SHIFTING GEAR
RICH ECKHARDT
Special Effects: My Early Experience with Effects Pedals
When I was a kid I thought there was some changed, but we had a delay effect and that’s
sort of magic that came from the effect pedals what mattered most.
that guitarists used on records. I remember
a sound on Mark Farner’s solo for “The Loco
Motion” that turned out to be a studio trick.
From my experience in the studio, I presume
producer Todd Rundgren
inserted a recording of
a reel-to-reel tape as he
dragged his hand along
the reel or fast forwarded
the tape between Mark’s
licks. Of course, back then
I thought the Grand Funk
guitarist was using some
effects pedal to achieve
that sound and I had to
have it! In those days it was
all a mystery.
I had heard that Jimi Hendrix got his sound
with a pedal called a Big Muff. It was made by
Electro-Harmonix and became so popular that
I couldn’t get my hands on an actual Big Muff
at the time, but I managed to borrow a pedal
that sounded close from a guitarist friend of
mine. It was a fOXX Tone Machine; fOXX made
a Fuzz Wah, a Foot Phaser, and the infamous
Tone Machine. The Tone Machine made my
guitar sound exactly like the
solo on the Eagles’ “One
of These Nights.” I loved it
and was able to keep it for a
long time, and even had the
chance to do a few gigs with
it before having to return it
to its rightful owner.
My first effects pedal was
a Jax Wah Wah. I thought
it was about the coolest
thing ever. I could get that
wacha, wacha sound—just
like on the song “Shaft”—
with it. Like most young
players, I then proceeded
to put wah on everything—whether it belonged
there or not. I also went on
to learn all the great wah
songs like “Voodoo Child”
and the solo on “Play That
Funky Music White Boy.”
The next pedal I bought
was a Maestro Phaser. I got
it because, beside the wah,
I thought it made the biggest difference in my
sound. So naturally from that point on everything had to have Phaser on it. In those days,
and even now, it seemed like there was an infinite number of pedals that gave you an unlimited number of sounds. Even if you bought an
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phaser it would
sound substantially different than an MXR
Phase 90. While trying to cop the sounds I
heard, it was impossible to know which pedals
the guitarists on those LPs were using.
After working for many years
with stomp pedals, I started
seeing more and more
players with these refrigera-tor-sized racks full of effects
behind them on stage. Right
about the time that I was
going to dump a bunch of
money on 24 spaces of rack
effects, Roland came out
with the GP- 8, which included eight effects: Dynamic
Filter, Compressor, Over
Drive, Distortion, Phaser,
Equalizer, Digital Delay and
Digital Chorus. It seemed
like everything that a guitarist needed to copy all the
classic sounds in one single
space unit, so I bought that
and still use it today.
My well-worn Maestro Phaser
many competing companies copied the Muff
in their own line. The Big Muff was first introduced in the early seventies and was used by
artists like David Gilmour and Carlos Santana.
Gilmour famously used the Big Muff on the
Pink Floyd’s Animals and The Wall albums. I
later found out that the Big Muff was not used
extensively by Hendrix at all. In fact, it was
not available until 1971, a year after Hendrix’s
death. Big Muff creator Mike Matthews, however, has claimed that Hendrix used a Big Muff
prototype in some sessions prior to his death
and he was reportedly impressed enough to
want to use it on his next album. Hendrix did
play an integral part in the making of the Big
Muff. Matthews has often stated that Hendrix’s
guitar sound was the inspiration for its creation.
I’m constantly trying new
effects as well as revisiting old ones. It’s impor-
tant to keep an ear to the ground, and stay up
on what other players are using now—as well
as what players used in the past. I try to keep
my old pedals, even if I’m not currently using
them. You never know when an old classic gui-
tar tone will come back in style!
Keep Jammin’!
When I was 13 or 14, my brothers and I created a makeshift delay out of an old reel-to-reel recorder. The delay time was dictated by
the amount of space between the recording
head and the playback head and couldn’t be
Rich Eckhardt
Rich Eckhardt is one of the most sought after guitarists
in Nashville. His ability to cover multiple styles has put
him on stage with singers ranging from Steven Tyler
of Aerosmith to Shania Twain. Rich is currently playing
lead guitar with Toby Keith. His album Soundcheck is
available now, with another due this summer.
richeckhardt.com
