Birth of the Guitar Pedalboard
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2024
- Almost every guitar player uses a pedalboard, but have you ever wondered how pedalboards got their start? When did guitarists starting wiring up effect pedals together and putting them on pedalboards? Who was the first player to put guitar pedals on a pedalboard? What pedals were on the first pedalboards? Who made the first guitar pedalboard? Where were the early pedalboard made? The answers are a lot more interesting than you'd think.
In today's episode we delve into a quick history of guitar effect pedals. We talk about the first players using pedalboards, how one of London's premiere instrument retailers offered pedalboard building services in-house, and how one engineer from the UK Ministry of Aviation became the father of the modern pedalboard. This is the unofficial story of how the guitar pedalboard got its start.
Gear & Settings:
Instruments:
• 2019 Gibson Les Paul R9
• Fender American Professional Precision Bass
Amp:
• Two Rock Classic Reverb Signature
• Universal Audio OX Box
Pedals:
• Acid Fuzz Zoink Machine (Zonk Machine clone)
Microphones:
• Earthworks SR-25
(Apologies for subpar audio quality on the voice. I goofed the audio record settings only to realize it during editing. If you don't like it, I'll gladly issue you a refund.)
Audio interfaces:
• Universal Apollo x8p
• Universal Apollo 8
Recording Software:
• Universal Audio Luna (audio)
• Ecamm Live (video)
Outboard Gear:
• BAE DMP 1073 preamp (bass)
• Pete's Place BAC 500 compressor (bass)
Audio Plugins:
• Superior Drummer 3 (drums)
• Softtube Chandler Limited Germanium compressor (drums)
• Universal Audio Pultec eq (bass)
• Universal Audio LA3A compressor (guitar)
• FabFilter Pro Q eq (everything)
• Universal Audio Precision limiter (master bus)
Video Gear:
• Sony A7 IV mirrorless digital camera with Tamron 28-75mm lens, f/2.8
• Aputure 120d for key lighting
• GVM-672S-B for backlight
• LIFX 80” LED strip + 40” LED strip for background lighting.
• Adobe Premiere
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - 90s Pedalboard
2:45 - How FX Started
7:06 - 1st DIY Pedalboard
8:43 - Enter Sound City
12:12 - David Gilmour
14:22 - Cornish Improves
16:18 - Dave meets Pete
18:30 - Final Thoughts
Thanks for the mention! Great video!
You bet! Thanks for making a killer resource available to the entire guitar community. Your site is outstanding. I couldn’t have made the video without it.
Im very aware of the Peter Banks Pedalboard history ... Peter was the original guitarist in Yes and he built a board with roadie Michael Tait in 1967!!!!! It was a wooden board with his Wah , Volume pedal and Tremolo pedal on one board... then Cornish took it to the next level! PETER BANKS.. THE OG!!
That’s awesome! . Do you have any pics of Peter Banks’ pre-Cornish pedalboard? Banks seems to have been the architect of prog-rock. I read he was the original guitarist in Yes. I was impressed with that Flash performance on the Midnight Soecial. They were definitely progressive for their time. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I dont .. he reused pedals from the first board for the cornish board... im not sure where the pedals ended up but Peter's manager George Mizer has the guitars @@tonecast1
Ahhh gotcha. Thanks for sharing. How did you learn all this stuff about Banks’ gear?
Wooden pegboard with felt and rubberized stops to defeat sliding across floor when stepped on.
@@caiusmadison2996That's genuis
SO GOOD. A treat to watch from beginning to end. Thanks again Jimmy for doing such important and entertaining work!
Thanks dude. I appreciate you watching even when I’m like “cut to the chase”. 😜
Fine work! The perspective on all of the small things such as when indicator lights began to be used were as interesting as the overall premise of the video! As always- well researched, engaging and fun to watch! Can’t wait to learn more from your next video. Visuals are next level!
Thanks Matt. Glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was kind of funny that indicator lights were on pedalboards before actual pedals. I appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment.
Great video! All the hard work you invested in researching and editing really pays off.
Thanks, Tyler. Now on to the next one…
Brilliant video! Fascinating stuff
Much appreciated! Thanks for watching!
Great vid mate. Loved it!
Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know. I'm working on the edit for the follow up which is about Paul Rivera building pedalboards for LA session musicians during the mid 70's. Thanks for watching!
Wow sooooooo much great information! Thanks for all your hard work researching this. I did not know most of what you went over. Great video, great funny clips, and great pictures of the pedals/pedal boards!!!!
I'm glad you were able to learn something from it. It's not exactly easy to turn niche guitar nerd history into something fun to watch, so I appreciate you letting me know you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
Cool video tutorial, deep dive and detailed. Excellent job. Cheers! 😊
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
Really enjoyed the video! Very light-hearted and super informative at the same time!
