# What Was Your First Pedal?



## Canadian Charlie (Apr 30, 2008)

Can any of you remember what your first effects pedal was and when and where you bought it?


I got mine back in late 1979 from a place called Hudson Music and it was a "Big Muff Fuzz Box" I think the following year I got rid of it for a Boss Distortion pedal. 

Wish I still had it


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Boss Yellow OVER DRIVE...OH the power combined with the JCM 800..


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

You gotta be kidding, that would have been in the '70s!

Um...maybe the volume pedal from Bellone's (London), even had their badge on it. Maybe, an MXR phaser. Maybe a Fuzz of some kind...I can't be sure. 

Over the years I've had dozens of distortion pedals, several volumes, wahs, but the oldest one still in my possession is a DOD a/b box, still in use too. Probably not that many pedals compared to most folks playing this long.

Peace, Mooh.


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## gramatica (Dec 3, 2007)

*Pedals of the past*

*MXR distortion +*
Bought it 29 July 1980... the pedal, box and receipt are right beside me!
Laid the money down at _Domenic's Academy of Music_ in Bell's Corners - now part of the sprawl that is Ottawa.

*Boss CE-2*
Should NEVER have sold it...


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## JSD's Guitar Shack (Feb 24, 2006)

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive around 1985. Came with a little metal Boss badge that said something like "Thanks to the world - 1976 - 1985 3,000,000 Units Sold.


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## Clit Torres (Dec 14, 2007)

DOD Thrash Master FX59


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## Evilmusician (Apr 13, 2007)

Two borrowed pedals ,Boss Turbo OD ,and a Vintage MXR Phase 90 ,sold the phase 90 for some stupid price ,and gave the Boss to a friend, when I got my first effects unit (that was junk too DOD tech4 ):rockon:


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I'm thinking it might have been a Univox compressor or possibly an MXR Envelope Filter, somewhere around 1976-77. There was also the purchase of a PAiA Phlanger and a Fernandes Funky Filter somewhere around that time too. Frankly, I'm surprised that I don't remember.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

A Marshall Bluesbreaker II. Used it with a cheepy Marshall MG15CD. When I got my Gibson GA-5, there was a clash of personalities, so I sold it. It is the only piece of gear I sold.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

yes, and I still have it.
Gibson Maestro, back from when fuzz was fuzz, not some kinda distortion or overdrive.

hmm, those knobs may be worth more than the fuzz itself.


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

First pedal I ever plugged into back in 85 or so. Boss HM-2 was next.


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## Guest (Jun 7, 2008)

I think it was a Boss Turbo Overdrive. And a Boss phaser came after than but I was too young to know what to do with it. There was a CE-2 about that time as well. Again: too young to understand. Sold it. And then Nevermind came out. Opps. After that I went rack for a bit. Had a Zoom 2020 I think it was. Half-rack, grey unit. Pretty killer little box really.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I can't remember the name or company but my first pedal I bought was in late 69 or early 70 and I walked into the towns music shop and popped down all the cash I had at the time, not much. It was a Fuzz Face style fuzz pedal, a round black circle with a stomp switch and two pots. It was not the Arbiter but it was cool.


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## Canadian Charlie (Apr 30, 2008)

After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


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## gramatica (Dec 3, 2007)

Canadian Charlie said:


> After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


heh. :smile:

That smilie looks like me all the way to the top!


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

I bought my first one about 1977 and still have it, it is a Royal RFC-1 Double effect. It's really a pretty great pedal and cost me alot of scratch back in those days. I think I paid $65 or $70 bucks for it .

http://filters.muziq.be/model/royal/rfc1


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

Canadian Charlie said:


> After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


I wish I was still in my 40's. LOL


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## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

Mine was a Big Muff as well. Before that I was playing through my mother's stereo/fireplace and I couldn't figure out how to play and get that 'sound'. I would crank the snot out of the stereo and at the same time have the needle of the phono player sitting in a record that wasn't spinning (I would rig it with a butter knife to stop it from moving).

My brother has a silver faced fender and some pedals and gave me the big muff to 'borrow' one day - I don't think he ever got it back.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Mine was an Ibanez Metal Zone - super high gain 80's big hair band metal pedal. It was fun while it lasted. I have since moved on. I think that I sold it last year.


