Vintage pedals

goodfuzzysounds

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:

https://youtu.be/xsLExf9vzuY?si=P9Lo7zhjE4RygURp

Supportact

Wow that tremolo looks so cool! Thanks for posting, I haven't seen one of them. 

What would an all 1940s pedal board look like, and how soon can I sell everything I own to get one? 

thermionic

Amazing. I had a couple of theories as to how it works, but I wouldn’t have guessed.

https://www.vintageguitar.com/18545/dearmond-tremolo-control/

Winny_Pooh

thermionic said:

Amazing. I had a couple of theories as to how it works, but I wouldn’t have guessed.

https://www.vintageguitar.com/18545/dearmond-tremolo-control/

Good read. Anazing how "clean" and consistent it sounds considering it's liquid sloshing about in there.

goodfuzzysounds

Supportact said:

Wow that tremolo looks so cool! Thanks for posting, I haven't seen one of them. 

What would an all 1940s pedal board look like, and how soon can I sell everything I own to get one? 

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!

Supportact

goodfuzzysounds said:

Supportact said:

Wow that tremolo looks so cool! Thanks for posting, I haven't seen one of them. 

What would an all 1940s pedal board look like, and how soon can I sell everything I own to get one? 

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!

Ok I'll take one of them as well! Reverb and tremolo are a good start, just need a delay and I'm all set. 

GoFish

Is the picture at the top one of yours? There was one for sale on the Bay last year or two that needed attention. What an amazing bit of history. I'll certainly appreciate any more pics of vintage effects, especially trem and fuzz!

goodfuzzysounds

GoFish said:

Is the picture at the top one of yours? There was one for sale on the Bay last year or two that needed attention. What an amazing bit of history. I'll certainly appreciate any more pics of vintage effects, especially trem and fuzz!

Yup, the top one is mine. I got it from a friend of a friend in the US a few years ago. More vintage fuzz coming soon, plus a few oddities.

goodfuzzysounds

ok,  this is a real oddity, from 1956. Knobs are not original.

Viking PB60 - an American tube preamp made for tape players, but sounds great as a distortion/fuzz i think! 1 ECC83, 1 rectifier valve and a few capacitors and resistors. There's a later transistor version too, looking out for one!

quick rough improvised demo:

Supportact

Like it!! I can see that being a usable sound in recording for sure. 

Ddigger

Rose-Morris Shaftsbury Duo-Fuzz, made by Shin-ei.

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.

goodfuzzysounds

Nice! this is the coolest looking Super-Fuzz, definitely. Good condition too!

goodfuzzysounds

a few weeks have past, but i took this photos in honour of Lenny Kaye's Nuggets anniversary show at the 100 Club on Friday (it was a GREAT show!) 

Maestro Fuzztone pedals - the first fuzz, the first stompbox! What you see are two FZ-1s from 1962 (3V, one re-built by me), five FZ-1As (1965-68, 1.5V) and a Japanese clone (1968?). It's actually a very versatile circuit with minor tweaks and reversible mods - that's why i have so many.