Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals in 1970s and 1990s. An effects pedal (or a " Stomp Box " is an electronic Effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians usually Electric This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999
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Company history
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 Bill Berko on the early Big Muff design, Mike Matthews used a booster circuit Bill had incorporated into the design and marketed it as the LPB-1 or Linear Power Booster in 1969. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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.
Big Muff
In 1971 Matthews designed the pedal that would make the company famous - The Big Muff Pi. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. The Big Muff is a Fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily This was a fuzzbox that added a rich, creamy, bass-heavy sustain to any guitar sound. A fuzzbox (or fuzz box) is a type of Effects pedal comprising an amplifier and a clipping circuit which generates a distorted version of the 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 Cliff Burton. For the Costa Rican football player see Carlos Santana (footballer; for the Mexican academic see Carlos Santana Morales. Pink Floyd are David Jon Gilmour CBE (born 6 March 1946 is an English Musician, best known as the Lead guitarist one of the lead Singers Metallica is an American heavy metal band that formed in 1981 in. Clifford Lee Burton (February 10 1962 &ndash September 27 1986 was a bass guitarist best known for his work with the American heavy metal band Metallica 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. James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix) (November 27 1942 – September 18 1970 was an American Guitarist, Singer and Songwriter Band of Gypsys is a Live album and a project by Jimi Hendrix, backed by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, that followed Hendrix's 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. The City of New York Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending
Phasers
Other products followed, notably the hugely popular Small Stone phase shifter which fit well with the Progressive Rock and Reggae bands who were popular in the 1970s. A phaser is an Audio signal processing technique used to filter a signal by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum Progressive rock (often shortened to " progressive " " prog " or " prog rock " is a form of Rock music that evolved Reggae is a Music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s Phasing was one of the musical sounds of the 1970s and there were stories that the company could not make enough Small Stones to meet demand. The phased sounds of French composer Jean-Michel Jarre depended heavily on the Small Stone unit. Jean-Michel André Jarre (born 24 August 1948, Lyon) is a French Composer, performer and Music producer.
Q-Tron
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 Musitronics Mu-Tron III is an Auto-wah Effects pedal produced by Musitronics. 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
Other notable pedals were the Electric Mistress Flanger in 1975, Memory Man Delay in 1976, a two-second analog delay in 1979; a 16-second digital delay 1982, and the Instant Replay sampler 1980. Flanging is a time-based Audio effect that occurs when two identical signals are mixed together but with one signal time-delayed by a small and gradually changing amount Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) Another pedal of note was the Black Finger Compressor which added distortion free sustain to the sound and which appeared in the mid 1970s. The Small Clone analog Chorus unit was heavily used by Kurt Cobain. Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20 1967 – c April 5 1994 was an American musician who served as lead singer, Guitarist, and songwriter for the Seattle
Technology
Nearly all the pedals were analog rather than digital. Analogue electronics (or analog in American English) are those electronic systems with a continuously Variable signal A digital system uses discrete (discontinuous values usually but not always Symbolized Numerically (hence called "digital" to represent information for In the case of the early pedals, this was not a matter of choice, as the integrated circuits that made digital audio possible were simply not yet available. Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside Later, this meant that they added some noise to the signal, but also that they were cheaper. Many analog pedals were changed to digital in the mid 1980s but by the 1990s many guitarists started going back to analog. Many guitarists have come to prefer the warmer analog sound to the often cold and precise digital equivalent and this made old 70s pedals extremely sought after.
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. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) This article is about the electronic device not an evacuated pipe used for experiments in Free-fall. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) In 2002 they started designing new pedals to add to their range. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. 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. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
Electro-Harmonix remains a popular guitar effect and tube company. They have also produced a synthesizer in the 1980s but they remain better known for their effect pedals.
External links
- Electro-Harmonix home page. The homepage (often written as home page) or main page is the URL or local file that automatically loads when a Web browser starts and when
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