BUILDER PROFILE
Left: The top row of this Small Stone collection shows left to right) a mid-’70s model with minimalist graphics, a late-’70s version with large orange lettering, early-’80s
and mid-’90s models with blocky black-and-orange graphics, and a recent Small Stone Nano, while the bottom row features three Electro-Harmonix/Sovtek co-branded
units built in Russia and a US-made late-’70s Bad Stone. Photo courtesy pedalarea.com. Middle: A late-’70s Electro-Harmonix Echo Flanger. Right: An early-’90s Mike
Matthews-branded Soul Kiss wah-type effect. It features a plastic case with a strap clip and is controlled with the mouthpiece coiled next to it. Photos by Tom Hughes
Pi in the Sky—and Everywhere Else
If there’s one pedal that EHX is most known
for, it’s the Big Muff Pi. Myer and Matthews
came up with its design in 1969. “When I
came out with the Big Muff, I spent a lot
of time shaping the cascading gain stages,
which gave a super-long sustain. I also
worked a lot with the filters to get the notes
to sound less raspy and more sinusoidal
and smooth. That’s how the Big Muff got its
long, violin-like sustain, because the filters
filtered out the harsh cross products.”
From there, the Big Muff Pi sold like, er,
hotcakes. “I brought the first ones up to
Manny’s Music and Henry [Goldrich], the
owner at that time, told me that Hendrix
just bought one,” Matthews recalls. “Carlos
Santana bought a Big Muff mail order. He
sent in a check—a Carlos Santana check,
y’know, with his drums and bongos on it—
and Carlos Santana stationery. We still have
copies of that here.”
At that point, it seems the floodgates had
opened fully—both crazy product names
and off-the-wall design ideas were flowing
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