Guitarist

Mike Matthews

In this issue’s ‘Pedalboard’ interview, we hear about effects units old and new from Electro-Harmonix’s charismati­c founder

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1

What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “The first pedal that I built under Electro‑Harmonix was in late 1968 and it was the LPB‑1 Linear Power Booster. I hooked up with a guy from Bell Labs who was working on a distortion‑free sustainer, and when I went to check out the prototype I saw a little box plugged into the front of the amp. I asked him, ‘What’s that?’ and he said, ‘Well, I didn’t realise the guitar put out such a low signal, so I just built a simple one‑transistor booster to stick in the front.’ When I hit the switch all of a sudden the amp was so loud! I said, ‘Wow! That’s a product!’”

2

What’s your best-selling pedal and why do you think that is? “In terms of combined total units, it’s the Big Muff [variants], but our biggest single seller at the moment is the Canyon. In terms of gross dollars, at the moment it’s a combinatio­n of our 9‑series pedals. All of them use the same circuit board – they just have different software. They’re designed by the great British designer – who I think is the best in the world – David Cockerell.”

3

What makes Electro-Harmonix effects unique? “My philosophy is to keep it balanced between a mix of simple products and some more complex designs, but not going overboard with the complexity and carrying on adding stuff to it – that can really muck up the software. Also, I like building in some extra special sounds at the edge of the controls. Some companies hate spurious noise, but I like to let the user decide – they can always back off a little bit if they want to.”

4

Which notable players/bands have used Electro-Harmonix pedals over the years? “[Carlos] Santana bought a Big Muff from me using mail order with a Santana cheque and letterhead back in 1971! The Edge uses our Deluxe Memory Man; in fact, he just called up and got a special version – our 1,100‑millisecon­d Memory Man [1100‑ TT]. Kurt Cobain used our Polychorus and Small Clone. Jimi Hendrix used a Big Muff in 1969; Manny’s [of New York] was the first store I sold Big Muffs to and he bought one of the first ones from there. [Jimi] invited me to hang out at a recording session and there on the floor he had the Big Muff he bought at Manny’s!”

5

What’s new on the horizon for Electro-Harmonix effects? “The really hot stuff we just brought out is the Canyon, which has 10 different delays, and the Synth9, which has different types of synthesise­r sounds. We just came out with a pedal called the Platform, which is a fabulous ‘stereo out’ compressor/limiter that has some special features.”

6

Can you share your best tone tip? “A lot of the feeling when you’re playing guitar comes from the attack of the strings; it’s that first fraction of a second – those short‑lived high frequencie­s – that have a lot of the feeling. The audience might not hear it, but the guitarist who’s playing it senses it and feels it, and the more they feel, the better they play!”

7

Name some common mistakes that guitarists make with effects… “I don’t know. I mean, I guess everybody’s a little different… Not using Electro‑ Harmonix pedals for all of their effects – that’s the biggest mistake [laughs]!”

8

What’s your favourite vintage pedal and why? “Basically, I like making and coming out with new effects, so my favourite is what sells! Period. The Big Muff we brought out in 1969 and I still sell thousands of them a month and it’s my favourite because of that! We still sell a lot of LPB‑1s. The transistor­s are different, but other than that the circuit is the same.”

9

What are your favourite effects moments on record and why? “Back in the 70s I became friendly with [Steely Dan guitarist] Elliot Randall and the [CBS Orchestra] bass player Will Lee. They gave me this instrument­al album they recorded using only Electro‑ Harmonix effects!”

10

What pedal problems do you think effects designers have yet to crack? “True polyphonic pitch extraction. I mean, eventually as microproce­ssors get faster and faster there’ll be better algorithms you can build, but there’s always a problem with bass frequencie­s because of the long wavelength. There’s a time lag in order to capture what that frequency is, so the latency can be a problem, but we get around that in certain ways.” www.ehx.com

 ??  ?? The inimitable Mike Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix almost 50 years ago. Here he is with two EHX newbies, the Canyon and the Synth9
The inimitable Mike Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix almost 50 years ago. Here he is with two EHX newbies, the Canyon and the Synth9
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