Sola Sound Tonebender MKI

[Pedal love]

Brian I think that the maestro fz-1 had a limited production run in america
in 1962 through Gibson. As far as I know that predates any production run I know of. pl

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello---
    Yeah, Gibson got stuck with a whole bunch of Maestro fuzzes 'cuz nobody was buying them!   This was in 1962, and by the time "Satisfaction" came out ['64???] everybody wanted one!  I wonder how many Maestros made it over to England in '62??  
The Ventures had a song called "2000  Lb. Bee" in 1962 that was pretty big in Japan [and well known in England, too.]  This generated alot of interest in the fuzz and more then one English guitarist was looking for his own fuzz box by then. [Probably initiated some of those early Maestro mods, too.]
Since the Maestro fuzz was made by Shin Ei in Japan and distributed by Gibson in America and England, it stands to reason that there must have been some other Shin Ei fuzzes in Japan in  '60 - '61.
Brian.

[Pedal love]

Hello Hello---
Gibson in America and England, it stands to reason that there must have been some other Shin Ei fuzzes in Japan in  '60 - '61.
Brian.

Brian, there is no record that fuzz pedals had any run in '60-'61 in japan, you just feel that way. Gibson had the name and the pedal. Its as simple as that. pl

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
    PL-   Are we having an argument?  I'm a little confused here......what do you mean by "no record"?
Maestro was a subsidiary of Chicago Musical Instruments  [CMI] which also owned Gibson.  The fuzz was made by Shin Ei [Japan], so there must have been some other fuzzes in Japan at the time and I'm just wondering what they were.  Any fuzz pedal would have been in very limited production at that time but they did exist.
Gibson did not own the pedal, however CMI owned both Gibson AND the pedal!
Brian.

[jmusser]

http://www.stompboxes.co.uk/gpage2.htm/1.html

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello---
     Jmusser- Very nice looking box they've got, eh?   Too bad they don't mention that Hurst was making his TB before Sola began marketing them.
I'm really curious about the Shin Ei connection to the Maestro circuit  [and how many Japanese fuzzes existed before the Maestro....].   Maybe it's time for a new thread???!  Wotta ya think?!
Brian.

[RCZ53]

Brian, there is no record that fuzz pedals had any run in '60-'61 in japan, you just feel that way. Gibson had the name and the pedal. Its as simple as that. pl

And Keith had to schlep a Fuzz Box all the way back to England to record Satisfaction!!! End of story ....end of thread :lol:

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
   Just did some research and found out that Shin Ei Electronics came into being in 1960.   There were records made in the late 50's and early 60's that had fuzz on them [like the Ventures'.....]  Wonder how many of those fuzzes made it out of the recording studios and into the hands of the "general public"??
Brian.

[Peter Snowberg]

I wonder how many of tose early fuzzes were not fuzzes at all.... just overloaded console inputs?

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
    Yeah, alot of the stuff [actually, ALL of the blues stuff] was a small tube amp turned up loud.   The songs that you can hear real fuzz boxes on were movie themes, novelty records, television scores....stuff like that.
Actually, come to think of it, I can't think of any black artists that used fuzzes at the time.....only white people used fuzz boxes then!   Most of the white guys hadn't started  turning the amps up real loud to get natural tube distortion yet.
Brian.