Enjoyed learning about Sound City. Great work, as always!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I made it for pedal nerds like us. The Sound City stuff is fascinating. Reverb.com produced a short video about Sound City a few years ago. It’s worth a watch. That’s where I learned some of that stuff. Thanks for the support.
Loved the photos of Gilmore's '77 pedalboard! That thing must have seemed so state-of-the-art at the time!
Before doing all this research, I would've thought Gilmour would've had the first pedalboard. I was surprised to learn that his wasn't the first BUT it was definitely the first EPIC pedalboard. Thanks watching and commenting.
Kudos for the informative and thoroughly researched video
I appreciate the kind words. Thanks for watching and taking a few seconds to leave a comment!
Great History Lesson. Thank you for putting it together.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the comment!
Awesome video, very unique information.
Glad you enjoyed it and found it informative! Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment.
Great video man, very well done!
Much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Fantastic video!! Love history stuff like this.. Subscribed.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I appreciate the sub. I have a companion pedalboard history video already filmed that picks up where this one left off. I just need to finish the edit. Thanks for watching and taking a second to comment.
Great video - Super interesting!!!
Thanks! Glad you found it interesting. Thanks for taking a moment to comment.
Awesome video.. Well put together, great content.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for taking a moment to leave a comment. Much appreciated.
Very Interesting and well researched. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I did my best to research it well. I'm sure there's a thing or two I may have gotten wrong, but I did my best to research it. I'm always open to correction from anyone who can provide a valid source. Thanks for watching!
This is a really great video - thanjks for this! Subscribed!! Nice one - cheers
Thanks for taking a moment to watch and comment. I appreciate the sub. I don’t post super often but when I do I try to make it worth your time. Cheers!
Great short doc that earned my sub. 🤘
Much appreciated! ✊Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know.
Well done man! Very informative and entertaining, as usual.
I appreciate you taking the time to watch and glad you found it informative. Thanks for taking a moment to comment.
Excellent video, thank you.
You're welcome. Thanks for watching and leaving a kind comment.
I loved this.. Thanks man..!
Back around’68 when I was hanging out with other local players.. learning to play bass.. some of us..from working class families.. barely knew about effects or even where to get them.. so we put little razor blade cuts in our speaker cones for distortion… Thank God we don’t have to do that any longer..! lol
Thanks for taking a moment to comment letting know you enjoyed the video. I appreciate that. I’ve heard stories of players slicing their speakers to get more distorted tone but you’re the first I’ve talked to who did it. Brave soul 😂.
Great job and very informative! Many thanks! You just got a new sub! I’m a pedal junkie myself, have built two boards (not nearly as clean as your board) and frequently change out ones for something different and inspiring.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you found the video informative and thanks for the sub. Pedalboards can be a fun part of guitar if you want them to be. Some folks enjoy them, others find them distracting. Ultimately it’s a tool, despite the sort of pedalboard hot rod mentality that some corners of guitar culture perpetuate. I find it can be a fun way to add some color to a guitar part when recording.
Awesome video. Never knew the history. Guess we take our modern day pedal boards for granted.
The sentiment behind your comment is exactly why I set out to make this video. I don't think a lot of people know how pedalboards got their start. Anytime I learn the history behind something, I usually end up with a greater appreciation for it afterwards. I'm glad the video helped you gain some new perspective on pedalboards. Thanks for watching!
Roland-Boss made pedals available to every-one and gave us all a chance to try them. There were shops in London specialising in pedals frim every corner of the globe. Before that the WEM copy-cat was the biz along with a volume pedal,,still blows a listeners mind.
Roland/Boss definitely took distribution up a notch and showed the world how big of a business it could be. It's fascinating stuff. Thanks for taking a moment to share your thoughts.
Really interesting and informative stuff.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for taking a moment to leave a comment and watch! Cheers.
Bro! Great video. Learned me some things!! Keep
It up!!!
Thanks! From what I can tell, the origin of the pedalboard hasn’t really been covered on UA-cam. I had to scour for some of these details so I’m glad you learned something. Thanks for taking a second to leave a comment.
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it, Thanks for the visit.
Awesome!!! Great video!! I should have known Gilmour has something to do with putting a pedalboard together.
Thank you for the content!!!
Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed a few videos. This was a fun topic to research. If the video is helping answer a few questions for other players, then accomplished what I set out to do with the vid
Excellent! Editing + mographics look fantastic. Really nice work, my friend. I for one did not know hardly any of this info prior to watching, so I'm much obliged for the tutelage (tonelage?). One thing I can add is that I own a Prescription Electronics Experience Pedal (which you played around with a bit) that has no LEDs, and it can provide some hilarious and embarrassing hijinks. Still a pretty fun pedal, though. Thanks again!
Dylan!!!! Hey man. It's nice to read your thoughts here on UA-cam. I think about the Prescription Electronics Experience pedal every now and then. What a cool pedal! Its cool to me bc its emulating a lot some of these early fuzz sounds from the late 60s, but its also cool bc its an early boutique pedal from late 90s early 2000s which is historical significant in its own right. Also I would not recommend editing a video like this ever. It took me fooooooooreveeeeer. Thanks for the comment. Nice to hear from a face I know in real life.
