There has been no more celebrated company in effects history than
Electro-Harmonix, and rightfully so. Many of the pedals we use
every day are derived—in some way or another—from founder Mike
Matthews’s tireless dedication to the musician community. Pedals
such as the POG, 16 Second Digital Delay, Frequency Analyzer,
Memory Man and others were firsts in their field. Mr. Matthews
routinely released products with no practical place in the effects
storybook. The RTG, or Random Tone Generator does exactly that:
it generates a random tone sequence, of which players can vary the
speed and glissando. The Panic Button is essentially a white noise
generator, outfitted with a cork pad for striking or kicking, allowing
guitarists to randomly inject their signal paths with bursts of static.
Mike Matthews often released products presumably because he
thought them to be cool, not caring if anyone—and I mean that quite
literally—bought them or even cared. To that end, we’re lucky that
such a bastion of innovation exists within a hobby we care about, and
it’s a big reason why Mike Matthews and Electro-Harmonix are the
undisputed heavyweight champs of effects.
Like most companies, Electro-Harmonix comes from humble
beginnings. After a stint with IBM, Matthews found himself as the
chief builder for Guild, manufacturing the company’s Foxey Lady
fuzz. This pedal, though it was transparently and shamelessly hitching
itself to Jimi, didn’t sound like much that the man used, only clouding
the tonal pool. With the help of Bob Bell, another technician,
Matthews took the Fuzzrite and made it his own. This overhaul of
the Fuzzrite featured a few nifty tricks that changed the sound of the
Fuzzrite for the better. This new pedal was called the Axis, and it was
the first-ever Electro-Harmonix branded pedal—yes, even before the
LPB-1. This also marked the first pedal that used 2N5133 transistors,
which became Electro-Harmonix’s calling card throughout history—
some folks say a Big Muff isn’t a Big Muff without them.
The Axis circuit is cool for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s one of
the rarest circuits within a library of hundreds from EHX. Secondly, its
Fuzz control is actually a blend between two fuzz configurations; the
far left of the control gives players only the first stage, while the far
right position cascades the stages. It’s a clever control in a very old
circuit, a circuit which still sounds great to this day. And guess what?
You’re going to build one.
ToneReport.com
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