# What's your coolest old pedal?



## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

For me. it's a toss-up between my 60's Marshall Supa-Fuzz (have had it so long I can't remember where I got it from originally, but I got it rebuilt last year and love the creamy, subtle fuzz) and my King Vox-Wah that my parents gave me for Christmas 35 years ago when I was about 14 (I got that pedal rebuilt by Geoffrey Teese who produces the RMC line of wahs-what a great guy and an absolute Wah nut!-we spent a lot of time on the phone when he was doing the rebuild, and then more recently when I was trying to set it up for an external power supply I looked up his email address and emailed him and he replied pretty much instantly and we kept up the email traffic until I was satisfied with the way it was working!). 
I am always interested to hear what old pedals are still in circulation and being used regularly, so let's hear about some more of them!
-Mikey
An interesting footnote to this subject is that I bought an old rackmount Aphex Aural Exciter from a local second-hand furniture shop (yeah, really!) quite a few years ago and had almost forgotten about it until a friend of mine was mooning about how he would love to find one for his studio because it is the only processor that he ever thought made his voice sound the way he wanted in the studio. I took it over to his place and it now holds a slot in his rack of goodies-love it when the old stuff gets back into circulation!


----------



## esp_dsp (Feb 27, 2007)

ha! lol im much too young to talk about old pedals lol although my cry baby is older then me! lol:banana:


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Don't have anything left from the '70s or '80s, though I wish I'd kept those early Boss distortion stomp boxes and MXR phaser. The oldest one I have and use is a ten year old George Dennis guitar and bass volume/wah. I never see folks use George Dennis pedals, but I like this one. 

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## lamf (Feb 22, 2007)

+1 on the supa fuzz.Ihave that and its mate the supa wah.my personal favorite though is my small box 80s RAT


----------



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Mooh said:


> Don't have anything left from the '70s or '80s, though I wish I'd kept those early Boss distortion stomp boxes and MXR phaser. The oldest one I have and use is a ten year old George Dennis guitar and bass volume/wah. I never see folks use George Dennis pedals, but I like this one.
> 
> Peace, Mooh.


I have one of the George Dennis volume pedals with the optical contraption on it... have had some issues. My oldest stomp is a 70's Muff Pi


----------



## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

here's a pic of the only old pedal I hung onto, Gibson Maestro. Back when fuzz was fuzz.


----------



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

The oldest pedals I have are the following. Mostly mid to late 80s.

Morley BSV Stereo Volume
Boss DF-2 Super Distortion/Feedbacker (Black Label - MIJ)
Dunlop GCB95 (which was modded by Russ Goudie earlier this year)


----------



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...not that old, but my danelectro cool cat chorus is a gem.

-dh


----------



## nordlav (May 11, 2007)

'80s Boss DS-1, made in Japan.

Thanks


----------



## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

This one is really cool, but I sold it recently.










This is a very nice phaser, and likely the oldest pedal I own right now.


----------



## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

An early 70's Royal wah/fuzz, you can either use it as a straight fuzz, or a straight wah or both at once, and a Boss ph-1 that I bought new in either 77 or 78 I think.


----------



## sproul07 (Jun 23, 2007)

Definatly my '74 EH Big Muff. Best distortion pedal ever made without a doubt.


----------



## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Yeah, those old Electro Harmonix pedals FX were great. A buddy of mine had an LPB-2 (linear power booster), I think it was, plugged into the output jack on the guitar with a 1/4 inch out to the amp. What a cool little toy.
-Mikey


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Yeah, my George Dennis pedal had optical sensor issues, but it has worked great after the service. 

This thread has brought back memories I thought I had suppressed of a John Bellone (store in London) passive volume pedal. I used it initially for lapsteel volume swells and as a simple defeat pedal in my early (late 70s) electric rig. It worked great at home but always messed up live. I think it was possessed. The subsequent Morley was much better.

Not sure how old my DOD 270 a/b box is but it's a tank that's never failed.

I'm a sucker for effects and stomp boxes even though they don't get a lot of use. If there's an antidote, I don't want to know.

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## monochocke (Mar 26, 2007)

*ehx 1979*

woo , i love my two electro harmonix , my big muff 1979 true bypass and bad stone phase shifter 1979 , those are amazing pedals , just love them so much!!!!. i must say also my boss hr-2 harmonist im not shure about the year 1988 o something like that ..but just beautiful and crazy harmonizer..