This was excellent!!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback.
Great video! Subscribed.
Thanks! Much appreciated!
By 1996 we were well versed in gear and where over 2 decades into playing guitar and over 2 decades into subscriptions to guitar player magazine. And trips to the half a dozen local music stores that existed in almost every small town in America. So, funny to hear your perspective of 1996 like it was the dark ages. By the 1990s we thought guitar was already past its peak. And were hauling around racks and controllers that were basically programable pedal boards. There were music gear catalogs in the late 1970s by the way.
Everyone’s experience is different. Thanks for the reminder. Experience is very dependent on time, location, income, etc…. Your experience sounds like a great one. I would never aim to discredit it. My experience was very much what I described given when & where I grew up. We didn’t have half a dozen retailers nearby, but that’s awesome you did. My closest one was a 40 minute drive. MTV, cds, magazines, & catalogs were the main ways my friends and I gathered guitar knowledge before the internet. The intro was intended to relay that experience to players younger than us who have only known the internet age. Thankfully the majority of viewers were able to figure that out without taking exception to it.
Excellent Video 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thanks for taking a moment to comment and let me know.
What a great video man!
So informative and interesting to look how technology makes everything more compact nowadays, it's funny to look at my Soul Food and Boss GT-8 and think that in the 70s the same effects would've been like carrying a whole ass spaceship
Hilariously accurate comment. The advent of SMD construction in electronics has allowed makers to shrink the size of effects pedals. The only downside of this construction I can think of is that it makes repair a lot trickier when the components are so small. Using 60's & 70's sized components definitely makes it a lot easier to repair. No matter how it's built, theres some sort of trade off between size and "repairability". Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching!
Always admiring the BOSS pedal cases with room for 6 pedals and a tuner :) I made my first pedalboard after seeing KK Downing's at the front row back in 1987 :) Like a wedge but turned upside-down, protecting the stuff: Boss FV1H - CS2 - HM2 - GE7 and 2 FS1L mounted together, controlling the effects on 2 Roland DAC15D In stereo ;D
Yes, those Boss molded plastic pedalboards almost made the video cut but I went with the personal angle talking about the SKB pedalboard. I think a lot of guys in addition to KK Downing used them during the 80's. I believe Johnny Marr with Smiths, Robert Smith with the Cure were users. I know Prince used Boss pedals for a stint.
Why do you not have more subs? This video was 5-star. Subbed, liked and shared. All the best eh! 👍🇨🇦
Thanks for the kind words. I don't upload super often, but I try to make it worthwhile when I do. I appreciate the sub and sharing the video. That's a big help. Go Raptors!
Very awesome!
Thanks! glad you enjoyed. Cheers!
this was such a good video! i had always wondered about gilmours pedalboard
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks for taking a moment to comment and watch!
Great video and great work. Nice to learn the history. The earliest pedal board I was ever aware of was Randy Rhoads "chip pan", which there is still quite a bit of mystery and lore surrounding. For example, one time a roadie dropped it and it wasn't working for a gig, so Randy and co went and bought the individual pedals and string them up, but found the resulting sound wasn't the same. Possibly suggesting there were buffers in the chain of the board. Anyways, thanks for the great video 👍
Glad you enjoyed the vid and learned something from it. I didn’t quite make it to the 80s to get to that particular pedalboard. Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. 🤙
Man, I think I carried a Musicians Friend, AMS, and an ESP catalog with me through most of high school.
You are my kind of people.
Just found your channel! Nice work here. God bless you and all you love my new friend.
Thanks. I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos. I appreciate you taking a moment to comment with some encouraging words.
Couldn't resist when I saw that epic thumbnail of gilmie. Now that I've seen it, I can say that clicking on the vid and finding the channel was really worth it.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the vid. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to comment and let me know.
Dude this is such an incredible video
Thanks a lot. I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to comment.
@@tonecast1 I subscribed! Seriously. So well done. Had no idea about gilmours boards from the 70s. So crazy
The sub is most appreciated @@PuttinOnTheRiffs Gilmour and Cornish's collaborations on his pedalboard get even more elaborate beyond what I covered in this video. Check out Gilmourish dot com and the Kitrae dot net site about Gilmour's FX setup if you want to learn more. Those are great resources.
excellent!!!
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback.
Yeah…started gigging I. The mid 70s with 5 or 6 pedals in line, all on batteries and crummy patch cables. When things went wrong in a show there was no way of telling what went bad! I now have 4 different boards, all on high quality isolated power supplies and high quality patch cables. There is still a small possibility of issues, but very small. 🎸👍
You've been able to witness the pedalboard movement in its entirety. They almost went extinct in the 80's, but pedalboards made a come back in the late 90's. They're ubiquitous now. Thanks taking a moment to comment and share.
