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Pedals brands can issue new effects making your guitar sounds like an organ, a piano or your deceased aunt voice, it all started and will end with this scandalous tone of fuzz. Let’s face it : the whole history of music has changed with these dirty two transistors wonders that gave guitar a leading place in all kind of music. If you play electric guitar, you know that is the tone you want and that you will never regret buying. Even several of them.

This page is about my personnal collection of vintage fuzz pedals, which are a favorite of most collectors. Why ? Usually they are very simple circuit anyone with a soldering iron could replicate. But the thing is, with simple circuits that EVERY component can be ‘heard’ and thus each pedal has its own signature. Tonal differences are not small if you swap any of their components. And their enclosures, with the beautiful sign of time, are the best time capsule I could think of. Most of the most expensive vintage pedals are simple circuits in an old box. I have sorted them by country of origin.

FRANCE

Yes, there were fuzz in France and this one is really beautiful. Garen was mostly an amp manufacturer , and their small amps are looked after because they are related to Django Reinhardt. But this item is a real germanium fuzz. Here are the innards :

The transistors look like modern ac128 but they are blank. A very useful and nice feature of this pedal is its filter switch : works like a fixed tone with 3 positions.

This baby fuzz is more obscure and there is no real proof she’s french. I base my belief on the lettering which was very up to date in the early ’70s in France. And from its knob : I had the same on my car radio.

It is worth noting that transistor were produced in France since 1946 , and one of the best fuzz germanium transistor is for me the SESCO ( Societe Europeenne des seim-conducteurs ) 324TI …. too bad I seem to be the only one to own a few….

JAPAN

This is much more obvious, of course . I started my collection with the pedal you can see at the right of this picture : The uncanny companion fuzz from Shin-ei .At this time –I was 15— I simply bought it because it was the cheapest : how could I know this pedal could become so collectable now ? But I just fell in love at first note : I could at least get a REAL guitar sound. It is considered nowadays as a very rough square signal buzz tone, but its nasty fuzz tone still turn heads.

This second model, is much better sounding to my ears.Its crafty electronic circuit has been used in several pedals such as the ibanez fuzz, univox superfuzz and numerous wah-fuzz pedals but remains the most classic tone for me. Its tone switch , labeled differently through time, is a great addition. If I has to choose one ….. here it is, ibanez style :

rare, in its round edges enclosure style :

And of course a look at its circuit, which , as you can see, is quite complicated if you compare it to a fuzz f ace. It use high gain ( between 450 and 500 ) plastic silicium PNP transistors, my personnal favorite being the BC239, preferably made in France or Germany, while you have a numerous choice of great devices which can do the job. Electrolytics are important too.

ENGLAND

Well , a good choice indeed, isn’t it ? First of all, because a real lot of collectible fuzz pedals are collectible because they are linked to a british rock band, and these bands bought their fuzzboxes at home. A good start should be the circuit of the arbiter fuzz face :

A real simple circuit circuit means a high sensitivity to the components, which means a VERY simple one to a VERY high. Every component here is vital. In this original version, we have NKT275 transistors which are AC128 from outside continental Europe. We have these days great transistors testers, giving us precise gain and leakage –leakage is what made a blank noise— but I use my own method. Anyway, choosing a pair of transistors for a fuzz face is like haute-cuisine. Same thing for the carbon resistors and the caps. Even the enclosure is somehow important. All that fuss makes the difference, believe me. Here is one of my recreation :

Then we have of course the mighty supa fuzz from Marshall amps. 3 transistors give a more refined tone we all love :

The OC75 used here are a kind of AC128 too but made by Mullard in England or Valvo in Germany. They are very good and consistent transistors. They come in black but sound the same if they are not. All these are PNP transistors, and even if you don’t care, please consider that the metal enclosure is usually connected to the + side of the battery, which means that if it comes to your mind to install a DC plug on these pedals, you will have a short circuit in case it touches another modern pedal, which enclosure is to ground. Don’t do it. And it is true saline 9v batteries give these fuzz a nice sag a la rectifier tubes.