----------



## Rong (Feb 1, 2007)

My original Rat is a perenial favorite. Sure there is no true bypass or touch sensitive response...just great gritty dirt that really makes a clean amp sing.


----------



## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

*"Ah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be!"*

ColorSound Fuzz/Wah, with a stamp inside that says "Aug 1974".

Every so often I put another inch or two of shielded wire inside and knock out yet another radio station!

Shades of Spinal Tap...


----------



## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I suppose it would be my 80's Electric Mistress, great flanger....


----------



## adamthemute (Jun 18, 2007)

It's not that old but I really dig my 80's Boss PH-1r Phaser. Some effects are just meant to be analog!


----------



## The Tourist (Feb 18, 2007)

I wish I had a cool old pedal.


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Posted this not too long ago:

http://guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=6523


----------



## cheesey (Feb 17, 2006)

script logo phase 45 from 1975. i had a lovepedal magic boy that was a bit bright . the 45 is just right and looks cool too.


----------



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I just got a Boss Digital Dimension DC-3. What a great pedal. I've taken out my Cool Cat chorus pedal from my board. It's great playing clean. Just adds a little bit of shimmer to the sound. Works very well in a stereo setup.


----------



## adamthemute (Jun 18, 2007)

Chito said:


> I just got a Boss Digital Dimension DC-3. What a great pedal. I've taken out my Cool Cat chorus pedal from my board. It's great playing clean. Just adds a little bit of shimmer to the sound. Works very well in a stereo setup.


I'd like to check that pedal out...Is the pedal noisy at all and can you make some wacky but useable sounds from it? is it true bypass?


----------



## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

NB_Terry said:


> This one is really cool, but I sold it recently.



ARGGGH! I can't believe you sold your orange Kay. I've been looking for one of those for years.

I have an old Shin Ei Fuzz Wah that has a similar fuzz sound but the wah part isn't that great.

-Pete


----------



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

adamthemute said:


> I'd like to check that pedal out...Is the pedal noisy at all and can you make some wacky but useable sounds from it? is it true bypass?


No the pedal is not noisy at all. It sounds clinical in fact. But yes, there are lots of useable sounds from it.


----------



## µ¿ z3®ø™ (Apr 29, 2006)

i bought my superfuzz in '73 or '74. up until that point i had been using the tube electronics from a sony reel to reel recorder to overdrive my amp. the univox superfuzz was my first pedal. i still have it.


----------



## a Pack of Wolves (Sep 5, 2007)

not that it's worth much in terms of money
but 
i'm pretty fond of my washburn analog delay 
(an 80's one in a black metal casing)

my pal put in the same 'chips and bits' as a memory man,
it sounds great 
just doesn't do the memory man's chorusing


----------



## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

MY oldest pedal is a original Roger Mayer Octavia from 69'. Followed closely by my Vox Clyde McCoy model wha-wha I bought in 70'. Then a early 70's Cry Baby wha. Lastly but not leastly a KILLER pedal from about 78-79' is my A/DA Flanger. That one I still use on occasion. Nothing else sounds like it.


----------



## NB-SK (Jul 28, 2007)

monochocke said:


> woo , i love my two electro harmonix , my big muff 1979 true bypass and bad stone phase shifter 1979 , those are amazing pedals , just love them so much!!!!. i must say also my boss hr-2 harmonist im not shure about the year 1988 o something like that ..but just beautiful and crazy harmonizer..


My EH pedals are considerably newer (I've got a Big Muff and a Metal Muff, both relatively new), but I love them nonetheless. They sell great pedals at an affordable price.


----------



## sysexguy (Mar 5, 2006)

This is a Craig Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz from Guitar Player mag, I built the circuit card in grade 10 ....1977 never worked...................about 21/2 years ago, I was cleaning out some stuff, found it, googled the project and presto...the schematic. I reconnected all the necessary wires and .......nothing....so it's sitting on the edge of my desk while I'm doing something else and I look at this one diode with one eye.....it's inverted. 

fix that and it works!!!!

so I built it into a box of cheese

Andy


----------



## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

My Green Sovtek Big Muff. I know its not as old as some of the stuff here, but it's about 15 years old andI've had it from the start. My brother bought it for me when I was just starting out on electric. I've switched the jacks for better quality metal ones and modded it with two switches. Mid (scoop/flat/boost) and gain (regular/creamy dreamer). I'll toss on a picture when i get home.