Really great video! Liked and subscribed. Here's one for the algorithm!
Awesome, thank you! I appreciate all that. I'm editing a follow up video now about Paul Rivera building pedalboards in LA in the mid-70s. You'll likely enjoy it as well.
@@tonecast1 Sounds awesome. I'll keep my eyes open for it.
Very well produced and edited...
Thanks for the kind words. I’m always trying to improve at that side of making videos.
Lifeson had a large board in 1976 for All the World's a Stage tour. I saw it from above him, stage left. Around that time Frank Marino had a huge board, and Robin Trower had one as well. I built my first board in 1978. I gotta believe more guys had them earlier on than 1976.
That’s cool you saw Alex Lifeson’s board in ‘76. I definitely missed a few. Some for good reason. IE, Robin Trower did have a pedalboard in ‘74 but I had difficulty finding great images or footage of it. There was a Guitar Player Magazine article (Apr ‘74) where he talked about it. He listed the pedals and talked about his electronics guy Mike who put it together. He was also secretive regarding a few things about it.
Frank Marino with Mahogany Rush had a WILD pedalboard in the late 70s that rivaled Gilmour’s boards but I couldn’t find a clear date for his first pedalboard. The pics of his boards all looked late 70s from what I could find. Maybe there was an older one?
Great feedback! Thanks for commenting.
I've seen KK's original board up for auction ... JEN Crybaby Wah, Schaller Mau-pedal, Treble booster, Master power supply, buffer preamp, MXR 6 band graphic EQ, Phase 100 and 4 true bypass looper switches in front ... they did it the right way back then :)
GREAT VIDEOO
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment.
Love the history! I knew maybe 55%, but consider me Subscribed!
Awesome! I appreciate the sub. I’m glad you learned something from it. Thanks for watching and leaving comment. It’s much appreciated.
Gran trabajo, te felicito, excelente calidad en la presentación, pero sobre todo la información que nos estás compartiendo. Me acabo de hacer suscriptor.
I’m glad you found the information useful. Thanks for watching and subscribing.
What a fun video
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
That scratched my gear itch, thank you.
Ha! You’re welcome. Thanks for watching.
Great Video, Liked and Subscribed!!! What's that red box upper right corner of your board with the 4 -volt battery slots?
That’s the Kingtone Battery Box. I use it for powering fuzz pedals. When the pedalboard power supply is off, it disconnects the batteries from the pedals, preventing me from having to unplug the input of those pedals to save the battery.
The board in the little skb ad is actually a sweet set up lol
Right?! Totally useable.
Great Video! But where's the other rabbit hole video you mention?
Thanks. I’m working on the edit to the companion video now. It’s almost finished. Thanks for watching.
Have you looked at the work Alembic did for Jerry Garcia? Specifically their stratoblaster unity gain buffer that was installed in his 56 Strat that was heavily moded. Eventually Alembic also worked with Garcia to install an onboard effects loop for his pedals which were all remote. This was done before 75. The strat, a Travis Beane and subsequent custom built guitars all had these mods.
I have not. I know the Grateful Dead’s live sound was extremely innovative but not much came up for them regarding pedalboards during my research. I am familiar with the Garcia / Alembic connection. If there was anything specifically related to pedalboards I might have missed, please let me know. Thanks for the lead. I’ll look more into it. And thanks for watching!
Great presentation.
I think there's still innovation yet to come
especially in the power supply department.
Thanks. Yeah, the recent influx of switch mode power supplies seems to be the latest innovation on that front, but I'm sure you're right. There will likely be further developments. Thanks for watching.
Pete Cornish designed some pedals too. I built a OC-1 compressor clone from a PCB ordered from Aiion effects. It's the best pedal comp I've ever used, it just sounds really good. He re-designed a BMP for David Gilmour complete with his famous buffer circuits. I want to build one of those soon too. - I have a ridiculous pedal rig, the board is a two man lift. I send stereo reverb, delay and a sidechained synth channel to an old Yamaha mixer , then to the stereo tube amp (Peavey 50/50 rack amp). It all connects via DB25 to TRS. I play flute and guitar through it. It would be a mess without the magic of MIDI.
I've never played a Cornish pedal, but I look forward to the day I'll first encounter one. I'm always up for forming my own opinion about a piece of gear in person. Your setup sounds like a rad setup. Stereo effects make everything sound better. Thanks watching and taking a moment to comment.
That was not only Rad informative
Glad you found it both rad informative. Thanks for watching and leaving a cool comment.
Great Video! Only info I am missing is on the Pete Cornish / Brian May connection. That‘s an historically important board, too. At least to me ;-D
Thanks! The first Cornish built Brian May board was built about a year after the Gilmour’s Animals board. I think in ‘77 if memory serves me correctly. If the video had gone on, it probably would’ve been the board featured.