My rare jennings fuzz is a beauty : it uses rare silicium white-head ME4102 transistors . Think silicium fuzz face in a good day. From the VOX amps inventor, my friends.

Because vox of course entered the bandwagon before that. Here you have on right hand an old english vox tone bender with its colorsound more modern version. Both pedals use germanium , while colorsound went silicium on their bigger jumbo rendition. You may have noticed most english fuzz pedals are painted with hammerite paint, usually grey. This paint was everywhere in my youth but mostly on anything professional : tools, desks, office cupboards, office armchairs, etc … it really means one thing : You are at work. Work implies serious stuff. I suppose it was a way of protecting them from abutse and that was the way musical instruments executives see that trend: a worktool. Later, they start smoking.

This london aka top gear fuzz is quite an exception : its enclosure is made of wood covered in leatherette . Like an amp. One could guess time would have destroy them but they’re still here. I would still prefer hammerite metal over this nice arrangement.

ITALY

Another very good supply source. Italian makers went head first on the new fuzz pedal market with great designs and ideas.

Their 1st pedals certainly came from subcontracting vox . Italian made vox pedals have their own personnality while the enclosure shape was a copy of the original vox ‘foot’ shape enclosure. To fuel the growing market , they made them under their own JEN brand. The Jen factory was located in Pescara and was really skilled in musical electronics up to synthetizers.

They use this enclosure with numerous pedals. The 3 slits could be used for sliders like here, but were also fitted with a round hole for classic pots. Then they used this small blue box with several brands. The black knobs could be found on guitars too and are genuinely italian.

They eventually went to a more big muff like design, but still it has a nice classy italian touch. Sounds like a big muff too as we are now for from the english fuzz origins.

This fuzz king from electronic sound is a rare bird which bears the Gary Hurst signature. Mr Hurst is the inventor of the tonbender but there is few information of this italian connection. Those pedals were made in ABS moulded plastic but well made circuit wise. They are quite rare and expensive now.

While at watching over the ocean, they also made a nice Fender Blender lookalike , made by Cosmosound , famous at that time for their Leslie cabinet copies ( again )

Last but not least, the rare and expensive Elka Dizzy Tone , which was made with French SFT transistors.

U.S.A.

Last but not least, but I don’t have old american made fuzz boxes in my collection, certainly because they were really rare in Europe. But I will go with my first american pedal and I suppose no one will raise an objection seing the muff here :

It is the point where fuzz became ‘civilized’ with the addition of the double diode that leads towards distortion. An all-time classic here in its ramhead version. I also love the reverse logo one pictured here :

So that’s conclude my fuzz pedal personal history from the companion shin-ei bought in France in 1974 to the big muff purchased in London in 1977.

I also have my own designs based on the Mercer Box for germanium and the Fuseblower for the silicium, they both represent my own vision of what is the very sound of fuzz.

BACK TO JACQUES PEDALS

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The Matsumoku made guitars have always bring fascination to my collector ego. Their craftmanship and quality really do not deserve the low price market they are currently going for, or at least to this day. Anyway, this is quite good from an aficionado point of view.
How do you recognise a matsumoko ? Certainly not with brand name, as they seemed to work for all Japanese makers in their glory time. Easiest start is the incredible wood work on them, and often complicated-to-death electronics, while this a not a rule, as we will see.
I will not enter here in precise description of all models, description you can easily find on the web. Consider this page an ode to my beloved ‘woodies’.

Ibanez

Mr.Famous first here with the Musician , an incredible guitar I have always loved for its ultra flat and thin neck, and mega-humbuckers, here in a light natural color and simple wiring. Then, my rare top-of-the-line studio in its elegant veneer. Please note the massive Cimar electric in the back, Cimar being an budget-brand of Ibanez for years.

Slap that bass, as Fred Astaire would say. Two musician and two studio, one being offensively modified. The musician bass was made famous by young Sting, who had nearly every model of this line, including a very rare 8-strings. These bass are excellent but heavy. Better work your back muscle with long rehearsals.

