October 2012 \ Features \ Effects \ 10 Stompboxes That Changed the World

10 Stompboxes That Changed the World

Bill Murphy

In the right hands, a deftly applied pedal can be infinitely more than just another color in an aural palette. Here we take a look at 10 players whose ingenious intertwining of technique, feel, and stompbox use redefined music and the very way we hear guitar and bass.
Premier Guitar October 2012
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An early-’70s script-logo Phase 90. Photo by Larry Kent

6. Eddie Van Halen's MXR Phase 90

Whole volumes have been written about how Eddie Van Halen achieved his archetypal “brown sound,” probably because he pretty much demolished the way lead guitar would ever be heard again in a hard-rock setting. Beyond his stupefying technique, it was the brash, hyper-articulated and subtly phased distortion on early Van Halen songs like “Eruption” and “Jamie’s Cryin’” that really changed the game. Amazingly, EVH relied on a combination of pure amplification and voltage reduction—no overdrive pedals—to get his basic distortion tone, using an Ohmite Variac variable transformer so his Marshall Super Lead would run more efficiently at loud volume.


Eddie onstage in 1980 with a Phase 90 in the center of his meager pedalboard. Photo by Neil Zlozower/atlasicons.com

At the heart of his pedal setup, which he connected after the amp via a dummy load box, was an Echoplex EP-3, an MXR Flanger, and the vital MXR Phase 90. Also known as the “little orange box,” the Phase 90 had launched the MXR brand in 1972 and was popular for its simplicity: one knob, labeled “speed,” was all you needed to approach a decent (and inexpensive) simulation of a rotating Leslie speaker. EVH maintained that the unit, set at slow sweep, actually didn’t phase too strongly, and gave his tone a treble boost so his solos could cut through more easily. When your drummer is the heavy-hitting Alex Van Halen, you need every advantage you can get.


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Comments

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UsernameComment
mr bogus
on 10/20/2012 		the edge- EH memory man!-any u2 song-andy summers too- best thickest chorus ever= EH clone theory!-used to run 2(!) mem men a clone theory and an mxr micro amp into a full marshall stack when I was a kid-oh the hiss and noise was louder than the actual notes played! cool how gear can bring back fond memories of the early gig daze! now I want me a clone theory!
Michael Fisher
on 10/18/2012 		Eric...Wah
Michael Fisher
on 10/18/2012 		I started playing guitar in the fall of 1963...I bought a box full of a Dano longhorn 6string...after messing with it, getting it put back together and learning my first few chords...C, Am, F and G, that's right, Blue Moon...soon to be Mrs. Brown ( you've got a lovely daughter ) yes indeed...the first pedal I bought...several months later, was # 1...the Gibson Maestro fuzz tone! About a year ( ? ) later...I bought my first Vox way...
Mike Beigel
on 10/17/2012 		Many thanks for including my Mu-Tron III in this selection. We tried (and apparently succeeded) to make the product a "work of art" in every aspect. I never really understood the potential versatility of the product till I heard all the different uses and original sound/music made by the top musicians of the 70's and after. A word of caution to readers-- Please, if you respect the ORIGINAL Musitronics Product, avoid the "Mu-Tron III+". It is NOT the "ORIGINAL" it claims to be. It looks the same outside, but inside it has different circuitry inside --that I had found inferior and rejected prior to finalizing the REAL Mu-Tron III in 1972! A number of people have been completely fooled by the false claims made by the manufacturer (who does not even have the legal right to use the trademark he managed to register by stealth), and have been disappointed by the performance of the inferior electronics inside. I hope to make a new product available sometime soon that will bring back the true "Mu-Tron" mojo to people who can't afford the expensive vintage units. Please, if you want the "real deal", wait for a future announcement. I hope the young musicians of today won't be fooled by false claims about "original" or "endorsers" from the 70's and 80's (and on to the present) who never used the rip-off model at all - since it was not put on the market till the mid 1990's....
bezola
on 10/07/2012 		10 Stompboxes que cambiaron el mundo Donde?
Joey Heshion
on 09/26/2012 		Bill, GREAT article! Thanks SO MUCH for not ONLY using rock examples. Bootsy and Mayfield -- nice additions. The YouTube examples were awesome, as you heard them in live context. It's these reasons that I love Premier Guitar. There's an unspoken reverence for the music and musicians. As a guitarist that grew up and cut his chops hearing most of this in it's heyday, thanks again. Awesome read!
brandon
on 09/26/2012 		I always wondered what tom morello used. I guess spring reverb and the echoplex don't qualify as stomp boxes. good article.
yall are slippin
on 09/24/2012 		I know that there's no way that every pedal used by every guitar icon can be covered, but how can the legendary Charles "Skip" Pitts be forgotten, so soon after his passing? It was his working that Strat through the Maestro Boomerang wah that turned so many on to the use of pedals in soul music... the Academy-award winning theme from Shaft!
Iknow Myshit
on 09/24/2012 		CE-1... Andy Summers... everyone went out and bought a chorus pedal, not a flanger. This article is very selective history.
Womantoon
on 09/20/2012 		MXR Dyna-Comp brought sweet-singing studio-style compression and SUSTAIN to live playing in one handy little stomper.



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