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

I have never owned a pedal.:smile:


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

OMG! I forgot about that one. I wanted one ever since I saw Dom Troiano use one with the Five Rogues/Mandela. Then the other guitarist in our band got one. I tried it and sounded great. Given that I avoided part-time and summer work like the plague when I was in High School, it was over a year before I was able to get one - I gotta LEMON - it was so disappointing. I don't remember what happened to it.



dwagar said:


>


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

rhh7 said:


> I have never owned a pedal.:smile:


wow I wish I could say that, after the first one it became a slippery slope. I turned into a collecting thing.


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## Wheeman (Dec 4, 2007)

A DOD250 Overdrive clone that I built.










I was happy with just amp distortion until I built this. Now I've got at least 4 different OD pedals to play with.


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## Guest (Jun 7, 2008)

Canadian Charlie said:


> After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


Yea. Some of us are under 40. But not many. And not by much (I'm 31).


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## Lester B. Flat (Feb 21, 2006)

My first gizmo wasn't even a pedal, it was a Jen Distortion Booster. It was a small cube with a 1/4" jack that plugged straight into your guitar, and an output jack. It had a volume wheel on it and an on/off switch. Anyone remember those?


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

My first one was a DOD Grunge FX69! Still love that sound!


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

My first pedal was a Boss Phaser I bought back at Cosmo Music when they used to be around the Midland/Sheppard area in the early 80's. Not long after that I bought a Boss Touch Wah pedal and I discovered an interesting effect when I combined both of them. This is probably obvious now but back then I was new to effects pedals, if you set them to roughly the same frequency you'd get a cool "beating" effect if you played the low E string.


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

mine was a boss meavy metal hm-2 i think it was called back in 19:rockon2:89


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

copperhead said:


> mine was a boss meavy metal hm-2 i think it was called back in 19:rockon2:89


I'm kinda with you and Canadian Charlie...I was _given_ a 70s Big Muff, which I pitched in the trash when I finally saved up enough cash for a HM-2...a _real_ pedal in the early 80s.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

A Boss BF-1 Flanger. I got it cheap because they were clearing them out for the BF-2's that were coming soon. I can't believe I didn't get a distortion first (That was second.) 

I rarely use it anymore as I mostly used it for phase shifter type sounds (And I prefer my Boss PH-1) & for chorus type sounds (Which I have on my main amp--a Roland JC-60) 

It's a good pedal, and a fun one to start with--it's just become redundant in my set up.

I'll either have to start using it again--or sell it.


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## snoglobe (Jun 20, 2007)

Mid 80's Ibanez bi-stage Phaser. Picked it up from Mother's Music in Edmonton when they were still on Whyte Avenue, during their moving sale. I think I got it in the odds and sods bin for $20.


looks like this one, but without the wear, I think I've only had it hooked up a dozen times since I bought it.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Lester B. Flat said:


> My first gizmo wasn't even a pedal, it was a Jen Distortion Booster. It was a small cube with a 1/4" jack that plugged straight into your guitar, and an output jack. It had a volume wheel on it and an on/off switch. Anyone remember those?


Yea I had a couple versions of those type effects, I had one I use to plug into my pedal steel in the years that I had it, this one had a vol and gain and lots of distortion.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Actually, now that I think of it, my first pedal wasn't a pedal at all. Somewhere around 1969 or so, I discovered overdrive. I had a 7" tube reel-to-reel someone had given me. I would plug my guitar into the mic preamp, and take the line out to my guitar amp, which was one of these Montreal-made "Symphonic" amps with a not particularly outstanding speaker.








The amp might have been okay in its prime, but the tubes and caps were probably shot when I got it so we thought it was a piece of crap. Running the guitar through the mic preamp first, though, gave this delicious overdriven tone with sustain for days. Because the recorder/amp combination was so unwieldy and so huge sounding, my band-mates nicknamed it "the Monster". It wasn't until some 20 years later or more that I learned Ritchie Blackmore was doing essentially the same thing at the same time.....except his amp was a Marshall, and he played juuuuuuuuust a tad better than I did.