Aria Pro II

Aria was certainly one of the best customer of the mats factory. They came with a lot of models, all of excellent quality, such as my fave red with its casted bridge, really an incredible wood work. You can also spot an Urchin, weird shape at its best. Let’s have a look at their booties :

A very proof that matsumoko mastered all type of necks : bolt-on, glued-on and neck-through live together in perfect harmony, while their neck-through really are exquisite and personnal fave. Cavities are as numerous as in a candy-lover-non-flosser-teen-ager, but always fitted with precise plates within micron precision.

Vantage

Vantage was a very good customer too, but with less fantasy : most of their models, while always at the same level of high quality, look the same.
The dark beauty on the right side was not made in Japan by mats, but in Korea by some crafty admirer of the famous luthier. You can see the woodstripes are not organise as usual at Matsumoko and the dark wood is from a different lumbers. Turn back !

Same display of neck work here and clearly different gluing for the Korean…but I love her the same.

The other brands

Their always should be a french man in every story….and I found one in the matsumoko history with these Morris guitars. The back of these weird Globalsound Morris—brand mostly know for their cheap ripoff guitars in the ’70s—says : ‘ Designed by Patrick Vrolant’…

This french designer even had time to propose bolt-on and neck-through before vanishing in Sologne fog on a winter morning hunting party…
The other guitar bearing the C.G.Winner brand is quite a mats classics if you except its blade humbuckers from hell.

Supermodels time now : The Washburn really is a luxury guitar with a mad array of special features, including metal circle neck markers. Do not snob the Eagle which is by far the best sounding mats of my collection. Light as a feather and ringing like a vintage sg special , this guitar could convert you to matsumoko before you could spell their name correctly.

Really those guys had no family life : matching veneer backplate that comes so precisely in the cavity
you could not put a piece of cigarette paper in the slit.

These poor siblings have hidden talents. Both the Westone—propietary matsumoko brand–and the Kawai Aquarius AQ-555 fro 1984 are perfect axes any pro guitar player could use on a daily basis.

This picture is only here to show you the mapple choice for this cheap westone was far from economics reality…

From my The Aria Pro II PE100 guitar…4-11 NM ?

The post Jacques Matsumoku collection appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

Personal history

In the early ‘70s there were no such things as an overdrive pedal. When we talk about choice of good guitar tones , it usually went from Fender twin clean to fuzz face in a Marshall amp, while these options were way too expensive for teenagers. Even in our favourite records , that creamy tone we all know and like now, was totally absent . Of course, it was always possible to roll-off our guitar volume knob when engaged in a fuzz pedal to obtain something more coherent for rhythm—and then of course go full volume for fire-breathing solo. As far as I can remember, the first time I heard this tone was from a Stevie Ray Vaughan track and it changed everything. So don’t take for granted this tone has always been here : most classic rock album , the foundation of our music , did without.

First experiences

While Boss OD-1 was already there when the Ibanez ts808 came out, it somehow flew under the radar. Some would argue the MXR distortion + could be near, but as we used it only completely cranked up, we totally missed the point.
Another thing is that our beloved fuzz pedals was not that great on cheap transistor amps, with maybe the exception of the Electro-harmonix big muff, a class of its own.
So when we first tried a tubescreamer on our band Emthree 100w tranny amp, it was kind of a revelation: it was just like we eventually got a good amp for almost free.This was so good , I had to KNOW why and how those Japanese engineers have succeeded in that miracle, as I was already building fuzz pedals for my fellow guitar players at that time.

The biggest secret revealed

Intense scrutiny gave me the secret : two diodes in the feedback loop of an opamp ! Believe me at that time opamps were close to the electronics state-of-the-art , and while two diodes head-to-tail was not really new, the arrangement was ground-breaking. From this mythical times , I have been working on my own version, leading me to the fierce Overtube. But the original green Grail have been cherished all these years, and still part of my pedal collection at the best place.

