The boards behindthe records

Close to every effect a modern board takes for granted was, in 1967, four boxes Hendrix was using in public for the first time. The fuzz, the wah, the octave and the Uni-Vibe between them define what an electric guitar is allowed to sound like.

Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

4 pedals · 3 records · 6 tracks

The most copied board in the history of the instrument, and the one that proves ambience is a compositional choice rather than a coat of paint. Big Muff into a modulated, heavily delayed clean amp, with a compressor keeping every bent note singing.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi

5 pedals · 3 records · 5 tracks

One treble booster, one AC30, and a guitar he built with his father out of a fireplace mantel. The whole orchestral guitar sound on those records comes from stacking that single voice, not from a big board.

Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster

3 pedals · 3 records · 5 tracks

The clearest demonstration on record of what a Uni-Vibe actually does. Trower runs it slow and deep under a fuzz, so the whole tone breathes rather than pulsing, and the songs are written around the effect rather than decorated by it.

Univox Uni-Vibe

3 pedals · 2 records · 3 tracks

The Cream-era rig is almost nothing: a Les Paul, a cranked Marshall, and a wah used as a vocal effect rather than a funk rhythm tool. That restraint is exactly why the tone still gets chased.

Vox V846 Wah

2 pedals · 2 records · 3 tracks

The definitive argument that an overdrive pedal is a volume control, not a distortion box. The Tube Screamer is barely breaking up on its own; it is there to hit an already loud Fender hard enough to make the amp do the work.

Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer

4 pedals · 3 records · 8 tracks

Classical phrasing over a cranked Marshall, and a board built for precision rather than texture. The Distortion+ tightens the amp instead of adding gain to it, which is what keeps the fast neoclassical runs articulate.

MXR Distortion+

4 pedals · 2 records · 5 tracks

The most influential use of delay by anyone, and the clearest case of an effect being part of the composition. The dotted-eighth repeat is not decoration on the Where the Streets Have No Name riff, it is half the notes in it.

Korg SDD-3000

4 pedals · 3 records · 6 tracks

A Boss-heavy board used with unusual discipline. The flanger is on almost every clean rhythm part, which is what gives those records their metallic shimmer, and the distortion only appears when a solo needs it.

Boss BF-2 Flanger

4 pedals · 3 records · 7 tracks

Proof that a cheap orange distortion pedal is a legitimate main gain source. The DS-1 has been on the board for decades, and the smoothness people credit to expensive gear is mostly the compressor and the playing.

Boss DS-1 Distortion

4 pedals · 2 records · 5 tracks

The famous glide guitar is mostly a tremolo arm held while strumming, not a pedal, and being honest about that matters: no board will reproduce Loveless. What the board does supply is the harsh octave fuzz and the reverse reverb the arm is smeared across.

Fender Blender

3 pedals · 2 records · 5 tracks

The Siamese Dream guitar sound is dozens of tracks of the same Big Muff, and specifically the op-amp version rather than the transistor one. Which variant of a Muff you have changes the record you can make with it, which is a good argument for reading the model line before buying.

Electro-Harmonix Op-Amp Big Muff

3 pedals · 2 records · 6 tracks

A board organised around a wah with an unusually wide sweep and a chorus with a genuinely strange voicing. The clean parts are as effected as the loud ones, which is why the quiet sections never sound thin.

Ibanez WH10 Wah

4 pedals · 3 records · 8 tracks

A board built for interruption rather than for tone. The ShredMaster is on for a few bars at a time and off the rest, and the Whammy is used for texture and noise rather than for playing melodies.

Marshall ShredMaster

4 pedals · 3 records · 7 tracks

Two Tube Screamers back to back, which sounds like a mistake and is not. Stacking two moderate gain stages gives far more sustain and far less fizz than turning one of them up, and a jam band needs notes that hold.

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer

4 pedals · 2 records · 4 tracks

A board chosen for constraint. Cheap guitar, one huge fuzz, and an octave-down pedal doing the job a bass player would otherwise do, which is how two people made records that sound like four.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi

4 pedals · 2 records · 4 tracks

The Fuzz Factory is mounted inside the guitar body, which turns an unstable, barely controllable fuzz into a playable instrument: the knobs are under his hand while he is still holding a chord.

Z.Vex Fuzz Factory

4 pedals · 3 records · 7 tracks

A midrange-forward board that ignores the usual advice to scoop the mids out of a heavy tone. Boosting a narrow band instead of cutting one is what gives those riffs their honk, and it is why they cut through on a small speaker.

Maestro Parametric Filter

4 pedals · 2 records · 5 tracks