What was your first ever stompbox?

[Tony Forestiere]

Back in '75, I was a broke 13 year-old. Mom and Dad weren't too happy when I bought a Teisco PCASHT and a cheap Checkmate amp. (Probably about a 2-watter). Wanted a distortion sound, so I sliced the cone! Sounded like a weak moose farting :shock:  The first effect I built was the "Ultra Fuzz" from the original EPFM. Sheer, shrill square waves with a cap bypass that dropped the treble...a tad. First effect I bought was a Crybaby wah that got ripped off years later.. along with my original Bad Stone and Mutron III. I'll never find replacements for those :evil: This thread has been fun hearing about other pedalhead "first loves" :wink:

Take care all,

Tony

[MarkB]

Some old DOD distortion (circa 1980) that was just awful...
no idea what I ever did with it.. .just happy that I got rid of it.

after that was a DS-1 and a Crybaby...
"-)

[Ansil]

hte mother of all cheap dist sounds  

a rocktek dist pedal,,  not even the metal one. that i had to put a rubber band around the knobs tightly to keep the dist on. cause it had been dropped and broken.

back then i was like wow i hope the rubberband doesnt' break this is too cool to mess up.  i coudl never make somethink like this.

lol i traded it for a little amp to a guy named mike in high school, he said he fixed it.. all he did was make it a clean boost pedal which it did without the rubberband anyway.. lol

[keko]

My first one was a Radio Shack delay/ reverb box. It wasn't a stomp box, but sort of a PA accessory. It had 4 sliders (time, repeat, level, and ?), and you could get a really "cool" distortion from it.

It also could handle to different inputs, so I used it to mix a Casio keyboard, and my guitar into a single amp: my home stereo....what a Rock 'n roll setup I had those days!

[acromarty]

Boss CE-2 chorus, 1977-ish. I still use it now.
I'd seen a local band using chorus on both guitars and I wanted that sound...

[jimmy]

i had a korg AX100G digital multi-fx pedal. i was in love with it until i started listening to hendrix and thought, hold on a tick, that jimi patch doesnt sound ANYTHING like him!!! :evil:

i finally caught on when i saw classic guitarists rigs consisted of many pedals, not just multi-fx ones.

bottom line is that they are good, but not great, at anything they do.

heres a funny story: my friend has a zoom pedal with an acoustic simulator, and it distorts on the acoustic sound  :?

first build was an electra distortion that worked, bu i misread the value and had 390K at the emitter of the transistor, and after much playing, i convinced myself it was distorting. good times

cheers
Jim

[Manolo Dudes]

First commercial pedal was a '78 E-H Small Stone. Still have it alive and kickin'.

First DIY was a sort of silicon Fuzz Face in a box a la LPB-1 for a friend in  the late 70s. Got the schematic from a magazine.

Then I did another for a small organ I had  :roll:

It's been a long run from that to this  :wink:

[Bucksears]

First-ever effects unit, period: Ibanez PT-5 Multi-effects - about 11yrs ago when I first started playing electric; it sounded ok, wish I still had it today to play with. Sounded pretty good with headphones.
First single stompbox - DOD Envelope Filter - from back in '94, with the smaller block-style lettering. It actually was a good little unit too; bought it to play U2's 'Mysterious Ways'.
First DIY box - Anderton's Tube Sound Fuzz - built on perf-board, it actually worked, and I still have it somewhere. First thing I built out of his 'Electronic Projects...Musicians' book.

[Aharon]

First stompbox for me was a phase shifter.
Don't remember the brand but it had 3 letters like MXR but the box was black and the logo was script .Sounded pretty much like a 45.
PAid around $25 in 77/78.
After that it was a Colorsound Wha/Fuzz/Swell.
I don't have them anymore.
Aharon

I just remembered that both those boxes (plus many more) and most of my early guitars(among them a 1968/9  cherry red Gibson 335 and a Fender Bronco single p/u that had one of the first ever floating bridges I'd seen that could go down AND up and I remember I blocked it with a piece of wood) where bought at Richmond's Trading Post on Church St. in downtown Toronto's pawn shop alley, just in case any canadians out thre want to to share  the memory train with me.
Aharon

[Doug H]

The first pedal I had was also the first one I built: Anderton's "Optimum Fuzz Adapter".

First pedal I bought was an mxr distortion+ I bought from a friend for $5. Many years later I essentially swapped it with someone for an arion chorus. Looking back, I think I got the better deal there. I love that chorus... Best leslie vibrato I've ever heard in a 9v pedal.

First pedal I bought in a store was an EH Bad Stone phaser. I traded in a cheap classical guitar as part of the deal and regretted that later. Loved those nylon strings... The phaser quickly sounded cheesy to me and it was the only pedal I've ever had that died on me. Cheesy folded-aluminum piece of crap....  

Doug