Dating an original ts808

For a long time, that question was utterly useless : there were only originals , they were cheap, and the reissue trend was not yet even on my mind of marketing executives : they only changed the models and the pedal became ts9, ts10 ts5 and ts7 .But when market went crazy on prices , Ibanez made these pedals again and confusion started .
Well the outside look is kind of a give away : most of the original tubescreamers have been played A LOT and therefore display the wonderful patina of time. The backplate is also different from the but there is a much safer way to know when the treasure you hold in your hand was made: Japanese capacitors manufacturers had the crafty idea to print the year of production on their products. Just read it and you will know : on these pictures , both pedals shows 1981 date .
You can also spot the registered r near the Ibanez logo which indicates older models.

Tone-wise : is it right to spend so much money on an original ts808 ?

That should be short : YES. Any time we did a blind test with several tubescreamers we had on our feet original ts9 pedals, luxury ts808 reissues , modified reissue surgery victims , clones of various skills , etc … , any of our original pedals was chosen 10 times out of 10 . We could start an argument about mojo or any other vaporous theory but facts are facts. I of course have my personal theories about chaos theory and how original components have somehow learned to work together but I won’t bother you with them. I have seen and heard that enough with numerous vintage original pedals to be sure.

Collector-wise : is it right to spend so much money on an original ts808 ?

Then again it’s an easy YES : the price of vintage original have raised permanently though the years with no limit yet. I remember fondly when those pedals could be bought for 30$ or euros in the short synthesiser era of the ‘80s. So whenever you find one at a price you would agree, just buy it.

The 4558 opamp chip and the Malaysia story

As we was before ,the circuit of this pedal was conceived around the 4558 operational amplifier issued by Texas Instrument in the ‘70s. By all means this opamp was not targeting high-end audio but meant to be a more modern 741, and then received the modest ‘ general purpose ‘ sticker. You can find it in numerous domestic appliances of that period and that’s a fun game to spot it in thrift stores cassette recorders or radios. Several brands of this chip were used by Ibanez, and some aficionados would only swear by the Malaysia RC4558P from T.I. or Japan Radio Company JRC4558D. My habits in hi-fi tend to direct me toward the original, and as a matter of fact, my favourite ts808, nicknamed ‘ West’ has an original made in USA RC4558P from Texas Instrument themselves. But we are talking a subtle differences here. None original pedal lacked the magic in tone.

Mini-jack power supply

All original ts808 pedals had mini-jack positive tip power supply plug input. But a much lesser known fact that their enclosure was ready for standard Boss barrel DC. A square hole was already present as you can see on pics, while it was not a good idea from the precedent owner to punch it opened.

The ts808 siblings

And that leads us to its brothers : od850 and od855.
At the time of their issue the competition was still opened.
Many music mags gave the OD 850 the award for best harmonic distortion around and no doubt it is a great pedal.
Here are the ts808 signal-to-noise ratio precious info from a yore French tech mag:
Maximum gain: +30 db (+ 40db for OD850 and +45db for OD855)
Equivalent input noise: -100db (-70db for OD850 and -100db for OD855)
Price in French Francs of 1980 : 345,- ( FF 325,- for the other two)
All in all it seemed logical to the testers to choose the OD850 as a perfect ratio between gain and noise.
History made another choice.

My own creation : the Overtube.

I dislike making clones for at least two reasons :
I love to pay homage to the original object of my collection and it is a real joy for me to own several examples of this legendary pedal as well as other milestone pedals. I can find any value of a servile copy and if someone cannot afford an original , a cheap ts7 will always do the job and it is still an original pedal which can one day be cool, who knows.
The other reason is from an artefact point of view : I will always be much happier to sell a circuit I have created myself , expose my own sonic ideas and get the proper feedback from a satisfied customer.
This is why I built the Overtube on a new electronics basis to catch the creamy magic of the original ts808 and add it a CASCADE switch to emulate the use of 2 tubescreamers in series popularised by SRV himself.
Thank you for reading this article and let’s meet on my Overtube page

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