Electro-HarmonixElectro-Harmonix
An assortment of late-’70s Mike Matthews creations (left to right): a Deluxe Electric Mistress, a Muff Fuzz, and a Polyphase. Photos by Tom Hughes
Matthews and then-partner Bill Berko,
an audio repairman who claimed to have
his own custom fuzz circuit, outsourced
construction of the units and sold them
to Guild, which ended up labeling them
“Foxey Lady” in an effort to capitalize on
Hendrix’s rising popularity.
sustainer, so everybody could sound like
Jimi Hendrix. The LPB- 1, the Linear Power
Booster, started the business.”
But for Matthews, starting his own busi-
ness was the real dream. “Back in ’ 68, I
worked with this brilliant guy, Bob Myer at
As Myer developed the LPB- 1, he found
that it wasn’t difficult to create a circuit that
sensed the lower volume and turned up the
gain as a note died out. The real difficulty
was decreasing the gain fast enough so that
there weren’t horrendous popping sounds
when a new note was struck.
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• Meticulous d Tape™ Echo Algorithms • Über-Flexible Tape Character Controls • Tape Age, Wow & Flutter, Tape Crinkle and More • Built-In Tape-Style Looper • Analog Dry Path
d Tape Echo
®
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138 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2010
www.premierguitar.com
