to the brand behind The Fuzz. But after a decade or so of scouring the net I came across nothing. 

Until last year, when a friend of the blog reached out to show me that he had just purchased a beautiful boxed version!

Unfortunately it didn't help much to solve the mystery, but we did get to see the original price of ¥1980. And while it failed to have any sort of shop sticker, or date, it is really cool just to finally see a box! 😍

I have read/heard some rumors about who may be responsible for The Fuzz. One of them was that the Guyatone PS-030 Fuzz from the late 80s was essentially the same pedal, circuit and all. And that there may be a connection.

So I looked into this theory, and while the two do share similar sonic qualities (aka Super Fuzziness) the construction, the usage, and the components are just so different that I am going to have to rule this one out. 

Awesome and underrated pedal though!

Next is the supposed connection that some people swear is the smoking gun.

"What about that enclosure??? It sure looks a lot like the Locobox pedals from the same time period, from Japan. And they're known for licensing to OEM brands. CASE CLOSED!!!"

Ok, so let's look into Locobox and see what other similarities we can find, if any.

As you can see, the enclosures for both pedals are actually the same! I can't deny that. Same size, same little slant on the front, same rounded corners, everything.

Now I do fancy myself a bit of a pedal detective (lol) and this was something I noticed around 2009 when I first became aware of the Kurosawa fuzz.

And if we just take the enclosure, it does seem to be a pretty enticing conclusion. But if you keep looking, even at just the outside of the pedal, lots of small differences start to emerge.

So let's take a look at this Electra Compressor, which was built by Locobox and shares the same circuit as their legendary "The Choker" pedal. 

Locobox built pedals for a ton of other brands like Rolling, Nadines, Boston, Volz, and more. All of them use the exact same circuits, placement of jacks and pots, and wiring. The only variation I have found is the bottom plate and a couple of them use different knobs.

So if we know that for the most part, all of the OEM Locobox pedals are built the same, then we quickly begin to see some differences with the Kurosawa.

Take the input/output jacks. Every one of the Locobox pedals has the jacks below the slant of the enclosure. While the Kurosawa clearly has them above. 

Now while I didn't take a photo to compare, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one, but the 9v jack is on the top right of each Locobox pedal and is a completely different type; while the Kurosawa's 9v jack is on the top left.

The bottom plates do not match up either. There are 3 variations in the Locobox builds, but none of them use the plastic, battery holder snapout like the Kurosawa does.

I will give you a couple of similarities though; the LED and the footswitch placement are the same. But those both seem to be pretty logical spots given the enclosure, and could have even been pre-drilled?

Ok so the outside seemed to fail the test, but what about the inside. Surely that's the clincher...

So here are two Locobox pedals opened up. The boards are consistent with every other variation/OEM; all showing a serial number on the bottom right and the wiring connections to the left. 

Notice that the serial numbering system is completely different (compared to "PRAT-7" we just get a string of numbers followed by a single letter). But also there is nothing printed on the board that mentions not only Kirosawa, but no brand name at all. 

And finally, if you look back at The Fuzz board above, you'll notice the wiring connections are located at the bottom, not to the left.

The most convincing argument though has to be that Locobox never released their own Fuzz pedal.

Even if we look into the connection with Aria (who were the distributers for Locobox, and even co-promoted them as a part of their own brand), we don't see a fuzz pedal that would have been out at the same time. The mid-70s Aria fuzzes are completely different inside, and the late 80s Aria fuzz, in its plastic enclosure, is also a totally different animal than any of the Locobox pedals or the Kurosawa fuzz.

So what can we take from all of this?

I think the most simple answer is, The Fuzz and Locobox purchased their enclosures from the same place. 

That's it. No other connection there!

And I bet if we dig a little deeper we can find even more pedals from this era that also used the same enclosure. I honestly haven't looked at all, but I would put money on it.

I definitely did not mean to make this a post about the history of Locobox, but hey, it happens.