----------



## sense_of_henry (Mar 4, 2006)

Not that old compared to some, but I would have to say my V.1 Bixonic Expandora.


----------



## JSX/6505 (Nov 18, 2007)

Probably my Boss CE-2 Chorus from the late 70's-early 80's.
Yet to play a chorus pedal that sounds better.


----------



## Evilmusician (Apr 13, 2007)

70,s Jen Crybaby which sounds killer and is on my board now cheers!


----------



## Blue Apple (Feb 8, 2006)

A '74 Phase 90... My dad actually gave me this pedal about 15 years ago. 

After switching from a B3 w/ Leslie to some kind of Roland keyboard back in the mid 70's, he used the phaser for a few years to get somewhat of a rotary speaker sound...

This pedal sounds unreal when it's on but as soon as you turn it off, the tone loss is unbearable.


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

My coolest old pedal is unquestionably a Guild Tri-Oct. I bought it a few years back and have been desperately trying to find out info about it, to no avail. None of the various people I have written to have either responded or had anything useful to convey.

The Tri-Oct was a rare (mine has a 3-digit serial number) short-lived device that straddled the border between fuzz-boxes and guitar synths. Kind of a "missing link" in effects evolution, and probably produced somewhere between 1968 and 1971 from the tell-tale signs. It is a table-top device, with a 3-switch remote footpedal. 

The table-top box has three controls on the front - treble, bass, normal - and 6 trimpots on the back. What are they for? The Tri-Oct was a hexaphonic octave divider. Long before the Electro-Harmonix POG managed to negotiate nailing an octave down for every string in a chord, the Tri-Oct had six completely independent discrete (mostly germanium transistors) octave-divider circuits. Typically, analog octave-down boxes are monophonic, meaning that they can track only one note at a time, regardless of what string/fret it is on. This one could keep track of all 6 strings at once.

The Tri-Oct came with a proprietary hexaphonic (i.e., one coil per string) pickup, roughly about the size of a P-90 and a flat enough profile that you could secure it to the top of a guitar under the strings without having to route out a hole. A multi-conductor cable was hardwired to it and ended in a screw-on connector that attached to the back of the table-top unit. The cable was maybe 6ft long at most, meaning that the user simply HAD to sit near the table-top device. 

While the electronics were okay, the pickup was what killed this beast. Users of guitar synths these days know that the sensor for each string either has to be part of the bridge (e.g., a separate piezo saddle) or embedded in a very thin pickup rammed up right against the bridge. If the pickup has to be moved any appreciable distance from the bridge, you end up with the polepieces situated under a point where the strings waggle from side to side too much and you get so much bleedthrough from adjacent strings that tracking is thrown off. In this case, the sheer size of the pickup meant that you could not retrofit it to any guitar between existing pickups and the bridge. Even if you could, it was still too far away from the bridge to provide stable tracking. Someone suggested to me that it was probably developed when heavy-gauge flatwound strings were still in use, and I suspect their reasoning is probably spot on. Flatwound strings don't wiggle quite as much as roundwound, and if they are heavier gauge (e.g., .012 through .056), the amount of bleedthrough to adjacent polepieces would have been less.

Soundwise, the three controls on the chassis let you adjust the respective loudness of the octave down, a common fuzz, and clean signal. Though each string was processed individually (and the trimpots at the back let you set the sensitivity for each string), the octave-down, fuzz, and clean were all mixed down from 6 signals to mono, and the three front-panel sliders let you set how much of each you heard. The footswitch unit let you enable/cancel each of the three signal types independently. The bypass switch was a slider switch on the back panel of the main chassis, so there was no way to bypass the unit completely in a gig situation. The best you could do was cancel the bass (octave-down) and treble (fuzz) components, leaving the normal signal. If the effect signal you wanted included only octave-down, then to achieve that you had to turn the normal off then turn the octave on. Again, another sales-killer.

The unit seems to have been made during that period when the lines between Guild and Electro-Harmonix were kind of blurred, and people were designing for both companies. It would not surprise me a whit if this were the brainchild of designer Dave Cockerell, who came up with the E-H Microsynth and several analog keyboard synths years later. Besides the frequent use of 2N388 germaniums, it is chock full of 2N5133 silicon transistors, which were the go-to transistor for E-H during the late 60's and early 70's, used in the LPB-1, Muff Fuzz, 1st issue Big Muff Pi, and several other early E-H products. Nothing particularly magical about them, except as potential markers of historical period.

