Electric Guitar Trends

Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm recorded what is widely accepted as the first distorted guitar sound, heard on the single “Rocket 88” in 1951. A guitar amp had been accidently dropped and a tube output stage shorted out, creating the distorted sound.

Another early first fuzz tone on a recording was Link Wray’s 1950’s hit “Rumble”. Link Wray poked holes in his amplifier’s speakers to make the recording sound more like the live version of the song.

In 1961, during a Marty Robbins recording session, the recording console preamplifier circuit malfunctioned and everyone liked the resulting fuzzy sound.

Glen Snotty, the recording engineer, later duplicated the circuit in a stompbox that Nashville guitarists began using. The design eventually fell into the hands of Gibson’s parent company Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) and became the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone.

While the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Tone made its American debut in 1962, sales through 1964 were very slow. That all changed in 1965 with the release of the Rolling Stones hit “Satisfaction”.

Mosrite introduced the Mosrite FUZZ rite in 1962. It was designed by Ed Sanner, who also designed pedals for Rosac. The Ventures, and Dave Allen and the Arrows were early adopters of the FUZZ rite. Jimi Hendrix used the FUZZ rite as well.

version 1: 250 units that used Germanium transistors.

version 2: Thousands made with discrete parts on a paper phenolic circuit board, using silicon transistors.

version 3: About 20,000 were made with the orange Sprague module.

In general, the FUZZ rite was capable of the fuzziest sounds.

Mosrite also manufactured the FUZZ rite under the Guild Foxey Lady fuzz name.

The Sola Sound was made in the UK. The Sola Sound MK I Tone Bender was introduced in 1965.  Sola Sound later became Colorsound.

You can hear the Tone Bender in the 1960’s Yardbird’s hit “Heart Full of Soul”.

Sola Sound also built MK II Tone Benders for Marshall (Supa Fuzz) and Vox (Tone Bender) among others.

The Arbiter Fuzz Face was designed and built by London’s Arbiter Music, starting in 1966. Its most famous user was Jimi Hendrix.

The Arbiter Fuzz Face was relabeled in 1967 to Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face.

The Fuzz Face tradition continues with current production made by the folks at Dunlop.

There were different Fuzz Face versions over the years and many players say that the Germanium NKT-275 Models sound the best.

Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz - 1967

Designed and built by Roger Mayer for Jimi Hendrix. This Fuzz came into play in Hendrix’ Axis: Bold as Love record. Hendrix often set up his Arbiter Fuzz Face and Axis Fuzz next to each other. The Axis Fuzz is known for its very smooth sound which cleans up nicely.

Early semiconductors were made of germanium, but by the end of the 1960s, all transistors were made of silicon. Silicon transistors are desirable for a number of reasons: they are less ‘leaky’ from a circuit point of view; they have closer tolerances, and they are less suspectable to changes in ambient temperature. Still, Germanium has its own unique properties that do not exist in other semiconductors.

Electro-Harmonix started up in 1968. The Big Muff PI was a huge success for E-H, and it is still in production today. The Big Muff PI has evolved over the years, with different models each having their own fans.

Four generations of Big Muffs (clockwise from top left): Little Big Muff Nano, Reissue Russian Big Muff Pi, Original Russian ‘Tank Metal’ Big Muff Pi, Original Little Big Muff Pi

The Analogman fuzz represents the modern use of old technology in making fuzz pedals. Analogman has new old stock 1960’s NKT-275 germanium transistors to ensure a vintage sound.

The EWS FD-1 Fuzzy Drive represents a new generation of fuzz pedal that uses new technology to produce both modern and vintage sounds. You can read a review of the EWS FD-1 Fuzzy Drive here.

The fuzz pedal lives on today, decades after the 1960’s fuzz pedal craze. Some modern fuzz pedal manufacturers use old schematics and new-old-stock germanium transistors to recreate vintage tones. Other modern fuzz pedal manufacturers use modern technology to update the fuzz pedal for today’s sounds.

Here are my queries for electric guitar players:

- do you own a fuzz pedal?

- if so, which one?

- do you use it?

- when do you use your fuzz pedal?