The years following World War II represented some of the most tumultuous times in history for Soviet-US relations . Fear of communism , indoctrination , and nuclear annihilation was rife in the USA , and musicians from both sides of the pond were quick to catch onto this panic , reflecting it in their art . Songs like “ Back in the U . S . S . R .” by the Beatles , “ Ivan Meets G . I . Joe ” by The Clash , and “ Leningrad ” by Billy Joel are just a few songs that artists wrote to depict different experiences of the threat from behind the Iron Curtain , spanning the years of 1945 to 1989 . One side of history that isn ’ t as widely covered in schools or history books is the experience on the other side of the curtain from a musical and artistic standpoint . Economically , Russia was all but shut off to the world , but musically , “ bootleg ” rock n ’ roll from the West and Russia ’ s own brand of rebellious music was what many historians say was one of the main catalysts to the fall of the Soviet Union .
There is very little known about the Soviet pedals from before the fall of the Union , and even less known about the companies themselves that built them . There is a lot of misinformation , and unless you can read Cyrillic or happen to live in Russia you are out of luck to find any confirmable facts on the pedals themselves . All we have to go on is our eyes and our ears , which really forces you to listen and process what you ’ re hearing , without getting caught up in the specs .
One thing to realize is that the effects from back then are very different , and seemed more like novelty devices and less like musical tools . A lot of the functions are downright strange , and when you have no standard or template to go off , you can get some very strange operational designs and even stranger sounds . Many Soviet pedals were of shoddy quality and were not built to last , hence the pretty awful state most of those pedals are in nowadays . They also featured five-pin DIN jacks as opposed to the standard quarter-inch jacks we are used to , adding to the mystery .
Now before we go into the actual pedals themselves , I would like to say that we will not be including the Electro- Harmonix and Sovtek pedals , because these are not original designs out of the Soviet Union . The Big Muff , Small Stone , Electric Mistress , and the like were all designed by Mike Matthews in America , and were only manufactured by Russian companies . For this feature we will stick to purely Soviet designs , and stay away from the obvious Sovtek designs .
WORDS BY YOEL KREISLER
The years following World War II represented some of the most tumultuous times in history for Soviet-US relations . Fear of communism , indoctrination , and nuclear annihilation was rife in the USA , and musicians from both sides of the pond were quick to catch onto this panic , reflecting it in their art . Songs like “ Back in the U . S . S . R .” by the Beatles , “ Ivan Meets G . I . Joe ” by The Clash , and “ Leningrad ” by Billy Joel are just a few songs that artists wrote to depict different experiences of the threat from behind the Iron Curtain , spanning the years of 1945 to 1989 . One side of history that isn ’ t as widely covered in schools or history books is the experience on the other side of the curtain from a musical and artistic standpoint . Economically , Russia was all but shut off to the world , but musically , “ bootleg ” rock n ’ roll from the West and Russia ’ s own brand of rebellious music was what many historians say was one of the main catalysts to the fall of the Soviet Union .
There is very little known about the Soviet pedals from before the fall of the Union , and even less known about the companies themselves that built them . There is a lot of misinformation , and unless you can read Cyrillic or happen to live in Russia you are out of luck to find any confirmable facts on the pedals themselves . All we have to go on is our eyes and our ears , which really forces you to listen and process what you ’ re hearing , without getting caught up in the specs .
One thing to realize is that the effects from back then are very different , and seemed more like novelty devices and less like musical tools . A lot of the functions are downright strange , and when you have no standard or template to go off , you can get some very strange operational designs and even stranger sounds . Many Soviet pedals were of shoddy quality and were not built to last , hence the pretty awful state most of those pedals are in nowadays . They also featured five-pin DIN jacks as opposed to the standard quarter-inch jacks we are used to , adding to the mystery .
Now before we go into the actual pedals themselves , I would like to say that we will not be including the Electro- Harmonix and Sovtek pedals , because these are not original designs out of the Soviet Union . The Big Muff , Small Stone , Electric Mistress , and the like were all designed by Mike Matthews in America , and were only manufactured by Russian companies . For this feature we will stick to purely Soviet designs , and stay away from the obvious Sovtek designs .