Nice video, subscribed
Saweet! Thanks for watching and the sub.
My pedal setup consists of the BOSS ME-80 and the Singular Sound Beat Buddy, which is a great drum machine.
Right on! Sounds like a great setup to make music with. Thanks for watching and sharing.
zoom 505 was my first pedalboard, LOL. Great vid! Then I got a Boss BDB3!
Sounds like we grew up around the same time. 😂 I lusted after that Boss pedalboard too. Thanks for commenting and watching.
good video dude, pedalboards are the best thing for musicians from prog to shoegaze to post rock. I hope you can do a second part of the pedalboard history like Kevin shields from my Bloody Valentine and the shoegaze scene
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for watching. I primarily aimed to tackle the early days of pedalboard development bc it hasn’t been talked about much on YT. I’m editing a follow up video about early American pedalboards during the mid to late 70s. I don’t think I’ll make it to the 80s or 90s anytime soon (this pair of videos has turned into a time suck). That said, I’m sure that would be an interesting video. In high school I was a big fan of band called Starflyer 59. They had a record called “Gold” that seems very MBV inspired. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Starflyer 59 are brilliant
I'm surprised you're familiar with SF59. That's awesome. I enjoy the earlier material the best (up to the red album), but I get Jason Martin's exploration of other styles.
@@tonecast1 yeah I have been fan of the shoegaze & dream pop genre for quite sometime but the genre itself has been quite stagnated over the few years
Great vid. I think the video you refer to as Streetwalker is the band 'Family' playing A great tune 'rolling and tumblin', but the Pedalboard is there. Hope that help find more info.
Are you sure? I think the footage was the Streetwalkers performing in ‘77 at Rockpalast. I don’t believe Bobby Tench, the second guitarist seen here, played with Family. I agree this song is great. It was my fav of the set. Epic vocals. Thanks for taking a moment to watch and comment.
@@tonecast1 yep. I just recognised the song, 'Burlesque' and the voice. Roger Chapman was the singer for Family and later Streetwalker, I'm guessing. Streetwalker must have been covering a Roger Chapman oldie. Solves that, but not the pedalboard mystery.
Oh, no probs. Now I've found you and subbed, I'll be watching, liking and searching more. Thanks for replying.
Thanks for chiming in. Robert Chapman; what a killer singer. That was a new discovery for me. I also wanted to work in something about Charlie Whitney being the inspiration for Jimmy Page donning the double neck Gibson but I had to cut that for time’s sake. Page has said that Whitney was inspiration for getting his double neck SG. I thought that was a cool bit of rock trivia. And thanks for the sub!
The 1968 Kustom K-200-A4 had reverb, tremolo-vibrato, EQ boost, and distortion all in one amp. The four-button footswitch controlled all features. For 1968, you had an amp with built-in rack and remote switching. John Fogerty of Creedence took full advantage of state-of-the-art technology.
Coincidentally, Fogerty invented single-single-humbucker layout as well.
When JHS relaunched Ross pedals, Josh Scott talked a good bit about Kustom as Bud Ross of Ross pedals also made Kustom amps. One of the reissued JHS/Ross effects is a circuit from one of the Kustom amps.
CCR was based out of California. I wonder if John Fogerty and John Cipollina of QMS ever crossed paths. I don’t know much about the history of both bands but it seems like they probably ran into each other some.
@@tonecast1 I do know Creedence and Clover used to do gigs together--Jon McFee and Huey Lewis in 1968! Also, Santana opened for Creedence at their weekly gig in '68. Dunno about Cipollina, but I know Fogerty and Jim Morrison had a 'kitchen summit' in 1969 in a Florida hotel.
Worth noting that Ivor Arbiter not only owned Sound City, but also Drum City. And yes, the Arbiter name on guitar pedals was his name. In addition to being a retailer he became a major distributor (Ludwig, Rogers, Rhodes, Paiste, Sabian...) and also considered himself an inventor - Arbiter Auto-Tune, and AT Drums were his creation, as were George Hayman (aka Hayman) drums. As the exclusive importer of Fender he opened the innovative Fender Soundhouse on London's Tottenham Court.
When Ringo purchased his first Ludwig kit it was at Drum City, with Ivor doing a deal with Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Arbiter took Ringo's Premier kit as part payment and also gave Epstein a discount providing Arbiter could have the Ludwig name painted bigger than normal on the bass drum head. Apparently it was also Ivor (pron. as in Ivory, not Evor) who added the 'dropped T' to the Beatles logo, which was painted by local sign artist Eddie Stokes.
Given his major role in the British music scene - just think of his influence as the supplier of Fender to the stars - you might want to consider a feature on the man himself. Sadly, he departed this world some years back.