If my guess as to the production date of around 1968 or so is correct, then it would take another half dozen years or more until we started to see the first guitar synths. That's why, for me, this is absolutely the coolest thing I own in the realm of pedals. Never seen a picture nor heard mention of one anywhere, and I've been reading the trade mags since 1974.


----------



## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Blue Apple said:


> After switching from a B3 w/ Leslie to some kind of Roland keyboard back in the mid 70's, he used the phaser for a few years to get somewhat of a rotary speaker sound...


It's time to have a father/son chat...n' ... kick that man's butt.


----------



## Solid_Gold_Soundlabs (Sep 20, 2006)

Blue Apple said:


> A '74 Phase 90... My dad actually gave me this pedal about 15 years ago.
> 
> After switching from a B3 w/ Leslie to some kind of Roland keyboard back in the mid 70's, he used the phaser for a few years to get somewhat of a rotary speaker sound...
> 
> This pedal sounds unreal when it's on but as soon as you turn it off, the tone loss is unbearable.


A quick true bypass mod would make that pedal incredible!

Greg


----------



## Greenbacker (Mar 29, 2007)

Ibanez AD-80 1981. No delay since ever sounded as good. Headroom like crazy!


----------



## Supro (Dec 17, 2007)

Uh, well this is my funky one......a Neovibe, the homemade version of the univibe, I put the circuit in an old projector part!


----------



## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Supro said:


> Uh, well this is my funky one......a Neovibe, the homemade version of the univibe, I put the circuit in an old projector part!


I LOVE THAT !!!!!!


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Supro said:


> Uh, well this is my funky one......a Neovibe, the homemade version of the univibe, I put the circuit in an old projector part!


Are you $hitting me?!

Man, my coolometer is red lining.

How does it sound?

I've had many of the classic 70s pedals and a few sixties but I never really hung on to any of them. I think the effects I have now are as good or better. I find a lot of effects are cool but not particularly useful playing in a band. Funny, I like other players who use a lot of junk, but I find myself using hardly any at all.


I guess to answer the original post the coolest I can remember was a deluxe memory man or maybe a Muff Fuzz.


----------



## Supro (Dec 17, 2007)

Hey thanks guys!, yea it sounds just like the real thing,here is a gut shot, this effect works on 18 volts, so the black box has a torrodial PS in it, the trick is to use a trimpot to fine tune it.


----------



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Had me one of these for a while. Still kinda miffed that I got rid of it, but hey, that's how these things go.



















Anybody got one they wanna sell me for cheap???


----------



## Marcel Furlanetto (Sep 14, 2007)

*I used to have a Roland Jet Phaser that I used for bass...it sounded great but I didn't use it enough to justify owning a $300-400 pedal.*











*Now my oldest pedal is a Boss DM-2 Analog Delay (80's MIJ Black Label).*











*P.S Hollowbody, that looks like an interesting phase/pan pedal..you've intrigued me.*


----------



## co-intelpro (Jan 11, 2008)

Got lots to choose from:

Boss OD-1 Overdrive (MIJ, metal screw)
Boss DS-1 Distortion (MIJ, metal screw)
Boss DM-2 (MIJ, one green label, one black)
2 x Boss CE-2 (MIJ)
Roland Jet Phaser AP7
Roland Chorus/Vibrato CE-1
3 x Shin-ei Fuzz wah(s)
2 x Marshall Guv'nor
Marshall Shredmaster
Ibanez AD-80 Analog Delay
Ibanez AD-100 Analog Delay
Korg SE-500 Stage Echo
Maestro Mini Phase
Garnet Herzog w/tone knob
Vestafire RV-1 Spring Reverb
DOD Buzz Box FX33

I can't pick, because they are all cool (to me, at least) and I love them all...