Well, what do I think is the actual origin of the Kurosawa fuzz? If I really had to guess, my assumptions would point me in the direction of the Kurosawa Musical Instruments shop in Japan. This has been one of the largest and longest running guitar stores in the country and it would make sense that they not only had an in-house fuzz pedal, but that they could simply call it The Fuzz because the brand IS them. 

Sadly we still do not know for sure who built these, or really anything more than when we started.  But hopefully this post helps to pull some new facts out of the dust, and we can an update it at some point in the near future.

As always if you happen to have additional info, agree or disagree with anything I've posted here, please message me via Email / Instagram.

Thanks for reading!

-ed

Carruthers Dyna-Soar Fuzz

☟

A couple of months ago I finally added something to the collection that I had been hunting for... a while.

In the mid 2000s there was a mysterious pedal that began to haunt guitar forums. The only thing we had to go off of was this super blurry/grainy photo. The photo, from 1998, was of Kim Gordon's live board, and featured this black pedal with yellow text that seemed to read "Dyna ___?". 

After more searching and internet scouring from the nerds, it was revealed to be a fuzz called the Carruthers Dyna-Soar. It was made sometime in the 80s in New York, and was a Big Muff clone with enough volume and gain on tap to level entire city blocks; which was pretty perfect for Sonic Youth. And from what the internet tells me the Dyna-Soar is featured on this track "Wildflower Soul" (most likely at the intro and then from 6:35 on). //

Sadly the Dyna Soar would wind up on a list of gear that was stolen from Sonic Youth while they were on the road in 1999. And since then, another one would not emerge for over a decade! 

Fast forward a bit to 2012 when I came across my very first siting of a true Carruthers Dyna Soar. Which was awesome, but there was something noticeably different about it, as the text was orange instead of yellow and it definitely said Dyna-Soar Lite. So what was going on here? 

Well as it turns out Carruthers also made a more chilled version of the pedal, which happens to be about 5 times more common, that sits comfortably in the dirty overdrive category as opposed to the fuzz family. But lucky for me the owner of this pedal had modded it back to it's original non-lite version, as it was technically the exact same circuit but with an odd configuration of the transistors. And after his mods brought it back to it's full wall-of-fuzz Muffy glory it was now punishingly loud and sounded exactly like how I assume the end of the world will sound.

So for the past decade+ I had been trying to find myself an original Dyna-Soar fuzz (minus the Lite) but had only ever seen 1 come up for sale. Which was cool because anytime I see 1 of something I know that A. they definitely exist, and B. time will eventually bring another one out of hiding. 

Then finally this past December patience paid off, and to my mind-blowing surprise what would I see pop up online, but an original Dyna-Soar fuzz!!! 

What a cool take on the Big Muff! This thing is LOUD, beefy, gainy, mean, and just huge sounding all around. The only other Muff style pedal I can compare it to would be the Maxon OD-801, which itself is like a super high gain Civil War Muff. 

When I play this against my modded Dyna-Soar Lite it has a bit more low end, and gives a nice textural crunch in the mids. It's also more "organic" sounding, as my Lite can almost be too abrasive and full-on at times.

I am so pumped to now own both of the Dyna-Soar fuzzes, although I probably need to find an unmodded Lite version.. ugh, it never ends!

The final thing I will leave you with is a small possible clue to the origin of these pedals. On the back of my Lite version is a sticker that reads Dalbec Audiolab - Rensselaer, NY 12144 US. I looked into Dalbec and it appears as though it was/is a sound system manufacturer and distributer. (check their website here) But unfortunately nothing about making hi-fi systems implies that they had anything to do with making fuzz pedals... But who knows! At the very least it requires a bit more digging.

Well, as always if you happen to know anything about the origin of the "Carruthers" Dyna-Soar Fuzz please reach out via Email / Instagram. I would love to hear from you. 

Thanks for reading,

-ed