Ahhh, I didn't know that was the correct pronunciation of "Ivor". Thank you for sharing. I agree; Arbiter most definitely warrants his own feature. Reverb.com produced a UA-cam video on him a few years ago that I thought was a great. If haven't already seen it already look it up. They do cover Drum City in it. I also knew that it was Ivor who suggested the drop "T" in the Beatles logo on Ringo's kick drum head. I didn't know about the "Fender Soundhouse" so thank you for that lead. I've made note of it so I can research it in the future. There was so much I had to omit in making this video to keep the runtime reasonable. I would have been glad to discuss "Sound City" from '66-'76. I thought its story in particular was fascinating. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a thoughtful and engaging comment!
@@tonecast1 You are quite welcome. I knew Ivor, though there are friends of mine who worked for him, one in particular, a drummer with some major bands who is also a writer, who could possibly give you insight going back to the start of it all. Let me know if interested and I will see what I can do.
I may take you up on that. Will you please click the link (“Gear reviews & lessons for guitar-centric musicians”) on my channel’s page and email me so we can continue the conversation?
Fun fact about david gilmours pedalboard for the Pompeii performance was his tech mistakenly messed up the plug ins for the wah by putting both plugs backwards thus making that infamous seagull sound as can be heard in echoes part 2
Thats cool! I've not heard that before. I always assumed it was intentional by that point. Thanks for sharing.
steve hillage had the first loop switching board in the mid 70s made by the grahams at EMS, cool stuff
I’ll look more into Steve Hillage - he didn’t come up at all in my research. Thanks for the tip! This is what I love about the comment section; folks like you graciously pointing out something interesting that I may have simply missed. EMS? Was that a shop in London? Or is that the same EMS that made synths?
@@tonecast1 yes the same EMS that made synths! hillage (and gong as a whole) was always getting ripped off by floyd and other bands lol.
Have an SKB myself, had it for 10 yrs and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. Also have a daisy chain pedal power supply cord that i got around the same time. At one point i ran 14 pedals at once (had like 20 at the time) but i was young (14/15) and stupid and traded a lot of that stuff off and never knew what kinda potential i had at my disposal til years after i downsized my gear collection by like 80%
The SKB seemed so cool to me as a kid bc it represented an attainable pedalboard. Glad you were able to get one. Thanks for sharing.
what a great Video, u got a sub and a like
Awesome! Thanks for the sub and like.
When I first started playing guitar in the mid 70's pedals were laying around in my teachers basement. Didn't think they were anything special then. Learned more about them through the yrs. Now I got a board full of pedals most from the 90's and modded. Could I live w/o it. Ya most the time I dont even use the board anymore. Haven't bought or changed a pedal in 3 yrs. Very happy with my board not my playing.
It’s an impressive thing for any guitarist to not buy any pedals for 3 years. Kudos to you for sidestepping the gear chase and focusing on just playing. Thanks for sharing.
I still have one of the “diamond plate” CORE pedals boards, from like.. 2004? Better for storing a few pedals than an actual pedal board lol
And it gets you bonus points with truckers. Bad jokes aside, that's definitely more sturdy that SKB plastic thing I wanted as a kid. Thanks for watching and sharing.
Musicians Friend and Carvin Catalogs and Daddys Junkie Music Fliers.Pre-internet..Great -well researched video..Liked and subbed.In the 80's I had a rackmount ART SGX 2000 with the 2 pedal & 12 switch floor board.Connected by midi.Had to send the floorboard to get repaired once.That was before 800 numbers.Called them on my dime. Best Regards
The nostalgia is strong with this comment. You hit the feels when you said had to call the catalog companies BEFORE they had 800 numbers. 😂 I just missed the 80s rack trend at the start of my playing but I knew players who had setups very similar to yours. Great comment. Thanks for chiming in.
Probably addressed elsewhere in the comments, but surprised you didn't do a short bit on Andy Summers' Cornish boards.
Actually you're the first to mention Andy Summer's Cornish board. It was built in '78 so I didn't quite get that far in the timeline during this video. Its pretty tricky making an overview like this; some things inevitably don't make it in, but Andy's board is a great one!
Do you know whether the Cornish board (end of video) had the pedals inside the board or were they connected remotely off-stage?
As far as as I know the smaller pedals were installed in the Animals era Gilmour/Cornish board from '77, but the larger outboard units like the echo units, synths, and tuners were located remotely. That board when through some revisions so it's tough to say given we weren't there. That photo at the end was from an exhibit in Paris in the early 2000s so that's how the board looked at that point. Gilmour had Cornish replace the Univibe with the EHX Electric Mistress so I'm assuming the Univibe went back into its original enclosure, but I don't know how much Gilmour was using the Univibe or if it was the same one at this point. I would recommend check out these sites for the Gilmour deep dive. Kitrae dot net slash music and Gilmourish dot com
I love getting new pedals and making new boards, im up to three now.... And 6 heads and 5 4x12 cabs. Tone searching is getting old for me these days. But i keep buying new stuff its always exciting!!But part of me misses when i was young and just plugged into my second amp a crate gfx212 with efx and was happy with the amp and just played and didn't have a care in the world, like it will never get better than this lol. Even thought im a metal head look at kurt kobains setup simple and still sounds cool to this day, just a thought.
