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Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s.
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Company history
Founding years (1967–1968)
Electro-Harmonix was founded by Mike Matthews in October 1968 in NYC, USA. Himself an R&B keyboard player, he had traded his passion of music for a job as a salesman for IBM in 1967. Shortly afterwards he realized that his job at IBM no longer suited him, and he was interested in trying once again to make career for himself as a keyboard player. Concerned he may not be able to support his (now ex) wife while being unemployed, he aspired to save some money to support her before embarking on his journey to stardom. Partnering with an acquaintance of his, Bill Berko, an audio repairman who claimed to have his own custom circuit for a fuzz pedal, they jobbed construction of their new pedal to a contracting house, and began distributing the pedals under a deal with the Guild Guitar Company. Fuzzboxes were in demand following a trail of hits involving their sound, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones two years prior, and recent popularization of Jimi Hendrix. The latter connection resulted in the pedals being branded the 'Foxey Lady'.
Following the unexplained departure of his partner, Matthews was introduced to inventor and electric engineer Robert Myer through IBM colleagues. Together the two began conceptualizing a circuit designed to emulate Jimi Hendrix's use of a distortion-free sustain. While testing a prototype of the Distortion-Free Sustainer pedal, which Matthews did by simply plucking the strings of an electric guitar, as he did not play guitar, he noticed another small box connected to the prototype. When asked, Myer explained this box was a line booster, designed to boost the guitar's passive signal to an appropriate level for the prototype. Matthews listened as the guitar's volume increased greatly as the booster was turned on, and asked Myer what was involved in manufacturing the pedal. The pedal consisted of a simple circuit and used just one transistor(This would later become know as the Linear Power Booster (LPB-1), a pedal still manufactured today.Shortly afterwards, Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix to produce this and other pedal designs throughout 1960s, 70s and early 80s.
First products
The first Electro-Harmonix product was the Axis fuzz pedal, which was also sold under the name "Foxey Lady" for the Guild guitar company. While working with Bob Myer on the early Big Muff design, Mike Matthews used a booster circuit Myer had incorporated into the design and marketed it as the LPB-1 or Linear Power Booster in 1969. This massively boosted a guitar signal to provide gain by clipping the signal, dramatically changing the sound. The new device provided a raw distorted sound, full of sustain and harmonics. Several similar devices followed such as the Treble Booster and Bass Booster. The new devices were extremely popular with guitarists.
Change of direction
Electro-Harmonix stopped making pedals in the mid-1980s, and in the early 1990s started selling vacuum tubes re-branded with their name for guitar amplifiers, which they had also been making since the 1970s. However due to demand, and the high prices guitarists were paying for old 1970s pedals on the vintage market, they reissued the more popular old pedals in the mid-1990s, the Big Muff Pi and Small Clone included. In 2002 they started designing new pedals to add to their range. Company policy is that all reissued effects remain as close as possible to the original, vintage designs. This means however that casings, knobs and especially the old-fashioned mini-jack power plug are not up to modern-day standards. This all changed in 2006 with their smaller and more standardized "micro" and "nano" effect lines.
Effects pedals
Electro-Harmonix offers a full range of pedals capable of many different types of sound manipulation suitable for guitar, bass, vocal and keyboard signals, as well as other instruments. They also sell rebranded vacuum tubes carrying the Electro Harmonix brand name.
Big Muff
In 1971 Matthews designed the pedal that would make the company famous - The Big Muff Pi. This was a fuzzbox that added a rich, creamy, bass-heavy sustain to any guitar sound. It is referred to (by the company) as "the finest harmonic distortion - sustain device developed to date". Legend has it that Matthews was trying to design a distortion-free sustainer but thought that his mistake would be popular. It also made small amps sound much better and allowed distortion at any volume, even at home. The pedal was extremely popular and was used most notably by Carlos Santana, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, and, later, Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton. Although it was officially released the year after his death, Jimi Hendrix did try out prototypes of the Big Muff and the pedal was supposedly modeled after his late Band of Gypsies-era tone.[citation needed] Several variations of the Big Muff Pi followed throughout the 70s. Today Electro-Harmonix produces a reissue made in New York City and a version made by Sovtek in Russia which provides a slightly different tone. Several other variations of the pedal are produced today, including the Metal Muff (intended to achieve the higher gain Metal guitar sound), the Double Muff, which incorporates the original Muff Fuzz circuit, twice in series with a single overdrive control for each circuit, providing the user either with a cascaded 'Double Muff' sound or the original Muff Fuzz circuit, the Little Big Muff, a smaller version of the Big Muff, which produces yet another variation in sound, and the Little Big Muff w/ tone wicker, which is similar to the Little Big Muff, except that there is a switch to exclude the tone control from the circuit.