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## Archer (Aug 29, 2006)

my Mom and Dad bought me a DOD distortion. I thought that pedal was the greatest thing of all time.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

mhammer...Me too. I inherited two 7" reel-to-reel machines, one was a SeaBreeze, and an extension speaker. Primitive tape loops, and nice warm clean tone at low volumes. Cranked they just sounded like crap. One had a clipping light. Combined with my Harmony tube amp, Kent electric, an acoustic soundhole pickup (which I'd mount over the Kent pickups for some truly strange feedback), and some creative daisy-chaining, I did my best Dazed and Confused for anyone within earshot. Little did I imagine that 35 years later I'd wish I still had that gear.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Andy (Sep 23, 2007)

Snarling Dogs Wonder Wah 2. :sport-smiley-002:

I hated it. Traded it towards a Guv'nor, which I love. My first good pedal, too.


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## NB-SK (Jul 28, 2007)

Canadian Charlie said:


> After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


I'll be 40 in a few short years, not that I care. I stopped counting when I turned 25. I actually have to think for a second before I remember my age.

First pedal was an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-7, which I did I few mods on in April (net improvement, sounds a bit less digital). 
First DIY pedal was a BOR clone, with a couple of improvements on the design, such as a toggle switch that puts the boost ahead or after the distortion stage.


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## SinCron (Mar 2, 2006)

Boss DS-1. Got it from a pawn shop and ended up plugging it into the PA system at Radio Shack (as it was known at the time) and playing around. Then X V-Amp, Boss MT-2, V-Amp 2, POD XT Live, Behringer EQ-100, Behringer Ultra Metal, Boss GT-8.


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2008)

al3d said:


> Boss Yellow OVER DRIVE...OH the power combined with the JCM 800..


Me too, right after buying a brand spanking new,just released, JCM 800 head. I was sixteen.


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Canadian Charlie said:


> After reading these threads I realised I'm not the only guy here in his 40's


Geez, I'm in my 50's! (just barely, though!). My first pedal was my King-Vox Wah, which I still have and had to eventually get repaired (by none other than Geoffrey Teese of RMC fame). My parents bought it for me for Christmas sometime in the early 70's, can't remember exactly when, and I love it and still use it regularly.
-Mikey


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## Tin Type (May 10, 2008)

sadly mine was a Zoom GFX 707.. i think i bought it new for like $220 bucks... and i thought i sounded awesome......


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## sense_of_henry (Mar 4, 2006)




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## Mogwaii (Feb 16, 2007)

Digitech Grunge.... I wanted to sound like Kurt Cobain X_X


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Reading some of these posts I realize I forgot my first distortion. I plugged into a tape deck (console type) that had an out jack the same size as a guitar cable & plugged into the mic jack, put the deck on record, put the record level all the way up, then went into the amp or headphones. It wasn't great distortion, but since it was all I had at the time--it was good enough.


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## Nickelo (Apr 9, 2007)

Mine was a Zoom 505 (the first one). I can remember saving up my money to buy it as a grading day present for myself when I was in Grade 10. It was fun and great to have that thing.


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## Petersko (Sep 17, 2007)

My very first pedal was the Boss HM-2. Bought it in 1982 with money I made delivering newspapers. I was 12.

Sold it when I was 18. Later on in life I would learn the cardinal rule of musical gear - never sell ANYTHING if at all possible - you'll regret it. 

Last year I bought one on Ebay, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it was nearly as good as my nostalgia-clouded brain remembered.


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## Stratocaster (Feb 2, 2006)

Sadly, was a zoom 505...


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## KoskineN (Apr 19, 2007)

Mine was a Boss HM-2...like some others here! I never sold it and I'm still using it occasionally. :smile:


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## lamf (Feb 22, 2007)

eh Small stone earlyiest version(god Ifeel old)


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## hoser (Feb 2, 2006)

mine was a dirt box my dad made. plugged in through the stereo for some sweet sears tone.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Electro Harmonix Echo Flanger circa 1979. A very rare bird that I sold for $10 during a non-playing period in my life in the mid 80's. I have seen them sell for several hundred dollars on E bay since then. 

Pete


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

lamf said:


> ...(god Ifeel old)


Not "old"..."_vintage_"


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## Stevo (Apr 3, 2008)

ProCo Rat pedal was my first.... LOL


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## steve60ca (Jul 5, 2006)

Little Big Muff Pi. Bought @ Pongetti's in Hamilton on Barton St. near the funeral home about 30 years ago. Took the bus. But I couldn't remember to take the damn DVD's back to Blockbuster last night.