Yeah it’s easy to get pulled into the gear rabbit hole. I try my best to keep the playing the focus and not the gear. Sometimes I lose that battle. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I lost that battle long ago with thousands lol, i have more gear than pro bands on tour , it all started with youtubeb lol.@@tonecast1
Ha!
Wow, excellent, excellent work! This was so illuminating! As a side note, now I'm wondering if "Ivor the Engine Driver" (in The Who song "A Quick One While He's Away") isn't named after Ivor Arbiter...Townshend used Sound City amps before they "became" Hiwatt... 😉 Thanks so much for this!
That is a great insight in regards to "Ivor the engine driver" in "A Quick One While He's Away." I'm not a huge Who guy so I don't know but perhaps someone else can verify. It sounds like a solid theory to me. Thanks watching and taking a moment to share.
Nope! Ivor the Engine was a very popular BBC children’s stop frame animation series. All members of the band would have been aware of it. Americans, you know fuck all!
Ahhh, thanks for the insider insight. It should come as no surprise that Americans aren’t up on the BBC’s children programming of yesteryear. Shocking right?
@@indigohammer5732 I was only guessing about Ivor Arbiter! Rest assured however, I won't be calling you out over any American children's cartoons.
Wow, I have that SKB pedalboard! :O Among things I would fix for a friend, as it has some damage or bad mods or whatever...is it worth a try?
I never got to own of those SKB pedalboards. I doubt the power supply is worthwhile on it, but it's cool piece of guitar retro tech.
I remember building my first pedalboard in 1989, i was 15. The board itself was a broken skateboard that had been striped that my younger brother had found spmewhere. For pedals I had a Cry-Baby Wah, an OD1, a pink Flanger (might have been a DOD) and some type of no name line driver/booster. Bought all those pedals at Black Market Music in Walnut Creek. For power I had a couple different 9 volt power supplies all on a power strip, the wah was a battery powered only. Everything was held down with zip ties. Let’s just say when it worked it was rough!!!
Hahaha! Epically punk and equally awesome. That era of DOD pedal on that board could’ve been an ad for DOD in ‘89. Loved hearing this. Thanks for sharing.
awesome documentary ...that Ivor Arbiter looks exactly like dude from JHS pedals ...
Has Josh Scott and Ivor Arbiter ever been seen in the same place at the same time? 🤔
Can I suggest to look into some of Joe Meek's productions in 1963?
Even if he wasn't a guitarist he was the person behind every sound and there are some tracks with very distorted guitars mixed with reverbs and tremolos. I would not call the set up "pedalboard" but it was definitely an interface of multiple effects (probably standing upright in the control room, in a way like 9:20 Pete Cornish).
Thanks for the suggestion. You may want to check out Howard Massey’s book, “The Great British Recording Studios”. I’m slowly working my way through it. Joe Meek’s work history and studio is discussed in great detail.
Anyone remember getting "Daddy's Junky Music" mailers? It was like musicians friend but more like reverb as it listed used gear as well
That sounds cool. Was it a regional mailer? Never got those in my neck of the woods.
@@tonecast1 ya I believe it was Im from the The Northeast (50ish mi from Boston and there were at least a half dozen Locations around here that I Remember frequenting 🤟🏻 all i could find was a court case filing that described it lol
Plaintiff owns a chain of thirteen retail stores scattered throughout the Northeast, selling new and used musical instruments and related equipment. In addition to its retail stores, plaintiff maintains a national catalog and mail order business, through which it also sells new and used instruments and equipment. Plaintiff further advertises in several major music industry magazines.
That’s interesting. I don’t recall seeeing anything like it in the South. Maybe someone else will chime in who bought gear from “Daddy’s Junky Music”. Did you score any epic or cool gear? All the pre-internet, music industry, print media had its own charm. It’s a bummer the internet led to those things evaporating.
Great video! I was about to comment that you were as good as the JHS vids, but then one of their staff showed up in his earlier job with Hendrix....
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, JHS does a killer job with their videos. I've obviously watched my fair share of those. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Wonka bar has turned into a pedalboard truly amazing
Thanks for watching and taking a moment to comment.
My first pedalboard was a piece of plywood with the pedals attached using double sided tape.
Nice! I’m sure you weren’t the only one whose first board was constructed this way. Thanks for sharing.
Same but with velcro for removability
I have two SKB-25s still use them.
Rocking the og 90’s pedalboard. I’m only a little envious. Thanks for commenting.
why did you stop there keep going through the 80s and 90s man!!!
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it. I’ve got one more video like this on the way. It’s about American pedalboards built during the mid-late 70s. I’m half way through the edit so keep an eye out for it in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to comment.