----------



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Marcel Furlanetto said:


> *I used to have a Roland Jet Phaser that I used for bass...it sounded great but I didn't use it enough to justify owning a $300-400 pedal.*
> 
> *P.S Hollowbody, that looks like an interesting phase/pan pedal..you've intrigued me.*


Haha, if you couldn't justify a 300-400 dollar pedal, then you definitely couldn't justify the Flying Pan. The one I used to own is living with Scott at www.axeandyoushallreceive.com and I know he's asking a ridiculous amount for it. Again, I just didnt use the effects enough to warrant having it, so I traded it for a really nice guitar. Now I have a Small Stone and a Diaz Tremodillo and I honestly don't miss the FP-777 other than for its mojo.


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I've been trying to get Tim Larwill of Retro-Sonic Effects to produce a kind of re-issue of the Flying Pan, only with some improvements. I think it could be an interesting pedal. Personally, I found the panning of the entire signal a little disconcerting. What I would have liked to see instead is a panning of the phase-shifted signal so that the phase-shift effect is over here, then over there, now back here again. Since the dry signal remains intact, you get all the benefits of the stereo movement without having the pan be too distracting or over the top. More of a shimmer than a pan.

For now its on the back burner.

If you like the Jet-Phaser for bass, check out this Larry Graham youtube video on his particular use of it. Sounds pretty damn fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSiACMzEKRM&feature=related


----------



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I've been trying to get Tim Larwill of Retro-Sonic Effects to produce a kind of re-issue of the Flying Pan, only with some improvements. I think it could be an interesting pedal. Personally, I found the panning of the entire signal a little disconcerting. What I would have liked to see instead is a panning of the phase-shifted signal so that the phase-shift effect is over here, then over there, now back here again. Since the dry signal remains intact, you get all the benefits of the stereo movement without having the pan be too distracting or over the top. More of a shimmer than a pan.


I know Prophecysound in the Australia made Flying Pan reissues, though I haven't heard one, and Mike won't be building any new pedals. I haven't been able to track down one of his pedals yet. 

As for the panning, although I understand what you mean, having own an FP-777 and tried it in stereo mode, I can attest that it is an amazing experience, like hearing a Leslie for the first time. After I tried it in stereo, running it mono seemed stupid. That's the other reason I got rid of it, I couldn't justify running a stereo rig just for this pedal...or could I????

If you EVER manage to find someone to build a replica, PM me and let me know, I would definitely be interested. But maybe with a switch to switch between panning the whole signal and wet only? Sounds like a winner!


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

While we were working out a set of possible features for a potential Flying Pan re-birth (assuming everything would have to fit in a 1590BB box with a max of 4 rotary controls, two footswitches, and maybe a toggle or two), one of the possibilities considered was being able to select between full pan, and wet-pan only. Having full pan and cancelling (or drastically reducing via a blend control) the phase-shift signal would, of course, get you a tremolo in mono, and an auto-pan pedal, for free.

The full stereo pan IS quite the dramatic effect, but a little bit goes a very long way, and it isn't the sort of thing you can simply turn on and leave on, like chorus. When folks plunk down $250+ for an effect, they want something that will justify that expenditure, and the same way few will shell out that kind of money for something they use only *very* sparingly (like a ring modulator), few will shell out big money for what is a plain vanilla 4-stage phase shifter with an additional feature they use maybe 30 seconds a year. The nice thing about wet-pan is that you get the stereo effect, but it's not like the frequently adopted sum/difference style of stereo out that cancels in air. I mentioned this to Ton Barmentloo ( who designs for EHX ) a couple years ago, and I think he may have implemented that feature into the Flanger Hoax.


----------



## bluesbird (Oct 30, 2007)

Boss PH-1R MIJ ... if you feel like playing Purple Rain everyday !!


----------



## Guest (Jan 24, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> If you EVER manage to find someone to build a replica, PM me and let me know, I would definitely be interested. But maybe with a switch to switch between panning the whole signal and wet only? Sounds like a winner!


You're in luck Ibanez. had a new FP-777 at their booth at NAMM. $357 MSRP isn't bad considering they're going for over $1000 on eBay these days.


----------



## Guest (Jan 24, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I mentioned this to Ton Barmentloo ( who designs for EHX ) a couple years ago, and I think he may have implemented that feature into the Flanger Hoax.


That's a crazy pedal but I don't think it does stereo effect output. It's got a dry out, a blended out and an effect-only output though. You could feed the effect-only output into a panner and voila! You'd have stereo phased signal, mono dry. That's be kind of cool actually. You'd feel the movement but it wouldn't be so violent.


----------