Phasers, chorus and flanger
Electro-Harmonix often produces a range of pedals based on a single effect, and then combines two or more into higher end units. For instance, Chorus, Phaser and Flanger are often combined in some order.
The hugely popular Small Stone phase shifter is a 4-stage phaser. It was designed by David Cockerell, whom Electro Harmonix hired from his former employer EMS[1] The phased sounds of French composer Jean-Michel Jarre depended heavily on the Small Stone unit. It was reissued years later by EH and a smaller version of the pedal was eventually introduced in the 'Nano' line (the Nano Small Stone).
The Small Clone chorus is a very popular chorus pedal, much to do with its use by Kurt Cobain, both live and in studio. Like the Small Stone, it was also reissued in both the standard size and a smaller Nano version.
The Deluxe Electric Mistress is an analog flanger. It has recently been reissued, as well as a digital recreation called the Stereo Electric Mistress. The Deluxe Electric Mistress features a "Filter Matrix mode" - allowing the user to freeze it at any point in the flange, which offers distinctive chime-like tones. Notable users include David Gilmour, Andy Summers of The Police, and Dinosaur Jr guitarist J Mascis.
The Flanger Hoax pedal is a more advanced unit, allowing further control of the various parameters of phaser, flanger and chorusing effects. Lastly, Electro Harmonix's 'XO' line added the Stereo Polyphase, an analog optical envelope- and LFO-controlled phase shifter.
Delays and loopers
Electro Harmonix also manufactures delay pedals, which include the Deluxe Memory Man, Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai, and #1 Echo. Electro Harmonix also offers the '2880' pedal, which allows complex looping and multi track overdubbing. The #1 Echo provides basic digital echo capability, while the Deluxe Memory Man provides more control over length, repeats, etc. The Deluxe Memory Man also includes a built in chorusing and vibrato effects. The stereo Digital Deluxe Memory Man (not to be confused with the Analog Deluxe Memory Man) also includes reverse echo effect, and looping/overdubbing. Also recently announced were the Memory Toy and Memory Boy delay pedals, essentially smaller and budget versions of the Memory Man.
Reverb
The Holy Grail, Holy Grail Plus, Holier Grail, Holiest Grail (discontinued) and Cathedral pedals produce reverb. As is implied by the naming scheme, these cover a range of capability, including reverb length, room simulation, etc. The company's Holy Stain multi-effects pedal also includes two different types of reverb.
Tremolo and Vibrato
Tremolo and vibrato are included as well, in both solid state and vacuum tube options. These are available in the Stereo Pulsar (solid state) and Wiggler (tube) pedals.
Octave, pitch and synthesizer
Also available are a series of pitch modulation pedals. These include the Micro Synthesizer (for bass or guitar), HOG (Harmonic Octave Generator), POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator), POG 2 (released in 2009), and Octave Multiplexer.
Envelope, EQ and compression
Electro Harmonix offers several pedals for envelope/equalization modulation. Amongst them are the Bassballs (appropriately named for its intended use with Bass guitars), Doctor Q and the Q Tron. Another pedal of note was the Vacuum Tube powered Black Finger Compressor which added distortion free sustain to the sound and which appeared in the mid 1970s. The solid state White Finger followed.
In 1995, Electro-Harmonix owner Mike Matthews commissioned Mike Beigel, former owner of Musitronics Corp. and inventor of the Mutron III envelope filter, to design a new envelope filter using the same analog circuitry as the original Mutron III thus keeping the sound as close to the original as possible yet still adding new features to bring the effect into the new millennium. The pedal featured the same controls as the Mutron III and incorporated a "Boost" feature which activates an internal pre-amp and changes the function of the gain knob giving the Q-Tron a sound almost identical to the Mutron III. Another feature added to Q-tron was an effects loop switch and attack response switch. Units with these features are called the Q-tron Plus. A smaller more-compact version, the Mini Q-Tron, is also available, as well as an even smaller version, the Micro Q-Tron.
Other pedals
Additionally, Electro Harmonix produces several other pedals.
These include the Graphic Fuzz (a fuzzbox which includes an EQ section), the Frequency Analyzer (which creates ring modulation) and the Voice Box, a vocoder. The Voice Box has been included in a series of demonstration videos produced by Jack Conte.[2]
Several pedals produced in the decades prior have also been discontinued, many of which are still in high demand for their unique sound.
References
- ^ Small Stone history
- ^ "Voice Box Demo by Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn". Electro-Harmonix. January 6, 2009. http://www.ehx.com/blog/voice-box-demo-by-jack-conte-and-nataly-dawn. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
External links
- Electro-Harmonix
- An Interview with Mike Matthews
- The EH Man's Electro-Harmonix Extravaganza (vintage EH information)
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