Who Had the First Pedalboard?

Gassage

It's quite an interesting question.

Pedals started to come to the fore in the late 50's (the deArmond trem was the first in 1947)

People like Bo Diddley and others were experimenting with home made dirt boxes.

I know the first Cornish board went to Peter Banks in 1971 and Cat Stephens had the second.

However, as far as I can research, the very first person to have a pedal on a board was Nokie Edwards, who made his own trem and 2 dirt boxes in 1962 when with the amazing Ventures.

Anyone else know differently?

sgosden

Does it count if they had them on the floor, or do they have to be attached to a "board" ?

Gassage

sgosden said:

Does it count if they had them on the floor, or do they have to be attached to a "board" ?

I don't think there's a binary answer here. But yeah, a board arrangement is what I was looking for.

I know Angie Bowie carefully put Ronson's 4 pedals onto a board for him in 1968 so they could set up quicker.

But Nokie Edwards is the first I can find in 62, I think.

HAL9000

Ye olde penny farthing accessory shoppe?

RandallFlagg

Adam

ICBM

I don't know, but I'll make a small bet that the answer is Les Paul.

DannyP

Gassage said:

I know Angie Bowie carefully put Ronson's 4 pedals onto a board for him in 1968 so they could set up quicker.

I also heard that Angie had to keep a supply of penicillin for Ronno's many intimate infections because "the girls just would NOT leave that boy alone!"

Gassage

ICBM said:

I don't know, but I'll make a small bet that the answer is Les Paul.

Everything I can find points to Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. He made a lot of his own dirt boxes as far back as 62.

p90fool

More importantly, why did the England goalkeeper need a pedalboard anyway? 

Roland

ICBM said:

I don't know, but I'll make a small bet that the answer is Les Paul.

Les Paul was using pedals to control his tape delays back in the 50s. From what I remember they were screwed to a plank. There are several pictures of him in the studio with it, and live with Mary Ford. There was a BBC film shortly before his death which showed some of the accumulated junk in his garage, and I think there were a few frames of his pedals in that. The question is whether you can describe this as a pedal board.

Sassafras

Surely anything that prevents pedals from roaming free can be called a pedalboard, be it a plank of wood or an old suitcase full of pedals.

thermionic

Great question. When I got into guitars and music in the early 80s I remember being very interested in pedals and usually seeing players with maybe 3-4 loose pedals on the floor. Pedalboards weren't mainstream at all, but there was one local guitarist, bit of a Hendrix freak who was the first person I remember seeing with a board - Fuzz Face, Cry-Baby and an original Univibe. He also had a delay, can't remember what it was, but the other guitarist in the band had a WEM Copicat. He also had some sort of attenuator in the back of his AC30 and Marshall combos, looked home-made. Any boards around the time were mainly home-made - plywood painted black.

timmysoft

Jimmy Savile had the first board




oh pedal, not paedo 

KKJale

Nokie Edwards, I would never have guessed...

I remember reading that Jay Graydon had the very first one on the LA studio scene. Just looked it up... it was a big six-foot wide semi-circular thing with two Oberheim phase shifters, a Mutron III, a Vox wah, an Echoplex and volume pedal, all running on individual loops into a separate switchbox.

Judging by the Mutron that couldn't have been any earlier than '72, though, maybe '71 at a push.

Freebird

Gassage said:
I know Angie Bowie carefully put Ronson's 4 pedals onto a board for him in 1968 so they could set up quicker.

What pedals did Mick Ronson use? In the interviews I have seen, he said he went straight into the amp via a fixed position half-cocked wah pedal.

DannyP

Freebird said:

What pedals did Mick Ronson use? In the interviews I have seen, he said he went straight into the amp via a fixed position half-cocked wah pedal.

MkII Tonebender, was it?

ICBM

I think Ronson used a half-cocked wah circuit built into a different box so it could be more precisely set, an actual wah, an Echoplex and maybe a Rangemaster or a Tonebender - that would be four.

Hattigol

DannyP said:

Gassage said:

I know Angie Bowie carefully put Ronson's 4 pedals onto a board for him in 1968 so they could set up quicker.

I also heard that Angie had to keep a supply of penicillin for Ronno's many intimate infections because "the girls just would NOT leave that boy alone!"

I think you're referring to a different type of 'dirt box'.

Jalapeno

Roland said:

ICBM said:

I don't know, but I'll make a small bet that the answer is Les Paul.

Les Paul was using pedals to control his tape delays back in the 50s. From what I remember they were screwed to a plank. There are several pictures of him in the studio with it, and live with Mary Ford. There was a BBC film shortly before his death which showed some of the accumulated junk in his garage, and I think there were a few frames of his pedals in that. The question is whether you can describe this as a pedal board.

That'll do for me - he invented a lot of stuff we think commonplace today

glynes

Gassage said:

People like Bo Diddley and others were experimenting with home made dirt boxes.

Citation needed.

However, as far as I can research, the very first person to have a pedal on a board was Nokie Edwards, who made his own trem and 2 dirt boxes in 1962 when with the amazing Ventures.

Citation needed about using multiple "pedals on a board"

I know Angie Bowie carefully put Ronson's 4 pedals onto a board for him in 1968 so they could set up quicker.

What were the 4 pedals that Ronson was using in 1968? You do realise that this is two years before Ronson joined up with Bowie, right?

Roland

Jalapeno said:

Roland said:

ICBM said:

I don't know, but I'll make a small bet that the answer is Les Paul.

Les Paul was using pedals to control his tape delays back in the 50s. From what I remember they were screwed to a plank. There are several pictures of him in the studio with it, and live with Mary Ford. There was a BBC film shortly before his death which showed some of the accumulated junk in his garage, and I think there were a few frames of his pedals in that. The question is whether you can describe this as a pedal board.

That'll do for me - he invented a lot of stuff we think commonplace today

From Wikipedia:

“Paul had hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC Radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, ...  During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, such as a guitar sound or a voice ... The invention allowed Paul to access pre-recorded layers of songs during live performances so he could replicate his recorded sound on stage”.

This is the original device I was thinking of. Turns out its controls were mounted on the guitar, not on the floor. However he also invented the Flanger and a couple of other devices which ended up being pedal controlled.