Bwaaaa haaa haaa. In 1973 after having my Little Muff sliding all over the stage at a high school dance... I got a piece of 1 x 12 redwood and took the back off of the muff and my wah wah....got some long screws and attached them through the back. My dad was going to the dump and throwing away a broken VOM stereo record player and took the feet off it which I screwed onto my board. It was maybe a year or two later that I added a phase 90 so I could get the Robin Trower thing going. The Echoplex just sat on top of my Fender Bandmaster...luckily it never took a tumble. You little kids have it so easy. It was just a mess when you would show up for a job and you had to untangle all your cords and put fresh 9v batteries in everything. I remember the dude in Eddie Money's band (before he made any money) he was floored when he saw my "board" when we opened for them at Jerry's Stopsign in Berkeley. God damn those guys were the biggest jerks....
Epic homemade pedalboard story! Thanks for sharing. I bet there were a lot of players like yourself fashioning homemade pedalboards at the time.
@@tonecast1 Nothing was commercially available you had to think on your feet. A lot of kids just carried their stuff around in a grocery bag with their cable stuffed into the back of their amps. I remember my dad giving me an old lunch box with a broken handle. I pushed some rope through the holes and made a handle and had my first gig case. My second on was an old violin case from school band. I still have that one it carries guitar stands and a folding music stand.
You should totally check out the Randy Rhoads pedalboard, We do know what was in the pedalboard… sort of… The circuitry included a Cry Baby Wah, an MXR Distortion+, an MXR 10 Band EQ, an MXR Stereo Chorus, an MXR Flanger, and a Roland Volume pedal. Outside the pedalboard, he used a number of delays, though it remains unclear which one he used for the recordings. Such a unique unit though, it looks like a table top lol. Jam Pedals kinda do this nowadays, take a bunch of there pedals and make 1 huge unit for convenience. Check out there Pink Floyd pedalboard.
After '76 the popularity of pedalboards exploded. Every notable player seemed to get in on the action including Randy Rhoads. I have seen Jam Pedals all in one unit. There were a few early companies that were making modular pedal solutions like Eurotec from the late 70s. Those are worth looking up on Google if you like retro-tech. Thanks for watching and taking a second to leave a comment. Much appreciated.
@@tonecast1 you're welcome, great channel by the way 👍🏼💯
Worst tone EVER. Randy rhodes tone makes him unlistenable
Gilmour had a sequencer on his pedalboard!
The EMS Synthi A was the sequencer used for "On the Run" from DSOTM. Gilmour manned it live, but it wasn't technically on his pedalboard as far as I can tell. I'm not certain that it was in line in his guitar signal path. I assume it had its own channel into the mixing console while touring, but maybe someone who has more authority can chime in and let us know for certain. Thanks for the comment!
Neil Youngs Whizzer pedal always fascinated me.
I’ll have to look that up. Thanks for the heads up. Love comments that let me know about something I missed. Thanks for watching.
@@tonecast1 Thanks.
Not
@@tonecast1 Thanks, not sure of the dates but he had a device made that sits on top of his amp that physically changes the setting on the amp via a pedal board.
That's helpful. Thanks!
I was using a pedal board in 1980 and bought gear from Don Wehr's Music City in 1971. A friend of mine called his pedal board "The Zorgotron" back in 1976. N9ne of this is new.
Right on. Your friend had a sense of humor. Thanks for watching and commenting.
10:04 The Fuzz Face pedal was actually invented by Ivor Arbiter, who based it on the Tonebender Mk 1.5 Fuzz pedal.
And did you know the Fuzz Face's round enclosure was repurposed mic stand base? There was a lot of stuff I wanted to include in this video but couldn't for time constraints. Ivor Arbiter deserves his own video. Reverb.com made a great video on Sound City video that talks a good bit about Arbiter. It's worth watching if you haven't already seen it.
@@tonecast1Yep, I actually happen to own a red Jim Dunlop JD-F2 fuzz Face pedal that currently has a Jim Dunlop JH-F1 Fuzz Face PCB installed in it, the old pcb had two NTE158 PNP Germanium transistors on it that stopped working, so I converted it over to silicon to get it working again.
Nice! That’s super cool. I kind of want one of those Dunlop Hendrix blue Fuzz Faces from a few years ago.
So in 1996 there heaps of guitar and music gear magazines around some included guitar lessons on cd ,also stuff like Starlicks video’s in Belgium there free music magazines at music stores with plenty of gear reviews and there books with a lot of information about in the 80’s already we didn’t have the but there plenty of other things your friends had to get their from somewhere too i think the whole “board” thing is a bit of an overstatement you strings pedals together putting them on board is just practical and big band had their pedals built into a single unit
Boss started introducing pedalboard cases during the 80’s
It sounds like your experience in ‘96 was a little better than mine. So much of this has to do with where we grew up. I do remember a European guitar magazine with a CD but it wasn’t Starlicks. There was a different one available here in the US. The name escapes me. Thanks for watching and commenting.