Electro-Harmonix
Electro-Harmonix (also commonly referred to as EHX[1]) is a New York City-based company that makes electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes.
It was the first company to manufacture, and market affordable state-of-the art "stomp-boxes" for guitarists and bassists, such as the first stomp-box flanger (Electric Mistress), the first analog echo/delay unit with no moving parts (Memory Man), the first guitar synthesizer in pedal form (Micro Synthesizer), and the first tube-amp distortion simulator (Hot Tubes).
Electro-Harmonix was founded by rhythm and blues keyboard player Mike Matthews in October 1968 in New York City with $1,000.
Fuzzboxes were in demand following a trail of hits involving their sound, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones two years before (the pedal's stomp switch can be clearly heard at 0:35 before Richards plays the song's trademark riff), and recent popularization of Jimi Hendrix.
Following the departure of his partner, Matthews was introduced to inventor and electric engineer Robert Myer through IBM colleagues.
[4] The Axis fuzz pedal, also sold under the name 'Foxey Lady' for the Guild guitar company, and LPB-1 Linear Power Booster were the first products in 1969.
The LPB-1 massively boosted a guitar signal & could be used to overdrive an amplifier, resulting in a raw distorted sound, full of sustain and harmonics.
During the same period Matthews bought ExpoPul, a vacuum-tube factory, located in a former military industrial complex in Saratov in Russia.
Company policy was that all reissued effects remained as close as possible to the original, vintage designs; however, casings, knobs and especially the old-fashioned mini-jack power plug were not up to later standards.
Electro-Harmonix produces pedals with many different types of sound manipulation suitable for guitar, bass, vocal, keyboard, and other instruments.
As of 2022, ExpoPul factory in Saratov, southwestern Russia, continued to produce vacuum tubes for Electro-Harmonix, with Mike Matthews reportedly showing no intention of divesting from the business.
[7] In 1969 Bob Myer and Mike Matthews designed the Big Muff Pi, a fuzzbox that added a bass-heavy sustain to any guitar sound.
The pedal sold well and was used by Carlos Santana, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson of Rush and, later, Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and in the 1990s KoRn's rhythm guitarist Munky, Vicente Freitas, Jack White of The White Stripes, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., The Edge of U2, and Billy Corgan (on The Smashing Pumpkins landmark album, Siamese Dream).
For instance, the Epitome combines the Micro POG, Stereo Electric Mistress, and Holy Grail Plus into one effect unit.
[8] The widely used Small Stone phase shifter is a 4-stage phaser designed by David Cockerell, whom Electro-Harmonix hired from his former employer EMS.
It was reissued years later by EHX and a smaller version of the pedal was eventually introduced in a 'Nano' casing (officially called the "Small Stone (Nano Chassis)").
Except for the very first blue/red version the Electric Mistress featured a "Filter Matrix mode" which allowed the user to freeze it at any point in the flange, offering distinctive chime-like tones.
Notable users include David Gilmour, Todd Rundgren, Alex Lifeson, Robin Trower, Andy Summers of The Police, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante.
Notable users include Cobain (i.e. "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter"), Adrian Belew, and more recently Ryan Jarman of The Cribs.
Another pedal of note was the vacuum tube-powered Black Finger Compressor which adds distortion-free sustain to the sound and which appeared in the mid-1970s.
In 1995, Electro-Harmonix owner Mike Matthews commissioned Mike Beigel, former owner of Musitronics Corp. and inventor of the Mu-tron III envelope filter, to design a new envelope filter using the same analog circuitry as the original Mu-tron III, thus keeping the sound as close to the original as possible while adding new features to bring the effect into the new millennium.
[16] The 22 Caliber was replaced in the lineup by the EHX 44 Magnum, a similar pedal capable of driving the same speaker load, but at a 44 watt output.