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## james on bass (Feb 4, 2006)

Washburn Chorus pedal that I bought new in 1984. Little guitar shop that's long since out of business on the second floor of a building on Richmond St in London. Still have the pedal and use it occassionally.


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## james on bass (Feb 4, 2006)

Wheeman said:


> A DOD250 Overdrive clone that I built.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Now that is what I call a DIY pedal! :rockon:


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

DOD noise gate...i was very young and naive.It was an impulse buy,i thought it was some kind of distortion pedal lol.I bought it at a local pawn shop that went out of business this year.Still miss that place, i bought all my strings there.


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## jane (Apr 26, 2006)

A tuner... Korg DT-10.


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## wnpgguy (Dec 21, 2007)

first (and only) pedal is the BOSS GT-6.


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## pattste (Dec 30, 2007)

I bought a red Yamaha Distortion pedal as a teenager in the 80's. It sucked and I eventually sold it in disgust. I stopped playing for a while, eventually started again and played clean mostly, simply using the amps drive channel very occasionally. Then last week I bought a Keeley BD-2 Blues Driver. Awesome pedal. As you can tell, I don't use effects much.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

A Pearl overdrive. 10 bucks at a pawnshop in about 1991.

http://www.tonefrenzy.com/effects/pearl_over_drive.html


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## Guest (Jul 3, 2008)

My first pedal was an old Boss CE-2 (long dash,black label version). Little did I know that many moons in the future I would find it again after losing it and love it once more. Plus, its worth some cash now too! :banana:


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## The Kicker Of Elves (Jul 20, 2006)

(sigh) I think my first pedal was the Tonebone Hot British I got through this board...last year. :frown:


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## Ringwraith (Nov 17, 2007)

Kewl thread! 

It was a 70's "Loco Box Rotophase" bought new in the early 80's at Wilson & Lee Oshawa. Bought the Spaceship Flanger shortly after! 
http://www.locobox.com/70s.html

Cheers
Sean


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## WEEZY (May 23, 2008)

I totally forgot about this pedal until I saw one for sale on another site. The moment I saw it the memories rushed in. This pedal sounded like crap in retrospect.


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## csrMark (Jul 14, 2007)

MXR DIST + ....... no led


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

Ringwraith said:


> Kewl thread!
> 
> It was a 70's "Loco Box Rotophase" bought new in the early 80's at Wilson & Lee Oshawa. Bought the Spaceship Flanger shortly after!
> http://www.locobox.com/70s.html
> ...


The Rotophase was my first pedal as well. You'll see my pics on the Locobox page you posted.


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

Ringwraith said:


> Kewl thread!
> 
> It was a 70's "Loco Box Rotophase" bought new in the early 80's at Wilson & Lee Oshawa. Bought the Spaceship Flanger shortly after!
> http://www.locobox.com/70s.html
> ...


Do you recall what their original prices were?


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## lookitsmarc (Aug 16, 2008)

I registered for a guitar forum (can't remember which) and "automatically" was entered to win a guitar pedal. Well somehow I beat out 7,000 people and won a Sustain Punch Creamy Dreamer.


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2008)

lookitsmarc said:


> I registered for a guitar forum (can't remember which) and "automatically" was entered to win a guitar pedal. Well somehow I beat out 7,000 people and won a Sustain Punch Creamy Dreamer.


That's a pretty cool win. On a few levels.


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## Ophidian (May 22, 2006)

DS-1 was my first asked for a dirt pedal at a local store and thats what he showed me.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

My very first pedal was a Royal Fuzz/Wah .... probably about 72' or so.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I repaired one of those for someone about 2 years ago. Nice pedal. Used one of those wacky gearless wah arrangements that has more in common with a door hinge. The only weak spot was the fuzz-wah order was fixed (fuzz -> wah).


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## Brennan (Apr 9, 2008)

My first pedal was an Arion SDI-1 distortion. I was playing a cheap old Westone guitar and some little 5 watt solid state amp at the time, and that pedal finally made it sound like a real electric guitar! (or so I thought at the time =P)


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